An Empirical Study On Factors Affecting User Acceptance Of Social Network Game

Social network service has become one of the most popular Internet applications. The American SNS websites, Facebook and Myspace, are among the top 10 websites in the world based on user traffic. In China, the number of registered users of the top SNS website-Renren has been over 160 million. With the rapid development of SNS websites, social network games based on SNS websites become popular quickly and play a great role in enhancing the level of activity and viscosity of SNS website users. The most popular applications in the SNS websites are almost social network games. Therefore, for the designers and operators of social network game and SNS website, it is necessary to investigate the main factors that affect user acceptance of social network games.Based on an introduction of the concept and characteristics of social network game, as well as the literature review of some relevant theories, this research proposes several potential variables may affect users' behavior intention, and constructs the user acceptance model of social network game, combining Technology Acceptance Model and some new-added factors, including perceived enjoyment, subjective norm and perceived social interaction. Empirical data is collected by questionnaire survey. Firstly, an initial questionnaire is designed by drawing lessons from previous research results. Then it is revised after a pretest and a formal one is made to make a survey. During the process of date analysis, the reliability and validity of the questionnaire are fully tested. After that, the structural equation modeling is applied using LISREL8.70 to verify the research hypothesis and estimate the model variables'impact on behavior intention.According to the result of date analysis, the research conclusions are as follow:(1) Attitude to social network game has direct and significant impact on users' behavior intention. The more positive attitude will bring the higher intention.(2) Subjective norm imposes significant influence on users'attitude and behavior intention. Impact from the important persons will improve users'attitude and enhance their behavior intention.(3) The factor of perceived enjoyment plays an important role in user acceptance of social network game and has direct impact on users'attitude and behavior intention, which can highly explain why people want to play social network games. Neither perceived ease of use nor perceived social interaction has direct impact on attitude and behavior intention. They can only exert influence through perceived enjoyment.In theory, this research constructs a user acceptance model of social network game, which broadens the scope of existing research. In this model, Technology Acceptance Model is applied as the framework and some extra factors are employed from Theory of Reasoned Action, internal motivation theory and research about online games. In practice, according to the result of empirical study, some factors affecting users'behavior intention of social network game are found. The conclusion can be used as reference for the design of social network games, as well as the operation and promotion of SNS websites. This dissertation is supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grand No.10ATQ004).