Beyond functionality: Digital experience quality and continuance intention through psychological restoration and time well spent

Abstract

The rapid growth of video streaming services has transformed digital consumption from functionality-driven usage into experience-oriented engagement, where users increasingly seek meaningful and psychologically beneficial experiences. This study examines how digital experience quality influences continuance intention in video streaming services by emphasizing experiential outcomes rather than functional performance. Existing post-adoption research has largely focused on system quality, usefulness, and satisfaction, providing limited understanding of how experiential and well-being mechanisms sustain long-term usage in digital leisure contexts. Addressing this gap, the study conceptualizes digital experience quality as a multidimensional construct and investigates the roles of psychological restoration and time well spent as mechanisms linking experience quality to continuance intention. Data were collected from 220 active video streaming users and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that digital experience quality significantly enhances both psychological restoration and perceptions of time well spent, which subsequently increase continuance intention. Psychological restoration demonstrates a stronger influence, suggesting that users continue using streaming services primarily because experiences support mental recovery and emotional well-being. The study concludes that continuance intention in video streaming services is driven by meaningful and restorative experiences beyond functional system performance, contributing to an experience-centered understanding of sustained digital engagement