The Concept and Adoption of Social Network Sites (SNS) (Research Paper Sample)

Literature Review Claude D Bell Johnson & Wales University  Literature Review Social networking sites (will be interchangeably used with social media sites) have rapidly grown in popularity, and they have had a significant effect on consumers and businesses, and this is an area that deserves scholarly attention. In this literature review, the research question of interest is: what is the impact of social media on a customer's dining experience in a restaurant? Specifically, it focuses on how the different types of social media affect the dining experience and how a business can apply appropriate social media practices to improve the overall customer dining experience. It analyzes and synthesizes the available literature on the topic and identifies three primary themes: the concept and adoption of social network sites, the sharing of information on these sites, and their impact on customer's restaurant dining experiences. The Concept and Adoption of Social Network Sites (SNS) Hajli (2014) examined the effect of social media sites factors such as perceived usefulness and trust on a user's intention to buy. The study applied the technology acceptance model (TAM) and a survey instrument to test for the relationship between the intention to buy, perceived usefulness, social media, and trust. It has strong internal validity, which is demonstrated by the average variance extracted (AVE) score, which is higher than 0.5. Hajli (2014) found out that trust in social networks and the perceived usefulness of the site have a positive influence on a customer's intention to buy. However, a significant limitation of the study is failing to discuss in detail which features in an organization's social media site build customer trust, and also ignores their experiences and behavior while using a SNS. In an earlier study, Sinclaire & Vogus (2011) had used an exploratory design to examine the reasons behind the adoption of social media by organizations. By utilizing content analysis, a survey, and structured interviews, the study found out that the adoption of social media in organizations results from the need to reach out to customers and to create an external community of followers. In qualitative studies, the use of the three different data collection methods signals that such research is credible and defensible, increasing its generalizability to a wide range of industries. It found out that social media allows customers to express their views and share their experiences with other members. However, its main limitation is focusing on how organizations use social media, and it failed to integrate a sample of users to explain the reasons behind their use of social media. Sinclaire & Vogus (2011) demonstrates the rising importance of social media in organizations, which is driven by the increasing use among consumers to express their views and share experiences with other members. This research suggests that consumers build trust in a brand on SNS based on the experiences of others with the brand, and this concept is of significant importance to this literature review. Hajli (2014) follows up on that research to emphasize that social media can influence an individual's trust in business, and this affects their intention to buy. The Sharing of Information on SNS Hajli (2014) and Sinclaire & Vogus (2011) do not examine the information sharing behavior of users in SNS. Also, their studies assume an overall industry focus and fail to explore the use of social media, specifically on restaurants and hospitality industry. Bilgihan, Peng, & Kandampully (2014) partially addresses such limitations by conducting an exploratory study that examined the “dining information seeking and sharing behavior on SNS by Generation Y”. The authors sought to investigate the impact of “consumer opinion leadership (COL) and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) on Generation Y's information seeking and sharing behavior”. The theory on COL states that a consumer can influence another's opinions while CSII argues that an individual's susceptibility to influence determines their conformity to expectations of others concerning their purchase decisions. The study collected data using a survey, and it has a high internal validity as demonstrated by AVE scores which exceed 0.5, indicating that the results are credible and genuine. The findings revealed that COL significantly impacts the information seeking and sharing of dining experiences behavior among the generation Y. Also, a high CSII in an individual has a direct effect on the “information seeking and sharing behavior.”. However, the study does not address how the specific dining experience aspects such as the food and service quality, and ambiance influence a user's decision to share information in SNSs. Also, it primarily explores the effect of “COL and CSII on a user's information seeking and sharing behavior” on a limited scale of undergraduate students, and this might limit the generalizability of the findings Kang, Tang, & Fiore (2014) focused on the relationships between consumers and brands on restaurant Facebook fan pages. The study examined the benefits, which can either be functional, social-psychological, monetary, and hedonic, that consumers receive from participating in a restaurant's Facebook fan page. It collected data using a survey instrument that targeted university students, and it has a high internal validity as demonstrated by AVE scores which exceed 0.5, indicating that it measured what it was supposed to, and the results are credible. It found out that only the social-psychological and hedonic benefits have a significant effect on individual participation in the restaurant's Facebook fan page. Kang et al. (2014) concluded by pointing out that in participating in a restaurant's Facebook page, individuals seek social-psychological benefits such as the need to belong and to express themselves. However, a primary limitation of this study is focusing on only one SNS as well as using college students, and this casts doubts on the generalizability of the findings to different populations in other SNS. Also, similarly to Bilgihan et al. (2014), the study does not explore the relationship between SNS and a customer's dining experience. Tussyadiah, Kausar, & Soesilo (2018) expound on the concept of CSII proposed by Bilgihan et al. (2014) by examining the influence of social network sites interactions and engagement on a customer's global susceptibility to social influence and its behavioral manifestations in the form of patronage and purchase. The variables of interest are social network engagement, social influence on SNSs, and susceptibility to global consumption influence. It used an online web-survey to collect data, and the study's internal validity is strong, as demonstrated by AVE scores, which exceed 0.5, indicating that the results are credible and genuine. The findings revealed that customer engagement in SNS resulted in a rise in susceptibility to global consumption influence. It implies that a customer's choice in selecting a restaurant depends on whether it makes them feel good in their social group and matches their social status. Also, it found out that customer's engagement in SNSs has a positive social influence, demonstrating a social contagion effect where individuals are inclined to interpersonal influence, and they will make decisions that conform to their peers. However, the study fails to examine which restaurant dining experiences are a trigger for social network site engagement and influence, and this is a crucial focus for this literature review. Kim & Jang (2019) acknowledged that social media has a vital impact on the hospitality industry, and they examined the psychological aspects and motivations that influence an individual to share their restaurant experiences on SNS. By utilizing the uses and gratification theory and an online survey for data collection, the researchers examined the role of psychological factors such as self-esteem, life-satisfaction, narcissism, and the need for belonging and motivational factors such as self-expression, social-benefit, and status on an individual's sharing experience on SNS. The findings revealed that the self-esteem, life-satisfaction, narcissism, and the need for belonging mediated by motivational factors such as self-expression, social-benefit, and status have a significant influence on an individual's intention to share information and experiences on social media sites. This supports the findings by Kang et al. (2014) that social-psychological factors such as the need for belonging and self-expression influences an individual's information-sharing behavior on SNS. However, a fundamental limitation of the study is it fails to explain how the information-sharing behavior on SNSs affects other users, and a key aim of this literature review is to explore this link. A primary theme from Kim & Jang (2019), Tussyadiah et al. (2018), Bilgihan et al. (2014), and Kang et al. (2014) and is that the information sharing among restaurant consumers on SNS is motivated by psychological and motivational factors such as the need for belonging and self-expression. Another contribution to the research question is the concept of social contagion, which argues that high levels of SNS engagement result in high levels of a customer's susceptibility to interpersonal influence. It means that such consumers will seek to conform to the opinions and recommendations shared by their peers on social networking sites. The implication is that customers face exposure to millions of positive and negative experiences from other users, and this influences the customer's restaurant dining preferences and consumption behavior. Social Media and Customer's Restaurant Dining Experience Previous studies in this literature review have demonstrated that social networking sit...