Abstract:
Gender difference in ICT has been extensively studied in these years. The literature is mostly focused on ICT professions. In recent years, ICT is widely adopted for common use, i.e., social networks. Few studies have explored gender difference in ICT for common use, which raises the question of how do gender perform differently in social networks. The proposed theoretical framework aims to investigate online behaviour and gender difference in social networks. The framework is developed by two theories; the theory of planned behaviour and the individual differences theory of gender and IT. They allow the current study to predict user behaviours online and compare the differences in behaviours between males and females. Current study is a quantitative research study using a web-based questionnaire to collect data. The survey invitations are recruited two ways: survey invitations sent to students enrolled in ISOM Department courses and posted survey invitations on Facebook. 196 participants engage in the survey; 102 females and 94 males. The data collected is analysed by WarpPLS statistical software using structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. This study has made three theoretical contributions. Firstly, the theoretical framework proposed is useful in predicting online behaviour and investigating gender difference in social networks. Secondly, it has explored New Zealand user behaviours in social networks, which few studies have covered. Lastly, this study also explored the impacts of social and personal factors on users’ online behaviours performed in social networks. The current study has provided a better understanding in online behaviours and gender difference in social networks, which could help to reduce the research gap in the gender and technology areas.