You can’t use this app for that: Exploring off-label use through an investigation of Tinder

Abstract

This article reconceptualizes the pharmacological term “off-label use” in the context of platforms and apps. It combines literature on technological appropriation with research on platforms’ sociotechnical arrangements to understand off-label use as platform appropriation. This conceptual work is applied to an investigation of Tinder, involving analysis of the platform, media articles, and interviews. Findings show that off-label use, such as marketing and campaigning, appropriates Tinder’s infrastructure and sociocultural meanings. Tinder also responds to disruptive off-label uses with changes in governance and infrastructure. This analysis shows how off-label use can locate user agency while uncovering shifting relations among users and platforms.     

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.     

Examining gender differences in people’s information-sharing decisions on social networking sites

Information systems research provides increasing evidence that women and men differ in their use of information technology. However, research has not sufficiently explained why these differences exist. Using the theory of reasoned action and social role theory, this paper investigates gender differences in people’s decisions about information sharing in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). We developed a comparative model of the information-sharing decision process across genders and theoretically explained why these differences exist. Data was collected from an online survey taken by American SNS users. We found that privacy risks, social ties, and commitment were more important in the formation of attitudes toward information sharing for women than men. Gender significantly moderates the relationship between people’s perceptions of information sharing and their intention to share information. This paper provides an enhanced understanding of gender differences in people’s decisions about sharing information on SNSs. It advances gender differences research into the use of newly emerged information technology and provides researchers insightful views of the role that gender plays in the social media era. Being aware of the research findings, practitioners may better engage their targeted stakeholders on SNSs and collect more useful information for business purposes.     

Information technology and privacy: conceptual muddles or privacy vacuums?

Within a given conversation or information exchange, do privacy expectations change based on the technology used? Firms regularly require users, customers, and employees to shift existing relationships onto new information technology, yet little is known as about how technology impacts established privacy expectations and norms. Coworkers are asked to use new information technology, users of gmail are asked to use GoogleBuzz, patients and doctors are asked to record health records online, etc. Understanding how privacy expectations change, if at all, and the mechanisms by which such a variance is produced will help organizations make such transitions. This paper examines whether and how privacy expectations change based on the technological platform of an information exchange. The results suggest that privacy expectations are significantly distinct when the information exchange is located on a novel technology as compared to a more established technology. Furthermore, this difference is best explained when modeled by a shift in privacy expectations rather than fully technology-specific privacy norms. These results suggest that privacy expectations online are connected to privacy offline with a different base privacy expectation. Surprisingly, out of the five locations tested, respondents consistently assign information on email the greatest privacy protection. In addition, while undergraduate students differ from non-undergraduates when assessing a social networking site, no difference is found when judging an exchange on email. In sum, the findings suggest that novel technology may introduce temporary conceptual muddles rather than permanent privacy vacuums. The results reported here challenge conventional views about how privacy expectations differ online versus offline. Traditionally, management scholarship examines privacy online or with a specific new technology platform in isolation and without reference to the same information exchange offline. However, in the present study, individuals appear to have a shift in their privacy expectations but retain similar factors and their relative importance??the privacy equation by which they form judgments??across technologies. These findings suggest that privacy scholarship should make use of existing privacy norms within contexts when analyzing and studying privacy in a new technological platform.     

Fans as a source of extended innovation capabilities: A case study of Xiaomi Technology

In the digital era, many companies are developing extended capabilities with external stakeholders. Fans are an important, but often untapped, source of extended capabilities, especially innovation capabilities. Our study intends to fill that gap by examining how companies develop extended innovation capabilities with fans. Although extant studies have examined user-based innovation, their findings may not be readily applicable to fan-based innovation because fans are more committed and have more demanding needs than regular users. We conducted a case study of Xiaomi Technology, a leading smartphone manufacturer, which grew rapidly by cultivating a group of motivated fans and soliciting their opinions. Our case analysis uncovers three important lessons that can help companies leverage fans to build extended innovation capabilities: 1) companies can build an online community to foster communal relationships with fans; 2) companies can assign different types of fans different roles; and 3) companies can organize internal operations around fans.     

You talkin’ to me? Exploring Human/Bot Communication Patterns during Riot Events

We analyze a data-set including more than 4.5 million tweets related to four highly emotional riot events. In particular, we examine statistically significant structural patterns that emerge as humans directly engage in an exchange of emotional messages with other humans on Twitter. Furthermore, we compare typical human-to-human communication patterns with those that emerge as bots engage in an emotional message-exchange with human users. To this end, we apply the novel concept of emotion-exchange motifs. We found that a) human-to-human conversations results in a variety of motifs that contain reciprocal edges and self-loops, b) bots predominantly contribute to the emergence of message broadcasting, single-way message sending behavior, c) in contrast to previous findings we found that in certain events bots frequently engage in direct message exchanges with humans, d) during riot events bots tend to direct fear-conveying messages to human users.     

Toward a Typology of Internet Users and Online Privacy Concerns

Traditional typologies of consumer privacy concern suggest that consumers fall into three distinct groups: One-fourth of consumers are not concerned about privacy, one-fourth are highly concerned, and half are pragmatic, in that their concerns about privacy depend on the situation presented. This study examines online users to determine whether types of privacy concern online mirror the offline environment. An e-mail survey of online users examined perceived privacy concerns of 15 different situations involving collection and usage of personally identifiable information. Results indicate that the vast majority of online users are pragmatic when it comes to privacy. Further analysis of the data suggested that online users can be segmented into four distinct groups, representing differing levels of privacy concern. Distinct demographic differences were seen. Persons with higher levels of education are more concerned about their privacy online than persons with less education. Additionally, persons over the age of 45 years tended to be either not at all concerned about privacy or highly concerned about privacy. Younger persons tended to be more pragmatic. Content and policy implications are provided.     

Online service quality and perceived value in mobile government success: An empirical study of mobile police in China

Measuring the success of mobile government (m-government) is a significant challenge faced by the public sector today, as governments are increasingly using mobile technology to provide public services to citizens and m-government endeavors have often fallen short of their potential. To address this gap, we draw on DeLone and McLean’s (2003) updated information systems (IS) success model in order to develop an m-government success model that theorizes service quality as comprising online and offline service quality and further uses perceived value to measure net benefits. The results of a survey of 286 m-government users in China indicate that information quality and online service quality, but not system quality, are positively associated with citizen satisfaction, which in turn is positively associated with perceived value. The results also show that the relationship between online service quality and citizen satisfaction is positively moderated by offline service quality, while citizen satisfaction partially mediates the relationships between information quality/online service quality (but not system quality) and perceived value. This study extends the updated IS success model by differentiating between online and offline service quality, as well as by introducing the notion of perceived value. Our results provide guidance to researchers and practitioners regarding the role of service quality and perceived value in measuring m-government system success.     

Extending lead user theory to users’ innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community: The mediating roles of social capital and perceived behavioral control

The research on users as a source of innovation has been coming into blossom and the studies about the effect of users’ lead userness on their innovation-related activities are drawing more and more attention from both academic and business circles. However, there have been few empirical studies exploring the relationship between users’ lead userness and their innovation-related knowledge sharing behavior in the context of online user community and the mediating effects of users’ social capital and their perceived behavioral control on this relationship. By empirically analyzing the 140 data collected from an online user community that is used as an important source of innovation for a company with the structural equation modeling analysis through the partial least squares method, this study reveals that users’ lead userness has a positive relationship with their innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community and users’ social capital and perceived behavioral control jointly and fully mediate this positive relationship. Based on the new findings, this study is expected to provide useful implications which can contribute to widening and deepening the research stream about the effect of users’ lead userness on their innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community.     

Retweets of officials’ alarming vs reassuring messages during the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for crisis management

Coronavirus related discussions have spiraled at an exponential rate since its initial outbreak. By the end of May, more than 6 million people were diagnosed with this infection. Twitter witnessed an outpouring of anxious tweets through messages associated with the spread of the virus. Government and health officials replied to the troubling tweets, reassuring the public with regular alerts on the virus's progress and information to defend against the virus. We observe that social media users are worried about Covid 19-related crisis and we identify three separate conversations on virus contagion, prevention, and the economy. We analyze the tone of officials’ tweet text as alarming and reassuring and capture the response of Twitter users to official communications. Such studies can provide insights to health officials and government agencies for crisis management, specifically regarding communicating emergency information to the public via social media for establishing reassurance.     

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.     

虚拟社区成员线下互动对线上知识贡献的影响

专业虚拟社区是知识传播、分享和创造的有效载体,也是成员构建网络人际互动关系的平台。国内外学者已经开始展开虚拟社区成员的社会网络关系研究,但是成员线下互动关系对线上知识分享行为是否存在或存在何种影响作用目前还没有得到充分的关注。构建了成员线下互动关系和成员个人参与、社区管理水平与成员知识贡献水平的影响模型,通过在线问卷调查获得224份有效问卷,采用层次回归分析证实了成员线下互动关系对线上知识贡献水平具有显著直接影响和调节作用。丰富了社会关系理论在互联网领域的研究成果,对专业虚拟社区的知识传播和创造具有重要的指导意义。     

How humans obtain information from AI: Categorizing user messages in human-AI collaborative conversations

Although there is an increasingly number of research about the design and use of conversational agents, it is still difficult for conversational agents to completely replace human service. Therefore, more and more companies have adopted human-AI collaborative systems to deliver customer service. It is important to understand how people obtain information from human-AI collaborative conversations. While the existing work relies on self-reported methods to elicit qualitative feedback from users, we have concluded a categorization system for user messages in human-AI collaborative conversations after a thorough examination of a real-world customer service log, which could objectively reflect the user's information needs. We categorize user messages into five categories and 15 specific types related to three high-level intentions. Two annotators independently classified the same set of 1,478 user messages from 300 conversations and reached a moderate consistency. We summarize and report the characteristics of different message types and compare their usage in sessions with only human, AI, or both representatives. Our results show that different message types vary significantly in usage frequency, length, and text similarities with other messages in a session. Also, the frequency of using different message types in our dataset seems consistent over sessions with different types of representatives. But we also observed some significant differences in a few specific message types across the sessions with different representatives. Our results are used to suggest some areas for improvement and future work in human-AI collaborative conversational systems.     

A hierarchical network-oriented analysis of user participation in misinformation spread on WhatsApp

WhatsApp emerged as a major communication platform in many countries in the recent years. Despite offering only one-to-one and small group conversations, WhatsApp has been shown to enable the formation of a rich underlying network, crossing the boundaries of existing groups, and with structural properties that favor information dissemination at large. Indeed, WhatsApp has reportedly been used as a forum of misinformation campaigns with significant social, political and economic consequences in several countries.In this article, we aim at complementing recent studies on misinformation spread on WhatsApp, mostly focused on content properties and propagation dynamics, by looking into the network that connects users sharing the same piece of content. Specifically, we present a hierarchical network-oriented characterization of the users engaged in misinformation spread by focusing on three perspectives: individuals, WhatsApp groups and user communities, i.e., groupings of users who, intentionally or not, share the same content disproportionately often. By analyzing sharing and network topological properties, our study offers valuable insights into how WhatsApp users leverage the underlying network connecting different groups to gain large reach in the spread of misinformation in the platform.     

用户参与与企业NPD绩效关系研究——以跨界协调为中介

    用户参与企业创新是提高新产品开发绩效的重要手段,但在吸纳用户参与自身创新过程时,企业需要在开放式创新的价值共创之利与管理复杂性之弊之间进行权衡。不同类型用户参与对企业NPD效应的差异及影响机理仍未得到充分揭示。基于创新理论与组织理论,采用444份国内企业样本,探索用户作为企业外部能动的创新源参与到企业创新过程中,对企业的组织协调机制及技术创新绩效的影响。发现：企业吸纳用户参与创新将有利于提升NPD绩效,但不同模式的用户参与提升企业NPD绩效的组织过程存在差异;用户以信息提供的方式参与企业创新,对企业NPD提升效应最强;组织跨界协调在用户参与提升企业NPD绩效的过程中起中介作用,特别是,对于用户作为独立创新者的参与方式,企业须经由正式设计的跨职能沟通机制,才能真正利用其有效贡献于企业NPD绩效的提升,否则用户独立创新可能对企业NPD绩效造成损害。文章最后讨论了理论贡献、管理意义与研究局限。     

History and Habit in the Mobilization of ICT Resources

A healthy civil society has long been held as vital to a healthy democracy and there is interest in whether the Internet affects this linkage. This paper explores the relationships between offline and online modes of associational life and also analyzes offline and online interactions with local governments in the US context. Based on our empirical analyses of 1,203 respondents, we show that online participation is not simply an extension of offline participation, but can be distinguished in important ways. First, we find that political and community-oriented engagements cluster separately from more private-regarding engagements. Second, participants of online democratic engagement are not characterized by the SES markers associated with offline democratic engagement who are older, have higher incomes, and have lived in the community longer. Finally, we find significant links between democratic engagement with the political system and involvement with political associations (but not social and community-oriented associations).     

Civil Society and Cyber Society: The Role of the Internet in Community Associations and Democratic Politics

A healthy civil society has long been held as vital to a healthy democracy and there is interest in whether the Internet affects this linkage. This paper explores the relationships between offline and online modes of associational life and also analyzes offline and online interactions with local governments in the US context. Based on our empirical analyses of 1,203 respondents, we show that online participation is not simply an extension of offline participation, but can be distinguished in important ways. First, we find that political and community-oriented engagements cluster separately from more private-regarding engagements. Second, participants of online democratic engagement are not characterized by the SES markers associated with offline democratic engagement who are older, have higher incomes, and have lived in the community longer. Finally, we find significant links between democratic engagement with the political system and involvement with political associations (but not social and community-oriented associations).     

大学生内隐姓氏偏见和性别偏见的研究

目的：本研究采用内隐联想测验法考察大学生对姓氏偏见和性别偏见的态度。研究选取某大学34名本科生作为被试,其中男生12人,女生21人。实验通过被试对只带姓氏和性别的称呼的人物（如李先生）的性格的评价,来测量被试内隐的姓氏偏见和性别偏见。结果表明大学生对常用的单姓复姓和不常用的单姓复姓的偏见无显著性差异,对男性的积极评价显著高于对女性的积极评价     

Privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media: a case study of WeChat

In this study, the under-examined area of privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media is investigated. The prevalence of digital technology shapes the social, political and cultural aspects of the lives of urban young adults. The influential Chinese social media platform WeChat is taken as a case study, and the ease of connection, communication and transaction combined with issues of commercialisation and surveillance are discussed in the framework of the privacy paradox. Protective behaviour and tactics are examined through different perceptions of privacy in the digital age. The findings of this study suggest that users possess certain amount of freedoms on WeChat. However, users’ individual privacy attitudes and behaviour in practice suggest they have a declined sense of their own freedom and right to privacy. A privacy paradox exists when users, while holding a high level of concerns, in reality do little to further the protection of their personal information on WeChat. We argue that once a user has ingrained part of their social engagement within the WeChat system, the incentive for them to remain a part of the system outweighs their requirement to secure their privacy online as their decision-making is largely based on a simple cost-benefit analysis. The power and social capital yielded via WeChat is too valuable to give up as WeChat is widely used not only for private conversations, but also for study or work-related purposes. It further blurs the boundaries between the public, the professional and the private, which is a rather unique case compared with other social media around the world.     

Predicting subjective well-being among mHealth users: a readiness – value model

mHealth applications (MHA) have recently attracted great attention from various stakeholders as they are indeed important means to enhance users’ subjective well-being. While prior research has mainly focused on intention or adoption phase, little work has empirically examined the post-adoption effects of MHA with scarce attention given to the well-being outcome. Actual users are likely to conceive the values of MHA based mainly on their direct experience with it. In this paper, the dimensions of users’ technology readiness are regarded as major impetuses for perceived utilitarian and hedonic values, which in turn influence subjective well-being among MHA users. The proposed readiness-value model is analyzed using survey data collected from 731 users of MHA. The findings show that the model significantly predicts users’ subjective well-being considering that utilitarian value is more important for male users, whereas hedonic value has a more salient effect for female users. It also reveals that enablers of technology readiness (i.e., innovativeness and optimism) exert a stronger influence than that of inhibitors (i.e., discomfort and insecurity) on the perceived values of MHA. These results have essential implications for theory and practice.