Examining students' continued use of desktop services: Perspectives from expectation-confirmation and social influence

Abstract Desktop services have been widely used among educational institutions, because they enable students to learn anywhere and anytime via the Internet. Students can learn by using the paid software pre-installed on the virtual desktop without limitations. However, the factors behind students' continued use of desktop services have received surprisingly little attention, which may be detrimental to the promotion of such services. Previous studies have shown that students' acceptance of a given educational technology does not necessarily lead to their continued use of it. Hence, this study developed a model based on expectation-confirmation and social influence. The former serves as the internal factor behind students' continued use of desktop services, while the latter external. From the data collected from 167 sophomores using a questionnaire, the findings indicate that (1) the external factor (e.g. the teacher's opinion) of the desktop service exerted a more significant influence than the internal one (e.g. satisfaction) did on the subjects' continued use; (2) subjective norm (i.e. the teacher's opinion) was the sole source of the external influence on the subjects' continued use, and the subjective norm was affected by social identity and group norms; and (3) satisfaction wielded the strongest internal influence on the subjects' continued use, and the degree of satisfaction was determined by effort- and performance-expectancy. These findings revealed an implication for the promotion of desktop services, namely, it was not so much the merits and drawbacks of such service as the teacher's opinion that played a decisive role in the subjects' continued use.