Exploring the Factors that Influence Social Computing Intentions

This study explores the impact of self-identity and social influence on an individual’s intention to perform social computing actions. Additionally, we are interested in learning whether the widely-tested factors, ease of use and usefulness, continue to play a strong role in the context of social computing. A survey was constructed using peer-to-peer (P2P) music file sharing as a representation of social computing. Data has been collected and preliminary analysis has been completed. Additional analysis will be conducted using the structural equation modeling method with partial least squares to test whether social influence, self-identity, ease of use, and/or usefulness have a significant impact upon a user’s intentions to perform social computing actions. This study has academic and practical implications in furthering understanding of social computing