Title: Individual user satisfaction with Sina Weibo: an exploratory study

Authors: Siong Choy Chong; Binshan Lin; Jin Yang Wu

Addresses: Finance Accreditation Agency, 12-1 Level 12, Tower 3 Avenue 7, The Horizon 2, Bangsar South, No. 8, Jalan Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur 59200, Malaysia ' College of Business Administration, BE321, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Shreveport, LA 71115, USA ' Graduate School of Business, SEGi University, No. 9, Jalan Teknologi, Taman Sains Selangor, Kota Damansara, PJU 5, Petaling Jaya, Selangor 47810, Malaysia

Abstract: This study explores the extent of individual users' satisfaction with Sina Weibo from the perspective of network internalities and network externalities. Based on the literature review, 21 items were operationalised on top of a question measuring overall user satisfaction for a questionnaire survey. Data were collected from 240 respondents from the 16 districts and 2 counties in Beijing. Generally, the findings suggest that individual users are more satisfied with network internalities than network externalities and that 19 of 21 items show significant correlation with user satisfaction. Based on the comparison between mean rankings and correlation coefficient strengths of all the items, practical and research implications are provided, along with future research directions.

Keywords: user satisfaction; network externalities; network internalities; Sina Weibo; China; individual users.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2017.082537

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2017 Vol.15 No.2, pp.162 - 184

Accepted: 24 Apr 2016
Published online: 28 Feb 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article