News media,social media,and hyperlink networks: An examination of integrated media effects

Research typically focuses on one medium. But in today's digital media environment, people use and are influenced by their experience with multiple systems. Building on media ecology research, we introduce the notion of integrated media effects. We draw on resource dependence and homophily theories to analyze the mechanisms that connect media systems. To test the integrated media effects, we examine the relationships between news media visibility and social media visibility and hyperlinking patterns among 410 nongovernmental organization (NGO) websites in China. NGOs with greater news media visibility and more social media followers receive significantly more hyperlinks. Further, NGOs with a similar number of social media followers prefer to hyperlink to each other. The results suggest that both news media and social media systems are related to the configuration of hyperlink networks, providing support for the integrated media effects described. Implications for the study of hyperlink networks, online behaviors of organizations, and public relations are drawn from the results.     

Intermittent social media usage: An empirical examination on the temporary discontinuance of blogging and its impact on subsequent user behavior

Social media usage is largely intermittent since users often temporarily pause the usage and resume after a while. However, the pattern of such Temporary Discontinuances (TD) has not been empirically quantified, and its impact on users’ subsequent behavior is still unclear. Tracing all blogs of more than 11 K users over an extended period of twelve years, the study adopts computational approaches to analyze the intermittent pattern of blogging activities. According to large time gaps between consecutive blogs, each user's lifecycle is divided into sessions of continued produsage and gap periods of TD. Results reveal that 57.37% of users experienced at least one TD, while 10.47% experienced more than five times of TD. Such TDs induce significant modifications in subsequent behavioral patterns. After the first TD, the readopted session lasts 46.46% shorter and contains 58.68% fewer blogs. TD also leads to modifications in the timing and content topics of blog posts. The longer the TD lasts, the more significant changes would be made in the readopted session. The empirical evidence provided in the study has the potential to enrich the theoretical understanding of post-adoption and discontinuance behavior, thereby offering novel insights into the practice of social media management.     

Examining the relationship between sociomaterial practices enacted in the organizational use of social media and the emerging role of organizational generativity

The growth of social media has enabled new operating methods and sparked organizational optimism in social technologies. We must broadly and distinctively identify the practices enacted in the organizational use of social technologies, understand how these practices influence each other, and the mechanisms driving their achievement. This paper deduces the sociomaterial practices enacted in the organizational use of social media and the augmenting generative capabilities. We surveyed seventy-three (73) organizations, collected 267 usable responses and applied structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to analyze the data. The paper offers two contributions. First, we utilize the affordances-in-practice perspective to identify and categorize organizational practices enacted on social media, including functional, symbolic, and interactive practices. Then, we highlight the role of organizational generativity in facilitating these practices. Generativity represents the ability to revitalize, procreate, and introduce new ways of acting in dynamic or transient situations. Overall, our findings show how social media practices relate to organizational generativity and the mediating role of symbolic-driven practices.     

Recognizing fake information through a developed feature scheme: A user study of health misinformation on social media in China

This study aims at helping people recognize health misinformation on social media in China. A scheme was first developed to identify the features of health misinformation on social media based on content analysis of 482 pieces of health information from WeChat, a social media platform widely used in China. This scheme was able to identify salient features of health misinformation, including exaggeration/absolutes, induced text, claims of being unique and secret, intemperate tone or language, and statements of excessive significance and likewise. The scheme was then evaluated in a user-centred experiment to test if it is useful in identifying features of health misinformation. Forty-four participants for the experimental group and 38 participants for the control group participated and finished the experiment, which compared the effectiveness of these participants in using the scheme to identify health misinformation. The results indicate that the scheme is effective in terms of improving users’ capability in health misinformation identification. The results also indicate that the participants’ capability of recognizing misinformation in the experimental group has been significantly improved compared to those of the control group. The study provides insights into health misinformation and has implications in enhancing people's online health information literacy. It informs the development of a system that can automatically limit the spread of health misinformation. Moreover, it potentially improves users’ online health information literacy, in particular, under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

The role of social media in the engagement and information processes of social CRM

This study furthers investigation into exactly how Social CRM (S-CRM) is different from traditional CRM, and models the interrelationships between its capabilities. It is underpinned in dynamic capabilities theory, to explain how social media, as a resource all organizations use, can lead to differing performance outcomes. It is underpinned in seminal research into traditional CRM, but which does not cater for the disruptive nature of social media. We outline how S-CRM is a second-order dynamic capability consistng of a set of first-order integrative dynamic capabiliies that, when properly interrelated, lead to performance outcomes. We particularly model the role of S-CRM front- and back-office technology capabilities, customer engagement initiatives, and social information processes in driving customer relationship performance. Findings show that S-CRM is different from traditional CRM in a range of ways in the front- and back-offices, and provide a framework for researcher and managers in information systems and marketing to operate at strategic and tactical levels within S-CRM, while being congisant of both.     

Examining branding co-creation in brand communities on social media: Applying the paradigm of Stimulus-Organism-Response

This paper examines the antecedents of branding co-creation that include social networking sites’(SNSs) participation motivations,customer participation, brand trust and brand loyalty in social media brand communities by applying the “Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm”. The survey method was used to gather data from 407 social media users. Data were analysed using structural equation modeling techniques. The findings reveal that SNSs’ participation motivations positively influence customer participation, which in turn significantly affects brand trust and brand loyalty. Consequently, both brand trust and brand loyalty positively influence branding co-creation in brand communities on social media. Furthermore, brand trust contributes as a mediator between customer participation and brand loyalty on social media brand communities. Although studies on relationships examined through the lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm are popular, to the authors’ surprise there is scant literature examining the relationships between SNSs’ participation motivations, customer participation in social media brand communities, brand trust, brand loyalty and branding co-creation.     

Social media platforms and social enterprise: Bibliometric analysis and systematic review

A considerable number of contributions at the intersection of social media platforms and social entrepreneurship has been witnessed over the past decade. The multi-disciplinary nature of current literature necessitates integrative insights on the topic. We thus undertake a two-pronged approach – bibliometric analysis followed by systematic review – to map the extant literature in a structured, objective, and quantitative way. We contribute to the literature as we (i) offer a classification of the literature in three clusters, namely ‘social media platforms, social collaboration and social marketing’, ‘social media platforms and crowdfunding, and ‘social media platforms and crowdsourcing’; (ii) analyze recent research development in each cluster, methodological development, countries co-authorship and evolution of research in the area; and (iii) propose a conceptual framework -accompanied by research propositions- that provides an overview of the literature at the intersection of social media platforms, various social entrepreneurial practices and their influence on the social enterprise performance. Our review culminates with numerous impactful research avenues for scholarly progression in the area. From a practical standpoint, this review integrates scattered findings into one body, allowing the practitioners and policymakers to discern the role of social media platforms in dealing with emerging societal problems and increasing operational efficiencies of social enterprises (SEs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review of its kind, offering unique perspectives at the nexus of social media platforms and SE’s performance.     

Examining supply chain collaboration with determinants and performance impact: Social capital,justice, and technology use perspectives

Supply chain collaboration is critical to achieving the integration of partners for performance impact. Two major concerns arise, organization's sharing behaviors and technology use behaviors. An organization's sharing behaviors relates to a decision of two perceptions among partners, commitment of network resources and fairness of network resources distribution. Further, technology use behaviors are important for members in IT-enabled supply chain. Social capital and justice issues intend to explain the two particular perceptions as IS success model defining technology use behaviors. This study integrates the three issues to examine their influence on supply chain collaboration and in turn, realized firm performance. Empirical findings report that technology use behaviors are most significant as other two issues are also concerned.     

Advancing social media derived information messaging and management: A multi-mode development perspective

With global reach of over 2 billion active users, the evolution of Social Media (SM) systems has provided organizations with sophisticated tools and technologies for delivering business objectives. Importantly, while marketers and public relations experts have taken leading positions in promotion and advancement of SM, project managers are often tasked with delivering SM systems. In this study, a sample of 127 project managers were asked to evaluate and recommend modes of SM development for six diverse firms using a four-part taxonomy. The results show that firms of varying size can employ narrowly focused and low cost SM development modes to meet their business objectives, with well-resourced firms able to use experimental modes to deliver widespread and higher cost ‘listen and learn’ SM systems. Alternatively, in addition to achieving groundswell promotions and broader business marketing and sales influencing objectives, firms that engage in large scale SM developments can document and implement SM best practices and apply multi-organizational collaborations required for information exchange, customer feedback and experience sharing. These managerial perspectives expose the intrinsic connections between SM systems and information messaging and management within firms. The article builds further into cumulative studies directed at SM systems construction, deployment, and firm capability affordances.     

A comparison of misinformation feature effectiveness across issues and time on Chinese social media

Misinformation on social media is a nonnegligible phenomenon that causes successive adverse impacts. Numerous scholarly efforts have been devoted to automatic misinformation detection to address this problem. The effective feature is the key to achieving high identification performance. However, the effectiveness of the feature may change in different issues and time considering the manifold social contextual reasons. Most extant literature on misinformation detection does not differentiate between topics, issues or domains. Although some research compares detection across domains, they concentrate on the model's overall performance, neglecting the effectiveness of individual features. Furthermore, the comparison studies mainly incorporate single-domain issues rather than issues that cover multiple domains. It is still difficult to determine which domain's misinformation characteristics will match those of multi-dimensional issues. Since the misinformation nowadays covers multiple domains, finding robust features in misinformation detection over issues and time is an urgent research agenda. In this study, we collected datasets of two issues, climate change and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), between January 1st, 2010 and December 31st, 2020 on Weibo, manually annotated the veracity status of the posts, and compared the performance of the proposed features in identifying misinformation by applying logistic regression. The results demonstrate that (1) the predicting power of content-based features, including topic and sentiment, is relatively robust compared to user-based and propagation-based features across issues and time. (2) The feature effectiveness varied at different time points. Our findings imply that future research could consider focusing more on content-based features, especially implicit features from the content in misinformation detection. Moreover, researchers should evaluate the feature effectiveness at different time stages to improve the efficiency of misinformation detection.     

Overcoming pathological IT use: How and why IT addicts terminate their use of games and social media

IT addiction scholarship indicates that pathological use of IT such as games or social media is on the rise. While pathological IT use, such as addictive behavior, can negatively affect private, social and work life, individuals displaying addictive behavior toward an IT are challenged to overcome their addiction. In this study, we aim to offer insights into how and why IT addicts stop their pathological IT use by terminating to use the IT. We interview individuals who have overcome their IT addiction to games and social media, finding that some IT addicts terminate their use of the IT without external support because they had a strong intrinsic or extrinsic motivation or because they felt stressed, frustrated or guilty. Other IT addicts required external support, contacting a therapist after unsuccessful attempts to quit or after experiencing a shocking event. This study establishes a new strand of research into ending pathological IT use and becoming an ex-user. We theorize IT addiction as part of the IT lifecycle alongside adoption, usage and discontinuation. We also offer practical insights into why some individuals can terminate pathological IT use on their own, while others require external support.     

Examining continuance use on social network and micro-blogging sites: Different roles of self-image and peer influence

Social network sites (SNS) and micro-blogging sites are popular yet distinctive social media. Previous studies have focused on one type of social media and thus overlook how the distinctive features of SNS and micro-blogging sites may affect underlying motivational mechanisms. To address this research gap, we draw from the self-regulation framework and propose a research model to explain how different appraisal factors (i.e., self-image and peer influence) affect continuance use through emotional responses (i.e., a sense of belonging and satisfaction). Furthermore, we argue that the effects of these appraisal and emotional factors are different across types of social media. We tested our research model by survey data collected from SNS and micro-blogging sites. The results confirm our hypotheses: First, self-image is a more significant factor in increasing SNS users’ sense of belonging and satisfaction, while peer influence has a greater effect on micro-blogging sites users’ sense of belonging and satisfaction. Second, the sense of belonging explains the greater variance of continuance intention in SNS as compared with satisfaction. A few theoretical and practical implications are discussed related to our findings on different motivational mechanisms.     

Exploring the influence of excessive social media use at work: A three-dimension usage perspective

Pervasive social media has resulted in technology dependency and excessive usage, which can lead to negative outcomes in organizations. This paper aims to investigate the effects of social media’s different excessive usage patterns on employee job performance and the corresponding underlying mechanism. Specifically, we propose three dimensions of excessive social media use at work (i.e., excessive social, hedonic, and cognitive). These dimensions are related to technology-work conflict and strain, which in turn decrease employee job performance. An empirical study of 305 social media users in organizations reveals that excessive social media use for socialization and entertainment can generate conflict between technology use and work demand, whereas excessive social media use for information-sharing reduces employees’ psychological strain. In addition, technology-work conflict and strain negatively influence job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Social media enablers and inhibitors: Understanding their relationships in a social networking site context

This study extends and tests the dual factor model of technology usage (Cenfetelli, 2004, Cenfetelli and Schwarz, 2011), which recognizes enablers and inhibitors as two distinct constructs in the context of social media. We test the effect of two enablers: perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment on perceived communication quality and social media continuance intention. We advance the understanding of the conceptualization of inhibitors from object-based, social-based, behavioral-based, and affective-based perspectives. We investigate the moderating effects of affective-based inhibitors (i.e., perceived social media distress and perceived social media anxiety) and the direct effects of object-based inhibitor (rapid change), social-based inhibitor (i.e., distorted reputation), and behavioral-based inhibitor (perceived complexity) on communication quality and continuance intention. To test the hypotheses, we collected data using an Online Crowdsourcing Markets (OCMs) technique. Using a sample of 268 Facebook users, our findings suggest perceived enjoyment is the main enabler, whereas perceived complexity is the main inhibitor of social media continuance intention. The findings also suggest that perceived social media anxiety moderates the relationships between (1) perceived complexity and perceived enjoyment, (2) perceived complexity and perceived usefulness, and (3) perceived complexity and perceived communication quality. We also find distorted reputation has a positive effect on perceived complexity but rapid change does not have a significant effect on perceived complexity. Perceived communication quality also significantly influences social media continuance intention. Our study confirms the dual factor model of technology usage and advances social media research by demonstrating that inhibitors are distinct from enablers.     

Envy on social media: The good,the bad and the ugly

Observing the positive aspects of others’ lives on social media (SM) can bring about envy among users. Drawing from social comparison and technology acceptance theories, this study develops a research model to explain how envy occurs and impacts SM users’ behavior. In this work, we conducted two studies across three different SM settings to investigate two types of envy, benign and malicious envy. The results show that malicious envy is negatively related to the dependent variable of SM use intention while benign envy facilitates it. The findings provide many valuable contributions to both information systems (IS) academia and industry. This study identifies the unique SM factors intertwining with envy. Moreover, this work helps SM users and practitioners be aware of the potential envy issue on SM so they can take effective actions to enhance SM use.     

Influence of self-perceived creativity and social media use in predicting E-entrepreneurial intention

Entrepreneurship has gained widespread attention in the 21st century. This study aims to examine the direct effect of self-perceived creativity on e-entrepreneurship intention and the moderating effect of social media use on the relationship between self-perceived creativity and e-entrepreneurship intention. Data were gathered from 248 Omani entrepreneurs. The findings revealed that the direct effect of self-perceived creativity and social media use significantly influences e-entrepreneurship intention. Notably, the positive impact of self-perceived creativity on e-entrepreneurship intention was moderated by social media use. This study concluded that self-perceived creativity is a crucial factor at the start of the entrepreneurial process, as it contributes to designing new products and services. In addition, this study introduced social media use as a boundary condition on the relationship between self-perceived creativity and e-entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, this study differs from other studies, as it examines whether social media improves opportunities for entrepreneurs and works for discovering and generating opportunities.     

Consumer response towards social media advertising: Effect of media interactivity,its conditions and the underlying mechanism

Marketers increasingly use social media platforms as a promotion channel, and doing this, they prefer highly interactive social media because it allows consumers to socialize and network better. However, in this media, attention is often restricted towards primary purpose only as a result of the level of interactivity, thereby affecting consumer response towards the advertisement(ad). In this setting, the study analyzes the role of media interactivity and the effects it has on the reaction of customers towards the social media ad. Further, the study also introduces the conditional role of message relevant aspects, such as message vividness and anthropomorphism, and examines the intervening role of flow experience. Results from a between-subjects study indicate that interactivity hurts the consumer ad reactions. It also suggests that the right use of message relevant aspects can mitigate these adverse effects. Thus, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature and practice regarding the effects of social media interactivity which is relatively recent and has been overlooked by past researchers.     

Compatible quality of social media content: Conceptualization,measurement, and affordances

Building and maintaining favorable social media relationships with customers require that organizations produce quality content that fits customers’ needs. So far, little if any research has conceptualized and measured this kind of content quality in the context of social media. Therefore, this study proposes and empirically examines a new construct, compatible quality of social media content, which adds to knowledge by expanding prior online content quality research beyond the traditional focus on non-fit quality beliefs. The results of structural equation modeling of responses collected from a sample of active social media users reveal at least three worth noting findings. First, the study confirmed the multidimensionality of compatible quality of social media content, which encompasses reflective, stimulated, practiced, and advocated components. Second, there was equivalence in the measurements of the studied constructs and the structural weights of the proposed network of relationships across the different gender and experience subgroups. Third, compatible quality of social media content was found to influence continued interest, active confidence, and feedback openness. The practical and research implications of these results are discussed.     

Information avoidance behavior on social network sites: Information irrelevance,overload, and the moderating role of time pressure

Drawing on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study investigates how information irrelevance and overload induce social network fatigue, and the relationship of these variables to users’ information avoidance behavior. It also examines the conditions under which social network fatigue is more likely to be translated into information avoidance behavior. The analysis of data collected from 341 users of WeChat Moments suggests that information irrelevance directly leads to information avoidance behavior, and social media fatigue as a mediator partially mediates the impact of information overload on information avoidance behavior and fully mediates the impact of social overload on information avoidance behavior. Furthermore, time pressure strengthens the effect of social network fatigue on information avoidance behavior. This study fulfills the identified need for an in-depth investigation of actual discontinuous behavior in social network services (SNSs) by investigating information avoidance behavior and its antecedents. The findings provide SNSs providers with guidelines on how to manage users’ behavior so that they remain active users of the SNSs.     

Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and what is the impact: Empirical insights from India

Increasingly firms are looking to use social media to connect with different stakeholders as plans on building presence on such platforms are becoming part of top-level strategy. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that would help the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of India to adopt Social Media Marketing (SMM) mechanisms for improving their business impact. Adoption of SMM by SMEs has considerable impact on the improvement of business outcome of the SMEs. A theoretical model has been developed with the help of theory borrowed from TAM and UTAUT2 with some modifications to explore this impact through business performance, sales, connect with customers, identify customer' needs and creativity of the employees. The theoretical model has been validated empirically using a survey of 310 firms and subsequent analysis have been carried out using structured equation modelling. The results highlight that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and compatibility positively affect impact of SMM after adoption by the SMEs. The facilitating conditions have insignificant impact whereas cost has a significant but negative impact on the use of SMM by SMEs. Since there are a few studies in this context, the study contributes to existing literature on the impact of SMM in SMEs in an emerging economy.