User incentive mechanism in blockchain-based online community: An empirical study of steemit

The rise of blockchain technology has brought innovations in various business domains and spawned a new form of organization—the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Steemit is recognized as one of the earliest blockchain-based online communities, and a typical example of DAO. By endowing community members with new roles, the decentralization of blockchain-based communities brings changes to the design of user incentive mechanisms. However, few studies have paid attention to the user incentive mechanism when users play the dual roles of social participant and community owner. On the basis of social capital theory and psychological ownership theory, this study explores Steemit's incentive mechanism by evaluating the impact of these dual roles on user active participation behavior. The study adopts a two-way fixed effect negative binomial regression to test the research model. The results show that users’ social capital, share capital, social feedback, and economic feedback positively affect their active participation behavior. At the same time, social feedback and economic feedback play moderating roles on the effects of the dual capitals. Overall, this research provides both theoretical insights and practical implications for understanding, designing, and governing blockchain-based online communities.     

Branding with social media: User gratifications,usage patterns,and brand message content strategies

The emergence of social media provides a new platform for developing brand–consumer relationships. The aim of the current study is to examine the differences in Chinese users’ gratifications of different social media and the impact of brand content strategies on the quality of brand–consumer communication via social media. In the first study, 209 SNS and 161 microblog users were surveyed. Five dimensions of social media gratifications emerged from the factor analysis. Significant differences in the strengths of gratifications were found between SNS and microblog users. Usage patterns of SNS and microblog are analyzed and compared. In the second study, we examined the impact of users’ gratification and the type of social media on the effectiveness of different brand content strategies through a two-week experiment involving 60 SNS users and 61 microblog users. Implications for developing branding strategies on different social media platforms 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.     

Understanding online regret experience in Facebook use – Effects of brand participation,accessibility & problematic use

The past few years have witnessed the emergence of research examining online regret experience. The presence of online regret generates negative use experience and even leads to service switching and discontinuity. However, to date, only limited research has examined the conceptualization of this new yet very important phenomenon in the field of technology use. To address this research gap, the present study has examined the relative influence of SNS brand participation, technology accessibility attributes (including Facebook usage parameters) and problematic Facebook use in predicting regret experience regarding Facebook use. A pen-and-paper cross-sectional survey was administered to 804 adolescent Facebook users (aged 13–18 years). The study results suggest that adolescent users with varying technology accessibility did not differ in their online regret experience, but excessive Facebook users and those actively participating in brand communities tended to experience higher regret. Other findings suggest that two variables, namely parents’ perceptions of problematic Facebook use and conflict with friends due to Facebook use, were significant predictors of online regret experience. This study presents different theoretical and practical implications for both research and practice.     

Perceptions of overuse,underuse, and change of use of a social media site: definition,measurement instrument,and their managerial impacts

Drawing on the person-environment fit model, this study investigates a user’s perceptions towards his/her online contacts’ overuse, underuse, and change of use of a social media site (SMS). A new instrument for measuring these perceptions is introduced. Using depersonalisation and continuance as an example, we test how the relationship between a user and an SMS can be impacted by his/her online contacts’ peculiar usage of the SMS. A survey-based methodology is used to collect data from Facebook users. The data analysis shows that a user is likely to feel estranged from an SMS, if he/she perceives that the website is being overused, underused, or used for non-social purposes by his/her online contacts. The depersonalisation can then have a strong negative effect on the user’s SMS continuance. This study takes the interpersonal influences between users into consideration when investigating a user’s relationship with an SMS. The findings can provide several practical implications for an SMS user retention management.     

How to unite the power of the masses? Exploring collective stickiness intention in social network sites from the perspective of knowledge sharing

This study aims to investigate users’ knowledge-sharing intention and collective stickiness intention towards social network sites (SNS). SNS offer an opportunity for users to interact and form relationships, while knowledge is accrued by integrating users’ information, experience, and practice. However, there have been few systematic studies that question why people use SNS to share knowledge. We adopt social capital theory, social identity theory, as well as use and gratification theory, to explore the determinants of members’ knowledge-sharing intention in using SNS. The survey was conducted on two education virtual communities (VCs) on Facebook, of which most members were teachers and educators. Data analysis was executed to validate our research model, and SmartPLS was used to analyse users’ collective stickiness intention. The results show that social capital and social identity have an impact on teachers’ knowledge-sharing intention, which, in turn, influences collective stickiness intention towards SNS. Our findings can not only help researchers interpret why members share their knowledge in VCs, but can assist practitioners in developing better SNS strategies as well.     

Simulation analysis of prefetching image content for social networking service framework

In this paper, we analyze a prefetching mechanism for image content in social networking services (SNS) based on content writers that attract a user’s interest. Our prefetching scheme aims to shorten transmission delays and enhance the accessibility to big size images included in SNS content items. The prefetching scheme deals with users of interest instead of the content of interest. Whenever a user downloads new SNS content, his/her client then prefetches the original high-resolution images uploaded by writers of interest to the user. The performance simulations show that the prefetching scheme is well suited if the user’s access pattern is highly skewed to a few number of content writers, and that the prefetching scheme gives users high-quality images without significant increase of access delay.

     

Factors affecting the smartphone users to use the mobile portal services: focusing on Korean mobile portals

This study aims to clarify whether and how the portal sites in wired Internet environments can enhance their positions as market leaders in the mobile environment.The result may explain that the user’s trust in the mobile services of portal sites (the mobile portal services) is related to the site’s quality and the site’s brand equity significantly and is a mediator to increase the user’s intention to use mobile portal services. This study also explains that the user’s experience with a smartphone can encourage portal users to expect that the mobile portal services are useful and that the experience can link brand equity in certain business environments to trust in the brand in other business environments. Site quality including the design quality of portal sites can affect the user’s trust in the mobile services of the portal sites directly and can affect the user’s intention to use the mobile portal services under certain conditions. Practically, this study suggests that portal sites should focus on designing and developing more usable sites with high-quality UI components—convenient menu navigation, a proper UI design, and usable content rather depend on their current position as the leading companies in the wired Internet environment.     

Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non‐Users of Social Network Sites

Are there systematic differences between people who use social network sites and those who stay away, despite a familiarity with them? Based on data from a survey administered to a diverse group of young adults, this article looks at the predictors of SNS usage, with particular focus on Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, and Friendster. Findings suggest that use of such sites is not randomly distributed across a group of highly wired users. A person’s gender, race and ethnicity, and parental educational background are all associated with use, but in most cases only when the aggregate concept of social network sites is disaggregated by service. Additionally, people with more experience and autonomy of use are more likely to be users of such sites. Unequal participation based on user background suggests that differential adoption of such services may be contributing to digital inequality.     

RoleVR: Multi-experience in immersive virtual reality between co-located HMD and non-HMD users

In this study, we present RoleVR, which can provide a similar high level of presence and multi experience for co-located head-mounted display (HMD) and Non-HMD users in an asymmetric virtual reality (VR) environment. The core of RoleVR is distinguishing the difference between the asymmetric environments (in terms of the system and the experience) of HMD and Non-HMD users to design optimized roles for these users. Here, we assign HMD user with spatial role that maximizes the sense of space based on three-dimensional visual information, and we assign Non-HMD user with temporal role in which they take control of communication and action, and understand the overall situation according to the flow of time. We also design an interaction for walking and a hand interface to enhance presence. This is achieved by understanding the user’s role, thereby improving the immersion. Finally, we created an asymmetric VR application that considers the interaction between roles and performed survey-based experiments to verify the basic presence and multi-experience of users in RoleVR. Through this process, we confirmed that RoleVR provides satisfactory presence for co-located HMD and Non-HMD users, and a variety of experiences specialized for each role.

     

Flow in context: Development and validation of the flow experience instrument for social networking

Flow theory is a popular theoretical framework for understanding the underpinnings of the prolonged use of information systems. While there has been an increasing interest in examining flow experience during nearly four decades, the concept of flow still suffers from various limitations concerning its use as a measurable construct in empirical research. To address these limitations, the present study developed a 26-item instrument for examining flow experience in the domain of social networking services. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 804 Facebook users. The development and validation process consisted of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, second-order factor analysis, and examination of instrument validity and reliability. The developed instrument represents six components of flow experience: skill, machine interaction, social interaction, playfulness, concentration and enjoyment. The developed instrument possesses good model fit and high validity and reliability. This paper discusses the uses and limitations of the instrument in the examination of users' experiences of social networking services, and suggests avenues for future research on the topic with a special focus on research on user-centric innovations in online service.     

Interactive Behavior of an Immigrant Group on Mobile Instant Messenger-Based SNS: Textual Research on Topic-Centered Interactivity

This article outlines a study on user interaction behavior in a KakaoTalk chat room group that was formed by Chinese immigrant women in South Korea. To study the interaction of mobile instant messenger-based social network services (MIM SNS) users, this study adopted a textual research method based on the perspective of topic-centered interactivity. The study analyzed the correlativity between SNS users’ online frequency triggered by demand-induced motivation and content-induced motivation and characterized the topics of users with different activeness in the behaviors of proposing and responding to topics. The results of this study not only provide constructive references for practitioners on the issue of how to use the SNS of immigrants to exert their sociality and usability in the dissemination of immigration policies and the social management of immigrants, but also confirm the operability and value of the methods used in this study.     

Factors influencing the social networking service user’s value perception and word of mouth decision of corporate post with special reference to the emotional attachment

This study deals with the subjects considering the social networking service (SNS) user’s ‘social knowledge value perception’, and ‘decision to word of mouth (WOM) of the corporate SNS post’. Cases of corporate management and marketing utilizing SNS have been increasing recently. Therefore researcher is trying to confirm the SNS user’s value perception of social knowledge has an effect on the decision of the word of mouth and information sharing of the corporate post. In addition, researcher has determined that the person in charge of the company is to make the management and this is very important. Thus, researcher has proposed a research model of the social knowledge value perception and WOM decision variable, include several precedents variables of user’s personal value factors like an emotional attachment, self-esteem, self exposure. Results of this study, the SNS user has recognized the value of social knowledge through the emotional and personal factors. And it was found to decided WOM by the mediating its perception. This was supported in the same way comparisons between groups. These results have an implication, that there is need to managing a service company to make the business and marketing the SNS is in mind the emotional and personal factors and the social knowledge recognition of the SNS user. That is person in charge of the corporate SNS site must understand the relationship of WOM decision of user and their various perception in personal and social sides. As a result, active minority user group deliver actively positive corporate message to a large number of other user groups. Therefore, the utilization of the SNS like these method, it is expected to become an important tool in order to carry out marketing activities and management of the company. Researcher confirmed the model fits and paths analysis of personal and social value factor model through the structural equation modeling. Researcher could identify that the emotional attachment and other personal factors and social knowledge value perception factors affected the WOM decision of social media corporate post. Finally, the results of study are expected to contribute to deal with the importance of emotional perception, social knowledge value perception, and WOM decision of SNS practically.     

Psychological empowerment and user satisfaction: Investigating the influences of online brand community participation

The exponential growth of online brand communities has created a platform where empowered consumers can share knowledge and experiences and participate in community activities. Drawing from psychological empowerment theory, this study proposes a comprehensive framework integrating both social and functional views to investigate the determinants that enhance psychological empowerment and user satisfaction, which consequently influence online brand community participation. By shedding light on the explanatory path routes and highlighting the underexplored and distinctive role of psychological empowerment, this study provides theoretical contributions to illustrate how an enabling environment can be cultivated to drive consumer participation in brand value co-creation.     

Discovering target groups in social networking sites: An effective method for maximizing joint influential power

With the tremendous popularity of social networking sites in this era of Web 2.0, increasingly more users are contributing their comments and opinions about products, people, organizations, and many other entities. These online comments often have direct influence on consumers’ buying decisions and the public’s impressions of enterprises. As a result, enterprises have begun to explore the feasibility of using social networking sites as platforms to conduct targeted marking and enterprise reputation management for e-commerce and e-business. As indicated from recent marketing research, the joint influential power of a small group of active users could have considerable impact on a large number of consumers’ buying decisions and the public’s perception of the capabilities of enterprises. This paper illustrates a novel method that can effectively discover the most influential users from social networking sites (SNS). In particular, the general method of mining the influence network from SNS and the computational models of mathematical programming for discovering the user groups with max joint influential power are proposed. The empirical evaluation with real data extracted from social networking sites shows that the proposed method can effectively identify the most influential groups when compared to the benchmark methods. This study opens the door to effectively conducting targeted marketing and enterprise reputation management on social networking sites.     

Exploring sustained participation in firm-hosted communities in China: the effects of social capital and active degree

Firm-hosted online communities are user-centred, and their efficacy depends on the users’ sustained participation. This study investigated the impact of social capital on users’ continued usage intention. Specifically, since very little work has been done to explore the antecedents of social capital, we tested the role of operator-related and individual-related factors in cultivating social capital by proposing an integrated research model to fill this gap. Furthermore, to gain deeper insights into continuance intention, we postulate that active degree moderates the relationship between social capital and users’ continued usage intention. Our model is empirically examined using survey data collected from 373 members of a well-known firm-hosted online community in China. The results reveal that the firm’s reaction, offline activities, interaction support, seeking reputation and perceived enjoyment are the significant antecedents of social capital. Additionally, social tie and shared vision exert a stronger effect on continued usage intention for active users, whereas identification has a higher influence on continued usage intention for inactive users. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and provides possible directions for future research.     

A tie strength based model to socially-enhance applications and its enabling implementation: mySocialSphere

The growing omnipresence of the Social Web and the increasingly number of services in the Cloud have created a favourable atmosphere to develop socially-enhanced services, that is, services which are aware of the social dimension of the users to improve their experience in the Cloud. This paper introduces a model and an architecture for socially-enhanced services by mining interaction information across different Social Web sites. Most of the existing social applications require knowing who are the users socially-linked to each individual by exploring topological connections in social networks or, even, calculating the interactions network that underlies social sites. However these approaches are, on the one hand, hardly scalable when the number of users grows in the interaction network and, on the other hand, tightly coupled to the social application and so hardly reusable. The key contribution of this paper is a user-centred model whose goal is not to infer the aforementioned interaction network, but to build users’ social spheres. That is, assessing the strength and the context of the user’s ties by using signs of interaction available from social sites APIs (private messages, retweets, mentions, …) with user’s permission. To this aim, contrary to previous approaches, we take into account (i) different interaction types and contexts, (ii) the time in which interactions occur, (iii) the people involved in them and (iv) the interactions rhythms with the rest of user’s contacts. A prototype of this service has been implemented in order to, not only validate the tie strength model, but also to deploy some pilot experiences.     

Multi-homing on SNSs: The role of optimum stimulation level and perceived complementarity in need gratification

Given the increasingly intense competition for social networking sites (SNSs), ensuring sustainable growth in user base has emerged as a critical issue for SNS operators. Contrary to the common belief that SNS users are committed to using one SNS, anecdotal evidence suggests that most users use multiple SNSs simultaneously. This study attempts to understand this phenomenon of users’ multi-homing on SNSs. Building upon optimum stimulation level (OSL) theory, uses and gratifications theory, and literature on choice complementarity, a theoretical model for investigating SNS users’ multi-homing intention is proposed. An analysis of survey data collected from 383 SNS users shows that OSL positively affects users’ perceived complementarity between different SNSs in gratifying their four facets of needs, namely, interpersonal communication, self-presentation, information, and entertainment. Among the four dimensions of perceived complementarity, only interpersonal communication and information aspects significantly affect users’ intention to multi-home on SNSs. The results from this study offer theoretical and practical implications for understanding and managing users’ multi-homing use of SNSs.     

Individual characteristics influencing the sharing of knowledge on social networking services: online identity,self-efficacy,and knowledge sharing intentions

ABSTRACT

Social media have become an important place for individuals with similar interests to exchange opinions and share resources. Ubiquitous collaborative learning environments in SNS have great educational and organisational potential and offer a platform for sharing knowledge. Rising interest in personal factors in knowledge management research calls for a better understanding of how knowledge is shared in SNS-based collaborative learning. Grounded on the theories of planned behaviour and social identity, this study investigates individual characteristics that affect the sharing of knowledge in SNS learning communities. The study also examines whether intent to share knowledge mediates those personal characteristics and sharing of knowledge. Eighty individuals from five active Facebook groups participated in this study. The findings indicate that individual characteristics, such as online personal identity, web-specific self-efficacy, and knowledge-creation self-efficacy significantly predict sharing of knowledge. In addition, intent to share knowledge mediates between the sharing of knowledge and online identity, web-specific self-efficacy, or knowledge-creation self-efficacy. The results reveal a need for customised support and environmental design focusing on online personal identity, web-specific self-efficacy, knowledge-creation self-efficacy, and intent to share knowledge in a knowledge-sharing community on SNS. Implications for the SNS communities and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites

As the number of messages and social relationships embedded in social networking sites (SNS) increases, the amount of social information demanding a reaction from individuals increases as well. We observe that, as a consequence, SNS users feel they are giving too much social support to other SNS users. Drawing on social support theory (SST), we call this negative association with SNS usage ‘social overload’ and develop a latent variable to measure it. We then identify the theoretical antecedents and consequences of social overload and evaluate the social overload model empirically using interviews with 12 and a survey of 571 Facebook users. The results show that extent of usage, number of friends, subjective social support norms, and type of relationship (online-only vs offline friends) are factors that directly contribute to social overload while age has only an indirect effect. The psychological and behavioral consequences of social overload include feelings of SNS exhaustion by users, low levels of user satisfaction, and a high intention to reduce or even stop using SNS. The resulting theoretical implications for SST and SNS acceptance research are discussed and practical implications for organizations, SNS providers, and SNS users are drawn.