Experience, motivations and confirmation of expectations in SNS satisfaction

Abstract

As SNSs have an increasing importance in peoples’ daily lives, this paper seeks to understand how user satisfaction with SNSs can be increased. Motivations to use SNSs include entertainment, information, social-psychological support, and convenience, and fulfilling these needs can lead to increased satisfaction. Here, we propose that motivations combine with confirmation of expectations and experience in years to explain user satisfaction with SNSs. We draw on complexity and configuration theories, present a conceptual model and perform a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Through an empirically study with 582 SNSs users, we identify eight combinations (configurations) of motivations, confirmation of expectations, and experience that lead to high satisfaction. The findings highlight the different role of specific motivations when using SNSs and present combinations of motivations that need to be fulfilled in order to reach user satisfaction. Also, we present different solutions for users with different levels of expectation confirmation and experience, highlighting how high satisfaction can be achieved for both experienced and inexperienced users, as well as for users with confirmed or unconfirmed expectations. Finally, we present findings from both fsQCA and PLS-SEM highlighting the complementarity between the methods which can help into getting a deeper understanding of the sample, and by extension of the users. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice, as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.