Determinants of users’ intention to adopt m-commerce: an empirical analysis

The fast-growing penetration of mobile devices and recent advances in mobile technologies have led to the development of increasingly sophisticated services such as m-shopping for goods or services and m-payment. However, although the number of mobile subscribers is increasing, levels of actual m-commerce activities in many cases remain low. Determining what influences users’ intention to use m-commerce is therefore of growing importance. The purpose of this study was to investigate possible factors. To this aim, we developed a conceptual user adoption model based on technology acceptance model variables and on specific factors such as social influence, personal innovativeness, customization, and individual mobility. The empirical results show that social influence and customization significantly affect perceived usefulness; mobility, customization, and personal innovativeness significantly affect perceived ease of use; and perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have a direct positive effect on behavioral intention.     

Suspended because of social media? Students’ knowledge and opinions of university social media policies and practices

In this exploratory study, we examined undergraduates’ (N = 298) knowledge of their university’s social media policies, understanding of free speech and privacy protections, opinions about university monitoring and discipline for personal social media posts, and perceptions of fairness regarding recent cases of student discipline for personal social media use. The results of our study indicate that most undergraduates are highly underinformed as to whether or not their university has a social media policy, particularly if the students are early in their academic careers and do not engage in many online privacy protection behaviors. Most participants were also misinformed as to whether free speech and/or privacy protections will shield them from university discipline. In addition, most participants (78%) were opposed to the idea of universities monitoring students’ personal social media accounts, though significantly fewer (68%) were opposed to monitoring student athletes’ social media. Finally, when asked about several recent cases involving student discipline, most participants were generally opposed to a variety of university disciplinary actions regarding students’ social media posts. We discuss these findings as they relate to the need for better social media policy training for students, as well as the potential impact on students’ academic and future careers.     

The influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions: An extended approach to information adoption

Social media websites have created valuable opportunities for electronic word of mouth (eWOM) conversations. People are now able to discuss products and services of brands with their friends and acquaintances. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of these conversations in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed based on the integration of Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related components of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The new model, which is named as Information Acceptance Model (IACM), was validated through structural equation modelling (SEM) based on surveys of 384 university students who use social media websites. The results confirm that quality, credibility, usefulness and adoption of information, needs of information and attitude towards information are the key factors of eWOM in social media that influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as recommendations for further research.     

Using social media to enrich information systems field trip experiences: Students’ satisfaction and continuance intentions

A well-designed field trip can promote active learning and reinforce classroom materials. Few studies have examined the potential for social media to enhance IS field trip experiences by promoting active and collaborative learning. One major barrier to the exploitation of this potential is the lack of the adoption of social media by students as a learning tool to enhance field trip experiences. Therefore, the first task is to understand how to increase the satisfaction of students in their use of social media to enhance IS field trips. This research sets out to understand the factors that could help increase students’ satisfaction with the use of social media to enhance IS field trips, and thereby their intentions to continue to use social media in future field trips. The results show that to increase user satisfaction, course instructors should ensure that students perceive the social media sites used for enhancing field trip study to be trustworthy, effortless, useful and accepted by their peers. Future research could determine how we can incorporate the use of social media to enhance the field trip learning experience.     

How social media influence college students’ smoking attitudes and intentions

Building on the influence of presumed influence (IPI) model, this study examines how smoking-related messages on social media influence college students’ smoking. We surveyed 366 college students from three U.S. Midwestern universities in 2012 and examined the effects of expression and reception of smoking-related messages on smoking using path analysis. We found that the expression and reception of prosmoking messages not only directly affected smoking but also had indirect effects on smoking through (1) perceived peer expression of prosmoking messages and (2) perceived peer smoking norms. For antismoking messages, only reception had a significant indirect influence on smoking through (1) perceived peer reception of antismoking messages and (2) perceived peer smoking norms. In conclusion, social media function as an effective communication channel for generating, sharing, receiving, and commenting on smoking-related content and are thus influential on college students’ smoking.     

Determinants of employees’ intention to exert pressure on firms to engage in web accessibility

Web accessibility can help reduce the digital divide between persons with disabilities and the web by providing easy access to information on the Internet. Providing web accessibility can be an important element that manifests a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees can play a vital role in this process. This paper examines how employees can impact a firm's decision to fulfil their CSR regarding web accessibility. We propose that employees’ intention to exert pressure on a firm is primarily influenced by three psychological needs, namely need for control, need for belonging, and need for meaningful existence. Additionally, perceived importance of CSR moderates the relationship between need for meaningful existence and intention. We empirically test the research model using data collected from 106 Chinese employees. The results suggest that for employees to pressure their firms to improve the accessibility of their websites, it is imperative to enhance their perceived importance of web accessibility, and their need for belonging and for a meaningful existence. We present the theoretical and managerial implications arising from our findings.     

The moderating role of enterprise social media functionalities on employees’ social-related use during work time

Enterprise social media (ESM) has blurred employees’ work–life distinction; however, limited research has investigated the impact of social-related ESM use during work time and the management measures. We propose such use consumes employees’ work resources. Our survey of a research and development company in China confirms that such use decreases individuals’ collaboration and increases information overload, harming work performance. To mitigate the negative influence, we focus on ESM functionalities, conceptualize the action possibilities permitted by functionalities as attention regulation affordance, and investigate the moderating role of the affordance actualization. The results revealed that affordance actualization reduces negative ESM use effects.     

Transferring auditors’ internal control evaluation knowledge to management

Due to both regulatory and competitive forces, attention to an organization's internal controls has increased significantly in the 1990s. Although management is ultimately responsible for ensuring internal controls are adequate, managers often lack knowledge of internal control concepts. This study reports on an experiment testing an expert system developed to facilitate the transfer of internal control knowledge to management. Experimental results indicate that expert systems are viable aids for transferring internal control knowledge to managers whose work experience is outside of accounting and control systems.     

Understanding the intentions of users to ‘stick’ to social networking sites: a case study in Taiwan

Social networking sites (SNSs) are the most popular social platforms for developing personal networks. They provide multiple interactive functions for users to create and use large social networks. To determine why people exhibit ‘stickiness’ to SNSs, this study uses the uses and gratifications theory as an underlying structure and builds the research model with factors of motivational needs and interactivity. Our results showed that social needs, information needs, human–message interaction, and human–human interaction are crucial factors that affect the ‘stickiness’ of users to SNSs. The implications of these findings are presented in this paper.     

Examination of the factors that influence the technological adoption intentions of tomorrow’s new media producers: A longitudinal exploration

In a world awash with digital media, employers in mass communication professions are increasingly searching for and hiring employees with both traditional and new media production skills. As such, post-secondary institutions have, en masse, begun to incorporate instruction on multimedia production into their curricula. Despite this widespread integration of new media into coursework, administrators, instructors, and students are still searching for best practices as they relate to efficient and effective delivery of instruction. In light of such needs, this study used the technological acceptance model and structural equation modeling to explore, on a longitudinal basis, the psychological factors that influence mass communication students’ adoption of new media production technologies. Our results demonstrated that subjective, normative influences play an increasingly powerful role in student adoption decisions over time. Furthermore, the data indicated that usefulness perceptions were the strongest predictor of student decisions to adopt new media production technologies.     

Predictors of job seekers’ self-disclosure on social media

Social media-based screening is a well-known practice to both recruiters and job seekers. Little is known, however, about how job seekers present themselves on social media, i.e. ‘self-disclosure’, for employment purposes. This study builds on the theories of hyperpersonal computer-mediated communication, self-efficacy and social exchange to examine job seekers’ professional online image concerns, social media self-efficacy, and perceptions of social media effectiveness in the job search as predictors of inappropriate and career-oriented self-disclosures on these media. Findings from a sample of 3374 Italian respondents showed that career-oriented self-disclosure was predicted by all three factors, whereas inappropriate self-disclosure was only predicted by social media self-efficacy. Furthermore, the relationship between professional online image concerns and inappropriate self-disclosure was moderated by age, education and work experience, but not by gender. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

How social media usage affects employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention: An empirical study in China

Social media are frequently used in enterprises for both work-related and non-work-related (social) purposes. Drawing on the organizational commitment theory, we developed a research model to explore how different purposes of social media usage affect employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention in the Chinese context. Online and offline surveys were conducted in China, generating 298 valid responses for analysis. The results suggest that the following: (1) work-related and social-related social media usage positively affects employees’ organizational commitment through their organizational engagement; (2) social media usage improves job satisfaction and reduces employees’ turnover intention through improving their engagement and organizational commitment; and (3) in the process of social media usage influencing employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention, employees of different genders show significant differences.     

Employees’ proactiveness on enterprise social media and social consequences: An integrated perspective of social network and social exchange theories

This study delves into how employee proactiveness on enterprise social media can influence social outcomes at work, both positively and negatively. Drawing on social network and social exchange theories, we develop a model to understand how virtual proactiveness is perceived by leaders and coworkers. Using a round-robin design, we collected data from 281 respondents in 56 teams across three waves. The results show that affiliative and challenging proactiveness positively relate to leader-member and team-member exchanges. However, challenging proactiveness negatively affects team-member exchange, potentially leading to coworker envy. These findings shed light on the intricate social dynamics in remote working environments.     

Reflection of people’s professions on social media platforms

Neural Computing and Applications - John Holland asserts that most people are one of the six personality types such as realistic, social, investigative, entrepreneurial, traditional, and artistic....     

Demystifying ‘selfie’: a rampant social media activity

‘Selfie’, the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2013, has been gaining popularity as a global phenomenon and its usage is growing with technological advancements in front-facing cameras and photo-editing software. Earlier studies hold a lopsided view of either criticising selfies as ‘vain’ and ‘narcissist’ or appreciate them as ‘feel good’ for ‘positive identity formation’. The current study intends to take a fresh look at the act and explores reasons and motivators of young college students in India, as they take selfies and traces the usage pattern and its likely relationship with the motivators of selfie-taking. Qualitative data were gathered through a focused group discussion conducted among graduate students with an average of 23.5 years who volunteered to participate in the discussion. Results show that male and female students have varying reasons for taking selfies and it is often an act of fun and assertion of one’s right to ‘self-depiction’. Selfies have a life-cycle which ends after they receive reviews on the social media platform. Results from the study can aid policy-makers in India and theoretically add to the nascent field of literature in the area.     

Is the social use of media for seeking connectedness or for avoiding social isolation? Mechanisms underlying media use and subjective well-being

This study provides a resolution for two contrasting hypotheses around media use, the augmentation and the displacement hypotheses. To do this, we conducted an online survey of 300 Korean adults examining the relationships among the social use of media, face-to-face communication, social isolation, connectedness, and subjective well-being. The results indicate that connectedness, not avoiding social isolation, mediates the effects of the social use of media on subjective well-being. On the other hand, both connectedness and avoiding social isolation mediate the effects of face-to-face communication on subjective well-being. These results suggest that the social use of media is limited to seeking connectedness to others, whereas face-to-face communication can facilitate avoiding social isolation as well as seeking connectedness, which can explain why the two contrasting hypothesis, the augmentation and the displacement hypotheses, can be right. In the domain of seeking connectedness, media can augment face-to-face communication. On the other hand, in the domain of avoiding social isolation, media may displace face-to-face communication.     

A case study-based investigation of students’ experiences with social software tools

The term “social software” covers a range of tools which allow users to interact and share data with other users, primarily via the web. Blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking websites are some of the tools that are being used in educational, social and business contexts. We have examined the use of social software in the UK further and higher education to collect evidence of the effective use of social software in student learning and engagement. We applied case study methodology involving educators and students from 26 initiatives. In this paper, we focus on the student experience: educational goals of using social software; benefits to the students; and the challenges they experience. Our investigations have shown that social software supports a variety of ways of learning: sharing of resources; collaborative learning; problem-based and inquiry-based learning; and reflective learning. Students gain transferable skills of team working, negotiation, communication and managing digital identities. Although these tools enhance a student's sense of community, the need to share and collaborate brings in additional responsibility and workload, which some students find inflexible and “forced”. Our findings show that students have concerns about usability, privacy and the public nature of social software tools for academic activities.     

Determinants of students’ continuance intention to use blogs to learn: an empirical investigation

This study examines factors influencing students’ continuance intention to use blogs to learn in an undergraduate-level course. The research uses constructs from relevant theoretical frameworks, including the technology acceptance model, social cognitive theory, innovation diffusion theory, and expectation–confirmation model. A survey administered to 108 university students in a Canadian university was analysed using the partial least squares technique. The results show that perceived usefulness and perceived compatibility have positive effects on students’ attitudes towards blog use; perceived ease of use did not. Perceived compatibility, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived support for enhancing social ties with blogs have significant effects on the positive impacts of learning with such tools. Attitude and positive impacts of learning with blogs influence satisfaction with blog use. Both attitude and satisfaction are determinants of students’ continuance intention to use blogs to learn. Satisfaction with blog use is the main predictor of continued use intention.     

The effects of social media posts’ characteristics on customer engagement: Evidence from WeChat

Many companies are using social media as emerging marketing channels in hopes of encouraging engagement by customers. This study explored the effect of multiple social media post cues on customer engagement. By distinguishing WeChat posts’ characteristics into outer- and inner-layer features, the findings suggest that outer-layer features (title linguistic vividness and top position) have positive effects on reads, and inner-layer features (post vividness and containing user-generated content) encouraged more likes, shares, and comments. In addition, by assigning post contents into sales and non-sales-related categories, we found the former attracts more comments and the latter is more helpful in promoting likes and shares. Further, within sales-related posts, storytelling category will receive more likes, whereas functional category boosts the number of shares.     

Understanding online consumers’ purchase intentions: a contribution from social network theory

There is a dynamic and interconnected international setting shaped by the power of the Internet and social media. To gain more consumers, understand their behaviours and needs, and maintain closest relationships with them, businesses should understand how consumers behave in social media and how they vary in their purchase intentions. In the scope of the study, we integrate the social network theory and the theory of planned behaviour to analyse online consumers’ purchase intentions and to investigate their structural positions by analysing their friendships in social networks. We target Twitter users to conduct analysis due to Twitter's popularity in use, market penetration, and opportunity to work with open-source data. This study contributes to a better theoretical understanding of online consumers’ purchase intentions by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives. It expands the literature by considering both online consumers’ friendship network in Twitter and their individual online purchasing intentions. The study also guides e-marketers to design proper strategies for potential and current consumers and target the right sets of people in the social networks.