Demystifying continuous participation in game applications at social networking sites
基于社会趣味理论和详尽可能性模型，通过133名用户调查，发现符号物理性和内在社交性设计特征影响用户的好奇心和愉悦感，进而预测持续参与，并揭示了性别差异。
Purpose Drawn from the social playfulness literature and the elaboration likelihood model, the purpose of this paper is to propose and test a research model to examine users’ continuous participation in SNS game applications. Design/methodology/approach A field survey with 133 subjects was conducted to test the research model. Findings Two identified design features, symbolic physicality and inherent sociability, are found to influence users’ perceived curiosity and perceived enjoyment toward playing SNS game applications. Perceived enjoyment is significantly associated with perceived curiosity and predicts users’ continuous participation of SNS game applications. The authors also observed a gender difference of social playfulness design on perceived curiosity. Research limitations/implications Use intention was used as a proxy for actual use behavior, since objective data on continuance behavior was not available. Additionally, the contributions of this study may be constrained by one single sample. Practical implications The findings of the study suggest practical guidelines for designing game applications in SNS through socialization design and symbolic physicality. Further, based on the findings of gender differences, a personalization game design strategy is provided. Originality/value The study contributes to the post-adoption IS literature and sheds light on the interesting area of social media participation. Additionally, this study enriches the online gaming research by demonstrating gender differences.