Integrating guanxi into technology acceptance: An empirical investigation of WeChat

Social influence is an important research topic in the technology acceptance literature, in particular for social media. Prior empirical studies have for the most part employed social influence theory to investigate user intentions to continue with social media, while culture driven theories have been neglected. Rather than using social influence theory, we introduced guanxi theory to explore how guanxi social mechanisms (or processes) influence Chinese users’ continuance intentions in WeChat. Specifically, we developed a model that examines the role of guanxi as manifested by renqing, mianzi and ganqing in perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and continuance intention in WeChat. A survey research method was adopted to test the proposed hypotheses. This study found that ganqing has a positive impact on perceived usefulness and continuance intention. Mianzi exerts a negative effect on continuance intention but exhibits a positive effect on perceived usefulness. Renqing was found to have no significant impact on perceived usefulness and continuance intention. Our study advances the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by introducing guanxi-based constructs in a Chinese mobile social-messaging application context. Our study also offers alternative insights on guanxi-based social influence processes in the Chinese technology acceptance literature.     

Three-dimensional Internet developments

This paper describes the application of Internet-based three-dimensional (3-D) user interfaces, comparing them with more traditional two-dimensional (2-D) interfaces. The modelling of 3-D worlds in the Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) is described, together with an overview of VRML and its likely future direction. Multi-user shared environments, which enable Internet users to meet and communicate with each other in cyberspace via avatars (3-D representations of users), are then introduced. A shared information garden is described which allows people to meet and share information in a dynamic, information-rich, virtual environment.     

Disentangling facial recognition payment service usage behavior: A trust perspective

Facial recognition payment (FRP) technology has been used as an innovative digital approach to payment services. This study develops a model to investigate how user trust—including trust in FRP service providers and FRP—affects users’ continuance intentions toward FRP services. We also propose that trust in FRP itself is affected by perceived vulnerability, perceived security, and perceived response efficacy from a privacy and security perspective. Our research model was empirically tested via a partial-least-squares analysis with survey data collected from 217 FRP users in China. The results show that trust in both FRP service providers and FRP itself positively affects users’ continuance intentions, and trust in service providers affects trust in FRP. Perceived security and response efficacy positively affect trust in FRP. This research contributes to the literature on FRP and trust, offering practical implications for FRP service providers on how to manage individual users’ FRP-related privacy concerns while enhancing user trust in FRP, which facilitates continuous FRP use.     

Understanding makerspace continuance: A self-determination perspective

Makerspaces are informal physical spaces located in community settings or educational institutions where people immerse themselves in creative making. Makerspaces hold incredible potential for fostering essential skills needed for the future and are increasing in number worldwide. Previous research has identified many diverse makerspace initiatives and has demonstrated their potential, but few research has examined makerspace sustainability. Makerspace sustainability is a significant issue as diminished participation, activity, utilization, and retention limit its success. This study examines makerspace sustainability by understanding which factors influence makerspace continuance intention. This study proposes and empirically tests a conceptual framework based on self-determination theory to identify the motivations of makerspace users. An analysis of data collected from 121 South Korean makerspace users indicates that makerspace environmental support is significantly related to a makerspace user’s basic psychological needs. Those psychological needs positively impact intrinsic motivation, which ultimately influences makerspace continuance intention. This research has several implications for academics while recommendations are proposed that have immediate application for practitioners which are informed by the study results.     

Perceived value and continuance intention in mobile government service in China

Drawing on the value-based adoption model (VAM), a research model of mobile government (m-government) continuance usage behavior is developed. Data collected from a survey of 246 users of an m-government application in China are used to test the research hypotheses. Our results indicate that mobility, localizability, and personalization are positively associated with perceived value, which in turn, is positively associated with continuance intention. Our results show that perceived value partially mediates the relationships between mobility, personalization, and localizability (but not security) with continuance intention. Further, compatibility positively moderates the relationship between perceived value and mobility, localizability, and security (but not personalization), and between perceived value and continuance intention. Our results suggest that there is a tradeoff between personalization and security (analogous to personalization-privacy paradox where users are torn between their desire for personalization and their instinct to protect their privacy). Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Is ChatGPT scary good? How user motivations affect creepiness and trust in generative artificial intelligence

Few studies have examined user motivations to use generative artificial intelligence (AI). This research aims to address this gap by examining how user motivations for ChatGPT usage affect perceived creepiness, trust, and the intention to continue using AI chatbot technology. The findings of an online survey (N = 421) reveal a negative relationship between personalization and creepiness, while task efficiency and social interaction are positively associated with creepiness. Increased levels of creepiness, in turn, result in decreased continuance intention. Furthermore, task efficiency and personalization have a positive impact on trust, leading to increased continuance intention. The results contribute to the field of human–computer interaction by investigating the motivations for utilizing generative AI chatbots and advancing our comprehension of AI creepiness, trust, and continuance intention. The practical ramifications of this research can inform the design of user interfaces and the development of features for generative AI chatbots.     

Integrating live video for immersive environments

Cabin, an immersive projection display, is a room-sized, five-screen system that can display both computer graphics and video images. Several Cabins connected via a broadband network form the Cabinet system. Cabinet includes video avatars-a key new technology for sharing virtual worlds. Using video avatars, we have experimentally evaluated the ability to express positional information between distant users     

Examining users′ intention to continue using social network games: A flow experience perspective

Social network sites games (SNGs) are growing in acceptance for users, but the intention to continue using such games requires further exploration because of the acceptance–discontinuance anomaly phenomenon (i.e., users discontinuing use of SNGs after initially accepting them). The study integrates interaction and value as the antecedents of user satisfaction and flow experience; furthermore affects the SNG continuance. The results reveal the importance of flow experience, which plays a mediation role and produces indirect effects in predicting the SNGs continuance in the model. Based on the results, practical implications for SNG marketing strategies and theoretical implications will be provided.     

Connecting users to virtual worlds within MPEG-V standardization

Virtual world such as Second life and 3D internet/broadcasting services have been increasingly popular. A life-scale virtual world presentation and the intuitive interaction between the users and the virtual worlds would provide more natural and immersive experience for users. The emergence of novel interaction technologies, such as facial-expression/body-motion tracking and remote interaction for virtual object manipulation, could be used to provide a strong connection between users in the real world and avatars in the virtual world. For the wide acceptance and the use of the virtual world, various types of novel interaction devices should have a unified interaction format between the real world and the virtual world. Thus, MPEG-V Media Context and Control (ISO/IEC 23005) standardizes such connecting information. The paper provides an overview and its usage example of MPEG-V from the real world to the virtual world (R2V) on interfaces for controlling avatars and virtual objects in the virtual world by the real world devices. In particular, we investigate how the MPEG-V framework can be applied for the facial animation and hand-based 3D manipulation using intelligent camera. In addition, in order to intuitively manipulate objects in a 3D virtual environment, we present two interaction techniques using motion sensors such as a two-handed spatial 3D interaction approach and a gesture-based interaction approach.     

移动内容服务持续改善对持续使用意向影响的实证分析

With the development of intelligent termi-nals and mobile applications, the influence of continu-ous improvement on mobile content services to the continuance use intention is more and more signifi-cant. Based on the expectation-confirmation theory and information system continuance use theory, this paper proposes a mobile content continuance use model and puts forward related assumptions under the mobile commerce environment by introducing the continuous improvement variables. Questionnaire data are collected from 219 mobile content service users for research, and the hypothetical model is validated by the structural equation modeling. Results show that the information system continuance use model is still valid under the mobile commerce environment, and the continuous improvement on mobile content serv-ices have positive impacts on user's expectations after they have experienced certain mobile content services.     

Crafting a smartphone repurchase decision making process: Do brand attachment and gender matter?

In this fast changing digital era, smartphones users tend to change their smartphones regularly. Therefore, retaining existing consumers has been a challenging task for smartphone manufacturer brands. Given the status quo in smartphone industry and deficiencies in smartphone research, this study proposes a model that integrates Expectation Confirmation Model and brand attachment to shed light on smartphone repurchase decision making process. Besides, gender differences are also accounted for in the model. This study employs a two-staged approach, namely PLS-ANN, in analysing the data collected from 510 existing smartphone owners. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was firstly engaged, and followed by artificial neural network analysis. Besides, a non-parametric partial least squares multi-group analysis has also been conducted to discover gender differences in such decision making process. The results suggest that brand attachment is the most influential and relevant driver of consumers’ intention to repurchase smartphones from current brand (measured by continuance intention). Moreover, male consumers are more sensitive to the influence of brand attachment in developing their satisfaction and continuance intention, while female consumers are relying more on perceived usefulness. Interestingly, perceived usefulness does not significantly influence male consumers in continuance intention development. Practical and theoretical implications are subsequently offered.     

Effects of Mental Model and Intrinsic Motivation on Behavioral Intention of Smartphone Application Users

An application that has a simple user interface not only motivates a user to continue using the application, but also enables the user to develop their mental model for the application — the like of which is a product of their interaction with the application. In the information systems literature, little empirical research has been undertaken on the effects of the mental model and motivation on smartphone users’ behavioral beliefs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to suggest a research model that can examine the following: 1) the effects that the mental model has not only on smartphone users’ behavioral beliefs (that is, perceived usefulness and ease of use of an application) but also on their behavioral intention to use an application and 2) the effects that smartphone users’ intrinsic motivation has on their behavioral beliefs through an expansion of the mental model. A survey is conducted, and structural equation modeling is then used to analyze the survey data. The results, through consideration of variables such as intrinsic motivation, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user satisfaction, indicate that the mental model has an indirect effect on a user's intention to use an application.     

Avatar interoperability and control in virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds (VWs), and especially the ones using 3D graphics content, have been massively developed and deployed over the last few years. Technological developments, both in hardware and software, bring up significant improvements in the areas of display, graphics, animation, distributed systems, network and mobile phones technology. These improvements allow almost every user on Web 2.0 to have a representation in different VWs. In those VWs, avatars have a specific place, representing a graphical appearance of human beings and a container for the users’ specific data. Therefore, the need to reuse them across different VWs and across different platforms increases significantly.In this paper we are presenting a framework that allows interoperability of avatars between VWs. The proposed method consists of considering the avatar as a combination of a template and a set of characteristics that personalizes the template. The former, which is specific to each VW, can remain proprietary; the latter will be exchanged between the VWs. Therefore, the proposed solution is equilibrating the interests of end-users and VWs providers, allowing to not recreate an avatar for each VW and ensuring that user-defined avatars are consistent with the VW, technically- and businesswise.     

Should I scan my face? The influence of perceived value and trust on Chinese users’ intention to use facial recognition payment

While China has seen the widespread adoption of facial recognition payment, concerns over the potential risks impede the further growth of user acceptance. Drawing on the perspectives of perceived value and trust, we developed a research model to explore how the Chinese users’ trade-off between perceived benefits (perceived convenience and perceived novelty) and perceived risks (perceived privacy risk and perceived financial risk) influences their usage intention. Based on survey data from 1,200 Chinese mobile payment users, this study uses structural equation modeling to examine the hypotheses. Our results show that perceived convenience positively influences perceived value, while privacy risk and financial risk negatively influence perceived value and trust. Although perceived novelty has no significant effect on perceived value and trust, perceived value positively influences trust, and both of them have a positive effect on the intention to use. Furthermore, our moderation analysis indicates that the influence of perceived value on the intention to use is stronger among users who consider facial information to be more sensitive. The theoretical implications for research as well as the practical implications for practitioners are also discussed.     

Quantitative analysis of visibility determinations for networked virtual environments

The Area-Of-Interest (AOI) model is a simple and popular technique used in many applications to determine the region which needs to be considered and processed for each entity (e.g., user). One example application is object visibility determination around user-representing avatars in virtual environments or networked games. There exist a number of variations of the AOI model and in our prior work we have demonstrated how object-oriented visibility determination is more suitable for networked virtual environments than conventional user-oriented visibility determination. Here we extend our work to study a unified and comprehensive analytical model that reveals fundamental properties about the different visibility determination techniques under a variety of virtual environment settings. We also present what the best operational scenarios are for each different approach. Although our discussion and analytical results are focused on the visibility domain, the arguments and conclusions can be extended to various applications or services where spatial attributes are required.     

The media event [virtual reality]

The author describes how virtual reality-and its ability to immerse users in interactive three-dimensional worlds-was presented as amazing and miraculous, both a salvation and a danger by the media in the USA. He describes how one effect of the media attention has been a broadening of the definition of virtual reality. Initially used only for systems with helmet displays and control gloves that fully immersed users in interactive worlds, the term is now used to describe everything from augmented reality (looking through a display at the real world but with some computer information superimposed on it) to telepresence (remotely controlling a robotic device) to three-dimensional movies     

I,Chatbot: Modeling the determinants of users’ satisfaction and continuance intention of AI-powered service agents

Chatbots are mainly text-based conversational agents that simulate conversations with users. This study aims to investigate drivers of users’ satisfaction and continuance intention toward chatbot-based customer service. We propose an analytical framework combining the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), information system success (ISS) model, TAM, and the need for interaction with a service employee (NFI-SE). Analysis of data collected from 370 actual chatbot users reveals that information quality (IQ) and service quality (SQ) positively influence consumers’ satisfaction, and that perceived enjoyment (PE), perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived ease of use (PEOU) are significant predictors of continuance intention (CI). The need for interaction with an employee moderates the effects of PEOU and PU on satisfaction. The findings also revealed that satisfaction with chatbot e-service is a strong determinant and predictor of users’ CI toward chatbots. Thus, chatbots should enhance their information and service quality to increase users’ satisfaction. The findings imply that digital technologies services, such as chatbots, could be combined with human service employees to satisfy digital users.     

A meta-analysis of IT continuance: An evaluation of the expectation-confirmation model

Research on information technology (IT) continuance has gained considerable momentum in the recent years. The expectation-confirmation model of IT continuance has been applied across different contexts to explain users’ continuance intentions and behaviors. While many empirical findings support the model’s hypotheses, still, there are others that do not. This meta-analysis used aggregated data extracted from 51 primary studies to investigate the strength of the model relationships and determine their validity. The study lends support for all of the relationships, finds evidence to suggest the presence of moderators, and offers directions for future research.     

Face to virtual face

The first virtual humans appeared in the early 1980s in such films as Dreamflight (1982) and The Juggler (1982). Pioneering work in the ensuing period focused on realistic appearance in the simulation of virtual humans. In the 1990s, the emphasis has shifted to real-time animation and interaction in virtual worlds. Virtual humans have begun to inhabit virtual worlds and so have we. To prepare our place in the virtual world we first develop techniques for the automatic representation of a human face capable of being animated in real time using both video and audio input. The objective is for one's representative to look, talk, and behave like oneself in the virtual world. Furthermore, the virtual inhabitants of this world should be able to see our avatars and to react to what we say and to the emotions we convey. We sketch an overview of the problems related to the analysis and synthesis of face-to-virtual-face communication in a virtual world. We describe different components of our system for real-time interaction and communication between a cloned face representing a real person and an autonomous virtual face. It provides an insight into the various problems and gives particular solutions adopted in reconstructing a virtual clone capable of reproducing the shape and movements of the real person's face. It includes the analysis of the facial expression and speech of the cloned face, which can be used to elicit a response from the autonomous virtual human with both verbal and nonverbal facial movements synchronized with the audio voice     

The role of affordance in the experience of virtual reality learning: Technological and affective affordances in virtual reality

As virtual reality becomes more and more mainstream, the role of affordances in virtual environments becomes an important question. The goal of this study is to explicate users’ motivational affordances and examine how they influence the acceptance of a virtual reality learning environment (VLE). It examines how motivational affordances in an educational virtual reality (VR) system affect user experience to track and achieve goals for users. A multimixed approach was used by combining qualitative methods and a quantitative survey. First, a critical incident technique was used to explore a range of affordance factors related to VLE. Second, based on the affordance factors identified from the qualitative methods, a survey was conducted to examine the effects of affordance on user cognitive processes and the influence of affordance on the learning process. The results of the user model confirmed the heuristic role of presence and immersion affordance regarding their underlying link to educational affordances, such as empathy and embodied cognition. The findings imply the embodied cognition process of VLE in which technological qualities are shaped by users’ perception and context. The results establish a foundation for VR technologies through a heuristic assessment tool from a user-embodied cognitive process. They confirm the validity and utility of applying affordances to the design of VR as a useful concept and prove that the optimum mix of affordances is crucial to the success of VR design.