Abstract:

Microblogshavebeen widelyadoptedbyenterprises for businesspurposes. As the key mechanism for information diffusionon microblogs, retweetingis especially important in microblog researches.However,existing studiesof retweeting aremostly based onqualitative or quantitative analysesof popular microblogs. Few of them have proposeda framework to predictusers’ retweetingbehavior. In our work, we filledthis gapby developing amodel of factors influencing the formationof indivudual’s retweeting intention. We suggest that retweeting is similar to information adoption.The intention to retweetis predicted by perceived usefulness of the microblog content and subjective norms. Perceived usefulness is hypothesized to be influencedby informativeness, hedonism, timeliness and relevanceof the informationcontent.Theresearch modelwas testedbased on a survey.Theresultsuggestedthat both perceived usefulness and subjective norms are positively associated with the intention to retweet. Informativeness and relevance are proved to positively influence perceived usefulness. Neither timeliness nor hedonismhasasignificant effect on perceived usefulness.