Abstract:

Perceived usefulness and trust are significant factors affecting personal information disclosure on social networking web sites (SNS), a study probing relationship among these three variances will build up our understanding about personal information behaviors. Sampling from users of Sina microblog, Tencent microblog, Renren.com and QQ space, this study collects dates via internet questionnaires and employs Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for statistical analysis to describe the effect paths. It’s indicated that both perceived usefulness and trust have positive influence on information disclosure and trust has greater effect than perceived usefulness. Also, there is found to be a partial mediating effect of trust on the relationship between perceived usefulness and information disclosure on SNS.

Key words: Social networking sites, Personal information disclosure, Trust, Perceived usefulness