Empirical Investigation on Computer Self-Efficacy Influencing the Intention to Use Facebook

摘要

Environments of social networking sites (SNS) allow individuals to build an online public profile within a bounded system that aims for relationships with other users (called "friends"). Even though the growth of access to SNS has been lower than the average growth of access to the Internet, SNS are increasingly incorporated into the routine of Brazilian people. In order to emphasize the user's point of view, this study is based on the intention to use Facebook from an individual perception. So the objective of this study is to examine how computer self-efficacy (CSE) may influence the intention to use Facebook. We conducted this study in three phases: (1) exploratory procedures, which were developed from a review of the literature in order to refine the specification of the constructs of our research model; (2) definition of the instrument and data collection, which were then used to analyze the variables of each construct; and (3) an empirical investigation, which was performed with 161 Brazilian users of Facebook to assume an effective treatment of our research model. Our findings highlighted that there is a statistically positive relationship of influence between general and specific CSE and intention to use Facebook. Finally, we may contribute by suggesting that predictions of CSE are strongly influenced by the user's experience.