Search results

This study aims to investigate how gamification, namely, WeChat’s cultural gifting function, improves emotional involvement among three generations (Y, X and silver) in mobile payments. It draws attention to the beneficial effects of cultural components and digital intimacy on gamified mobile payment systems.

The data were collected from Y, X and silver generation in Dalian, China. The users were well equipped with the WeChat pay features and had experience. The PLS-SEM software was used to assess the data.

The findings show that consumer word of mouth and loyalty are positively impacted by perceived utility, fun, and enjoyment. Besides, gamification components like fun and playfulness have a favourable effect on how useful mobile payments are judged to be. It demonstrates how delighted and ecstatic users are with WeChat Hongbao. In addition, the positive moderation effect of intimacy on the hypothesised connections shows that all three generations are likely to accept gamified money features. These results provide a substantial contribution to our comprehension of gamification in the context of mobile payment services for all three generations.

The study is distinctive because it focuses on how China’s three generations use WeChat Pay for routine transactions. The framework confirms that the gamification elements improve user performance and encourage continued usage of mobile payment systems.

Este estudio investiga cómo la gamificación, específicamente la función de regalos culturales de WeChat, mejora la participación emocional entre tres generaciones (Y, X y plata) en los pagos móviles. Se presta atención a los efectos beneficiosos de los componentes culturales y la intimidad digital en los sistemas de pago móvil gamificados.

Los datos fueron recopilados de las generaciones Y, X y plata en Dalian, China. Los usuarios estaban familiarizados con las características de pago de WeChat y tenían experiencia. Se utilizó el software PLS-SEM para evaluar los datos.

Los resultados muestran que la reputación y la lealtad del consumidor son positivamente influenciadas por la utilidad percibida, la diversión y el disfrute. Los componentes de gamificación, como la diversión y la jugabilidad, tienen un efecto favorable en cómo se juzga la utilidad de los pagos móviles. Se demuestra cuán encantados están los usuarios con WeChat Hongbao. Además, la moderación positiva de la intimidad en las relaciones supuestas muestra que las tres generaciones tienen probabilidades de aceptar las características de dinero gamificado. Estos resultados contribuyen sustancialmente a nuestra comprensión de la gamificación en el contexto de los servicios de pago móvil para las tres generaciones.

El estudio es novedoso ya que se centra en cómo las tres generaciones de China utilizan WeChat Pay para transacciones rutinarias. El marco confirma que los elementos de gamificación mejoran el rendimiento del usuario y fomentan el uso continuado de los sistemas de pago móvil.

本研究探讨了游戏化, 即微信的文化赠送功能, 如何提高三代人（Y、X和银发族）在移动支付中的情感投入。它引起了人们对文化成分和数字亲密关系对游戏化移动支付系统的有益影响的注意。

数据来自中国大连市的Y、X和银发族用户。用户对微信支付功能非常熟悉, 并具有使用经验。采用PLS-SEM软件对数据进行评估。

结果表明, 消费者的口碑和忠诚度受到了感知效用、乐趣和享受的积极影响。乐趣和趣味等游戏化组件对移动支付的有用性评估产生了积极影响, 展示了用户对微信红包的喜悦和兴奋程度。此外, 亲密关系对假设连接的正向调节效应表明, 三代人都可能接受游戏化货币功能。这些结果为我们理解移动支付服务背景下游戏化对三代人的贡献提供了实质性的帮助。

该研究独特之处在于它着眼于中国三代人如何将微信支付用于日常交易。该框架证实了游戏化元素如何提高用户绩效并鼓励继续使用移动支付系统。

To understand the mechanisms underlying social media discontinuance behavior, this study explores factors affecting social media discontinuance behavior from the perspective of social cognitive theory (SCT).

Based on SCT, this study puts forward a theoretical model incorporating habit, excessive use and negative emotions to predict social media discontinuance behavior. The proposed research model was empirically tested with 465 responses collected from WeChat users in China via an online survey. WeChat is one of the most popular social media in China. However, WeChat also faces the challenges of reduced or terminated usage among its users. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyze the data.

The research results in this study show that habit exerts a negative effect on social media discontinuance behavior, while exhaustion and regret have positive influences. In addition, habit positively affects excessive use, which further leads to negative emotions of social media exhaustion and regret. Moreover, gender moderates the relationship between habit and social media discontinuance behavior.

This study adds to the literature of information system (IS) use lifecycle by investigating user behavioral changes regarding a transition from habituated to excessive use and further to discontinuance behavior. This study also helps elucidate the complex role of habit by explaining social media discontinuance from the social cognitive view. Furthermore, this study advances the current understanding of gender difference in social media discontinuance in the Chinese context. The study also offers insights to practitioners on how to prevent individuals from discontinuing their use of social media.

By building and examining an integral model, the principal objectives of this research are to systematically explore how indirect and direct network externalities lead to user loyalty toward WeChat through the mediating effect of perceived gratifications.

The data were collected through an online survey of 688 young people in Mainland China. To empirically assess the conceptual model, zero-order correlation analyses and structural equation modeling were carried out utilizing web-based data.

Path analysis results demonstrate that indirect network externalities and direct network externalities exert a significant impact on users' hedonic gratifications and utilitarian gratifications. Moreover, the study discovers the significant mediating influences of utilitarian gratifications on the association between indirect network externalities and user loyalty.

Theoretically, this article may extend the scope of diverse studies on the association between network externalities and perceived gratifications and offer fresh insights into how mobile social media could actually improve user loyalty through enhancing perceived values among younger generation. Practically, this research assists mobile social media practitioners in retaining users and gaining competitive advantages over rival applications.

Although the extraordinary growth of WeChat has successfully become the dominant media by which individuals develop interpersonal network and contact with others, the roles of perceived gratifications between network externalities and user loyalty toward WeChat have not yet been investigated in depth. These obtained outcomes not only enrich the existing literature regarding the relationship between network externalities and affective response, but also offer fresh insights to mobile social media designers, marketers and users.

This research aims to discover the relationship between social media usage (SMU) and the critical thinking ability (CTA) of university students, and to answer the question that whether social media dependence (SMD) affects the development of CTA, and thus providing a reference for the social media access strategy of academic libraries from the perspective of media information literacy.

The research data were collected via 300 valid questionnaires whose respondents are students from three universities in China. Multistage stratified cluster sampling method was used to select the respondents, which guarantees statistical representativeness. A pre-test was conducted to ensure the validity of the questionnaire.

It is shown that the total score of CTA and the six sub-dimensions are significantly positively correlated with SMU, but strongly negatively correlated with SMD. Based on the mediating effect testing, it is discovered that the degree of SMD can affect the promoting relations between the usage intensity of social media (UISM) and CTA. Clearly, SMU is a double-edged sword. While it narrows the digital gap in terms of accessibility, it widens the digital gap in terms of usage.

The differences in SMU have a significant impact on the development of CTA of university students. This inspires us to consider the ability of “using social media in a balanced way” as an important evaluation and training direction when inquiring media literacy. As social media is becoming a critical channel in cultivating individual's thinking skills, it is highly suggested that the amount of time spent on reading fragmented information on the internet should be controlled.

Based on the perspective of knowledge management capability, this paper aims to reveal the internal mechanism of the digital empowerment of mobile social platforms to improve the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. Such improvements have crucial theoretical value and practical implications for Chinese traditional retail enterprises to achieve transformation and sustainable development.

This study applied the typical analysis method, selected China’s leading mobile social platform, WeChat, as a typical case, and observed and analyzed the public data of the traditional retail industry and social platforms and interviews with relevant enterprises. On this basis, this study used the inductive and deductive methods of qualitative research to conduct an in-depth analysis of the mechanism by which WeChat’s digital empowerment improves the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. It also discussed the critical role and path knowledge management capabilities play in this mechanism.

This research demonstrated that mobile social platforms empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to build diversified digital channels, enhance the knowledge acquisition capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance; empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to build digital community networks, enhance the knowledge diffusion capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance; and empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to integrate online and offline businesses, enhance the knowledge integration capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance.

This study clarifies the internal mechanism of how the digital empowerment of mobile social platforms can improve the performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. This mechanism implies that knowledge management capabilities (knowledge acquisition, diffusion and integration capability) are the underlying logic for Chinese traditional retail enterprises to achieve higher performance levels. This has important practical implications for managers of Chinese traditional retail enterprises to leverage the digital infrastructure of mobile social platforms to achieve the sustainable development of enterprises.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of how the traditional retail industry uses digital social platforms to improve operational performance from the perspective of knowledge management capabilities, which can further promote the theoretical research and practical development of digitalization and knowledge management. At the same time, this study explored the research on the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises from the perspective of knowledge management capabilities and expanded the research on knowledge management in related fields. The authors have initially sorted out the impact of knowledge management capabilities on the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises in the digital era. This will help better understand the role and function of knowledge management in strategic transformation and expand the application of knowledge management theory.

An integrative model that predicts users' stickiness to WeChat is built. In the proposed model, perceived value plays a dual mediating role in the causal pathway from users' immersive experiences of presence and flow to their engagement and stickiness. Furthermore, presence is treated as a bi-dimensional construct made up of spatial feelings and the sense of being in company, and users' engagement is conceived as cognitive, affective and behavioural contributions to WeChat's marketing functions.

The authors develop a measurement instrument and analyse data from a survey of 917 WeChat users. They use a hybrid partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and neural network approach to confirm the reliability and validity of the measurement items and all the relationships between the constructs.

The paper provides robust evidence about the mediating influences of both utilitarian and hedonic value on users' engagement with the immersive experiences of presence and flow. An additional finding highlights the role of social norms in engagement and stickiness.

Rather than studying the effects of the immersive experiences of presence and flow from either a hedonic or a utilitarian perspective, the authors consider how immersive experiences shape both utilitarian and hedonic value, as well as their joint impact (along with that of social norms) on users' engagement and stickiness.

Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.

A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.

Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.

The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the interplay of stressor (e.g. fear of missing out, FoMO) and strains (e.g. perceived social overload, communication overload, information overload and system feature overload) in social networking sites (SNS) use can contribute to users’ SNS fatigue from a configurational view.

Data were collected among 363 SNS users in China via an online survey, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was applied in this study to scrutinize the different combinations of FoMO and overload that contribute to the same outcome of SNS fatigue.

Six combinations of casual conditions were identified to underlie SNS fatigue. The results showed that FoMO, perceived information overload and system feature overload are the core conditions that contribute to SNS fatigue when combined with other types of overloads.

The current work supplements the research findings on SNS fatigue by identifying the configurations contributing to SNS fatigue from the joint effects of stressor (FoMO) and strain (perceived social overload, communication overload, information overload and system feature overload) and by providing explanations for SNS fatigue from the configurational perspective.