Influence of Gift-Giving in Social Network Games on Social Capital: Relationship Types, Gift-Giving Types, and the Big Five Factors of Personality

Recently, Social network games (SNGs) are gaining popularity. As various types of SNGs are expected to spread, empirical research on the usability of SNGs is necessary. This study investigates whether the influences of gift-giving types on social capital are significant depending on the relation types between users. In addition, the influences of social capital on the continuous usage intention were observed. The relationships are divided into “friends” and “neighbors.” The types of gift-giving are divided into “in-game gift-giving,” in which gifts are exchanged within the game, and “out-of-game gift-giving,” in which gifts are delivered outside the game, for example, through SNS personal messages. We conducted a survey targeting SNG users and found out that most of the social capital was significantly influenced by the gift-giving attitude. To supplement the results from the quantitative research, we conducted interviews to observe whether the results of the survey agreed with respondents’ actual perceptions.