Exploring the relationships between students' academic motivation and social ability in online learning environments

This research explicates the construct of social ability and describes the relationship between students' academic motivation and social ability in online learning environments. Findings reveal perceived peers social presence, perceived written communication skills, perceived instructor social presence, comfort with sharing personal information, and social navigation as the five factors that define social ability. In addition, the multivariate multiple regression analyses indicate that different motivational constructs vary in their relationships with the multiple social ability factors. Intrinsic goal orientation is related to perceived peers social presence. Self-efficacy explains the variance of perceived instructor social presence and comfort with sharing personal information. Task value is associated with social navigation and both perceived peers and instructor social presence. Additional studies are needed to replicate the current findings and further explicate social ability in online learning, to continue to improve the social ability instrument, and to examine the value of other academic motivation beliefs in predicting social ability as well as that of social ability in predicting learning outcomes.     

Understanding users’ continuance intentions to use smart-connected sports products

The authors investigate the salient factors that influence users’ continuance intentions to use smart-connected sports products. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), they propose that three major factors—attitude, social comparison as social influence, and perceived behavioral control—significantly influence users’ continuance intentions. Smart-connected sports product users (N = 236) participated in this study. Collected data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) modeling. Results suggest two different attitudinal beliefs—technology-related (perceived usefulness) and fashion-related (perceived comfort) factors—of smart-connected sports products influence attitudes toward the products and that control-related factors (technical functionality and facilitating conditions) play a role in regulating users’ volitional behaviors from their intentions. The authors highlight user beliefs of smart-connected sports products based on TPB and propose a concrete, practical set of factors that practitioners might manipulate to facilitate users’ continuance intentions to use smart-connected sports products.     

Confronting dictatorship,democratization, and post‐democratization – personal reflection on intellectual and social practices in the context of dictatorship,democratization and post‐democratization

Abstract

This essay tries to trace the life trajectory of an intellectual, in terms of his intellectual and social practices, who wants to live through modern Korean history via progressive activism. The trajectory can be divided into three different stages: the first comes with the military developmental dictatorship in 1961, ending in 1987. The next is during the democratic transition since the Democratic Uprising in June 1987, which put the Korean society onto the road of democratization. The last one should be the so‐called ‘post‐democratization’ period in which we now find ourselves. This is more a story than an analysis of the progressive intellectual movement in the form of the personal recollections. The story is, however, not just about an individual but it is a window giving a glimpse into the larger trajectory that many progressive intellectuals have gone through, and that directly reflects the huge changes in contemporary history of South Korea, such as the interaction between the domination and social movements.     

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a halo effect in issue management: public response to negative news about pro-social local private companies

This study investigates the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate nationality on public reactions to negative news about corporations. To explain how CSR activity works as a buffer for a negative issue of an organization, we propose a halo effect theory. This study conducted an experiment using a 2 (CSR activity vs. no CSR activity) x 2 (domestic company vs. foreign company) between-subject design. For this experiment, we developed a negative news story about a fictitious Asian local company. The dependent variable was whether individuals showed willingness to take actions against this company. We found that both CRS activities and corporation nationality have the main effects on individuals' willingness to take an action against the local company. CSR activities and the company's national identity (being domestic) were significant positive factors in attenuating participants' intention to take action against the local company. Further, there was a significant interaction effect of CSR activity and the company's nationality on individuals' willingness to take action against the company: CSR activity had a greater positive impact on soothing the public's negative reactions when the local company was identified as foreign rather than domestic. The results were discussed as a halo effect of CSR activities.