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Toward a theory of perceived benefits, affective commitment, and continuance intention in social virtual worlds: cultural values (indulgence and individualism) matter

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

In this study we examine the contingent effects of two cultural values, indulgence and individualism, on the relationships between perceived benefits (utilitarian value, hedonic value, and relational capital), affective commitment, and continuance intention in social virtual worlds. We test our theoretical model in multi-group analyses using SmartPLS 2.0, based on a sample of 414 Second Life users from the U.S.A., Great Britain, and numerous other countries. By comparing the high- vs the low-indulgence subsamples, we find that indulgence weakens the effect of utilitarian value, but strengthens the effect of hedonic value, on affective commitment. Furthermore, compared with low-individualism users, the users with high-individualism showed a weaker effect of relational capital on affective commitment, as well as a weaker effect of affective commitment on continuance intention. The theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the special issue editor and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable guidance and insightful comments. The work described in this article was supported by grants from National Science Foundation of China (Project No. 71202034; Project No. 71201096), Shanghai Pujiang Program (Project No. 20122395), Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Project No. 20120072120063), and The Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Project No. CityU 142512).

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Correspondence to Xiao-Ling Jin.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table A1

Table A1 Measurement scales

Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 Sample distribution and cultural scores across countries

Appendix C

Calculating t-values with a pooled standard error

S pooled =sqrt{[(N 1 −1)/(N 1 +N 2 −2)] × SE 1 2+[(N 2 −1)/(N 1 +N 2 −2)] × SE 2 2}(Goel et al, 2011)

where

S pooled :

is the pooled estimator for the variance

t spooled :

refers to the t-statistic with (N 1 +N 2 −2) degrees of freedom

N i :

is the sample size of data set for group i (i=1, 2)

SE i :

is the standard error of path in structural model of group i (i=1, 2)

PC i :

is the path coefficient in structural model of group i (i=1, 2)

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Zhou, Z., Jin, XL., Fang, Y. et al. Toward a theory of perceived benefits, affective commitment, and continuance intention in social virtual worlds: cultural values (indulgence and individualism) matter. Eur J Inf Syst 24, 247–261 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.27

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