G. MOESER ET AL.
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. 437
the platforms rather to satisfy their social needs (as measured
by Perceived Usefulness (PU) instead of being attracted by the
technical inno va t i o n .
As expected, the influences of Social Norm (SN) on Attitude
(ATT) and Behavioral Intention (INT) are considerable, with
even stronger indirect effects being mediated over Perceived
Usefulness (PU). This can be interpreted as evidence for the
presence of a “network-effect” regarding usage related utility
which exceed direct influences of peers in magnitude.
Discussion
The above results have immediate consequences for design
and marketing of Social Business Networks. First, and contrary
to hypothesis of both original and modified Technology Ac-
ceptance Model, there is no evidence for a direct effect of Per-
ceived Ease of Use (PEU) which can be considered in separa-
tion from Perceived Usefulness (PU).
Second, there is a considerable direct effect of Social Norm
(SN) which implies potential for peer-2-peer and recommenda-
tion marketing techniques. This effect is exceeded in magnitude
by an indirect effect mediated by Perceived Usefulness (PU)
which implies a substantial “network effect”. Given such a me-
chanism, growth of social networking services seems to be au-
tocatalytic to some extent, leading to a situation where market
potential is absorbed by larger or more mature players.
Above findings also have implications for theory since they
raise the question under which circumstances Perceived Ease of
Use (PEU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) become inseparable.
Furthermore the mediation of Social Norm (SN) over Perceived
Usefulness (PU) is a striking example for a micro mechanism
which translates directly to structural effects on a macroscopic
level.
A possible direction for future research could be the question
whether there are significant moderators which could eventu-
ally explain the vanishing direct effect of Ease of Use (PEU).
Castaneda et al. (2007) examines the moderating effect of user
experience on TAM’s structure of coefficients, which appears
promising for our present situation.
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