For it is in giving that we receive: Investigating gamers’ gifting behaviour in online games

Social interactions in online games have led gamers to form lasting social relationships. This has caused a tremendous increase in gift-giving on online gaming platforms. This study aims to identify factors that impact gamers’ gifting behaviour in online games. A conceptual framework is developed by incorporating the Social Identity Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Theory of Planned Behaviour. This study adopts a quantitative research methodology that collects data from 404 Clash of Clans gamers. The findings show that gaming team identification and compliance with gaming team norms are positively associated with gaming team commitment. Gifting reciprocity, pleasure, relationship support, and convenience were positively associated with the perceived worth of gift-giving while perceived cost was negatively associated. Gaming team commitment, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and perceived worth were positively associated with online game gifting intention. It was also found that gifting behaviour is an immediate consequence of gifting intention in online games. This paper contributes to the under-researched literature on gifting behaviour in online games. It provides novel insights into gamers’ gifting behaviour that can allow game developers to enhance revenue by increasing the sale of virtual in-game items.     

Impact of avatar identification on online gamer loyalty: Perspectives of social identity and social capital theories

Online games have created significant opportunities for electronic commerce managers. The degree to which online gamers regard their avatars—their gaming representations— as themselves is known to be influential to gamers’ behavior but little is known about how such identification impacts online gamer loyalty (i.e., gamers’ continued intention to play). This study filled this gap by developing its research framework from the perspective of the social identity theory and the social capital theory. Responses from 1384 online gamers were collected, and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The analytical results indicate that avatar identification (the degree to which users regard avatars as themselves) is positively related to participation in gaming communities and social presence (the degree of awareness of other persons and interpersonal relationships). These were further positively related to online gamer loyalty. This study is the first using the two theories, i.e., the social identity and social capital theoretical perspectives, to clarify the mechanism underlying the impact of avatar identification on online gamer loyalty, assisting electronic commerce managers to create a loyal user base.     

How online gamers’ participation fosters their team commitment: Perspective of social identity theory

Online games are highly popular applications. While online gamers actively participate in gaming teams, no study has yet explored whether gamers have sufficient teamwork knowledge and have accumulated sufficient team participation experience. These likely strengthen team commitment, but we do not know, indicating a research gap. Research filling this gap could shed light on useful means for enhancing gamers’ team commitment. Grounded in social identity theory, we theorize the mechanism that links gamers’ overall gaming team participation experience and overall gaming teamwork knowledge to their team commitment. We collect two-wave data from 344 online gamers that have played massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and use structural equation modelling for data analysis. We find that overall team participation experience is positively related to gaming team identification, while overall teamwork knowledge is positively related to compliance with gaming team norms. Both team identification and norm compliance are positively related to gaming team commitment. This study is the first to clarify the mechanism underlying the impacts of overall gaming team participation experience and overall gaming teamwork knowledge on gamers’ team commitment. Our findings provide the practical insight that game designers should incorporate game features that require or reward gamers’ participation in gaming teams or enhance gaming teamwork knowledge, thus strengthening gamers’ team commitment.     

在线商品评论对产品销量影响研究

作为一种新型的口碑传播方式,在线产品评论成为了消费者和商家了解产品质量和服务的最为重要的信息来源。在线产品评论哪些因素影响到消费者的购买决策,对产品的销量产生多大的影响已经成为人们关注的重要问题。通过对在线手机评论研究发现,"在线评论数量"、"商品的关注度"对在线手机销量有显著性影响,更为重要的是我们发现"评论的时效性"和"顾客认为评论的有用率"对手机的销量也有非常重要的显著性影响,而"评论的正负情感倾向性"等对产品的销量无明显影响。     

Understanding impulse buying in mobile commerce: An investigation into hedonic and utilitarian browsing

Growing evidence shows that mobile commerce will increase consumers’ impulse buying behavior. However, existing study examining the impact factors on individuals’ impulse buying in mobile commerce is limited. Drawing on stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm, this study focuses on situation factors and reaction factors in mobile commerce to examine impulse buying. Building on prior literature of browsing and motivation theory, this study views hedonic browsing and utilitarian browsing as two key drivers on impulse buying in mobile commerce. This study adopts partial least squares estimation to analyze the data obtained from an online questionnaire. Two main findings emerge. First, three situation factors (portability, visual appeal and interpersonal influence) differently affect hedonic browsing and utilitarian browsing. Second, hedonic browsing directly and positively influences consumers’ urge to buy impulsively, whereas utilitarian browsing indirectly influences consumers’ urge to buy impulsively through hedonic browsing. Discussions, limitations, and implications are also presented in the paper.     

Differential influences of perceived organizational factors on younger employees’ participation in offline and online intergenerational knowledge transfer

Intergenerational supportive climate, top management support, organizational institution are seen as three types of important organizational factors for intergenerational knowledge transfer (IGKT), however, current studies are qualitative with little empirical evidence, further, the interrelations of them are little known. This paper investigates and verifies their relationships by an empirical study, especially focuses on their differential effects on younger employees’ participation in IGKT using offline versus online communication methods drawing upon social influence theory. A survey with younger doctors was conducted in the medical industry to test the research model proposed in this study. Results show that younger employees’ perceived intergenerational supportive climate (PISC) has a significant positive influence on offline IGKT, but not on online IGKT; perceived top management support (PTMS) has a significant positive influence on offline IGKT, but has a negative impact on online IGKT; perceived organizational institution support (POIS) has a significant positive influence on online IGKT, but not on offline IGKT. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding about IGKT, as well as help managers be more effective to enhance younger employees’ participation in IGKT through offline/online methods, which contribute to offline and online intergenerational knowledge transfer to knowledge management.     

元认知理论下社会化阅读素养培育的游戏化框架设计

[目的/意义]在游戏化学习应用取得有效进展的背景下,如何通过游戏化设计,加强社会化阅读用户对阅读这一认知活动的投入,以实现个人和集体目标,对培育社会化阅读用户的阅读素养具有重要研究意义。[方法/过程]基于元认知理论中的元认知知识、元认知体验和元认知技能3个要素,分析社会化阅读模式对阅读素养提出的新要求。基于此结合游戏化设计理念与功能,探索社会化阅读情境下游戏化元素的引入,引导用户利用元认知要素对社会化阅读行为进行计划、监测和调整,从而提升社会化阅读素养。[结果/结论]构建了一个面向社会化阅读素养培育的游戏化框架,为社会化阅读平台的游戏化设计提供了参考和建议。[局限]研究尚处于理论框架构建阶段,后续可以通过调查、实验等方法对模型进行检验和调整。     

Who captures whom – Pokémon or tourists? A perspective of the Stimulus-Organism-Response model

Since its launch in 2016, Pokémon Go has attracted huge numbers of players, causing a boom in this game market. Although it is not as popular as before, from time to time we still find crowds of players gathered in some spots where Pokémon appear. Numerous reports have explored this Pokémon phenomenon; however, the exact reasons for its popularity remain unknown. The purpose of this study is to explore the post-adoption behavior of Pokémon Go players and its influential factors in the gaming and tourism industries. The theoretical model of stimulus-organism-response was drawn on to examine the impact of the environmental stimuli (social influence and media influence) on players’ internal organisms, which in turn affect their post-experience responses. Moreover, gender differences were also examined in the hypothetical relationships. A total of 342 valid questionnaires from actual gamers were collected in this study, and data analysis was performed using a structural equation model. The results show that stimulus effects, such as social stimuli (critical mass and social interaction) and media stimuli (content timeliness and media richness), have significant impacts on the players’ internal gamified experience (attachment and conformity), which in turn affect their visit intention to catch creatures at certain attractions and to continue playing Pokémon Go. Further, we have also found that players’ intention to visit Pokémon spots is significantly correlated with their intention to continue playing the game. Findings provide links between gamification and tourism literature. Further theoretical and managerial implications are provided.     

Gamification in innovation teams

The paper examines the relationship between gamification – the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts – and innovation teams’ outcomes. It builds on psychological and teamwork theories, arguing that gamification overcomes collaboration issues and generates multiple positive outcomes, particularly in coordination, alignment, engagement, and teams’ motivation. The research follows a qualitative theory-driven using a case study of an innovation project. The conceptual model built through the findings offers valuable insights about applying gamification in innovation teams, namely: i) surprising teams with such a new and playful approach reduces stress among team members; ii) rules and time constraints play a crucial role in teams’ coordination by avoiding dispersion and enhancing focused efforts. The paper provides a set of testable theoretical propositions derived from the conceptualization of gamification in the context of innovation teams. It supports innovation managers interested in measuring gamification outcomes in teams.     

The efficiency of mobile media richness across different stages of online consumer behavior

The popularity of mobile devices has ushered in the prosperity of mobile commerce, yet research on mobile advertising and mobile marketing remains scant. Marketing ads possessing higher media richness generally have a positive effect on consumer decision-making, because rich media conveys more information, but mobile ads with richer media imply higher costs for both the marketer and the audience. The limitations of mobile devices have further highlighted the difficulty of mobile advertising and the issue of advertising costs. Selecting which media to deliver the appropriate information is the latest research trend, but few studies have applied the media richness theory to explain mobile ads’ effect on consumer behavior. This research thus explores the impact of media richness on consumer behavior at different AISAS (attention, interest, search, action, and share) stages, adopting experimental research, convenient sampling, and online questionnaire to collect data. From a total of 424 valid questionnaires, we find that media richness has a greater influence on the three early stages of AIS while having a lower impact on the later stages of AS. This research thus suggests that firms employing mobile ads should choose high richness media for those potential customers who are at the early stage of consumer behavior (AIS). For those who at the later stage (AS), it is good enough for marketers to utilize medium richness mobile ads. Following this suggestion, marketers can place mobile ads more precisely, thus improving the likelihood of a reduction in advertising costs for both the marketer and audience. As mobile ads with high media richness are more effective for high perceived risk products, firms need to use high richness media when they are promoting high perceived risk products even when potential consumers are at the later stage of AS. This research contributes to marketers dedicated to using a mobile advertisement strategy and helps refine both online consumer behavior and the media richness theory when including the context of mobile commerce.     

Does gamification satisfy needs? A study on the relationship between gamification features and intrinsic need satisfaction

Gamification is increasingly used as an essential part of today’s services, software and systems to engage and motivate users, as well as to spark further behaviors. A core assumption is that gamification should be able to increase the ability of a system or a service to satisfy intrinsic needs, and thereby the autotelicy of use as well as consequent change in beneficial behaviors. However, beyond these optimistic expectations, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on how different gamification features satisfy different dimensions intrinsic needs. Therefore, in this study we investigate the relationships between the user (N = 824) interactions with gamification features (immersion, achievement and social -related features) and intrinsic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence and relatedness needs) in Xiaomi and Huawei online gamified communities that represent two large technology product-related online brand communities in China through a survey-based study. The results indicate that immersion-related gamification features were only positively associated with autonomy need satisfaction. Achievement-related features were not only positively associated with all kinds of need satisfaction, but also the strongest predictor of both autonomy and competence need satisfaction. Social-related gamification features, were positively associated with autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction. The results imply that gamification can have a substantially positive effect on intrinsic need satisfaction for services users.     

Can we trace back hotel online reviews’ characteristics using gamification features?

Gamification is here to stay, and tourism and hospitality online review platforms are taking advantage of it to attract travelers and motivate them to contribute to their websites. Yet, literature in tourism is scarce in studying how effectively is users’ behavior changing through gamification features. This research aims at filling such gap through a data-driven approach based on a large volume of online reviews (a total of 67,685) collected from TripAdvisor between 2016 and 2017. Four artificial neural networks were trained to model title and review’s word length, and title and review’s sentiment score, using as input 12 gamification features used in TripAdvisor including points and badges. After validating the accuracy of the model for extracting knowledge, the data-based sensitivity analysis was applied to understand how each of the 12 features contributed to explaining review length and its sentiment score. Three badge features were considered the most relevant ones, including the total number of badges, the passport badges, and the explorer badges, providing evidence of a relation between gamification features and traveler’s behavior when writing reviews.     

Information management can’t be all fun and games,can it? How gamified experiences foster information exchange in multi-actor service ecosystems

This paper investigates whether gamified experiences in a multi-actor service ecosystem can be used to encourage customers’ information exchange behavior. Furthermore, it examines the impact of customers’ knowledge sharing attitude on the relationship between experiential value and customers’ information exchange behavior. Structural equation modeling was used to assess these dynamic relationships and provide a scalable measurement instrument that can be applied to gamified experiences ranging from simple customer-interface interactions, all the way up to multi-actor service ecosystems. Our findings support the notion that managers can use gamification to foster information exchange and thereby value co-creation between customers and employees directly, without necessarily having to change customers attitudes first. The findings also suggest that gamification can be applied successfully in cases of large groups of people with widely varying characteristics, backgrounds, and motivations. Additionally, our research indicates that experiential value is a suitable candidate for a consistent measurement instrument for gamification. This study is the first to apply a holistic experiential value approach to a gamified experience that simultaneously accounts for customers’ interactions with a multisensory physical environment, their personal interactions with employees, and their interactions with other customers.     

The reflection of offline activities on users’ online social behavior: An observational study

The ever increasing presence of online social networks in users’ daily lives has led to the interplay between users’ online and offline activities. There have already been several works that have studied the impact of users’ online activities on their offline behavior, e.g., the impact of interaction with friends on an exercise social network on the number of daily steps. In this paper, we consider the inverse to what has already been studied and report on our extensive study that explores the potential causal effects of users’ offline activities on their online social behavior. The objective of our work is to understand whether the activities that users are involved with in their real daily life, which place them within or away from social situations, have any direct causal impact on their behavior in online social networks. Our work is motivated by the theory of normative social influence, which argues that individuals may show behaviors or express opinions that conform to those of the community for the sake of being accepted or from fear of rejection or isolation. We have collected data from two online social networks, namely Twitter and Foursquare, and systematically aligned user content on both social networks. On this basis, we have performed a natural experiment that took the form of an interrupted time series with a comparison group design to study whether users’ socially situated offline activities exhibited through their Foursquare check-ins impact their online behavior captured through the content they share on Twitter. Our main findings can be summarised as follows (1) a change in users’ offline behavior that affects the level of users’ exposure to social situations, e.g., starting to go to the gym or discontinuing frequenting bars, can have a causal impact on users’ online topical interests and sentiment; and (2) the causal relations between users’ socially situated offline activities and their online social behavior can be used to build effective predictive models of users’ online topical interests and sentiments.     

基于扎根理论的网络健康信息多维度风险感知理论模型研究

[目的/意义]用户的风险感知程度会直接影响用户采纳健康信息的行为和效率。因此,探究用户对网络健康信息的风险感知维度及其影响因素,有利于制定更具针对性的网络健康信息服务策略以及公共政策,促进互联网健康信息服务业的发展。[方法/过程]研究对网络健康信息用户进行半结构化访谈,基于扎根理论对资料进行开放性编码、主轴编码和选择性编码。[结果 /结论]通过分析共得到134个概念,40个范畴和12个主范畴,解析出六维度网络健康信息风险感知结构(包括信息质量风险、信息来源风险、隐私风险、心理风险、系统质量风险和财务风险),并构建网络健康信息风险感知理论模型,为解读网络健康信息风险感知与健康认知能力和风险后果之间的关系提供了理论依据。     

基于WoS的网络隐私计量分析

通过对相关文献的回顾,本文对国际网络隐私研究进行了计量分析,发现现有的研究主题集中在"基于移动位置服务的隐私问题研究"、"隐私保护算法研究"、"隐私保护技术研究"、"云计算的隐私安全研究"、"网络隐私权限控制研究"、"社交网站和电子商务中的用户隐私态度与行为研究"、"青少年敏感信息的隐私与安全保护研究"、"数据公开共享策略与国家治理研究"8个方面。研究发现当前研究中存在"利用数据纵向分析网络隐私主题随时间发展变化的研究较少"、"对于一些发展中国家的隐私问题关注度较低"、"国家的治理与业界的隐私政策相对独立缺乏联系"等问题,"大数据时代移动信息和社交信息挖掘过程中的隐私问题"、"在线医疗的隐私问题"等是未来研究值得关注的领域。     

Examining the Influence of Emotional Expressions in Online Consumer Reviews on Perceived Helpfulness

Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions and the attribution theory, this study extends existing research by examining how the emotional expressions influence perceived helpfulness of online consumer reviews (OCRs). We include two negative emotions (anger, fear) and two positive emotions (pride, surprise). Each of these four emotions can be described with respect to six emotional appraisal dimensions which containing certainty, pleasantness, attentional activity, anticipated effort, control and others’ responsibility. Hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using the laboratory experiment in the context of restaurant services. Research results indicated that emotion expressions in OCRs have an indirect effect on perceived helpfulness through attribution about the reviewer's cognitive effort. We find that reviews with negative emotions are perceived to be more reviewer's cognitive efforts than positive emotions. More specifically, OCRs with negative emotions tend to comprise more diagnostic features related the product or service, and are more informative. We further examined whether the gender of reader moderates the relationship between different emotional expressions and perceived reviewer's cognitive effort. The results find that reviews conveying positive emotions tended to have a greater impact on male readers’ perception of reviewer's cognitive effort than those of female readers. Reviews conveying negative emotions were found to have a greater impact on female readers’ perception of reviewer's cognitive effort than that of male readers. The study results add to existing knowledge of the influence of emotional expression on perceived helpfulness, which will advance our understanding of information processing in the psychological mechanisms influencing the attitude. Applying the results from this study, restaurant service providers can make different coping strategy for discrete emotions and platform administrators can assistant reviewer express their emotions more precisely.     

印象管理理论及其在信息系统研究中的应用与展望

通过对国际印象管理理论文献的回顾,本文首先梳理了印象管理理论的源起及其演进。在此基础上,检索和梳理了印象管理理论在信息系统领域的应用研究,发现现有研究主要集中在"印象管理的策略研究"、"印象管理的影响因素研究"、"印象管理对员工关系和工作绩效的影响研究"、"印象管理对用户在线参与意愿的影响研究"4个方面;为了弥补现有研究中存在的缺憾,"跨平台的个人印象管理策略比较研究"、"政治人物或明星的印象管理策略研究"、"关键危机事件后企业网络印象管理策略的效用研究"、"基于不同业务类型平台的印象管理影响因素的比较研究"、"求职社交媒体中员工的各种评论对企业公众形象的影响研究"等都是未来值得关注的研究领域。     

Switching to online learning during COVID-19: Theorizing the role of IT mindfulness and techno eustress for facilitating productivity and creativity in student learning

Online learning environments facilitate improved student learning by offering IT tools to enhance student productivity- and creativity-in-learning. COVID-19 impacted social-distancing measures forced an abrupt switch to online learning in most universities, putting immense pressure on the students to creatively adapt to new ways of online learning. Despite the purported positives of online learning, in the COVID-19 scenario, students reported mixed outcomes. While some students could adapt to the ‘new normal’, others struggled to adjust to the transformed IT-enabled learning scenario. Grounding our work in IT mindfulness literature, we posit that an IT-enabled learning environment may have differential impact on students’ productivity- and creativity-in-learning, depending on the extent of their IT mindfulness. Besides leveraging the mindfulness-to-meaning theory, we hypothesize the mediating role of techno eustress in the relationship between student IT mindfulness and learning effectiveness. We test the theorized model through data collected via a two-wave survey in a university student population exclusively using IT-enabled learning environments during the pandemic lockdown period. Results indicate that IT mindfulness has significant positive relationships with both productivity- and creativity-in- learning. Moreover, these relationships are mediated by the students’ techno eustress perceptions. Theoretical and practical implications arising from our study are also discussed.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Legacy of Rob Kling: Social Informatics as a Research Discipline”

Drawing on Jones's ethical model and Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, this study proposes and tests an integrative model for the decision-making process underlying software piracy. Survey data collected from computer users in Guangzhou, China, in accordance with two software piracy scenarios under study—end user piracy and software counterfeiting—provide general support for the model. Consistent with major propositions of the theory of planned behavior, the findings show that Chinese computer users’ perceived moral intensity of software piracy significantly affects their corresponding moral recognition, judgment, and intention in both scenarios. Moreover, a direct influence of moral judgment on attitude toward software piracy is found in both scenarios. With regard to end-user piracy specifically, the findings further echo the theory of planned behavior by demonstrating a direct influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on intention to pirate. As in the case of software counterfeiting, the findings, however, show that only attitude and subjective norm but not perceived behavioral control significantly influence this intention. Implications derived from this study suggest the potential to synthesize ethical and general social psychological concepts to explain software piracy behavior, and also furnish insights on how to deter software piracy in China.