Examining SNS Adoption through Motivational Lens

The impact of social networking has become a focal point for Information Systems researchers; however, its potential benefits and impact have not been fully explored. Membership in social networks has been increasing steadily within the last decade but at the same time some members have abandon their accounts or use them minimally To understand the differences in usage among members the adoption process needs to be evaluated. Existing adoption models evaluated technology adoption from a utilitarian perspective and are deemed inadequate to evaluate social networking systems (SNS). This is because SNS are classified as social information systems whose adoption, based on the literature, should be evaluated from a motivational perspective. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to propose a social information system research model that will explain the adoption process of social networking and similar technologies.