Exploring the drivers of brand fan page follower discontinuance intention: an adaptation of the Furneaux and Wade's framework

Abstract

Many companies have now built brand fan pages (BFPs) on social media platforms to connect with their existing and potential customers. Nevertheless, the inability to retain existing followers would severely threaten the survival of BFPs and the effectiveness of a company's social media strategies. Drawing upon Furneaux and Wade's discontinuance framework, our study develops a research model to understand the BFP user's intention to discontinue following a BFP. An empirical study was conducted through an online survey of Chinese social media users. The proposed model was tested by analyzing the collected data using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The results reveal that dissatisfaction with information quality, unfollowing costs, trust and alternative attractiveness affect the individual's intention to unfollow a BFP. Notably, unfollowing costs is the most powerful factor to predict followers' propensity to discontinue. Our study contributes to the understanding of the discontinuance of information systems. Theoretical implications for future social commerce research as well as practical suggestions for BFP operators are also discussed.