The use of information and communication technologies pervades our lives. A specific type of social media that is playing a crucial role in this upsurge of participation in cyber-collective social movements (CSMs) is the social networking sites (SNS). We employ an extended model from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as our theoretical framework to understand student perceptions of SNS use expectations (performance expectancy and effort expectancy), social acceptance (social influence), and their perceptions about resource availability (facilitating conditions) for expressive social participation. This extended model introduces social variables (SNS mobilization effort and offline civic participation) that researchers have identified as important in explaining behaviors. In doing so, it advances a model of how activities in the online domain can ‘spill’ over to the offline domain. We have provided empirical support for the applicability of UTAUT to the expressive participation in CSMs via a survey of 214 SNS users. Our results confirm that expectancy and social influence significantly affect student intentions to use SNS for expressive participation in CSMs. Likewise, SNS mobilization effort emerged as a strong significant predictor of both intention and the use of SNS for expressive participation, but not for offline civic participation. Last, the use of SNS for expressive participation was a significant predictor for offline civic participation, which suggests that users who publicly express their socio-political opinions in SNS are more likely than others to participate in demonstrations.

1. 1st European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN)
July 1-July4, 2014 ● Barcelona, Spain
1
Really do university students believe that Facebook is
a useful tool to mobilizing people both online and
offline around social causes?
Shumaila Yousafzai, yousafzais@cardiff.ac.uk
(Cardiff University, UK)
Juan D. Borrero, jdiego@uhu.es
(University of Huelva, Spain)

2. 2
Why this paper?
UTAUT
Venkatesh et al. (2003) integrated predictability
capabilities from different existing models of
technology acceptance into the Unified Theory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
model.
Behavioral
Intention
Use
Behavior
Age
Effort
Expectancy
Social
Influence
Gender
Performance
Expectancy
Facilitating
Conditions
Experience Voluntariness
of Use

3. 3
Why this paper?
Proposed research framework
Extended model of the Unified Theory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).
Behavioral
Intention
Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
Social
Influence
Facilitating
Conditions
Online
Political
Participation
Mobilization
Effort

4. 4
Why this paper?
Facebook  is a popular and relatively autonomous
medium of social interactions
Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/7372/9-Reasons-Why-
Your-Social-Media-Strategy-Isn-t-Working.aspx/
 Becomes important resources for the
mobilization of collective action
 And the subsequent creation and
organization of social movements around
the world both inside and outside the virtual
world

5. 5
Why this paper?
Proposed research framework
• No are many studies with the UTAUT model
that considered Facebook as technology
• Little has been written about the beliefs that
influence how and why university students use
Facebook for both civic engagement and
offline political participation
• E.g., Wojcieszak, 2009
• This papers aims to fill the gap

6. Really do university students believe that Facebook is a useful tool to mobilizing people both online and offline around social causes?
Outline
6
Context and Topic of Study
Facebook
University students
Mobilization
Objective
Research Model and
Hypotheses
Method
Participants
Measures
Data Analysis
Results
Measurement Validation
Structural Model
Discussion
Theoretical Implications
Limitations and Future Research

7. 7
Context and Topic of Study
Facebook
A free and popular social networking sites

8. 8
Context and Topic of Study
Young adults
They are heavy users of SNS: hyper-SNS users
(Ellison et al., 2007)

9. 9
Context and Topic of Study
Mobilization
The growing popularity
of social media
platforms is
transforming the ways in
which people
communicate and
demonstrate (Castells,
2012)

10. 10
Objective
To know if Facebook could promote civic
engagement and offline political
participation amongst young adults -
university students

11. 11
Research Model and Hypotheses
Behavioral
Intention
H1 (+)
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
the user's motivation to
adopt a behavior
H1: Intention to use Facebook for civic engagement will
significantly predict its use.

12. 12
Research Model and Hypotheses
Performance
Expectancy
H2 (+)
Behavioral
Intention
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
the extent to which
university students
believe that Facebook
provides benefits in civic
participation
H2: The performance expectancy of Facebook will positively
influence the intention to use Facebook for civic engagement.

13. 13
Research Model and Hypotheses
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
H2 H3 (+)
Behavioral
Intention
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
the extent to which
university students
believe that Facebook
use is easy and
effortless
H3: The effort expectancy of Facebook will positively influence the
intention to use Facebook for civic engagement.

14. 14
Research Model and Hypotheses
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
H2 H3
Behavioral
Intention
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Social
Influence
H4 (+)
the extent to
which university
students give
importance to the
opinion of others
about their
Facebook use for
civic engagement
H4: The social influence surrounding the use of Facebook will
positively influence the intention to use Facebook for civic
engagement.

15. the extent to
which university
students
believe that
there is
available
support for
Facebook use
15
Research Model and Hypotheses
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
H2 H3
Behavioral
Intention
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Social
Influence
Facilitating
Conditions
H5 (+)
H4
H5: The facilitating conditions in using Facebook will positively
influence the intention to use Facebook for civic engagement.

16. 16
Research Model and Hypotheses
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
H2
Behavioral
Intention
H3
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Social
Influence
Facilitating
Conditions
H6 (+)
Offline Political
Participation
H5
H4
the extent to civic
engagement on
Facebook is a
precursor of other
forms of
participation in the
offline domain
H6: The use of Facebook for civic engagement will be positively
related to offline political participation.

17. 17
Research Model and Hypotheses
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
H2
Behavioral
Intention
H3
H1
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Social
Influence
Facilitating
Conditions
H6
Offline Political
Participation
H5
H4
Facebook
Mobilization
Effort
H7a (+)
H7b (+)
H7c (+)
the extent to which
university students
believe that their
effort to mobilize
their friends around
Facebook can
"spill" over the
offline domain
H7: Facebook mobilization effort will be positively related to (a)
behavioral intention to use Facebook, (b) the use of Facebook for
civic engagement and (c) offline political participation.

18. 18
Method
Participants
209 valid responses to an on-line survey
conducted in 2013 by
spanish undergraduated students
Facebook users of
• Huelva, Spain
• Gender
• Men = 82 (n = 39.23%)
• Women = 127 (n = 60.77%)

19. Method
Measures
• Adapted from UTAUT model (Venkatesh et al., 2003)
19
• Performance expectancy
• Effort expectancy
• Social influence
• Facilitation conditions
• Intention to use
• Use Behavior
• Degree of frequency of use (Rojas and Puig-i-Abril, 2009)
• Social variables adapted from Rojas and Puig-i-Abril
(2009)
• Facebook mobilization
• Degree of frequency that students mobilized their social network
contacts for social or political causes
• Offline political participation
• Individuals’ participatory behaviors in the offline realm

20. 20
Method
Data analysis
• Structural equation modelling
(SEM)
• Software
• SPSS 19.0
• M-Plus 5.21

21. Results
Measurement Validation
• The model is assessed in terms of validity and reliability
• The measurement model is completely satisfactory for
21
our model
• Convergent validity
• Item reliability
• Construct reliability
• Discriminant validity

22. 22
Results
Structural Model
Behavioral
Intention
H3(+):
0.27*
H1(+): 0.28**
The Use of Facebook
for Civic
Engagement
Social
Influence
Effort
Expectancy
Performance
Expectancy
Facilitating
Conditions
H2(+):
0.36**
Offline Political
Participation
H5 (-):
0.25
H6(+): 0.25*
Facebook
Mobilization
Effort
H7a(+):
0.13*
H7b(+):
0.44**
H7c(+):
0.01
H4(+):
0.51**
Total sample (n = 209)
** p<0.01 (Significant at 0.01 level)
* p<0.05 (Significant at 0.05 level)

23. 23
Results
Structural Model
Total sample (n = 209)
Effects on (Hypothesized path) Direct effect
Performance Expectancy → Behavioral intention (H2) 0.36**
Effort Expectancy → Behavioral intention (H3) 0.27*
Social Influence → Behavioral Intention (H4) 0.51**
Facilitating Conditions → Behavioral Intention (H5) -0.25
Behavioral Intention → Use of Facebook for Civic Engagement (H1) 0.28**
Facebook Civic Engagement → Offline –Political– participation (H6) 0.25*
Facebook Mobilization Effort → Behavioral Intention (H7a) 0.13*
Facebook Mobilization Effort → Use of Facebook Civic Engagement (H7b) 0.44**
Facebook Mobilization Effort → Offline Political Participation (H7c) 0.01
** p<0.01; * p<0.05

24. Discussion
Theoretical Implications
• This study replicates an extension of the UTAUT model
• We have provide empirical support for the applicability of
24
UTAUT to civic engagement
• Develops a understanding of the role of Facebook on
civic engagement
• We illustrate the need to start looking more deeply into SNS
usage to civic engagement
• The results from the direct model show
• Social Influence is the most important predictor of Intention
of Use
• Performance Expectancy is the second strongest
determinant of Intention of Use
• Facebook Mobilization Effort emerged as a strong significant
predictor of Use but not for offline political participation

25. 25
Discussion
Limitations and future research
• We have not include the moderating variables
described in the UTAUT model.
• We propose future research considering the gender as
moderating variable and to do a multi-group analyses
• Our study is limited to a single point in time
• Longitudinal study
• Our study is limited to a specific SNS: Facebook
• Future research should consider others mediated
communication practices
• We can not generalize results to other groups
• psychograhic and demographic, and to
• other groups where incultural and lifestyle habits may
differ (cultures, counties and demographics)