Understanding the Relationship between Adoption and Value Creation on Online Social Networks

In this paper, we reviewed 126 papers published in 13 top journals in information systems from 2008 to 2022 that focused on the adoption of social networking sites (SNS) and its consequences. The paper presents a summary of the literature review. The literature review indicated that most scholars studied the adoption and the consequences of SNS adoption in silos. Human behavior is complex. Skinnerian behaviorism posits that human behavior is triggered by environmental stimulus and reinforced by an appraisal of consequences to the behavior. It evinces a need for the development of an integrative framework to model the stimulus for adoption of SNS and an appraisal of the reinforcement of the consequences of adoption in a single frame. We analyze the associated constructs and theories to propose the integrative Social Networking Site Exploitation Framework (SNSEF), based on reinforcement theory, social psychology, and social capital theory. The SNSEF constitutes nine propositions to explain human motivations and behavior that leads to value creation on SNS. SNS providers will find the framework useful to assess human motivations of SNS usage and the value generation from the sites to design appropriate features of their sites to attract and retain active users. The SNSEF will help educational and business organizations as well as governmental agencies in designing appropriate policies for SNS adoption and exploiting SNS for communication. Business managers and marketers may leverage the SNSEF to understand user behavior on SNS to attain business goals. Academic scholars may gain from the literature review, propositions of the SNSEF, and the future research directions presented in this paper.

Automated summary

In this paper, 126 papers published in top journals from 2008 to 2022 that focused on the adoption of social networking sites (SNS) and its consequences were reviewed. The literature review indicated that most scholars studied SNS adoption and consequences separately. To address the complexity of human behavior, an integrative Social Networking Site Exploitation Framework (SNSEF) based on reinforcement theory, social psychology, and social capital theory is proposed. The SNSEF consists of nine propositions to explain human motivations and behavior on SNS, aiming to create value.