Online social networking a study of facebook users in vietnam

As a result, this study would like to mention following factors: social trust, social efficacy and social capital that leads to Facebook use and its influence on university students’ aca

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Thi Thu Hang

ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING: A STUDY

OF FACEBOOK USERS IN VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – 2015

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Thi Thu Hang

ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING: A STUDY

OF FACEBOOK USERS IN VIETNAM

This thesis could not be accomplished without the help, advise, support, guidance, and encouragement of many people

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor – Associate Professor, Doctor Nguyen Thi Mai Trang She gave me clear and careful direction, guidance and correction to my research Especially, I highly appreciate her enthusiasm help and support

Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Associate Professor, Doctor Nguyen Dinh Tho, Associate Professor, Doctor Tran Ha Minh Quan and Doctor Nguyen Thi Nguyet Que for their valuable time as the members of the proposal examination committee Their comments and meaningful suggestions were significantly contributed to my completion of this research

Next, I would like to thank my dear family, colleagues, friends, and classmates for their valuable advice and support during the time I was doing my research

Last but not least, I would like to express my great thanks to ISB for their support during the time I was studying and doing my proposal It is a big encouragement for me to overcome all obstacles facing during my Master course

With sincere thanks

Social networking sites including Facebook have become a freely instrumental for people to enter and keep in touch with what they are concerned Until now, Facebook has quickly grow and become one of the most popular online social networking site for adolescence, especially university students Online social networking use in Vietnam is growing rapidly and occupying approximately 45.2% of population in 2015 according to Kemp (2015) In other countries, there are some evidences show that social networking use can affect university students’ academic performance Then, the lower academic performance the students get, the lower their satisfaction In Vietnam, there are also some articles mentioned these relationships As

a result, this study would like to mention following factors: social trust, social efficacy and social capital that leads to Facebook use and its influence on university students’ academic performance, life satisfaction The data is collected by online, email survey and delivered questionnaires directly to respondents from over seven universities in Ho Chi Minh City Some research analysis were used to test the relationship among factors with expectation of strengthen evidence in Ho Chi Minh City and also in Vietnam The study’s results show that social trust and social self-efficacy have positive influence on social capital Social capital also has positive influence on stickiness Then, stickiness has negative impact on academic performance Finally, it makes the level of life satisfaction becomes lower This study also points out practical implications which support educators in educating and helping their students in life Then, this study points out some implication for managers and marketers for purpose of using Facebook as a channel of communication In addition, this study also points out some new future researches relating to this study which should be seriously concerned

self-Key words: Facebook, online social networking site, students, academic performance, life satisfaction

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF APPENDIXES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Research problem 4

1.3 Research objectives 5

1.4 Scope of the study 6

1.5 Significance of the study 6

1.6 Structure of the thesis 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Academic performance 8

2.2 Social trust 8

2.3 Social self-efficacy 9

2.4 Social capital 10

2.5 The relationship among variables 11

2.5.1 Academic performance and life satisfaction 11

2.5.2 Stickiness and academic performance 12

2.5.3 Social capital and stickiness 14

2.5.4 Social trust and social capital 15

2.5.5 Social self-efficacy and social capital 16

2.5.6 Conscientiousness and its moderator effect 17

2.6 Conceptual model 18

2.7 Chapter summary 19

3.1 Sampling size 21

3.2 Data collection and procedure 21

3.3 Research design 23

3.3.1 Measurement of constructs 23

3.3.2 Questionnaire design 26

3.3.3 In-depth interview 27

3.4 Data analysis 28

3.4.1 Reliability measure 29

3.4.2 Convergent and discriminant validity 29

3.4.3 Confirmatory factor analysis 30

3.4.4 Structural equation model 30

3.5 The analysis to test the moderating effect 31

3.6 Chapter summary 31

CHAPTER 4: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 Data statistical analysis 32

4.2 Cronbach’s alpha reliability test 34

4.3 Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) 35

4.3.1 Social capital 35

4.3.2 The saturated model 36

4.4 The structural model 39

4.5 The analysis to test the moderating effect of conscientiousness 42

4.6 Discussion 43

4.7 Chapter summary 47

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 48

5.1 Key findings 48

5.2 Managerial implications 49

5.2.1 Social capital 49

5.2.2 Stickiness 50

5.3 Limitations of the study and future research 51

REFERENCES 53 APPENDIXES 61

AMOSS Analysis of Moment Structures

AP Academic Performance AVE Average Variance Extracted

CMIN/DF Chi-square with degree of freedom CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFI Comparative Fit Index

EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis GFI Goodness of Fix Index GPA Grade Point Average

LS Life satisfaction RMSEA Root Mean Squared Error Approximation

SC Social Capital

SE Social Self-efficacy SEM Structural Equation Model

ST Social Trust Stick Stickiness SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences TLI Tucker & Lewis Coefficient Index

VNU Vietnam National University

Table 3.1 Social trust construct 24

Table 3.2 Social self-efficacy construct 24

Table 3.3 Bonding social capital construct 25

Table 3.4 Bridging social capital construct 25

Table 3.5 Stickiness construct 25

Table 3.6 Conscientiousness construct 26

Table 3.7 Life satisfaction construct 26

Table 4.1 Demographic information of respondents 33

Table 4.2 Cronbach’s Alpha results 34

Table 4.3 Measurement correlations, composite reliability and AVE 39

Table 4.4 Result of hypothesis testing 42

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 The Research Model 19

Figure 3.1 Research Process 23

Figure 4.1 CFA for Social capital 36

Figure 4.2 The saturated model before deleting LS3 37

Figure 4.3 The saturated model without LS3 (Standardized estimate) 38

Figure 4.4 The structural model result (Standardized estimate) 40

Appendix 1: List of in-depth interview’s participants 61

Appendix 2: In-depth interview’s refinement measurement scale 61

Appendix 3: Vietnamese questionnaire 64

Appendix 4: English questionnaire 67

Appendix 5: Table of items’ Skewness and Kurtosis 70

Appendix 6: CFA Regression Weights 71

Appendix 7: SEM Regression Weights 72

Appendix 8: Table for Conscientiousness Median Statistics 74

Appendix 9: Results of multi-groups analysis for moderator 75

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Facebook has become a global phenomenon and it is one of the greatest importance means of communication and an essential part of almost every university students’ daily life (Zaremohzzabieh, Samah, Omar, Bolong & Kamarudin, 2014) For most adolescents including university students, internet communications seem to be a regular as well as an importance work in life (Liu, Yin & Huang, 2013) Nowadays, it has become a good way

to keep in touch with one’s family and friends especially when they are living far from their family Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, who was a Harvard University undergraduate Today, more than 68.5% of young adults and teenagers use Facebook on a regular basis (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011) People use instant messaging and live chat to keep in touch with relatives and friends According Mattiola (2014) examination of the negative and positive qualities of Facebook, Facebook is an excellent environment to stay connected Mattiola also shows that people use status updates, photos, and profile information to keep their friends and their family informed As a result, Facebook can keep you up to date on the happenings of all of our close ones

In addition, Facebook has a large number of users including university students and they are spending a large amount of their time on Facebook According to Etim and Huynh (2015), there is about 900 million monthly visitor occupying 22% of the Facebook quarter two of 2014 (Kemp, 2015) A large number of students are benefiting from using Facebook by exchanging information for educational goals, making friends, and other activities on Facebook site The previous studies indicate that Facebook site can become addictive to some users who are students Consequently, Facebook addiction becomes an education matter (Zaremohzzabieh et al., 2014) Recently, Facebook has reached the top

15 most popular social networking sites globally in 2015 This number presents an evidence that Facebook now has a rival impact on people around the world especially young user group In the United State of America, a recent survey of 3000 students from across the country shows that approximately 90% of college students are Facebook users and 37% of them are Twitter users (Dahlstrom, Boor, Grunwald & Vockley, 2011)

Facebook users spend most of their time for the communicating environment, engaging in interactive activities while some heavy users are seemed to be addicted (Zaremohzzabieh

et al., 2014)

In Vietnam, Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Skype, Zing me or other social media tools have emerged as the choice of technologies In addition, Vietnamese internet users is now approximately 41 million users occupying 45.2% of the population (Kemp, 2015) As

a result, there is a greater need to recognize the importance role of social networking sites

as a means to supporting communication and collaborative working Indeed, the services are providing the most comfortable for the users Among the services, Facebook represents a good communication channel that cannot be easily ignored It is said that Vietnamese students are now using a large amount of their time on Facebook According

to a recent report in November, 2014 of QandMe – a Vietnam market research agency, approximately 47% Vietnamese Facebook users are over 18 year old who spend about 3 hours/day for Facebook (QandMe, 2014) In addition, the estimated numbered of Facebook users in Vietnam who are students is about 660.000 at the end of the second quarter in 2014 This information raises a question of whether using too much Facebook will have an impact on students Facebook users or not

Vietnamese prefer to online social networking sites, especially Facebook As mentioned in Huong (2010), “Some Vietnamese users would prefer living in a Vietnamese online society It's somewhat like you're entering your home, not a foreign one" There are studies which mentioned the influence of bonding capital and bridging capital on individuals’ social networking development According to Henttonen, Johanson and Janhonen (2014), online social networking sites such as Facebook can both enhance people’s bonding and bridging capital development and also their team performance While the adolescent in Vietnam are using Facebook as a communication tool to connect with friends, family and making new friends from outside the country (Dao Le Hoa An, 2013) Using like or comment function on Facebook will help people feel connected most

of the time (No name, 2013) The mentioned above raises issues that the bonding and

bridging social capital have important impact on the motivation of using social networking sites, especially Facebook in Vietnam

However, in some other countries, beside the positive impact of using social networking sites, there are many studies on the influence of using social media or Facebook on the academic performance (Glass, Li & Pan, 2014) According to Kabre and Brown (2011), there is no clear correlation between times spending on using Facebook with the academic performance Recent reviews show an over-participation or students addiction to online social networking may have a negative impact on their academic performance (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010) Furthermore, another research of Vivian, Barnes, Geer, and Wood (2014) indicates that some students are leaving traces of their academic journey in online environments as Facebook In addition, according to Junco and Reynol (2012), the time spending on Facebook and checking Facebook is negatively related to the overall Grade Point Average (GPA) In addition, this negative impact is also mentioned in a study of Abdulahi, Samadi and Gharleghi (2014), it proves that the time spending on networking sites such as Facebook is showed to have negative impacts on academic performance

There are many factors influencing on the motivation of using Facebook or online social networking sites According to Glass et al (2014), personality traits such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness have the strong influence on the motivation of using social networking sites While Wu, Wang, Liu, Hu and Hwang (2012) conduct a model that some social traits named social self-efficacy, social trust and social capital are the key elements influencing on participation in on-line social network In addition, there are some studies on the intention to continue using Facebook fan pages bases on the view of social capital theory, thus, social capital is one of the main elements have an effect on the motivation of using Facebook fan page (Lin &

Lu, as cited in Yang & Lin, 2014) Then, Yang and Lin (2014) replace the concept

“motivation of using social networking site and Facebook” by the concept “stickiness” Finally, the two concepts have the same meaning

Due to the negative impact of using too much online social networking sites on academic performance, it influences on students’ life satisfaction According to Lewis, Huebner, Malone and Valois (2011), middle school children who are more satisfied with their life will have a strong belief in school activities for their future and their Grade Point Average In addition, Diseth and Samdal (2014) suggest in their study that learning and academic achievement are likely contributed to students’ life satisfaction Significantly, this study also conducts that academic performance and life satisfaction should be taken into consideration in an educational situation As a result, there is a relationship between academic performance and the students’ life satisfaction This study will finally investigate the level impact of academic performance on students’ life satisfaction

by day and students tends to stick to the online places They use Facebook to update friends and family statuses They also use Facebook as a communication tool to talk with their advisors and teachers which leads to differences influence on academic performances (Dao Le Hoa An, 2013) However, in Dao Le Hoa An’s study, many arguments are appeared to be the evidence for the conclusion that Facebook addiction strongly influence

on the children’s daily life activities, also in academic performance Moreover, a report of Central of Mental advisory for Children and the Young - an affiliate of National Mental Hospital 2 in Vietnam (Dao Le Hoa An, 2013) points out that among investigated groups

in local universities, young Vietnamese are online game-addicted or overused In addition, this study also concludes that the young Vietnamese including students are now become Facebook addicted and usually have negative behaviors through using Facebook leading

to negative academic performance The negative impact of using Facebook and playing game online on study’s outcome is also confirmed in Nguyen Hoang Khac Hieu (2015), the young adolescent are becoming Facebook addicted and they are spending time on Facebook and games online instead of focusing on studying Furthermore, they have less directly communicate with their families and relatives Significantly, there is a seminar on Facebook addicted: A new challenge in modern society debated the negative impact of internet and Facebook addicted among students (Department of Science Management of

Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2013) Its topic focuses

on the negative impact of stickiness on academic performance and lower life satisfaction Finally, the academic performance result becomes worse if the child is internet addicted and the children are confirmed to be stress with life which should be investigated carefully (Le Minh Cong, 2013)

Furthermore, according to Pham Van Tuan (2011), students’ conscientiousness and self-management are among the factors can adjust the students’ awareness of studying and their academic results Particularly, students who have a high level of conscientiousness and self-management will have a stronger spirit to adjust their behaviors including adjusting the time spending on studying and increasing their motivation to have a better result In addition, the extant studies in Vietnam have been investigating the influential factors of Facebook use, however, the number of research on the impact of using Facebook on the academic result and its influencing on university students’ life satisfaction remains limited (Le Minh Cong, 2013; Dao Le Hoa An, 2013; DeBrot, 2013) Therefore, this study aims to investigate level impact of social trust, social self-efficacy, social capital, stickiness and academic performance on students’ life satisfaction This study also investigates the moderating effect of conscientiousness on the relationship of stickiness and students’ academic performance In conclusion, this study is important

because life satisfaction is suggested to be a good outcome of many other aspects in life (Lewis et al., 2011)

1.3 Research objectives

The overall objective of this study is to examine the impact of some factors on university students’ life satisfaction Specifically, this study aims to investigate:

1 The relationship between social trust and social capital

2 The relationship between social self-efficacy and social capital

3 The relationship between social capital and stickiness

4 The impact degree of conscientiousness on the relationship of stickiness and academic performance

5 The impact degree of stickiness on academic performance

6 The impact degree of academic performance on life satisfaction

1.4 Scope of the study

The research is implemented in Ho Chi Minh City with university students due to the fact that they represent significant portion of young population in Vietnam In addition, students tend to use social networking sites for their communication use and try

to manage their interpersonal relationship according to Minimol and Angelia (2015) Consequently, they will be a good representative of the young Facebook users in Vietnam Respondents are from some universities such as University of Finance and Marketing, Foreign Trade University, University of Economic Ho Chi Minh City, University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, University of Law, University of Social Science and Humanities Ho Chi Minh City The time frame of research is taken from the first week of August to the end of the third week of September

1.5 Significance of the study

For educators and teachers, this study’s results provide them an in-depth view on the perceptions of students’ motivation of using Facebook In addition, students’ life satisfaction is considered one important element relation to students’ engagement in

studying These understanding will help to set out practical policies, useful strategies in the light of the development of teaching tools

For managers and marketers, this study’s results provide them an in-depth view on the perceptions of students’ motivation of using Facebook Then, they can build their marketing strategy on Facebook for their business plan

For students, the study’s results help them to realize their motivation to use Facebook Then, they could practice some use of Facebook for their learning progress Thus, they are not only be able to keep in touch with friends and families on Facebook for their own purposes They can also use Facebook and other social network sites for their effective personal development

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

Chapter 1 “Introduction” presents the statement of the problems, research questions and objectives, scope of the research and thesis structure

Chapter 2 “Literature Review, Hypotheses and Conceptual model” introduces its literature reviews, including the definitions of each concept and their relationship in previous studies Then, hypotheses and conceptual model are proposed

Chapter 3 “Research Methodology” illustrates the way of setting up the measures and conducting the study It presents the research design, questionnaire’s development, and main survey This chapter also defines how to collect data and the statistics methods

to analyze the data collected in order to test the research hypotheses

Chapter 4 “Result and Discussion” analyze data as well as discusses the result finding in connection with the research model

Chapter 5 “Conclusion and Implication” summarizes the research results, provides the findings recommendations

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses the literature of academic performance, social trust, social self-efficacy and their influence on social capital which leads to the use of Facebook named stickiness Then, the literature also discusses the relationship between stickiness and students’ academic performance based on the extant studies This is followed by the review of the main research that has addressed the relationship of stickiness and academic performance and also its influential impact on life satisfaction Finally, based on the review of available literature, the proposed model is tested in the study By testing the proposed model, the hypotheses in this study are analyzed

2.1 Academic performance

Academic performance is evaluated by the self-reported of students for each subject had completed during their years of studying Thus, the academic performance is measured by final course grade and cumulative Grade point average (GPA) (Hohmann & Grillo, 2014; Minimol & Angelia, 2015) The GPA is the key indicator to evaluate student’s academic performance In this study, GPA is academic performance of student during the previous academic year and it is used to measure the academic performance variable

2.2 Social trust

Social trust reflects a bond that people share across society, across economic and ethnic groups, religions and races It provides the foundation for a cooperative spirit that brings people together for common and mutually advantageous purposes In a broader point of view, social trust definition and the social trust benefits that have been given to the empirical exploration of the formation of individual social trust from a development perspective (Huang, Maassen & Groot, 2011) According to measurement of social trust

of Huang et al (2011), social trust is generally based on a standard survey question:

“Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?” This operationalization of social trust has been widely used for more than four decades in empirical studies and surveys around the world (Huang, Maassen & Groot, 2012) It means that social trust has been widely used for a long time ago in many field It places a foundation of trust for people to believe in

someone and what they are dealing with or what they are going to face with In social networking environment, social trust is an important issue, and it allows interpersonal interaction due to the fact that the power of communicating and the interpersonal relationship could be gained from trust (Wu et al., 2012) In conclusion, in this study, social trust is be belief of Facebook users when they contact with people through available functions on Facebook site

is known as self-efficacy While Froman and Robin (1997), self-efficacy perceptions reflect one’s confidence in their ability to perform specified behaviors, outcome expectations reflect beliefs that behaviors will lead to desired and expected consequences According to these theory, self-efficacy indicates an individual’s the level of self-confidence which can enable them to deal with stressors As such, self-efficacy can be treated as a resource for coping with stress (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) It means social self-efficacy contribute to the motivation of ones to overcome new challenges that happen in life The social self-efficacy literature is ubiquitous in research today It has been modified and applied in a wide range of domains, such as teacher efficacy (Topkaya, Tschannen-Moran, Hoy & Hoy, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) or student self-efficacy in different learning subjects (Liu, Lin & Chang, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) The interpretation of social self-efficacy adopted in this study is based on the self-efficacy scale revised by Wu et al (2012)

In conclusion, social self-efficacy are often used separately or interchangeably to describe the ability to engage in satisfying social interactions aimed at initiating, facilitating, and maintaining successful relationships (Williams & Galliher, 2006) In particular, social self-efficacy is the belief of an individual in their ability to initiate social

contact and develop new friendships It is commonly applied in domains such as adult social interaction, counseling for college students, health psychology, and social interaction among students studying abroad (Fan et al., Hagedoorn, Molleman, Lin, Betz

& Wei et al., as cited in Wu et al., 2012) In addition, when defining the social efficacy, it is believed to be the confidence of individuals to interact with others and make new friends (Gecas, 1989; Wu et al., 2012) in an online environment such as Facebook And social self-efficacy also influences their attitude towards the community It was the means by which they behave in such an environment including Facebook As a result, in this study, social self-efficacy is treated as the confidence of individual to interact and make friends and use the online social networking site such as Facebook as a means of communication

self-2.4 Social capital

Social capital is a broad concept From its sense, social capital was defined as social resources embedded in the social relationship network, as well as advantageous factors that can help to improve the carrying out of one’s social practices smoothly (Hong

& Jian, 2014) It was first introduced in a study of community, in which it was believed that social capital could enhance interpersonal networks, by providing a foundation for trust, collaboration, and group activities (Jacobs, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) In addition, Putnam (2000) believes that social capital focuses on the interactions of intra-community members, mutual assistance, mutual trust, and behavior norms, improving the overall development and performance of a community In general, Putnam (2000) also proposes that there are two types of social capital: bridging and bonding “Bridging social capital”

is accommodative It occurs in social networks linking individuals of different backgrounds, providing opportunities for the exchange of new information or resources

In contrast, “bonding social capital” can be monopolized It occurs among personal acquaintances such as family members or close friends who provide mutual support for one another, both emotionally and physically The two dimensions are also defined in Hofer and Aubert (2013), bridging social capital is inclusive and happens by the integration of weak correlations between people from different networks These

correlation relationships and the network may be useful for a large number of reasons, such as for finding a job or references

However, bonding social capital is more different and strengthen selective identities and homogeneous group (Putnam, 2000) This bonding type of social capital is found in strong social networks of individuals who have the same thought, such as among close friends and family The diversity of these social bonds and social capital is the result

of strong interpersonal connections, even when they do not have a strong common background In an online-community, individuals share interests or related objectives with others (Ellison, Heino, Gibbs & Horrigan, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) As a result, social capital means the interpersonal interaction among individuals which focuses on things that happen around them on social networking site These new connections may increase social capital In this study, social capital is treated as the overall outcome of one’s interactions with others on Facebook, manifesting itself in the ability of individuals to exploit the function and resources available on Facebook in order to broaden relationships Social capital is influenced by many factors (Decker, Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, as cited

in Wu et al., 2012), among which, the effect of social trust on social capital has been addressed in related studies

2.5 The relationship among variables

2.5.1 Academic performance and life satisfaction

Life satisfaction is defined to be people's subjective evaluation of how far their most important needs, goals, and wishes have been fulfilled (Cheung & Chan, 2009) While Diener (as cited in Cheung & Chan, 2009) defines life satisfaction as the global evaluation by people of their own life As mentioned in the introduction, learning and academic achievement are likely to contribute to life satisfaction (Diseth & Samdal, 2014) In detail, academic achievement place an element to form and to increase life satisfaction Significantly, this study also conducts that academic performance and life satisfaction should be taken into consideration in an educational situation In addition, the relationship between academic performance and life satisfaction is conducted positively It means academic performance positively influenced on life satisfaction Cheung and Chan (2009) conducts that the higher education result and involvement is, the higher level of

life satisfaction will be This study also mentions that high level of life satisfaction people can live longer, feel better, or even they can earn more money than people who have lower levels of life satisfaction As a result, some studies have been investigating the relationship between life satisfaction and educational achievement Ou (as cited in Cheung

& Chan, 2009) finds that students with the ages between 22 to 24 who have higher reported results for the subjects they studied during the academic year will report higher levels of life satisfaction The impact of academic performance on life satisfaction also confirms in Kasser (as cited in Diseth & Samdal, 2014), achievement goals and academic achievement are likely to support students’ life satisfaction In conclusion, it is believed that academic performance has a positive impact on life satisfaction This study will investigate the positive impact degree of academic performance on life satisfaction The proposed hypothesis is following:

H6: Academic performance has a positive influence on life satisfaction

2.5.2 Stickiness and academic performance

Stickiness is proposed as “the ability of websites to draw and retain customers” according to a study of Zott, Amit and Donlevy (as cited in Yang & Lin, 2014) Thus, stickiness means the power of social networking sites or products to attract one individual

to retain or beginning to use this product or to stay in this social networking site When focusing on online social networking environment, Thorbjornsen and Supphellen (2004) also indicate that there are two kinds of browsing behavior in a website They are the frequency of visits and duration of each visit In addition, Lin also defines stickiness as the user’s willingness to return and to prolong their duration of stay in a website Besides, stickiness has been applied in many fields, for example, e-commerce shopping (Zott et al.,

as cited in Yang & Lin, 2014), blog stickiness (Johnson, Bellman, Lohsee, Lu & Lee, as cited in Yang & Lin, 2014) Based on previous literature definitions, stickiness is defined

as willingness to return and prolong the duration of stay on the Facebook web site (Yang

& Lin, 2014) Based on the above-mentioned literature, stickiness is the willingness of university students to return and to prolong to stay on Facebook as a communication and entertainment tool

Using social networking sites has various impact on the young, especially their academic performance (Minimol & Angelia, 2015) As cited in Minimol and Angelia (2015), a study of Guadalupe and Jaana points out that young adolescents spend much time on social networking site viewing and replying to their friends’ comments on their social network pages Thus, the time they spend for studying will be less In addition, it is reported that the use of social network time created anxiety and stress among students It will finally affect the educational process (Bita, Seyed, Morteza, Mohammad & Ali, 2013) With anxiety and stress, university students’ academic performance is seemed to be suffered from the stickiness This relationship is also mentioned on many studies Among them, the negative impact of stickiness on academic performance is conducted According

to a study of Glass et al (2014) Chinese students who spend more time on social networking sites will suffer the influence of lower academic performance In general, when students spend time on the social networking sites they will have less time spending for studying, doing their homework and private essay As a result, the negative impact on academic performance might come Checking Facebook is conducted to be negatively predictive of overall grade point average despite the relationship is not strong In addition, the frequency of chatting on Facebook messenger and frequency of posting status updates

of students are negatively predictive to final grade point average (Junco & Reynol, 2012)

While in Vietnam, there are some studies about the impact of using social networking sites on academic performance, a study of Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai and Nham Phong Tuan (2013) contribute to the positive usefulness of using social networking sites that using functions available on social networking site to support students’ studying in Vietnam University of Commerce Moreover, in a study of Le Minh Cong (2013), there are arguments about the influencing of using social networking site and games online on high school students’ academic performance Then, this negative influence of Facebook

on academic performance is also mentioned in Nguyen Hoang Khac Hieu (2015) and Debort (2013), Facebook now seriously distracts students from their studying As a result, this issue has been taking into consideration in Vietnam In addition, Nham and Nguyen (2013) conduct in a study about the impact of online social networking on students’ study

at Vietnam National University (VNU) - University of Economics and Business that Facebook engagement has a strong impact on students’ learning outcomes It is also mentioned in this study that VNU students are easily distracted from their learning because of some interesting stories, comments and other activities on Facebook Thus, it will create negative impact on the academic result Therefore, this study will focus on investigating the negative impact of stickiness on academic performance It is proposed the hypothesis that:

H5: Stickiness has a negative impact on academic performance

2.5.3 Social capital and stickiness

Social capital is a social resource which embeds in the social network relationship (Hong & Jian, 2014) It means that social capital has a strong relationship to the matter of using social networking site such as Facebook in Vietnam In addition, according to Glass

et al (2014), social capital is considered the outcome of people’s interactions with other people on Facebook Social capital’s ability is to exploit the resources available on Facebook which helps people to develop relationships Another study on guiding social capital research, it is seemed to be a good will that people have toward the others and it is

a valuable resource (Adler & Kwon, 2002) In addition, social capital is conducted to place an important role on the potential of the group and the patterns of relationships between individuals within a group and between groups with a focus on social networks (Dwiningrum, 2013) It means that social capital is one of the main factors influence on the social network to build relationship Bridging social relationship will to lead to the using and sharing on Facebook For example, the students in electronic group dynamics expanded from e-mail or Facebook exchanges to a multilayered complex exchange between a large of members from both groups who interact with each other regardless of their initial pairings (Rautenbach & Black-Hughes, 2012) As a result, Facebook or email facilitates a good foundation for students’ collaboration Thus, the proposed hypothesis of bridging social capital and stickiness is following:

H3B: Bridging social capital has a positive influence on stickiness

It is also reported that the youth who uses Facebook and Myspace have higher social capital in both their school and online relationships (Ahn, 2012) and they use online networking site to accumulate their social capital through learning, training, engaging in advanced studies and also different online social means of communication including Facebook (Hong & Jian, 2014) In addition, the analysis suggests that distinct modes of online social networking sites experiences are differentially related to bridging and bonding social capital In general, time spending on social networking sites is related to bridging capital, while positive or negative experiences are related to bonding capital The study also offers new insights into how the youth experience social networking sites and the relationship of that experienced with their connection to the world Furthermore, bonding social capital and bridging social capital can influence on people who use social networking site such as Facebook In conclusion, the bonding online social capital and bridging social capital influence followers on online networking site (Hofer & Aubert, 2013) In addition, Hofer and Aubert (2013) also mention that the online networking site

is Twitter However, in this study, the online social networking site is replaced by Facebook While Facebook is having the strongest influential impact on people’s using online networking sites in Vietnam (Dao Le Hoa An, 2013; QandMe, 2015) Both perceived bridging and perceived bonding social capital were positively associated Facebook using In conclusion, bonding and bridging social capital are positive influence

on the intention to use Facebook (Peterson & Johnston, 2015) Finally, from the previous studies, the proposed hypothesis of bonding social capital and stickiness is following:

H3A: Bonding social capital has a positive influence on stickiness

2.5.4 Social trust and social capital

At the individual level, people whose prevail form of social capital is the bonding one, or whose social networks are very sparse altogether (Growiec & Growiec, 2014) Kaasa (as cited in Lee, Cho & Hwang, 2013) defines that trust has been as ‘‘confidence in the reliability of others’’ For a long time, prior research has considered trust as a stimulus

to innovation that enhance the generation of ideas through interaction among individuals (Dakhli & De Clercq, as cited in Lee et al., 2013) That is, the higher level of trust

between parties or individuals, the better the outcomes of knowledge and information gain, which leads to innovation activity Information exchange is enhanced with strong trust in networks (Widen-Wulff & Ginman, as cited in Lee et al., 2013) Moreover, the positive trust on interpersonal relationships provide people with opportunities to support others and receive others' supports on social works and also on individual emotion (Snell

& Janney, as cited in Liu et al., 2013) Whereas, social capital is influenced by many factors, (Decker, Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, as cited in Wu et al., 2012) Among the factors, trust provides a solid foundation for cooperation (Huang et al., 2011) Thus, social trust plays an important role in forming social capital According to Yamamura (as cited

in Wu et al., 2012), social trust can raise social capital and enhances the quality of education While Growiec and Growiec (2014) argue that, at the same time, general trust turns out to be closely related to bridging social capital whereas distrust is related to bonding social capital Form these arguments, social trust is treated to have positive influence on both bonding social capital and bridging social capital In addition, it is widely believed that trust may reduce interpersonal tension and conflict, then, they promote intra-community collaboration (Wu et al., 2012) Then, it will enhance the interpersonal harmony and cooperation In conclusion, it is believed that social trust is one condition of social capital and social trust positively influence on both bonding and bridging social capital Thus, the relationship between social trust and social capital is proposed as following hypotheses:

H1A: Social trust has a positive influence on bonding social capital

H1B: Social trust has a positive influence on bridging social capital

2.5.5 Social self-efficacy and social capital

Social self-efficacy and social capital have a positive relationship Social capital is needed in the emotional development of students such as to build a sense of belonging, well-being and especially self-confidence due to a conclusion in the study of Dwiningrum (2013) While previous theories about social self-efficacy conducts that it was the level of confidence of individuals to overcome stress or things which seemed as obstacles in life including learning to use Facebook, and making new relationship with others In addition,

Ferri, Deakins and Whittam (2009) show that social self-efficacy is one an element to measure social capital Thus, the hypothesis is proposed:

H2A: Social self-efficacy has a positive influence on bonding social capital

While social capital is considered the relationship of individuals to family, friends

or strangers In online social networking environment, social self-efficacy is the motivation of one individual to use Facebook as a means to make new relationship In conclusion, the role of social self-efficacy in social capital is the ability of individuals to understand and to use Facebook to broaden their online networking relationships (Wu et al., 2012) Based on the previous literature of social self-efficacy, it is seemed to be the confidence of individual to interact, to make friends and to use the online social networking site such as Facebook as a means of communication Then, social self-efficacy

is conducted to have positive influence on social capital In detail, social self-efficacy has positive influence on bridging social capital The hypothesis is proposed as following:

H2B: Social self-efficacy has a positive influence on bridging social capital

2.5.6 Conscientiousness and its moderator effect

Conscientiousness refers to the extent to which an individual is organized, careful and shows self-control (Junco & Reynol, 2012) In addition, conscientiousness helps individuals have control over ones impetus and are orderly, diligent and strive to achieve goals In contrast, unconscientious individuals are predisposed toward acting impulsively, being disorganized and tend to procrastinate on tasks In this study, conscientiousness is measured by six items and they are developed from Roose et al (2012) When exploring the effect of conscientiousness, Martocchio and Judge (1997) point out that conscientiousness are founded to be related to self-deception which affects negatively to learning in training sessions In particular, according to Junco and Reynol (2012), individuals who score high on conscientiousness may spend less time on social networking site because they may perceive time spend on social networking site creates a distraction and reduce their ability to achieve their goals Highly conscientiousness is conducted to positively impact on the relationship between stickiness and academic performance In detail, students who score higher on the personality traits of

conscientiousness are less likely to be associated with emotional or physical problems relate to social network use (Glass et al., 2014) That is, people who have high conscientiousness may not spend much of their time on Facebook They tend to minimum the time using online social networking sites for other activities There are some studies

on the relationship between conscientiousness and social networking use to evaluate the level impact conscientiousness Goleman (as cited in Glass et al., 2014) comes to a conclusion that highly conscientious workers without emotional intelligence could demonstrate ineffective work performance In contrast, highly conscientious workers and high in emotional intelligence can have higher performance score In addition, Goleman also shows that individuals will affect the performance scores by decreasing or increasing

it with the emotional intelligence That is, high conscientiousness group of people will have a higher score in their performance Then, in educational context, high conscientiousness group of students will have a higher academic performance result (Ceasar, Frink & Ferris, 2004) In Vietnam context, according to Pham Van Tuan (2011), students’ conscientiousness is among the factors impact on the students’ attitude toward their studying and their academic results Particularly, students who have a high level of conscientiousness and self-management will have a stronger concentration on their studying to have a better result In this study, conscientiousness’s impact is taken into consideration of the relationship between stickiness and academic performance In addition, this study focuses on testing the influence of one social trait named conscientiousness on the relationship of using network sites as Facebook and academic performance Then, this study uses conscientiousness as a moderator which has negatively impact on the relationship between stickiness and academic performance Thus, from the above-mentioned literature, the hypothesis is proposed:

H4: The impact of stickiness on academic performance is lower for group with high level of conscientiousness than that of group with low level of conscientiousness

2.6 Conceptual model

Based on the literature reviews and hypotheses above, the below research model (Figure 2.1.) is proposed to evaluate life satisfaction

H1A: Social trust has a positive influence on bonding social capital

H1B: Social trust has a positive influence on bridging social capital

H2A: Social self-efficacy has a positive influence on bonding social capital

H2B: Social self-efficacy has a positive influence on bridging social capital

H3A: Bonding social capital has a positive influence on stickiness

H3B: Bridging social capital has a positive influence on stickiness

H4: The impact of stickiness on academic performance is lower for group with high level

of conscientiousness than that of group with low level of conscientiousness

H5: Stickiness has a negative influence on academic performance

H6: Academic performance has a positive influence on life satisfaction

2.7 Chapter summary

In conclusion, this chapter presents the proposed research model of this study which bases on the literature review in this chapter In the proposed research model, social trust and social capital are both demonstrated positively to social capital in the attempt to build

Social capital

Life Satisfaction

Bridging social capital

ones online relationship Then, it affects the attempt to use social networking site such as Facebook Based on the literature review, university students are stick to Facebook site and it affects their academic performance Thus, the relationship between using Facebook and students’ academic performance are taken into consideration Students’ academic performance then contributes to life satisfaction Whereas, conscientiousness is proposed

to have impact on the relationship of stickiness and academic performance The chapter also presents the definition of each concept and proposes the study’s hypotheses

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter lays out the method and research design used in the study to explore the relationship between variables, such as social trust, social self-efficacy, social capital, stickiness, academic performance, life satisfaction and the moderator effect of conscientiousness The chapter starts with the research design procedure, questionnaire design Then, the method of analysis is introduced The chapter mentions information of sampling method and also the analysis type will be applied for testing the study

3.1 Sampling size

The reliable and validity of variables were tested by using Cronbach’s Alpha and CFA The sample size was required to have enough quantity for the analysis The minimum sample size was 100 and not less than five times of items (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson & Tatham, 2010), thus: n > 100 and n = 5k (where k is the number of items, k = 34) Thus, the minimum sample size was 5x34 = 170 samples However, data was finally analyzed with SEM Then, the minimum sample should be 300 to be most suitable for SEM analysis In order to have approximately 300 samples, about 350 samples were delivered to respondents from many universities

3.2 Data collection and procedure

About 350 questionnaires were sent to 350 respondents Some questionnaires collected were left because of missing information The main respondents comprised students in universities in Ho Chi Minh City, especially students who study the second, the third and the last year in university As a result, they absolutely had previous year GPA Since being short of a reliable sampling frame, it was difficult to conduct random sampling for all students in Vietnam Thus, this study was used convenience sampling The questionnaires were delivered to some universities in Ho Chi Minh City, such as University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, University of Finance and Marketing, Foreign Trade University, University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, University of Law, University of Social Science and Humanities Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy and some other universities In which, total 350 questionnaires were distributed directly by paper and indirectly via Google survey

Specifically, 50 questionnaires were sent directly and the rest 300 questionnaires were distributed indirectly The respondents who were directly delivered questionnaire were paid to fulfill it Incomplete responses and missing values were removed from the final data Then, all of the fine data was collected into one file for processing All of the variables and revised items related to the factors in research model are measured using five-point Likert scale, ranging: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neutral), 4 (agree), and 5 (strongly agree)

In profound, the study was taken through two phases: a qualitative study and quantitative study Based on the previous research, the draft questionnaire consisted of eight measurement scales which was social trust, social self-efficacy, social capital, conscientiousness, life satisfaction, stickiness and academic performance Then, the draft questionnaires was translated from English into Vietnamese An in-depth interviews with eight students and one university lecturer were conducted to modify the items (see Appendix 2) In quantitative study, the adjusted questionnaires was used to collect data and test the measurement models and structural models The research process is showed in Figure 3.1

3.3 Research design

3.3.1 Measurement of constructs

The research model includes eight constructs including two first order constructs Seven constructs were measured by multiple items and one construct was measured by one item All items were adapted from extant literature to improve content validity (Straub, Boudreau & Gefen, 2004) These items were first translated into Vietnamese Then, the study used the in-depth interview to modify the Vietnamese copy (Appendix 3) The final questionnaire was divided into two sections The first section explored respondents’ use of Facebook by using screening question The screening question was

Literature Review Draft scale In-depth interview –

Qualitative research

(n=8)

Final scale

Main survey – Quantitative research (n=292)

Check Cronbach’s Alpha

Eliminating items had low CFA coefficients Check the suitability of model

Calculating the total reliability coefficient and cumulative variance Check the uni-dimension of the scales, convergent and discriminant validity

Check the suitable of model Check hypotheses

Figure 3.1 Research Process

“Do you use Facebook?” The respondents would answer the screening question before answer the questionnaire If anyone answered “No”, it meant they were not the target respondents of this survey and they could stop The social trust construct was adapted from Wu et al (2014) and it was includes three items They were used to describe the belief of Facebook users when they contact with people through the available on Facebook site The items were coded begin with ST and its number followed The source

of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.1

Table 3.1 Social trust construct Social trust adapted from Wu et al (2014) Coding

Generally speaking, I would say that people with whom you interact on

Facebook can be trusted

ST1

The social self-efficacy construct was also adapted from Wu et al (2014) It included four items All of the items were used to describe the level of the confidence of individual to interact, to make friends and to use Facebook as a means of communication They were coded begin with SE and its number followed The source of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.2

Table 3.2 Social self-efficacy construct Social self-efficacy adapted from Wu et al (2014) Coding

I feel completely capable of using almost all currently available

Facebook

SE1

I am confident I will learn how to use Facebook that are due to come out SE2

The social capital was a second order construct The two first order construct were Bonding social capital and Bridging social capital It included four and five items for each first order construct And it was the overall outcome of one’s interactions with others on Facebook, manifesting itself in the ability of individuals to exploit the function and resources available on Facebook in order to broaden relationship The items were coded

begin with SC and its number followed The source of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.3 and Table 3.4

Table 3.3 Bonding social capital Social capital: Bonding social capital subscale

adapted from Wu et al (2014)

The people I interact with online would be good job references for me SC3

The people I interact with online would help me if I were broken SC4

Table 3.4 Bridging social capital Social capital: Bridging social capital subscale

adapted from Wu et al (2014)

Coding

Interacting with people online makes me want to try new things SC5

Interacting with people online reminds me that everyone in the world is

Interacting with people online gives me new people to talk to SC8

Online, I come in contact with new people all the time SC9

Stickiness was the willingness of university students to return and to prolong to stay on Facebook as a communication and entertainment tool In this study, the stickiness construct was adapted from Yang and Lin (2014) It included four items The items were coded begin with Stick and its number followed The source of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.5

Table 3.5 Stickiness construct Stickiness adapted from Yang and Lin (2014) Coding

I would stay longer time on Facebook than other web sites Stick1

I intend to prolong my staying on Facebook web site Stick2

I would visit Facebook web site as often as I can Stick3

I intend to link to Facebook web site every time I am online Stick4

Conscientiousness was adapted from Roose et al (2012) and referred to the extent

to which individual was organized, careful and showed self-control And it included six

items The items were coded begin with C and its number followed The source of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.6

Table 3.6 Conscientiousness construct Conscientiousness adapted from Roose et al (2012) Coding

I see myself as someone who are competent of doing my work C1

I see myself as someone who are striving for my achievement C4

Life satisfaction was adapted from Chow (2005) It was defined to be people’s subjective evaluation of how far their most needs, goals, and wishes had been fulfilled The construct had seven items, and they were coded begin with LS and its number followed The source of measurement scale is showed in Table 3.7

Table 3.7 Life satisfaction construct Life satisfaction adapted from Chow (2005) Coding

The academic performance construct was defined the students’ previous year GPA

by Hohmann and Grillo (2014) It was quantitative variable and it was measured by letting students write their previous year GPA “My previous academic year GPA was:” And it was coded by AP

3.3.2 Questionnaire design

In qualitative study, all of the items were translated into Vietnamese A draft questionnaire with the measurement scales based on the previous researches was set up (Wu et al., 2014, Yang & Lin, 2014; Chow, 2005; Roose et al., 2012; Hohmann & Grillo, 2014) Among constructs, social self-efficacy, social trust, and social capital adopted in this study are based on Wu et al (2014) Next, the draft questionnaire were delivered to

seven students and one lecturer of University of Finance and Marketing Ho Chi Minh City

to review in in-depth interview The aim of the in-depth interview test was to modify and clear the measure scales The final questionnaire included seven constructs and thirty four items, of which the items of social influence; the construct social self-efficacy, social trust, social capital were used the subscales from Wu et al (2014) to suitable in college and university situation

3.3.3 In-depth interview

The Vietnamese questionnaire was sent to seven students and one lecturer from University of Finance and Marketing There were total eleven items were revised follow the interviewee’s comments (see Appendix 2) In social trust construct, there were three items and they were all revised The first item named ST1, there were two respondents

suggested to replace “would you say that” by “I think that”, the item after revision is

“Generally speaking, I think that I can trust people I interact on Facebook.” The second item named ST2, it was “People try to be fair on Facebook” and it was revised by “I think

that people try to be fair on Facebook” The last item in this construct named ST3 was

“People try to be helpful on Facebook” and it was revised by “People on Facebook try to

make others think that they are helpful.” according to two students and one lecturer

comments

Secondly, in social self-efficacy construct, there were four items and two items

were revised The item named SE3 was “I find changes in technologies very frustrating.” The word “very frustrating” was revised by “quite simple” according to three respondents’ comments The SE4 item was “I quickly figure out how to use Facebook.” There was one respondents suggested to add the word “At first,” to the beginning of the item The final item was “At first, I quickly figure out how to use Facebook.”

Thirdly, social capital had two first order constructs, they were both bonding and bridging social capital which had nine items There were three items was revised The SC2

item was “There is no one online that I feel comfortable talking to about imitate personal

problem.” There were five respondents suggested to change the item from negative to

positive way of thinking and use “Facebook” instead of “online” Then, the final SC2 item

was “There is someone on Facebook that I feel comfortable talking to about imitate

personal problem.” The SC4 item was “The people that I interact with online would help

me if I were broken.” There were two respondents suggested to change “The people” by

“The friends” The final SC4 item was “The friends that I interact with online would help

me if I were broken.” The item named SC9 was “Online, I come in contact with new people all the time.” There were three respondents changed “contact with new people all the time” by “I am given chance to connect and talk to new friends whenever I want.” In

addition, the word “online” in item SC1, SC3, SC5, SC6, SC8 should be replaced by “on

Facebook” according to the comments of eight respondents in order to make the items be

better described in the Facebook using context

Fourthly, there were four items in stickiness construct, and there was one item

coded Stick3 was revised according to three respondents’ comments The item was “I

would visit Facebook web site as often as I can.” The word “as often as I can” was

suggested to revise by “as I have free time.” Finally, there were seven items in life

satisfaction construct Two items were reversed according to four students and one lecturer comments The LS3 and LS4 items were suggested to change from negative side

to the positive site of thinking when compared with other items in life satisfaction

construct LS3 item was “I would like to change many things in life.” And LS4 item was

“I wish I had a different kind of life.” The final LS3 and LS4 items after revision were “I

would not like to change any things in my life” and “I do not want to have a different kind

of life.” In conclusion, there were eleven of thirty four items were modified After

collecting all the comments, the questionnaire was revised according to respondents’ comments The modified items and also respondents list are also showed in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 The Vietnamese and English questionnaires is illustrated in Appendix 3 and 4

3.4 Data analysis

After collecting data, the first step was data preparation with editing, coding, and data entry to ensure the accuracy of data from raw data and to detect errors or omissions to correct Firstly, variables were tested reliable by Cronbach’s alpha Cronbach’s alpha

examine the correlation between observed variables As a result, Cronbach’s alpha allow

to eliminate the inappropriate items and variables in the model Then, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for inspecting the convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement model was applied Firstly, the second-order constructs named social capital was applied for analysis Then, the whole saturated model was analyzed by CFA Hair (2006) indicated that, in SEM, researchers can examine interrelated relationships among multiple dependent and independent constructs simultaneously The structural model can

be tested by examining the hypotheses relationships between latent constructs in the proposed model (Kline, 2005; Hair et al., 2010) As a result, SEM was used to test the hypothesized model and was applied to estimate path coefficient for each proposed relationship in the structural model

3.4.1 Reliability measure

In order to assess reliability of each of scales with particular sample and consider the internal consistency of the scales, it is necessary to use Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient which should be above 0.7 (Devellis, 2003) Also, the corrected item - total correlation values should be at least 0.3 (Nunally & Berstein, 1994) to ensure each of items was measuring the same from the scale as a whole (Pallant, 2011) In this study, variables and items which have Cronbach’s alpha less than 0.7, item-total correlation under 0.3 would

be deleted

3.4.2 Convergent and discriminant validity

The composite reliability (CR) is calculated based on the Standardized Regression Weight According to Fornell and Larcker (1981), the composite reliability values which

is higher than 0.7 is good In addition, the factor loading of all items which are higher than 0.5 will reaching the level of significant of the construct And it indicates that each construct has convergent validity (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) To assess discriminate validity, the minimum square root of AVE should be higher than the largest correlation between constructs In addition, the relationships between constructs in the research model should be different from 1.00 Thus, the measurement has discriminant validity (Steenkamp & Van Trijp, 1991)

3.4.3 Confirmatory factor analysis

This study uses Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) which allows specification of the construct-item relationships so that they can be tested against the theory whereas exploratory techniques such as principal components analysis and principal axis factoring

do not allow the researcher to specify the paths In detail, the CFA results should indicate the model fit if CMIN/DF was less than 2 with p-value smaller than 5%, Goodness of Fix Index (GFI), Tucker and Lewis Coefficient Index (TLI), and Comparative Fit Index (CFI) were larger than 0.9 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988), and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSEA) was smaller than 8% (Nguyen Dinh Tho & Nguyen Thi Mai Trang, 2008) CFA is therefore determined to be better for testing the stickiness influence on academic performance, and academic performance on life satisfaction than the exploratory techniques

3.4.4 Structural equation model

To explore the relationship between variables, consisting of “social trust”, “social self-efficacy”, “social capital”, “academic performance” and “life satisfaction” as well as

to evaluate the importance of those independent variables in the framework model, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was applied In detail, SEM was used to test the hypotheses structural model and estimate path coefficients for each proposed relationship

in the structural model and it is also used to confirm which hypotheses support the model SEM is a collection of statistical models that seeks to clarify and explain relationships among multiple latent variables The common model fit indices were evaluated to assess the model fit The acceptable criteria of chi-square/degree is less than 2 (Ullman, 2001) The RMSEA shows how well the model with unknown but optimally chosen parameter estimates would fit populations’ covariance matrix A RMSEA criteria that is below 0.08 shows a well fit model (MacCallum, Browne & Sugawara, 1996) In addition, the results should indicate with p-value smaller than 5%, GFI, RFI, and CFI were larger than 0.9 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988), and RMSEA was smaller than 8% (Nguyen Dinh Tho & Nguyen Thi Mai Trang, 2008) Finally, in this study, the hypotheses and model was tested by using AMOS version 22.0 to build a SEM measurement model using