The impacts of information quality and system quality on users' continuance intention in information-exchange virtual communities: An empirical investigation

An information-exchange virtual community (VC) is an IT-supported virtual space that is composed of a group of people for accessing, sharing and disseminating topic-related experiences and knowledge through communication and social interaction [36,43]. With the increasing number of VCs and low switching cost, it is challenging to retain existing users and encourage their continued participation. By integrating the IS post-adoption research and IS Success model, we propose a research framework to investigate VC users' continuance intention from a quality perspective. Based on a field survey, we find that information and system quality directly affect perceived individual benefits and user satisfaction, which ultimately determine user continuance intention to consume and to provide information. Furthermore, by modeling information quality and system quality as multifaceted constructs, our results reveal key quality concerns in information-exchange VCs. Implications for VC design and management are also discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.