Exploring the dual outcomes of mobile social networking service enjoyment: The roles of social self-efficacy and habit

Enjoyment experience has been generally regarded as a positive element which can drive various aspects of system usage. Little research has examined its potential adverse outcomes, especially in an emerging mobile services context. This study investigates the dual effects of enjoyment on mobile social networking service (Mobile SNS) usage behaviors by focusing on not only its positive outcomes but also its potential adverse consequences. In addition, this study explores the impacts of social self-efficacy and habit on these dual causal processes. A research model is developed and empirically tested using data collected from 398 mobile SNS users in China. The structural equation modeling analysis results indicate that enjoyment significantly affects both mobile SNS high engagement and mobile SNS addiction behaviors. Mobile SNS habit mediates the associations between mobile SNS enjoyment and mobile SNS addiction behaviors. Social self-efficacy directly affects mobile SNS users' enjoyment experience, and it also has important indirect impacts on the dual processes by effectively enhancing mobile SNS users' high engagement and alleviating their addiction behaviors. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.     

Users' Satisfaction with Social Network Sites: A Self-Determination Perspective

When the online social networking market is no longer a “blue ocean,” retaining existing users and maintaining their satisfaction with the current social network site (SNS) become SNS providers' most important tasks. This study applies Self-Determination Theory and examines the relationship between trust, relatedness need, and users' satisfaction with SNSs. Using Facebook as the context, we tested our hypotheses with the student sample from a large state university in U.S. The results show that competence and benevolence trust beliefs positively influence relatedness need satisfaction; relatedness need satisfaction and relatedness need level significantly influence uses' satisfaction with SNSs. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Exploring users' attitudes and intentions toward the web as a survey tool

The purpose of this study is to examine a conceptual model of individual perceptions toward the Web as a survey tool. The model discusses users' attitudes toward the Web integrating perceived self-efficacy, anxiety, usefulness, and liking to develop a new aspect of individual intention to use Web surveys. The results provide the evidence that the conceptual model is available for understanding users' perceptions to use Web surveys. In addition, perceived self-efficacy may foster a positive feeling toward the Web surveys. The speed of the Internet, number of survey questions, and friendly operating interface are all users' concerns when answering Web surveys. Furthermore, perceived usefulness and liking may increase an individual's positive attitudes toward using Web surveys.     

Explaining the link between technostress and technology addiction for social networking sites: A study of distraction as a coping behavior

This paper investigates under what conditions stress from the use of SNS is linked to addiction to the use of the same SNS. Integrating three theoretical strands—the concept of feature‐rich Information Technology (IT), the theory of technology frames, and distraction as a coping behaviour—we theorize two types of coping behaviours in response to stressors experienced from the use of SNS. These are ‐ distraction through use of the same SNS and distraction through activities outside the use of the SNS. We hypothesize relationships between stressors from SNS use, the two coping behaviours and SNS addiction. We further articulate the role of SNS use habit. We test the hypotheses through a three‐wave survey of 444 Facebook users with data collected at three different points in time. The paper's contributions are to theorize and empirically validate the psychological concept of distraction as a coping behaviour in response to stress from the use of SNS and, in doing so, explain why there may be a link between technostress from and technology addiction to the use of the same SNS.     

The Role of Social Network Sites in Romantic Relationships: Effects on Jealousy and Relationship Happiness

On social network sites (SNS), information about one's romantic partner is readily available and public for friends. The paper focuses on the negative (SNS jealousy) and positive (SNS relationship happiness) consequences of SNS use for romantic relationships. We examined whether relationship satisfaction, trait jealousy, SNS use and need for popularity predicted these emotional consequences of SNS use and tested the moderating role of self‐esteem. For low self‐esteem individuals, need for popularity predicted jealousy and relationship happiness. For high‐self‐esteem individuals, SNS use for grooming was the main predictor. Low‐self‐esteem individuals try to compensate their low self‐esteem by creating an idealized picture. Undesirable information threatens this picture, and especially individuals with a high need for popularity react with SNS jealousy.     

Why do people share their context information on Social Network Services? A qualitative study and an experimental study on users' behavior of balancing perceived benefit and risk

Despite the rapid growth of context-aware systems and ubiquitous computing, the factors influencing users' decision to share their context information in a social setting are poorly understood. This study aims to clarify why users share their context information in social network service (SNS), even while they are concerned with the potential risk at the same time. Drawing on the diverse theories of self-disclosure, we take an approach that the consideration of benefit encourages users to endure the existence of risk, and that users actively adjust the way they share their information to optimize the level of benefit and risk. In a qualitative study, we examined what kinds of risks and benefits exist in context information sharing situations and how users control them. An experiment was conducted using stimuli that simulate the actual use of SNS to investigate the effect of various context types and control types on users' expected benefit and risk and their intention to share. The results showed that both expected benefit and expected risk influenced users' intention to share. More interestingly, the effect of expected benefit was found to be stronger than that of expected risk. Moreover, different privacy control strategies were found to have induced different effects on the expected benefit and expected risk. Implications and limitations of this study were proposed at the end of this study.     

The Janus face of Facebook: Positive and negative sides of social networking site use

There is an increasing awareness that social networking site (SNS) use includes a socio-psychologically positive and a negative side. However, research remains largely silent on which side dominates in driving SNS use. To address this gap and to better understand the nature of SNSs we examine the positive and negative drivers of SNS use in parallel. We draw on the uses and gratifications theory and place social enhancement and interpersonal connectivity as the socio-psychologically positive gratifications and exhibitionism and voyeurism as the adverse gratifications predicting SNS use. We further link these gratifications to two key psychological needs, namely self-presentation and the need to belong. We conceptualize our dependent variable, SNS use, as a multi-dimensional second-order construct that consists of content production, content consumption, amount of usage, and comprehensiveness of one's profile information. We use longitudinal data from Facebook users to test our research model. The results show that exhibitionism, voyeurism and interpersonal connectivity predict SNS use. Furthermore, the number of friends in the SNS decreases the effect of exhibitionism and increases the effect of social enhancement. Altogether, the role of exhibitionism and voyeurism in predicting SNS use underscores the need for increased awareness of the socio-psychologically dark side of SNSs.     

The relation between use intensity of private and professional SNS,social comparison,self-esteem,and depressive tendencies in the light of self-regulation

The present study's (N?=?145) aim was to introduce a multidimensional behavioural report for assessing activity on the professional social network site (SNS) XING and to carry out a comparison with private SNS use (i.e. Facebook). Psychometric analyses revealed good internal consistency and construct validity of the new XING Activity Questionnaire. Results suggest that private and professional SNS use is positively correlated to people's ability-related social comparison orientation (SCO) and depressive tendencies on the one hand and negatively correlated to self-esteem on the other hand. In addition, both people's general SCO and opinion-related SCO were solely positively correlated to Facebook use. The findings are in line with the Social Online-Self-Regulation-Theory suggesting that people are using not only private but also professional SNSs for self-regulation.     

Do we trust the crowd or information system? Effects of personalization and bandwagon cues on users' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a restaurant recommendation website

Visual interface cues on many websites can influence Internet users' psychology, especially their perceptions about the site as well as its content (Sundar, 2008). Specifically, presence of commonly used interface cues (e.g., personalization, bandwagon cues) can substantially influence users' attitudes and their behavioral intentions toward websites and their content. This study examined the effect of personalization feature and bandwagon cues (i.e., star ratings, reviews) in a restaurant recommendation website, measuring (a) to what extent users positively perceive and plan on revisiting or sharing the site, and (b) to what degree users favored the recommended restaurant and plan to visit them. A 2 (personalization feature: present vs. absent) × 2 (bandwagon cues: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment showed that personalization feature and bandwagon cues increased positive perceptions and their behavioral intentions toward both the website and the recommended restaurant. Moreover, results revealed that users' perceived relevance as well as perceived novelty mediated the effects of interface cues on their attitudinal and behavioral consequences. Further, the impact of the interface cues on user psychology significantly differed as a function of the other cues. Theoretical and practical implications for future research on the effect of interface cues on user psychology are discussed.     

The intention–behaviour gap in technology usage: the moderating role of attitude strength

Extant theories of information technology (IT) usage present users' behavioural intention as the primary predictor of their IT usage behaviour. However, empirical evidence reveals only a low-to-medium effect size for this association. We call this inconsistency the ‘intention–behaviour gap’, and argue that a clearer understanding of this gap requires a deeper theoretical examination of the conditions under which intentions may or may not influence behaviour. Drawing on recent attitude theoretic research in social psychology, we distinguish between two types of attitudes – strong versus weak – and suggest that the intention–behaviour association may hold for users with strong attitudes but is likely to be weaker for those with weak attitudes. Using the elaboration-likelihood model, we propose two dimensions of attitude strength relevant to the IT usage context – personal relevance and related expertise – and theorise them to moderate the intention–behaviour association in a positive manner. Results from a longitudinal field survey of document management system usage among governmental employees at L'viv City Hall, Ukraine support our theoretical hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

Exploring factors influencing mobile users' intention to adopt multimedia messaging service

While short messaging service (SMS) is discussed often in recent literature, multimedia messaging service (MMS), a media rich successor of SMS, is seldom heard or understood by mobile users in Taiwan. The adoption rates of MMS are far from satisfactory, implying that there might be some factors keeping the potential users away from using MMS. This research integrates a qualitative method, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, with the quantitative questionnaire survey to elicit and validate underlying factors which influence potential users' attitude and intention toward the adoption of MMS. A research model together with eight hypotheses was formulated, and a questionnaire based survey was administrated to mobile users knowledgeable about mobile messaging services for empirically validating the research model and testing the hypotheses. Our research findings show that relative advantage and ease of use are important factors significantly influencing mobile users' adoption of MMS but the other two antecedents, facilitating conditions and previous experience, do not have significant and direct impacts on mobile users' intention to use MMS. These study results can be referenced by service providers for designing and developing successful business applications to catch the valuable opportunity and benefit of MMS.     

Why do you keep doing that? The biasing effects of mental states on IT continued usage intentions

Information Technology (IT) continued use decisions are typically assumed to be based on the results of a rational evaluation of the users' IT use experience, yet, recent findings suggest that continued use decisions might not be purely rational. In the current work, we build on the expectation-confirmation theory as well as cognitive dissonance theory to investigate possible mechanisms driving the continued use decisions of mobile phones. As an attempt to extend the existing paradigm in the IT continuance literature beyond rational decision making, we theorize three possible alternative mechanisms that might drive IT continued use decisions, namely psychological states (i.e., a cognitive and affective states of mind), reasoned action, and affective response. According to cognitive dissonance theory, human beings tend to reduce experienced cognitive dissonance by assimilating their post-behavior perceptions toward their prior expectations. As a result, in the context of IT continued use, we argue that experiencing psychological states such as technology addiction and excessive technostress might bias users' evaluations of their IT use experience, which in turn influence their post-use perceptions on the cognitive and affective levels, and consequently will influence the users' continued use decisions. A partial least squares analysis of 436 responses was used to validate and test our model. The study results generally support our model. The theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed.     

Influence of SNS User Innovativeness and Public Individuation on SNS Usage Patterns and Social Capital Development: The Case of Facebook

This paper studies the correlation between users’ psychological traits and their social network sites (SNS) usage patterns, and the correlation between SNS usage patterns and the development of social capital as it relates to Facebook. Individual personality traits, including user innovativeness and public individuation, are proposed to be positively correlated with SNS usage patterns such as usage rate and diversification of use. This study specifically classifies social capital into two types—bridging vs. bonding—based on Social Capital Theory, and examines the correlation between SNS usage patterns and social capital development. To investigate the proposed hypotheses of this study, SNS users in Korea were surveyed and a structural equation model was used to analyze and verify the hypotheses. The results showed that users exhibiting both a high degree of innovativeness and public individuation use SNS more frequently and in more diverse ways than users who exhibited lower degrees of innovativeness and public individuation. It was also found that SNS usage patterns are correlated with social capital. The results of this study contribute to SNS-related research work as this study focuses on the development of social capital—a key concept behind the creation and use of SNS—and allows for a deeper understanding of how the psychological traits of individual users affect SNS usage patterns and the development of social capital. This study also offers insights to the corporate sector by providing practical guidelines on how to utilize SNS more effectively.     

Differential responses of loyal versus habitual consumers towards mobile site personalization on privacy management

We examine how two different underlying mechanisms of behavioral loyalty to a brand—attitudinal loyalty and habit—impact smartphone users' privacy management when they browse personalized vs. non-personalized mobile websites. The online experimental study conducted with Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (N = 73) finds different responses of attitudinal loyalty and habit towards personalization in significant three-way interactions between personalization, attitudinal loyalty, and habit on privacy disclosure and protection behaviors. When interacting with a personalized website, highly habitual consumers without high level of attitudinal loyalty disclosed the most personal information on a personalized mobile site, and displayed the least intention of protecting their privacy on their smartphones, whereas consumers with high levels of both habit and attitudinal loyalty reported the highest tendency of privacy protection behavior. However, habit and personalization do not have a significant effect on disclosure behaviors when users have high attitudinal loyalty to a brand. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Unity enhances product aesthetics and emotion

Although the aesthetic properties of a product are likely associated with users' emotional responses, empirical evidence does not explain how the aesthetic properties of a product evoke an emotional response. This study presents the hypothesis that users' emotions are evoked when they observe an aesthetically pleasing product with unity. The results implied that a product form with more unity had a greater likelihood of affecting users' positive emotions compared with those with less unity, and that the unity aesthetic may act as a mediator in evoking emotion. In addition, the results confirmed that products composed of curvier elements tended to evoke a stronger pleasure response compared with those defined by straight lines. A systematic approach, namely the decision tree method, acts as a unity design guideline for the enhancement of product aesthetics, which may evoke users’ pleasure responses further.Relevance to industryOur findings imply that a product form with more unity had a greater likelihood of affecting users’ positive emotions compared with those with less unity. In addition, a systematic approach, namely the decision tree method, acts as a unity design guideline for the enhancement of product aesthetics, which may apply for designing products with pleasures.     

User idea implementation in open innovation communities: Evidence from a new product development crowdsourcing community

In collaborative crowdsourcing communities for open innovation, users generate and submit ideas as idea co‐creators. Firms then select and implement valuable ideas for new product development. Despite the popularity and success of these open innovation communities, relatively little is known about the factors that determine the implementation of the user‐generated ideas. Based on research on individual creativity, we propose a conceptual model integrating users' previous experience, idea presentation characteristics and feedback valence to explain the likelihood of idea implementation. We validate our research model with a panel data analysis of 43 550 ideas submitted by 16 360 users in the MIUI new product development community hosted by Xiaomi, a large electronics manufacturing company in China. We find an inverted U‐shaped relationship between users' past successful experience and idea implementation. Furthermore, the length of ideas is positively associated with the likelihood of idea implementation. There is also an inverted U‐shaped relationship between supporting evidence and idea implementation. Finally, we demonstrate the negative effect of positive feedback and the positive effect of negative feedback on idea implementation. These findings offer rich insights to understand the phenomenon of open innovation better. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

User Experience of On-Screen Interaction Techniques: An Experimental Investigation of Clicking,Sliding, Zooming,Hovering, Dragging,and Flipping

From scrolling and clicking to dragging, flipping, sliding, hovering, and zooming, the wide array of interaction techniques has vastly expanded the range of user actions on an interface. Each of these interaction techniques affords a distinct action. But do these techniques differ in their ability to engage users and contribute to their user experience? Furthermore, do they affect how users view the content and how much they learn from it? We address these questions via two between-subjects laboratory experiments. Study 1 (N = 128) investigated the relative effects of six on-screen interaction techniques (click-to-download, drag, mouseover, slide, zoom, and 3D carousel) on users' assessment of—as well as their engagement with—an informational website. The site for each condition was identical in content and design, except for the interaction technique used, so that we could isolate the effects of each technique on various cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Study 2 (N = 127) examined the relative effects of four combinations of interaction techniques (slide+click, slide+mouseover, drag+mouseover, and drag+zoom) on the same dependent variables. Data from Study 1 suggest that although the 3D carousel generates more user action, the slide is better at aiding memory. The zoom-in/out tool was the least favored, whereas the mouseover feature fostered greater engagement among power users. Findings from Study 2, which was conducted with a different content domain, replicated the positive effects of slide and negative effects of drag in influencing user experience. Path analyses, using structural equation modeling, revealed the importance of users' assessment of the interface (perceived levels of natural mapping, intuitiveness, and ease of use), which can have significant consequences for user engagement as well as resulting attitudes and behavioral outcomes. Design insights, theories, and techniques to test and capture user experience are discussed.     

Improving Password Cybersecurity Through Inexpensive and Minimally Invasive Means: Detecting and Deterring Password Reuse Through Keystroke-Dynamics Monitoring and Just-in-Time Fear Appeals

Password reuse – using the same password for multiple accounts – is a prevalent phenomenon that can make even the most secure systems vulnerable. When passwords are reused across multiple systems, hackers may compromise accounts by stealing passwords from low-security sites to access sites with higher security. Password reuse can be particularly threatening to users in developing countries in which cybersecurity training is limited, law enforcement of cybersecurity is non-existent, or in which programs to secure cyberspace are limited. This article proposes a two-pronged solution for reducing password reuse through detection and mitigation. First, based on the theories of routine, cognitive load and motor movement, we hypothesize that password reuse can be detected by monitoring characteristics of users' typing behavior (i.e. keystroke dynamics). Second, based on protection motivation theory, we hypothesize that providing just-in-time fear appeals when a violation is detected will decrease password reuse. We tested our hypotheses in an experiment and found that users' keystroke dynamics are diagnostic of password reuse. By analyzing changes in typing patterns, we were able to detect password reuse with 81.71% accuracy. We also found that just-in-time fear appeals decrease password reuse; 88.41% of users who received a fear appeal subsequently created unique passwords, whereas only 4.45% of users who did not receive a fear appeal created unique passwords. Our results suggest that future research should continue to examine keystroke dynamics as an indicator of cybersecurity behaviors and use just-in-time fear appeals as a method for reducing non-secure behavior. The findings of our research provide a practical and cost-effective solution to bolster cybersecurity through discouraging password reuse.     

The Effects of Other‐Generated and System‐Generated Cues on Adolescents' Perceived Attractiveness on Social Network Sites

The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent other‐generated and system‐generated cues on social network sites (SNS) influence the popularity and attractiveness of adolescents. In a 2 (friends' physical attractiveness: attractive, unattractive) ×2 (friends' wall postings: positive, negative) ×3 (number of friends: low, average, high) factorial experiment, 497 high school students between 12 and 15 years of age were randomly assigned to one of the twelve experimental conditions. Results revealed that the profile owner of a SNS was perceived as being more attractive when the profile includes attractive friends and positive wall postings. The profile owners' number of friends did not affect the perceived attractiveness of the profile‐owner, only the perceived extraversion.     

To Mix or Not to Mix Synthetic Speech and Human Speech? Contrasting Impact on Judge-Rated Task Performance versus Self-Rated Performance and Attitudinal Responses

Since it is impractical to prerecord human speech for dynamic content such as email messages and news, many commercial speech applications use recorded human speech for fixed content (e.g. system prompts) and synthetic speech for dynamic content. However, mixing human speech and synthetic speech may not be optimal from a consistency perspective. A two-condition between-participants experiment (N = 24) was conducted to compare two versions of a telephony application for Personal Information Management (PIM). In the first condition, all the system output was delivered with synthetic speech. In the second condition, users heard a mix of human speech and synthetic speech. Users managed several email and calendar tasks. Users' task performance was rated by two independent judges. Their self-ratings of task performance and attitudinal responses were also measured by means of questionnaires. Users interacting with the interface that used only synthetic speech performed the task significantly better, while users interacting with the mixed-speech interface thought they did better and had more positive attitudinal responses. A consistency framework drawn from human psychological processing is offered to explain the difference in task performance. Cognitive processing and attitudinal response are differentiated. Design implications and directions for future research are suggested.