Understanding and Predicting Online Service Continuance - A Theoretical Integration of User Satisfaction and Technology Acceptance

Abstract

The increasing popularity of the Internet has led to the emergence of online service delivered by websites. Given large investments in these websites, it is important to retain existing customers in online service contexts. In order to understand how website information and system attributes may influence perceived usefulness of using the websites, customer satisfaction, and ultimate continuous usage behaviors, we develop a model to integrate user satisfaction with technology acceptance. Furthermore, this integration is sharpened through the synthesis with research on continuous usage of online service based on customer satisfaction. We then test the model using a sample of 236 respondents who have used one of the most popular Internet blog and community service in South Korea within the last three months. The analysis results suggest that website information and system attributes play key roles in forming continuous intention of the service and perceived playfulness serves as an important moderator toward customer satisfaction. Our model is more likely to help link website design and invesment decisions to the strategy for retaining existing customers in the context of online service.