PurposeIn light of the recent increase in the scholarly attention given to meaningful engagement with gamified information systems (IS), this research explores the definition and measurement of ...meaningful engagement as well as its role in predicting employees’ knowledge contributions via gamified knowledge management systems (KMSs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two empirical studies. Study 1 develops a measure of meaningful engagement and evaluates its validity and reliability. Drawing on the literature on user engagement and work gamification theory, Study 2 places meaningful engagement in a nomological network and assesses the construct’s utility for predicting the quantity and quality of knowledge contributions via a gamified KMS.FindingsThe results show that meaningful engagement encompasses five specific dimensions: intense involvement, sense of meaning, self-discovery, pursuit of excellence, and personal expressiveness. The results also indicate that fostering meaningful engagement, which goes beyond hedonic and instrumental engagement, is essential to enhance the quality and quantity of knowledge contribution.Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributes to the literature on gamification by drawing scholarly attention to meaningful engagement as a parsimonious yet powerful construct that complements the notions of hedonic and instrumental engagement with KMSs. Although previous studies have highlighted the significance of meaningful engagement with gamified IS, little effort has been made to develop a scale to measure meaningful engagement. The scale the authors have developed will help researchers precisely measure users’ meaningful engagement and systematically examine its role in gamified systems compared to that of other forms of engagement. The study also has practical implications, as the results can inform future design strategies to enable the successful implementation of gamified KMSs that facilitate knowledge contribution in the workplace.Originality/valueThe development of new constructs is the starting point for theoretical development. This research responds to the call to conceptualize meaningful engagement with gamified IS.
Purpose
Digital technologies have diffused into many personal life domains. This has created many new phenomena that require systematic theorizing, testing and understanding. Such phenomena have been ...studied under the Digitization of the Individual (DOTI) umbrella and have been discussed in the DOTI pre-International Conference on Information Systems workshop for the last three years (from 2015 to 2017). While prior years have focused on a variety of issues, this year (2018) we decided to put special emphasis on negative effects of the DOTI, i.e., “the dark side” of the DOTI.
Design/methodology/approach
This manuscript reports on a panel of three experts (in alphabetical order: John D’Arcy, Hamed Qahri-Saremi and Monideepa Tarafdar) who presented their past research in this domain, as well as their outlook for future research and methodologies in research on the DOTI.
Findings
The authors introduce the topic, chronicle the responses of the panelists to the questions the authors posed, and summarize and discuss their response, such that readers can develop a good idea regarding next steps in research on the dark side of the DOTI.
Originality/value
The authors introduce the topic of the dark sides of DOTI and point readers to promising research directions and methodologies for further exploring this relatively uncharted field of research.
Social networking sites (SNSs) are central to social interaction and information sharing in the digital age. However, consuming social information on SNSs invites social upward comparisons with ...highly socially desirable profile representations, which easily elicits envy in users and leads to unfavorable behaviors on SNSs. This in turn can erode the subjective well-being of users and the sustainability of the SNS platform. Therefore, this paper seeks to develop a better theoretical understanding of how users respond to envy on SNSs. We review literature on envy in offline interactions to derive three behavioral strategies to reduce envy, which we then transfer to the SNS context (self-enhancement, gossiping, and discontinuous intention). Further, we propose a research model and examine how culture, specifically individualism-collectivism, affects the relationship between envy on an SNS and the three strategies. We empirically test the variance-based structural equation model through survey data collected of Facebook users from Germany and Hong Kong. Our findings provide first insights into the link between envy on SNSs, related behavioral strategies and the moderating role of individualism for self-enhancement.
•Envy on SNSs is associated with three types of behavioral strategies to reduce envy.•Behaviors to reduce envy on SNSs are self-enhancement, gossiping, discontinuous use.•Culture moderates the relationship between envy on an SNS and self-enhancement.
The impact of electronic word‐of‐mouth Cheung, Christy M.K.; Lee, Matthew K.O.; Rabjohn, Neil
Internet research,
01/2008, Volume:
18, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Web-based technologies have created numerous opportunities for electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. This phenomenon impacts online retailers as this easily accessible information could ...greatly affect the online consumption decision. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online consumer reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Using dual-process theories, an information adoption model was developed to examine the factors affecting information adoption of online opinion seekers in online customer communities. The model was tested empirically using a sample of 154 users who had experience within the online customer community, Openrice.com. Users were required to complete a survey regarding the online consumer reviews received from the virtual sharing platform. The paper found comprehensiveness and relevance to be the most effective components of the argument quality construct of the research model, making them key influencers of information adoption. Only 46% of the variance is explained by the constructs due to its intentional simplicity. This would indicate that there are more actors in motivating information adoption than solely information usefulness. A closer look should be taken at the effectiveness of some of the other motivational factors suggested in the previous research on this topic. The paper outlines ways to effectively promote one's business or cause through online customer communities, as well as general tips for web site and forum moderators for facilitating such presentation in a manner useful to the members of their online communities. This paper is one of the first to develop and empirically test a theory-driven information adoption model for opinion seekers in online customer communities. It also uniquely breaks down and tests the components of argument quality to discern the important motivating factors.
Bystanders Join in Cyberbullying on Social Networking Sites: The Deindividuation and Moral Disengagement Perspectives
Cyberbullying on social networking sites escalates when bystanders join in the ...bullying. Bystanders’ joining-in behaviors reinforce the abuse, expose victims to a larger audience, and encourage further abuse by signaling their approval of the aggressive behavior. This study developed an integrative model that explains bystanders’ joining-in cyberbullying behaviors on SNSs to offer actionable insights into reducing such harmful behaviors. We tested the model using 1,179 responses using a scenario survey study. Our findings suggest that IT artifacts (including digital profile, search and privacy, relational ties, and network transparency) activated two key mechanisms that lead to cyberbullying joining-in behaviors: (i) the deindividuation experiences that attenuate self-identity and put salience on group/social identity, and (ii) the moral disengagement practices that permit the exercise of cognitive maneuvers to justify group-interested choices that do not align with social standard. The findings explain why people who do not know each other gang up to bully a target on social media. Platform owners who wish to discourage bystanders from joining in undesirable activities may consider regulating how users could share and access digital resources in a social network and should acknowledge the influence of social identity in igniting, driving, and prolonging harmful online group behaviors.
Cyberbullying on social networking sites (SNSs) escalates when bystanders join in the bullying. Although researchers have recognized the harmful consequences of joining in cyberbullying behaviors, little is known about the role of information technology (IT) and its underlying mechanisms in fueling such negative group behavior on SNSs. To address this research gap, we develop and test an integrative model that explains
bystanders’ joining-in cyberbullying behaviors on SNSs
. Based on the theoretical premises of the social identity model of deindividuation effects (the SIDE model), we derive two deindividuation experiences enabled by SNSs, namely
experienced anonymity
and
experienced social identity
. We further use the social network research framework to gain insights into how IT features (i.e., digital profile, search and privacy, relational ties, and network transparency) enable these two deindividuation experiences. Considering the socially undesirable nature of joining-in behaviors, we integrate the SIDE model with moral disengagement theory to explain how deindividuation experiences allow bystanders to bypass their psychological discomfort when engaging in such behaviors through the practice of
moral disengagement
mechanisms. Our research model is tested using a scenario survey, with two samples recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and Facebook. Our results support the influences of IT-enabled deindividuation experiences on bystanders joining in cyberbullying and demonstrate the mediating effects of moral disengagement mechanisms in bridging the effects of deindividuation experiences on joining-in behaviors. For researchers, the integrative view offers a conceptual bridge connecting IT features, deindividuation, moral disengagement, and negative online group behaviors on SNSs. For practitioners, our findings provide platform owners and governmental agencies with directions on how to mitigate cyberbullying on SNSs and other forms of deviant and undesirable online group behaviors.
History:
Yulin Fang, Senior Editor; J.J. Po-An Hsieh, Associate Editor.
Funding:
This work was substantially supported by a Senior Research Fellow Scheme Award, Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China Grant HKBU SRFS2021-2H03; and partially supported by grants from the General Research Fund, Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China Grants HKBU12511016 and HKBU12500020.
Supplemental Material:
The online appendices are available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1161
.
The desk rejection of submitted articles can be a hugely frustrating and demotivating process from the perspective of the researcher, but equally, a time-consuming and vital step in the process for ...the Editor, tasked with selecting appropriate articles that meet the required criteria for further review and scrutiny. The feedback from journal Editors within this editorial, highlights the significant gaps in understanding from many academics of the journal assessment process and acceptance criteria for progression to the review stage. This editorial offers a valuable “lived-in” perspective on the desk rejection process through the lens of the Editor, via the differing views of nine leading journal Editors. Each Editor articulates their own perspectives on the many reasons for desk rejection, offering key insight to researchers on how to align their submissions to the specific journal requirements and required quality criteria, whilst demonstrating relevance and contribution to theory and practice. This editorial develops a succinct summary of the key findings from the differing Editor perspectives, offering a timely contribution of significant value and benefit to academics and industry researchers alike.
Microblogging is growing in popularity and significance. Although many researchers have attempted to explain why and how people use this new medium, previous studies have produced relatively ...inconclusive results. For instance, in most of these studies, microblogging has been considered a social networking activity; however, quantitative analyses of microblogging usage have shown that people use microblogging as an information‐broadcasting platform. In this study, we identified the factors that drive microblogging and which of them lead to user satisfaction. We developed a theoretical framework and then empirically validated the factors and the emergent mechanisms (value evaluation processes). We empirically tested our research model using a sample of 230 microbloggers, and the results showed that content and technology gratifications are the two key factors that drive user satisfaction with microblogging. That is, it is the value of information dissemination rather than social networking that makes people feel satisfied with the use of microblogging. We believe that this study will generate interest among researchers in social media. The results also provide platform administrators with insights into how people use microblogging and why they are satisfied with the technology.
Blog has become an increasingly popular form of social networking technology in recent years. Many world famous web sites (e.g., Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google) are providing blog services on the ...Internet. Bloggers, therefore, can easily establish and maintain their blogs through such services. However, research on blogs' adoption and diffusion is rare. In this study, we attempt to study bloggers' post-adoption behaviors. We examine bloggers' intention to switch their blog services by building upon studies in the marketing and IS literature. Particularly, the role of gender is explored and an online survey is conducted to test the research model. Findings confirm that bloggers' intention to switch their blog services is strongly associated with three factors: satisfaction, sunk costs, and attractive alternatives. Meanwhile, moderating effects are found in gender, but not in sunk costs. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are provided.
► We integrated knowledge sharing factors and knowledge self-efficacy (KSE) into ECT. ► Satisfaction and KSE influenced continuance intention of knowledge sharing. ► KSE and confirmation mediated the ...relationship between benefits and satisfaction.
This study theorized and validated a model of knowledge sharing continuance in a special type of online community, the online question answering (Q&A) community, in which knowledge exchange is reflected mainly by asking and answering specific questions. We created a model that integrated knowledge sharing factors and knowledge self-efficacy into the expectation confirmation theory. The hypotheses derived from this model were empirically validated using an online survey conducted among users of a famous online Q&A community in China, “Yahoo! Answers China”. The results suggested that users’ intention to continue sharing knowledge (i.e., answering questions) was directly influenced by users’ ex-post feelings as consisting of two dimensions: satisfaction, and knowledge self-efficacy. Based on the obtained results, we also found that knowledge self-efficacy and confirmation mediated the relationship between benefits and satisfaction.
Online social shopping communities are transforming the way customers communicate and exchange product information with others. To date, the issue of customer participation in online social shopping ...communities has become an important but underexplored research area in the academic literature. In this study, we examined how online social interactions affect customer information contribution behavior. We also explored the moderating role of customer reputation in the relationship between observational learning and reinforcement learning as well as customer information contribution behavior. Analyses of panel data from 6,121 customers in an online social fashion platform revealed that they are significant factors affecting customer information contribution behavior and that reinforcement learning exhibits a stronger effect than observational learning. The results also showed that customer reputation has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between observational learning and customer information contribution behavior. This study not only enriched our theoretical understanding of information contribution behavior but also provided guidelines for online social shopping community administrators to better design their community features.
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