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LIS0010.1177/0961000619836721Journal of Librarianship and Information ScienceJabeen et al.

Research paper

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Contextual variables explaining the influence Information Science

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communication among library users: Cross- DOI: 10.1177/0961000619836721

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cultural study between China and Pakistan

using Structure Equation Modeling

Misbah Jabeen
Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Librarian Punjab Public Service Commission, Lahore, Pakistan

Yuan Qinjian
Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Muhammad Imran
Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Munazza Jabeen
University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan

Muhammad Rafiq
University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract
The purpose of the study is to identify the core mechanism of how social networking sites use happens in the perspective of
contextual factors and then examine the cultural difference in the motives for using social networking sites between China and
Pakistan university students. An instrument was designed to calculate the various aspect factors and social networking use intention by
using the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the information success model (ISSM). A survey was administered among university
students of China and Pakistan. The purposed model was empirically tested by PLS-SEM to examine the influential factors on the use
of social networking sites. To the best of our knowledge, there is no cross-cultural published study associated with contextual factors
effecting use of social networking sites between China and Pakistan. Our findings show that there are indeed important learning and
network factors that lead to social networking sites. This paper examines how cultural perspectives shape the use of communication
technology by examining the patterns of using social network sites among university students in China and Pakistan. The results of the
study show that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, perceived interaction and system use have positive and direct effect
on the intention to use social networking sites for information communication. More interestingly, the use of such social networking
factors varies sharply across countries with different market-based institutions.

Keywords
Contextual variables, cross-cultural, information system success, path analysis, SNS, technology acceptance, China and Pakistan

Introduction
Information technology is booming in every aspect of life.
Corresponding author:
The rapid development in the field of IT and Internet brings
Misbah Jabeen, School of Information Management, Nanjing University,
a new form of communication known as social ­networking. No.163 Xianlin Avenue, Qixia District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province
Based on this, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, 210023, China.
Sina microblog, Wechat, Whatsapp and QQ have become Email: misbah.jawwad@yahoo.com
2 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)
most popular among people for getting and exchanging
information. These social networking sites (SNS) make our
world as a global village and pervade almost every aspect of
our life. In particular, students are instantly using SNS for
sharing news, updating status, communicating with friends
and posting photos and videos. According to the online sta-
tistics by statista.com (n.d.) the penetrations of SNS are
going to reach new heights worldwide.
Culture is a pretty crucial medium to determine the per-
ceptions about ourselves and others, how one interacts with
other, which communication, preferences and habits we
depict towards one another (Gudykunst and Nishida, 1986;
Kim et al., 2009).There is an extremely important role for
communication in every culture: that is why it has been fre-
quently discussed through the comparison studies of two cul-
tures in terms of individualism verses collectivism (Hofstede,
1980; Moon and Franke, 2000; Srite and Karahanna, 2006).
Individual culture seems to be more independent where self-
reliance, privacy, distance from togetherness and more self-
indulgence is involved (Mills and Clark, 1982). Hofstede,
(1980) defined culture very briefly as characteristics of a
specific group of people who share their mutual traditions,
customs, values and way of living. Furthermore, he classi-
fied the cultural values in four dimensions such as individu-
alism vs collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity
and uncertainty avoidance. It is noted that among all these
cultural classifications, individualism collectivism and
dimension have received much more attention. Asian culture
is richer in terms of a Confucian background, sense of col-
lectivism and togetherness as compared to western culture
which is observed to be more welcoming towards individu-
alism (Cho et al., 1999; Hofstede and Bond, 1984).
There is a long history of wide relationships on the
mutual interests between China and Pakistan. Both coun-
tries have recently agreed a strategic cooperative partner-
ship. This partnership is being further enhanced by the
implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC), the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Despite such strong relationships and being a neighboring
country, the culture, communication language, education,
information technology adoption and most importantly the
environment of the two countries is entirely different in
terms of growing up (Su, 2017). In Pakistan family structure
typically resembles the extended family system, as a family
has more children as compared to the Chinese family sys-
tem which generally has one child. Commonly in Pakistan
three generations live together under one roof as grandpar-
ents, parents and their siblings which shows a more collec-
tivistic culture as compared to China. Children in a Pakistani
family are more bound to follow the family traditions, obe-
dience and fulfill the duties as a family member. The com-
munal nature of collectivistic cultures encourages shared
activities over solitary activities (Stewart et al., 1999; 2000).
In the Pakistani family system, due to lower resources and
more siblings, one home Internet-connected computer is
likely to be placed in a shared space, such as the living room
or family room. Access to it is usually shared among all
family members as compared to China where one child in
the family usually gets all the facilities and attention of the
family.
Many studies have been conducted on information
seeking on SNS by college students, specifically their
selection of sources to obtain information, their motive for
using SNS and barriers to communicating information
over SNS (Akyildizand and Argan, 2012; Roblyer et al.,
2010). However, very little attention has been paid towards
the influence of SNS for communicating information
among university students. Moreover, some very impor-
tant influential factors are seen to be missing from prior
research. For example, many studies discussed the time
delay in searching information online and difficulty in
identifying authentic or most relevant information which
affect the students in seeking information on the Internet,
but they did not pay attention to information system qual-
ity and service quality (Yoon and Kim, 2014). Contextual
factors are found to be important to the students’ informa-
tion search (Lambert and Loiselle, 2007) but the influence
of contextual factors on using SNS has not been examined
sufficiently. The current study will fill this gap.
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is extensively
popular in the educational and psychological research sec-
tor. SEM can deal with complex theoretical models and
error measurements. Moreover, its flexibility towards com-
plex interpretations made it the choice of many researchers.
It is a technique in which factor analysis and regression are
used together. SEM consists of two types: the conventional
SEM which is covariance-based SEM (CBSEM) and par-
tial least square SEM (PLS-SEM) which is variance based
(Ravand and Baghaei, 2016). Partial least square is a non-
parametric method and more suitable where theory is less
developed. Partial least square is usually used to develop
theories in exploratory research. It is also associated with
formative and reflective measurement models. Furthermore,
it works well with small sample size, enables testing null
hypotheses of path coefficients, can validate the measure-
ment models and is suitable for exploratory research.
The current research will examine the following
research questions:
Are there any cultural differences in SNS use and time
spent on SNS?
Is there a cultural difference in the motives for using
SNSs between Chinese and Pakistani university
students?
To what extent do contextual factors affect information
communication on SNS?
To what extent are students satisfied by using SNS for
information acquisition?
Jabeen et al. 3
Literature review
Prior studies mostly described the emergence of online
networks, usage of SNS and its positive or negative impact
on students’ educational learning. First we review this lit-
erature, further we shed a light on online social network-
ing, and then focus on mobile SNS to make readers
understand all the channels of SNS facilitations.
The world is changing rapidly with the emergence of
technology, the Internet and the World Wide Web. As a
result, the technology has been used as the best medium to
explore the wide range of knowledge. Similarly, the Internet
has been used as a best medium for formal and informal
communications. The Internet is a platform for delivering
information and communication services as well as serving
as a connection tool. Whereby, two-thirds of the world’s
population use SNS on the Internet; thus we can say that
SNS are online Internet communities which share their per-
sonal interests. A number of studies have discussed the social
connection of students information sharing, daily learning
experience sharing with friends and family and discussion on
several topics (Liccardi et al., 2007; Williams et al., 2009).
Thus, the SNS play a vital role in a student’s daily learning
experiences as well as in their academic life. Some fresh
studies shed a light on different patterns of passive usage of
SNS which cause anxiety and disturbance in users’ behavior
(Verduyn et al., 2015). In a recent study Zhu and Bao, (2018)
discussed the factors which effect users’ passive behavior in
SNS use. Moreover, SNS fatigue lower the users’ activity
and participation which leads to inactive use of SNS. Chen
et al., (2016) examined the negative behavior relationship
between subjective well-being and SNS. To a certain extent
negative or positive impact, in other words advantages or
disadvantages attained by the students, are associated with
different patterns of SNS use (Young et al., 2017). It offers
great opportunities to students as well as educational institu-
tions and teachers for a more collaborative and interactive
learning environment. SNS and media tools provide techno-
logical and pedagogical advantages which lead to engaging
university students in learning activities (Al-Aufi and Fulton,
2015). Moreover, university students can be more efficiently
engaged in information communication by shaping their
preferences and needs (Alhazmi and Rahman, 2012; Jafari
et al., 2006). Friendliness, ease of use and enjoyment and
urge or addiction to using SNS such as Facebook, Twitter,
Wechat, etc. have become important influencing factors in
students’ information communication. Similarly, Olubiyi,
(2012) noted that students are so influenced by SNS that they
are almost 24 hours online. As a result of this distance com-
munication through networking sites, numerous benefits
have been seen. Another research survey done by Lenhart
and Madden, (2007) revealed that students want to use SNS
to keep in touch with new developments in the field of tech-
nology and research and they strongly recommend its inclu-
sion in academic communication.
Social networking sites
Social networking plays an increasingly important role in
the network era. Cain et al. (2009) stated that SNS connect
people with great ease and after connecting they can view
and post information and other material like audio, video.
The usage of SNS is new to libraries. SNS denote a wide
range of services, tools and practices which have devel-
oped in the last few years in libraries. This technology
includes innovative features and designs which improve
success of users. A literature review shows that numbers of
authors have done several studies on perception, uses and
influence of SNS and social media on libraries. Most of the
articles are based on research related to school and college
libraries, and some on university libraries and all these
libraries influence SNS through library services. The
development in the field of social networking has also trig-
gered the academic communication stressing the impor-
tance of social influence on consumer behavior (Wang and
Chuan-Chuan Lin, 2011). The positive relationship
between SNS and use intention has been found in the
research (Hsu and Lu, 2004). Many researchers identified
the use of SNS and social networking tools for the purpose
of academic communication such as student teacher com-
munication, learning and reading purposes (Chen and
Bryer, 2012; Hill and Moran, 2011; Lester and Perini,
2010; Liu, 2010; Roblyer et al., 2010; Tiryakioglu and
Erzurum, 2011). Similarly, social networking tools have
had a fundamental impact of networked information on
academics’ manners and the attitudes in which they work,
correspond, access information, collaborate and dissemi-
nate their research outputs (Moreno and Molina, 2012;
Schiuma et al., 2012).
Online social networking
Online social networking has caused us to reframe the way
we think about relationships among groups of people.
(Madge et al., 2009) note: “our research suggests that
online and offline worlds are clearly coexisting, but used
in different ways for developing and sustaining different
types of relationships”. Online social networking is being
used to help students maintain relationships with friends
and family at home and to build new relationships with
people at their institutions. Some of these new relation-
ships are also in-person relationships, but some are only
connections found online. Online social networking is a
phenomenon that we have only recently begun to recog-
nize as a potential factor in a student’s learning experience
(Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010). Students using the online
SNS Facebook graduated with grade point averages a full
point lower than those who did not use the site (Hamilton,
2009). While the researchers featured in the article agreed
that Facebook use was not the cause of the lower grade
point averages, they found some relationship between the
4 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)
two factors. Interestingly, the research also indicated that
students who were involved in co-curricular activities
were more likely to be Facebook users (Karpinski and
Duberstein, 2009). Additionally, we know that SNSs are
extraordinarily popular with college-age students.
Mobile social networking
SNS users looked for ways to stay in touch with their
accounts on these sites. As a result, they are able to adopt
smart phones as a new technology to communicate with
their families and friends easily. Researchers tried to come
up with findings in several ways; they tried to make ques-
tionnaires through websites, and through universities to
know the connection between times spent exploring web-
sites through smart phones and the grades attained.
According to Stollak et al., (2011), researchers found out
through their questionnaire that smart phone users could
spend more time accessing social tools compared to those
who do not use smart phones. Moreover, they found that
the connection between the amounts of time spent brows-
ing such websites and the grades the students got, is
expected to have a negative impact on their grades. SNS
affect students’ educational performance and social lives.
It is unclear whether these social sites affect students’
learning performance positively or negatively.
Furthermore, social sites facilitate the social life of college
students.
Theoretical background and
hypothesis
Theoretical background
The current research is based on the updated version of
the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the
Information Success Model (ISSM) purposed by Davis
(1986) and DeLone and McLean (1992), respectively.
TAM model predicts the users’ acceptance of new tech-
nology by suggesting that ease of use and perceives ease
of usefulness are estimations that influence the individu-
al’s behavior about technology acceptance, succeeding
behavior intention and actual use. Davis explained ease of
use as a grade in which a person thinks that operating a
system would be free of effort and ease of usefulness is a
degree where a person considers that using a particular
system would improve his performance. In this study
TAM explain the factual framework to examine the influ-
ence of external variables to the use of SNS for informa-
tion communication by the university students. On the
other hand, ISSM includes six dimensions: information
quality, system quality, satisfaction, system use, individ-
ual impact and organizational impact. This model was
updated by DeLone and McLean, (2003) with the addition
of service quality in the model. This model explains that
the success of the information system is connected with
the use of the system. According to Chen, (2010) the ISSM
also indicates that certain characteristics of the system use
are linked with the satisfaction of system use.
Hypothesis
Research variables and the foundation of the hypotheses
for this study are explained as follows.
Information quality for this study explained the content
proficiency of information system. It can be assessed by
following dimensions such as: the system’s ability to make
corrections, ease of use, on time information retrieval, reli-
ability and availability (DeLone and McLean, 2003). So
we put forward the hypothesis that with the improvement
in accuracy and completeness of information quality, the
perceived usefulness of the information on SNS and sys-
tem use by the university students to fulfill their learning
tasks would also be improved. Therefore, based on the
above explanation, the study proposes the following
hypotheses:
HI. Information quality has no direct influence on per-
ceived usefulness for using social networking sites.
H2. Information quality has a positive and direct influ-
ence on system use for acquiring information from
social networking sites.
System quality is also important as it describes the func-
tional quality of the information system for processing
information and interacting with users. With poor system
quality the user of SNS may give up because the system
cannot adapt to their changing demands. Therefore, the
operating functions of the information system should be
smart and easy to use and respond in a timely fashion,
when they use it for information retrieval. We
hypothesize:
H3. System quality has a positive and direct influence
on perceived ease of use for using social networking
sites.
H4. System quality has a positive influence on per-
ceived ease of usefulness for using social networking
sites by the university students.
Service quality describes the user’s expectation about
the performance of the information system and the system
provider’s services to improve the system for information
retrieval. The quality of the information system not only
enables students to complete their tasks in an easier way
but also encourages them to use the system in future (Pitt
et al., 1995). It is expected that the service quality of SNS
will enhance university students’ perceived ease of use and
Jabeen et al. 5

usefulness for acquiring information. Therefore, based on

the above theory we hypothesize:

H5. Service quality has a positive and direct influence

on perceived ease of use for using social networking
sites.
H6. System quality has a positive and direct influence
on perceived ease of usefulness for using social net-
working sites.

Perceived ease of use is the expectation of users to get

information with minimal effort. Users feel that if a system
is easy to use then they can feel that information retrieval
is useful. This can lead to success in using the information
system. Users can enhance their information communica-
tion by interacting and sharing information online with
other users on SNS. If the information on SNS is difficult
to retrieve, it will affect the user’s intention to use the sys-
tem. In TAM the behavior intention of the users for using
technology is affected by perceived ease of use and per-
ceived usefulness (Venkatesh and Davis, 1996). Whereas,
perceived usefulness in this study represents the extent of
satisfaction of the user in acquiring the desired information
on SNS to fulfill their tasks. So, we hypothesize:
H7. Perceived ease of use has a positive and direct
influence on perceived interaction for communicating
information on social networking sites.
H8. Perceived ease of use has a positive and direct
influence on intention to use social networking sites for
information communication.
H9. Perceived usefulness has a positive and direct
influence on intention to use social networking sites for
information communication.
Perceived interaction in this study is defined as a user’s
perception to join SNS to interact with online community,
friends, peers and instructors so that they can enhance their
knowledge and information sharing with others. If the user
on SNS is willing to share information then they will have
an opportunity to gain back some more relevant knowl-
edge. This type of interaction will affect the user behavior
intention to use SNS in future (Liaw et al., 2007). Based on
the above theories we hypothesize:
H10. Perceived interaction has a positive and direct
influence on students’ intention to use social network-
ing sites for information communication.
System use has a direct influence on students’ intention
to use SNS. This means that the system is successful in
delivering high speed Internet and availability of ­equipment
Figure 1.  Graphical representation of the Pakistan model with
loadings.
to access the information on SNS for university students.
We hypothesize:
H11. System use has a positive and direct influence on
students’ intention to use social networking sites for
information communication.
User’s intention to use a system is a willingness to
implement new technological skills to execute a successful
information communication (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005).
Thus we can say that university students’ intention to use
SNS has a direct influence on the actual usage. Based on
the above theory we hypothesize:
H12. The intention to use social networking sites has a
direct and positive influence on the actual usage of
social networking sites by the students.
The research model of this study is shown in Figures 1
and 2.
Research methodology and
framework
Research design and instrument
A quantitative method was used in this study in which the
influence of SNS on the university students of China and
Pakistan was investigated. To this end, many indicators
such as the ease of use, usefulness, intention to use, use
context, and the success model were investigated by using
a questionnaire survey (see Table 2 and Appendix:
Measurement items). Multiple items were used to ensure
reliability, because a single item may result in less reliability
due to the fact that subjective constructs are multifaceted
in nature (DeVellis, 2016; Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).
The study developed a reliable and valid questionnaire using
previous study literature (Balaban et al., 2013; DeLone
6 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)
Figure 2.  Graphical representation of the China model with
loadings.
and McLean, 2003). All items for the study were estab-
lished from the previous research and modified to fit
the current context of SNS. This was done to ensure the
content validity. There were three to four items for each
construct. All items were measured using the following
five-point Likert scale (1) Strongly disagree (2) Disagree
(3) Neutral (4) Agree and (5) Strongly agree. The item
perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were
adapted from Davis et al., (1989). The item information
quality and system quality were adapted from Wixom and
Todd, (2005). The item service quality was adapted from
Parasuraman et al., (1988). The item system use was
adapted from DeLone and McLean, (1992). The item per-
ceived interaction was adapted from Liu et al., (2010). The
item intention to use was adapted from Hu et al., (2009).
All measurement items are listed in Appendix.
Data collection
The data were collected from universities in Nanjing,
China and universities in Islamabad, Pakistan. In total 350
students participated from the universities of Nanjing,
China and 322 from the universities of Islamabad, Pakistan.
These students provided their feedback about the use, time
spent and motive for using SNS. A questionnaire was
designed (see Appendix: Measurement items) and pub-
lished online in both countries through a questionnaire sur-
vey website (www.sojunp.com). The index system of
Internet construction for this site is supplemented and per-
fect. The questionnaire was also posted on the Wechat so
that it could be accessible to users in both countries,
because, some SNS such as Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram are restricted in mainland China. Wechat is pop-
ular among users in both countries and offers quite similar
services to Twitter and Instagram. Many previous studies
have described the important services embedded to Wechat
(Wang, 2017). Some questionnaires were distributed
through email and university websites to invite users to
complete the questionnaire online. Not being limited to
time and space, collecting questionnaire data online is
faster and more convenient as compared to the traditional
methods. Despite this fact, to increase the number of stu-
dents, paper copies of the questionnaire were also sent out
to some approachable universities in Pakistan.
Data analysis
PLS-SEM was employed to examine the hypothesis con-
struct and model concept. As Structures Equation Modeling
is a statistical technique that combines factor analysis (FA)
and path analysis. PLS-SEM is considered a more appro-
priate method for exploratory research as compared to co-
variance- based SEM (Chin et al., 2003). Furthermore, it
can deal with multiple dependent variables simultaneously
and can compare and evaluate different theoretical models.
In the current study PLS-SEM is used to explore the con-
textual factors that encourage the users to use SNS. The
present study used the PLS-SEM model with the R pack-
age plspm to evaluate and interoperate the results (Sanchez
et al., 2013)
Results
Users’ profile analysis
Table 1 shows the descriptive details of all respondents.
The demographic characteristics in terms of cultural dif-
ference are important to explain the use of SNS among
students of the two countries. The time spent (5 to 6 hours
daily) on SNS for the Chinese sample (36.5%) is greater
than the Pakistani sample (11.49%). Results show that the
students from Chinese universities have tighter social rela-
tionships. This result is in line with the previous study
(Kantar, 2015) that Chinese university students prove to be
the major users of social networks. A possible reason could
be that children in China are likely to have more techno-
logical devices (e.g. IPAD, tablets and personal laptops)
with Internet connections at home, compared to children in
Pakistan, since parenting style is mostly different in the
both countries. Moreover, Chinese parents invest more in
bringing up their kids or fulfilling their desires compared
to Pakistani parents who have many children to look after
and spend for. In China, mostly children get a higher
income from their parents to spend on the Internet such as
to use social networking sites activities (China Internet
Network Information Center CNNIC, 2012).
In addition to culture, the gender difference is almost
the same in SNS use between China and Pakistan. Male
youngsters (56.57%) are more likely to use SNS as com-
pared to female (43.42%) in China. Similarly, female
(44.09%) accounts for less than male (55.90%) in the
SNS use in Pakistan. In Pakistan, female youngsters are
Jabeen et al. 7

Table 1.  Demographic profile of respondents.

Classification Characteristics China (n=350) Pakistan (n=322)

Frequency % Frequency %
Gender Male 198 56.57 180 55.90
Female 152 43.42 142 44.09
Age 18 years or less 5 1.42 2 0.62
19–25 years 97 27.71 51 15.83
26–35 years 237 67.71 248 77.01
36 years or above 11 3.14 21 6.52
Education Undergraduate 125 35.71 111 34.47
Master’s 201 57.42 198 61.49
PhD 24 6.85 13 4.03
Frequency of Every day 315 90 201 62.42
using SNS 2 to 3 times a week 2 0.57 31 9.62
4 to 6 times a week 33 9.42 79 24.53
Weekly 0 0 11 3.41
Time spent on 1 to 2 hours 72 20.57 126 39.13
SNS every day 3 to 4 hours 95 27.14 137 42.54
5 to 6 hours 128 36.57 37 11.49
More than 6 hours 55 15.71 22 6.83
Motive for using To connect with family members 10 2.85 21 6.52
SNS To connect with friends 89 25.42 65 20.18
To connect with teachers and staff members 16 4.57 18 5.59
Complete educational tasks 48 13.71 41 12.73
Entertainment and playing games 29 8.28 20 6.21
Seeking information 72 20.57 108 33.54
To make social connections 86 24.57 49 15.21

Table 2.  Dimensionality index.

Construct Mode MVs DGrho

China Pakistan
Information quality (INFQ) A 4 0.82 0.94
System quality (SYSQ) A 4 0.82 0.73
Service quality (SERQ) A 5 0.80 0.89
Perceived ease of use (PEOU) A 4 0.75 0.52
Perceived ease of usefulness (PERU) A 4 0.73 0.64
System use (SYSU) A 3 0.73 0.75
Perceived interaction (PERI) A 4 0.83 0.85
Intention to use social networking sites (IUSN) A 3 0.80 0.71
Actual use (AU) A 3 0.86 0.71

MV=manifest variable; DG.rho= DillonGoldstein’s rho.

less likely to go out independently. They are supposed to
invest more time with parents, sisters, brothers and
friends at home. They are less likely to show their per-
sonal information such as photos and personal details or
relationship details over SNS. Many studies (Jackson
and Wang, 2013; Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008)
reported that male respondents are more likely to use
SNS for selfies, pictures and have multiple SNS profiles
compared to female respondents. Male youngsters are
more likely to play online games and make friends than
the female youngsters. Major motives of using SNS
between two countries (China, Pakistan) are found as
information seeking (20.57%, 33.54%) connecting with
friends (25.42%, 20.18%) and entertainment (8.28%,
6.21%).
Additionally, the use of SNS by Chinese university stu-
dents for making relationships (24.57%) is far higher than
Pakistani students (15.21%), which may reflect the cul-
tural differences between the two countries regarding
developing and managing social relationships.
8 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)

Table 3.  Factor loadings.

Construct Items Factor loading Communalities Redundancy

  China Pakistan China Pakistan China Pakistan

Information quality (INFQ) INFQ1 0.752 0.9498 0.56607 0.90203 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
INFQ2 0.719 0.9006 0.51707 0.81099 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
INFQ3 0.743 0.8182 0.5821 0.66948 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
INFQ4 0.664 0.9211 0.33225 0.84839 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
System quality (SYSQ) SYSQ1 0.879 0.8919 0.77305 0.79557 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
SYSQ2 0.771 0.5335 0.6432 0.23378 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
SYSQ3 0.7889 0.5013 0.62188 0.3130 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
Service quality (SERQ) SERQ1 0.756 0.9048 0.57132 0.81870 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
SERQ2 0.688 0.8645 0.32355 0.74743 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
SERQ3 0.685 0.7897 0.30090 0.62356 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
SERQ4 0.652 0.8389 0.33081 0.70369 0.00e+00 0.00e+00
System use (SYSU) SYSU1 0.905 0.9250 0.81848 0.85570 0.32838 3.40e-04
SYSU2 0.9334 0.9668 0.87192 0.93465 0.34983 3.71e-04
Perceived ease of use (PEOU) PEOU1 0.713 0.5171 0.6418 0.4341 0.42157 1.86e-01
PEOU2 0.882 0.8953 0.8818 0.80158 0.6218 5.59e-01
Perceived usefulness (PERU) PERU 0.955 0.8939 0.91151 0.79900 0.6293 5.99e-01
Perceived interaction (PERI) PERI 0.972 0.9825 0.94470 0.96525 0.24785 1.29e-01
Intention to use social IUSN 0.953 0.9781 0.90818 0.95660 0.69581 7.31e-01
networking sites (IUSN)
Actual use (AU) AU1 0.898 0.8966 0.80624 0.80392 0.23055 1.20e-01
AU2 0.944 0.9721 0.89196 0.94489 0.25507 1.41e-01

Reliability test
Cronbach’s alpha is usually used to assess the internal con-
sistency. A value of Cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.7 is
considered acceptable, which indicates a higher internal
consistency. Similarly, as a rule of thumb, a block is con-
sidered as unidimensional when a value of Dillon-
Goldstein (DGrho) is larger than 0.7. This index is
considered to be a better indicator than Cronbach’s alpha
because it takes into account to what extent the latent vari-
able explains its block of indicators. Table 2 shows the
greater internal consistency and higher support homogene-
ity of the indicators, as the DGrho value is greater than 0.7.
Whereas, the DGrho value for other two constructs
(i.e.0.52 for the Perceived ease of use and; 0.64 for the
Perceived usefulness) in the Pakistani sample are not
acceptable as the DGrho values less than 0.70.
Validity test
The confirmatory factor analysis test was employed to test
the convergent validity which represents the amount of
variance in the indicators. Convergent validity is the
degree of inter-correlation between items (Lee, 2010).
Table 3 shows the results of the convergent validity test.
The instrument with the entire factor loadings greater than
0.7 for each construct and the average variance extracted
(AVE) greater than 0.5are clear indications of the conver-
gent validity. An average value equal to 0.5 explains that
the construct indicates at least half of the variance of its
variables. Table 3 shows four factor loadings (i.e. INFQ4,
SERQ2, SERQ3, SERQ3) for China and three factor load-
ings (i.e. SYSQ1, SYSQ2, PEOU1) for Pakistan are not up
to the mark (less than 0.7). All the remaining loadings are
above the cut-off value of 0.7. Moreover, communalities
as the square root of loadings were used to check the valid-
ity of loadings. They indicate the amount of variability
explained by the latent variables. A loading greater than
0.5 means more than 50% of the variably in an indicator is
captured by its latent construct. Redundancy shows the
amount of variance in an endogenous variable which is
attributable to independent latent variables. No cut-off or
rule of thumb has been suggested for the redundancy.
Structural model assessment by using
Chi-square Goodness of Fit Test
The term “direct effect” is meant to quantify an influence
that is not mediated by other variables in the model and indi-
rect effects as those influences “mediated by at least one
intervening variable” and total effects are sums of direct and
indirect effects. However, the definition of indirect effects
remains incomplete because of asserting inequality between
direct and total effects, the very concept of indirect effect
was deemed void of operational meaning (Pearl, 2001).
Direct, indirect and total effects are shown in Table 4.They
indicate that the information quality has no direct and indi-
rect effect on the factors of system quality, service quality
Jabeen et al. 9

Table 4.  Direct, indirect and total effect.

Relationship Direct effect Indirect effect Total

China Pakistan Pakistan China Pakistan Pakistan China Pakistan Pakistan

INFQ→SYSQ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
INFQ→SERQ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
INFQ→PEOU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
INFQ→PERU 0.0000 0.6139 0.0000 0.0000 0.2790 0.6139
INFQ→SYSU 0.6334 −0.0199 0.0000 0.0000 0.6334 −0.0199
INFQ→PERI 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
INFQ→IUSN 0.0000 0.0000 0.0752 0.09651 0.0752 0.09651
INFQ→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0402 0.3724 0.0402 0.3742
SYSQ→SERQ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
SYSQ→PEOU 0.7249 0.8708 0.0000 0.0000 0.7249 0.8708
SYSQ→PERU 0.5495 0.2842 0.0000 0.0000 0.5495 0.2842
SYSQ→SYSU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
SYSQ→PERI 0.0000 0.0000 0.3713 0.31825 0.3713 0.31825
SYSQ→IUSN 0.0000 0.0000 0.4246 0.31035 0.4246 0.31035
SYSQ→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.2270 0.1198 0.2270 0.1198
SERQ→PEOU 0.2265 −0.0663 0.0000 0.0000 0.2265 −0.0663
SERQ→PERU 0.0857 0.0124 0.0000 0.0000 0.0857 0.0124
SERQ→SYSU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
SERQ→PERI 0.0000 0.0000 0.1160 −0.02424 0.1160 −0.02424
SERQ→IUSN 0.0000 0.0000 0.1160 −0.01825 0.1160 −0.01825
SERQ→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0620 −0.00704 0.0620 −0.00704
PEOU→PERU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
PEOU→SYSU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
PEOU→PERI 0.5122 0.3655 0.0000 0.0000 0.5122 0.3655
PEOU→IUSN 0.0697 0.0211 0.3693 0.0000 0.4390 0.0211
PEOU→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.2347 0.1177 0.2347 0.1177
PERU→SYSU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
PERU→PERI 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
PERU→IUSN 0.1935 0.1582 0.0000 0.0000 0.1935 0.1582
PERU→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.1035 0.06107 0.1035 0.06107
SYSU→PERI 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
SYSU→IUSN 0.0335 0.0321 0.0000 0.0000 0.0335 0.0321
SYSU→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.0179 0.01238 0.0179 0.01238
PERI→IUSN 0.7209 0.7762 0.0000 0.0000 0.7209 0.07762
PERI→AU 0.0000 0.0000 0.3855 0.9955 0.3855 0.9955
IUSN→AU 0.5348 0.3859 0.0000 0.0000 0.5348 0.3859

and perceived ease of use (proves H1) but has direct and
positive influence on the perceived ease of usefulness. This
effect is stronger in Pakistan (0.6139) compared to China
(0.2790). The information quality directly and positively
influences the system use for communicating information
on SNS in the case of Chinese university students (0.6334)
but has negative impacts on the Pakistani students (-0.0199).
H3 and H4→System quality has direct and the positive
influence on the perceived ease use (CH, 0.7249; PAK,
0.8708) and perceived ease of usefulness (CH, 0.5495;
PAK, 0.2849). This result is consistent with the results of
Jeong (2011).
H5and H6→ Service quality has weak and negative
impact on the perceived ease of using SNS (-0.0663) by
the Chinese students but in the case of Pakistani students
the statistical readings are positive (0.2265). Moreover, the
service quality has weak influence on the perceived useful-
ness for information communication on SNS by the
Chinese (0.0124) and Pakistani university students
(0.0857). A possible reason for this weak influence of ser-
vice quality on the ease of use could be the dissatisfaction
of Chinese students with the personnel responsible for pro-
viding assistance in using SNS who are unskillful and
untrained.
Figures 1 and 2 represent the PLS-SEM results of the
model with loadings for both China and Pakistan, for
example the perceived ease of use affect intention to use
SNS both directly and indirectly through the factors of
10 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)
system use and perceived interaction. Figure 1 shows that
except for H2 and H3, all hypotheses were accepted or
validated.
H7 and H8→Perceived ease of use influences directly
and positively Perceived Interaction (CH, 0.5122; PAK,
0.3655), whereas perceived ease of use influences directly
and indirectly the intention of the both countries’ univer-
sity students to use SNS for information communication
(Table 4).
H9 and H10→This shows that the perceived usefulness
(CH, 0.235; PAK, 0.282) has direct and positive influence
on the intention to use SNS for information communica-
tion. This means that students find useful information on
SNS which satisfy their information need to accomplish
their tasks. The system use does not have a significant
influence (CH, 0.0335; PAK, 0.0321) on the intention to
use SNS. University students of both countries feel that
settings facilitating the system use for communicating
information such as high speed Internet, installment of
equipment and convenience of getting information on SNS
are not appropriate.
H11 and H12→ The results show that the perceived
interaction has direct and strongly positive influence (CH,
0.728; PAK, 0.776) on the intention to use SNS for infor-
mation communication. Similarly, the intention to use
SNS for information communication has direct and
strongly positive influence (CH, 0.535; PAK, 0.459) on the
actual use of SNS. This means that the behavior intention
of university students is significantly positive towards use
of SNS in future for information communication. Findings
of this study are also in line with those from Oliveira et al.
(2014) that users’ use intention has a positive impact on
their actual behavior.
Discussion and conclusion
The purpose of this research, which is based on the meas-
ures selected from the Information System Success model
(ISSM) and used the Technology Acceptance model (TAM)
as a theoretical basis, was to explore the impact of contex-
tual variables, such as system use and perceived interaction
that influence students’ information communications on
SNS. These contextual factors have seldom been examined
together. Our study found that difference in online culture
reflects the difference of offline culture in which people are
embedded. This difference of culture in using SNS is also
very clear between Chinese and Pakistani students. Pakistani
students are reported to have less tighter social relation-
ships, reflecting an indirect communication style and com-
paratively less open self-disclosure. Whereas Chinese
students have more tighter and wider perspective of social
networking usage and their activities reflect a more direct
communication style and bolder self-disclosure.
First, the current study of China and Pakistan as an
example of cross-cultural distinction and contextual
factors influencing the usage of SNS found that Chinese
culture was perceived as more open to sharing or spending
more time in making relationships online, connecting with
friends and entertainment than Pakistani culture, which
was perceived as less concerned with spending time on
SNS for making relationships. Findings of the current
study also indicated that SNS use for connecting with
teachers and completing educational tasks did not vary sig-
nificantly across countries and generations.
Second, this study results showed that the perceived
ease of use, the perceived usefulness and the perceived
interaction all have a strong and positive impact on the
intention to use SNS for information communication.
Among all these factors perceived interaction in both
countries case had the strongest one effect (CH, 0.7209;
PAK, 0.7762) on the intention to use SNS. This result vali-
dates the results from other studies (Liu et al., 2010). The
perceived ease of use is the main determinant that affects
the perceived interaction. This directs that when some
interactive elements are added for students to an SNS, stu-
dents will be more willing to use these interactive com-
munication channels to fulfill their information needs;
thus, their perceived interaction with others will be
strengthened.
Third, information quality and system quality are sig-
nificant determinants of the perceived usefulness (CH, 0
390; PAK, 0.6614) and the perceived ease of use (CH,
0.7249; PAK, 0.8708) respectively. This means that users
felt greater satisfaction when they got accessibility to time-
less, complete and accurate information when the system
aligns with their changing demands. Results of the study
also confirmed that the contextual factors can also influ-
ence students’ perception of the ease of use and the ease of
usefulness of the information systems.
Lastly, contrary to the findings of many studies (Junni,
2007; Yoon and Kim, 2014) the current study reported that
the service quality had negative impact on the perceived
ease of use in the case of Pakistani university students
(-0.0663). It means that Pakistani students did not find
required information on SNS with ease. Maybe they had
difficulties in articulating search queries on engines and
needed skills or training for successful retrieval of relevant
information.
Implications and limitations
Theoretical implication
The current research is the first comparative study of its
kind between China and Pakistan exploring both the cul-
ture difference in using SNS and gratification of their
social motives in real world interactions.
First, the current research contributes important impli-
cations for practitioners and researchers. Our research
advises university administrations to better understand the
Jabeen et al. 11
influence of SNS by proposing a new way to study the
contextual variables. Understanding the differences
between two cultures will be crucial not only for Chinese
universities but also for Pakistani universities acquiring
insight into some other factors (like perceived interaction
and system use) which trigger some other behavior to
social networking use. Moreover, these variables have
rarely been examined together.
Second, our study contributes to understanding that
university students generally felt that information quality
such as bad interface and poor search results affect their
willingness to use SNS for information communication
especially in the case of Pakistani students. Furthermore,
university students are generally more concerned about the
retrieval of complete information rather than information
quality because students sometimes felt restricted due to
limitations such as subscription fee or availability of infor-
mation to only faculty members. (Junni, 2007) also
reported the same problem that students had difficulty in
articulating search queries for search engines and finding
relevant information.
Third, our study demonstrates service quality has nega-
tive impact on perceived usefulness of SNS for informa-
tion communication. It means it was not easy for university
students to get needed information on SNS as they found
difficulty in evaluating which information was correct or
most relevant. The other possible reason may be that uni-
versity students of both countries who are more skilled do
not rely on information available on SNS. Information
providers on SNS should provide technical support as well
as design customized services for students. There could be
university IT professionals, teachers and librarians who
help the students to eliminate the obstacles to complete
their tasks when problems were encountered. Yoon and
Kim, (2014) suggest that students also need training in get-
ting skills for seeking or retrieving information on the
Internet.
Practical implications
This study contributes some practical implications:
First, perceived interaction is an appropriate research
perspective in SNS use context, confirmed with our finding
that interaction attributes have positive effects on students’
intention to use SNS. In order to raise students’ loyalty, uni-
versity administrations or service providers are supposed to
improve the system efficiency, fulfillment, mobility, unre-
strictedness and customization of interactive tools.
Second, it is suggested that by designing some interac-
tive learning gears such as discussion room, instant mes-
sages and chat rooms, audio, video files and emails may
activate the students’ productivity. By doing so, the informa-
tion communication and learning activities can be enhanced.
Third, it is suggested that university libraries enhance
the system use to increase the usage of digital library
resources. It is also important for the university libraries to
monitor and upgrade the library system regularly to ensure
its stability. In this regard, it is suggested that the service
providers such as library IT professionals or librarians
could facilitate students with orientation classes and
training.
Limitations and future research
There are some limitations with this study. First, for
accuracy purpose the current study included only the uni-
versities from Nanjing, China and the universities from
Islamabad, Pakistan. Future research needs to be vali-
dated in the other cities or parts of both countries. Second,
we did not distinguish the students from different disci-
plines. The seeking and communicating information on
SNS may vary significantly among students from differ-
ent disciplines. Future research could include the stu-
dents of different disciplines. Third, it should examine
the circumstances under which cultural values, prefer-
ence and personal characteristics affect university stu-
dents’ intention to use SNS which may result in different
SNS behavior.
Author contributions
Misbah Jabeen (misbah.jawwad@yahoomail.com, corre-
sponding author) conceived, designed and conducted the
survey and the experiments, and wrote the paper. Qinjian
Yuan (yuanqj@nju.edu.cn) supervisor of the first author
designed the study and wrote the framework of the paper.
Misbah Jabeen and Muhammad Imran (imran.igeo@uaar.
edu.pk) performed the statistical analysis. Munazza Jabeen
(jabeenmunazza@outlook.com) and Muhammad Rafiq
(rafiq.im@pu.edu.pk) provided valuable and critical com-
ments to improve the whole paper.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
This research is supported in part by the Social Science
Foundation of Jiangsu providing special fund for a study on the
effect of knowledge exchange in academic virtual communities
grant No.: (17TQB003).
This research has undertaken at school of information manage-
ment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
ORCID iDs
Misbah Jabeen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9432-1707
Munazza Jabeen https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3831-3283
12 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 00(0)
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Author biographies
Misbah Jabeen is a PhD research scholar at the School of
Information Management, Nanjing University, China. She is a
librarian in the Punjab Public Service Commission Lahore,
Pakistan (on leave). Her research interests are information ser-
vices, information and communication technology, and LIS edu-
cation, social networking sites (SNS), digital library and mobile
library services. She has published several papers on the impact
and usage of information technology in libraries.
Yuan Qinjian is a professor and doctoral tutor at the School of
Information Management Nanjing University, China. He has
published more than 100 academic papers in academic journals at
national and international level and published many scholarly
monographs. His main fields of research interest are science and
technology evaluation, technology management and patent mon-
itoring and intellectual property.
Muhammad Imran is assistant professor at the Institute of Geo-
Information and Earth Observation, Arid Agriculture University
Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He has published more than 10 research
papers. His research interests are: advanced research methodol-
ogy; ICT applications; geo informatics; human-computer inter-
action; and digital cultures.
Munazza Jabeen is associate professor and Chairperson at the
Department of Library and Information Science, University of
Balochistan, and Quetta. She obtained her PhD degree on schol-
arship from the School of Management and Economics, Beijing
Institute of Technology, China. Her PhD was based on informa-
tion management. She has published a number of publications
in well reputed impact factor journals. She has expertise in dif-
ferent domains of LIS such as information literacy programs,
social networking networks, data mining, open sources soft-
ware, scientometric analysis, e-learning in libraries.
Muhammad Rafiq did Post doctorate on Fulbright scholarship
from USA. He is associate professor at the Department of
Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore,
Pakistan. His PHD is on the topic ‘Prospects of digitization in
university libraries of Pakistan’. He is a HEC recognized PhD
supervisor. He has earned many national and international awards
and scholarships and has published ample research publications
and Book chapters.
Appendix: Measurement items in
questionnaire
Perceived ease of use (PEOU)
•• PEOU1- I find the SNS is easy to use.
•• PEOU2-I think information provided on SNS is
clear and easy to read.
•• PEOU3- I am fully capable of how to use SNS for
getting information.
•• PEOU 4-Interacting on the SNS don’t require a lot
of energy.
Perceived usefulness (PERU)
•• PERU1-I think I can understand the information
and user interface shown in the SNS.
•• PERU2- My interaction with the SNS is clear and
understandable.
•• PERU3- I think the SNS provides useful informa-
tion with regard to my search.
•• PERU4 - On the whole, I am satisfied with the
information quality of the SNS.
Perceived interaction (PERI)
•• PERI1-I can discuss relevant learning topics with
others on the discussion groups.
•• PERI2-I can exchange information with others as a
way of communication.
•• PERI3-I can engage myself in simultaneous learn-
ing interaction with others via Instant Messenger.
•• PERI4-In general, I think online SNS provides
good opportunities for interaction with other
users.
Information quality (INFQ)
•• INFQ1- I can get abundant information from SNS.
•• INFQ2-The information I get on SNS is reliable
most of the time.
•• INFQ3- when I enter my search query on SNS the
system responds to me in timely manner.
•• INFQ4- The information I found on SNS is
substantial.
System quality (SYSQ)
•• SYSQ1-I think the interface of the SNS is easy to
understand.
•• SYSQ2-I think the search function in the SNS is
easy to us.
•• SYSQ3-I think the response time of the SNS is
short and the results are correct.
•• SYSQ4-On the whole, I am satisfied with the sys-
tem quality of the SNS
Service quality (SERQ)
•• SERQ1-The system while using SNS responds to
my questions in a timely manner.
•• SERQ2-By clicking on the SNS link, I can access
required information.
 Jabeen et al. 15

•• SERQ3-Whenever I use SNS, the system never col-
lapses during process.
•• SERQ4-The service providers enable me to reach
required information by different ways such as
hyperlinks.
•• SERQ5- On the whole, I am satisfied with the ser-
Intention to use SNS (IUNS)
vice quality of SNS.
System use (SYSU)
•• SYSU1-On SNS I can easily browse required
information.
•• SYSU2-When there is no other way of getting
information I rely on SNS.
•• SYSU3-I think SNS mostly meet my information need
•• IUNS1-I would like the idea of using online SNS
for my learning or research.
•• IUNS2-I intend to continue using SNS in future
rather than discontinue their use.
•• IUNS3- I intend to continue using SNS over any
alternative means.

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