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Building on studies examining the role of social media in contemporary forms of collective action and social movements, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between prior informational use of social media and individualized collective action.

In total, 220 participants were surveyed in real-time during a protest against overpopulation in Singapore.

Social media use was significant in disseminating information about the protest, and reflecting perceived personal relevance for specific issues. The authors found mixed motivations for attending the protest, significantly shaped by social proximity to organizers and personal relevance.

The authors address research gaps in the link between social media use and individualized collective action, and real-time data collection during a protest. It is often difficult to study this link, given that social media may not be always the only platform used prior to a protest by participants. The case discussed here provides a unique opportunity for this to be addressed: the protest was not publicized by local mainstream media prior to the event and social media was the only place for both activists and the public to find and disseminate information about the protest. In other words, how participants used social media had a direct and meaningful impact on their participation in the protest.

This paper aims to present the development of a framework for evaluating group behaviour in information security in practice.

Information security behavioural threshold analysis is used as the theoretical foundation for the proposed framework. The suitability of the proposed framework is evaluated based on two sets of qualitative measures (general frameworks and information security frameworks) which were identified from literature. The successful evaluation of the proposed framework, guided by the identified evaluation measures, is presented in terms of positive practical applications, as well as positive peer review and publication of the underlying theory.

A methodology to formalise a framework to analyse group behaviour in information security can successfully be applied in a practical environment. This application takes the framework from only a theoretical conceptualisation to an implementable solution to evaluate and positively influence information security group behaviour.

Behavioural threshold analysis is identified as a practical mechanism to evaluate information security group behaviour. The suggested framework, as implemented in a management decision support system (DSS), allows practitioners to assess the security behaviour and awareness in their organisation. The resulting information can be used to exert an influence for positive change in the information security of the organisation.

A novel conceptual mapping of two sets of qualitative evaluation measures is presented and used to evaluate the proposed framework. The resulting framework is made practical through its encapsulation in a DSS.

The principal aim of the present study was to identify and model the subject structure of the research area on collaborative information behaviour (CIB).

A qualitative, inductive and exploratory approach was adopted, and the method of thematic analysis was used. This study was based on the analysis of 79 publications selected from the Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database in April 2019.

Collaborative and collective information behaviours were differentiated, and the subject structure of the CIB research area was identified to contain collaborative activities oriented to both information access and content, their various conditions, means of conducting, experiences of selected communities and metascientific research on the area itself.

The limitations result primarily from relying on the research material selected from the database (LISTA) focussed mainly on the issues of library and information science.

This study contributes by proposing an original model of the CIB research area representing its subject structure and providing a coherent list of subjects of interest to CIB researchers. Hopefully, it will also contribute to the harmonisation of terminology related to this research area and thus facilitate communication between CIB researchers and accelerate the cumulative development of scientific knowledge on CIB.

The purpose of this study is to perform an exploratory investigation into the feasibility of behavioural threshold analysis as a possible aid in security awareness campaigns.

Generic behavioural threshold analysis is presented and then applied in the domain of information security by collecting data on the behavioural thresholds of individuals in a group setting and how the individuals influence each other when it comes to security behaviour.

Initial experimental results show that behavioural threshold analysis is feasible in the context of information security and may provide useful guidelines on how to construct information security awareness programmes.

Threshold analysis may contribute in a number of ways to information security, e.g. identification of security issues that are susceptible to peer pressure and easily influenced by peer behaviour; serve as a countermeasure against security fatigue; contribute to the economics of information security awareness programmes; track progress of security awareness campaigns; and provide a new measure for determining the importance of security awareness issues.

This paper describes the very first experiment to test the behavioural threshold analysis concepts in the context of information security.

In the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.

The study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.

The study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.

This study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.

The liberal arts hobby is a leisure pursuit that entails the systematic and fervent pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the liberal arts hobby as a setting for information behavior research.

The method of interdisciplinary translation work is used to relate existing research from the specialties of leisure studies, adult education, and information behavior. Drawing from leisure studies, the liberal arts hobby is presented within the context of the serious leisure perspective, a theoretical framework of leisure. Also, relevant research.

The basic informational features of the liberal arts hobby and adult learning project are discussed in terms of three issues of current interest within information behavior scholarship. The issues are: first, social metatheory and the ideal level of analysis; second, time and information behavior; and third, information behavior in pleasurable and profound contexts.

Research into everyday life, serious leisure and hobbies is extended and methodological tools are provided.

Information professionals, such as public librarians or systems designers, will have a better understanding of the information experience of a popular hobby group and be better able to meet their information needs.

Awareness and understanding of the liberal arts hobby will be increased across the field of information science, thereby creating a better alignment between the field and society.

The paper is the first to establish an interdisciplinary starting point for information behavior research in the liberal arts hobby.

Over the last decade, circular economy (CE) has gathered interest from both industrialists and academics alike. Whilst CE research is widespread in such areas as supply chain and larger organisations, there is limited research into how small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can prepare for adopting CE. There is no comprehensive readiness model for SMEs adopting CE. The purpose of this paper is to explore the literature on change readiness and generate knowledge to fill this gap by developing a conceptual model to measure change readiness for SMEs' adopting CE.

This study is based on a comprehensive literature review of change readiness models and frameworks. The paper reviews publications from Science Direct, Web of Science, Emerald, Scopus and Google Scholar. The readiness for change models and frameworks from the selected publications are evaluated and synthesised to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for change readiness for SMEs adopting a circular economy.

A readiness conceptual model is developed by incorporating several factors as precursors to readiness, i.e. individual/collective difference, structural, contextual factors and related barriers. Eleven factors make up the individual/collective difference. Three factors make up the structural and contextual factors.

This paper develops a conceptual model that can aid academics and practitioners in better understanding SMEs readiness to adopt CE.

This paper makes a unique contribution by proposing a comprehensive conceptual model of readiness for SMEs adopting CE.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lemming effect as a possible cause for the privacy paradox in information security.

Behavioural threshold analysis is used to test for the presence of the lemming effect in information security behaviour. Paradoxical behaviour may be caused by the influential nature of the lemming effect. The lemming effect is presented as a possible cause of the privacy paradox.

The behavioural threshold analysis indicates that the lemming effect is indeed present in information security behaviour and may lead to paradoxical information security behaviour.

The analysis of the lemming effect can be used to assist companies in understanding the way employees influence each other in their behaviour in terms of security. By identifying possible problem areas, this approach can also assist in directing their information security education endeavours towards the most relevant topics.

This research describes the first investigation of the lemming effect in information security by means of behavioural threshold analysis in practice.

This paper aims to expose the inadequacy of social marketing to tackle complex social problems, while proposing an expansion in the discipline’ conceptual repertoire. The goal is to incorporate complexity tools, in particular from the system dynamics field, and the promotion of mindware within a true transdisciplinary paradigm.

This paper uses literature review to support the proposed theoretical development. It also presents a short case study.

Most problems that plague our modern societies have a distinctive complex nature that is not amenable to traditional social marketing interventions. Social marketing has simplified the problem of bringing about societal change by thinking that upstream social actors can be influenced in the same way as downstream individuals. This paper shows that this is not the case while proposing a framework to close this gap.

The proposed framework is a theoretical one. It depends on further refinements and actual application to wicked problems.

Complex social problems – or wicked problems – remain widespread in modern societies. Moreover, they are getting worse over time. The paper presents a proposal to redefine the limits of the social marketing discipline so it can be more useful to tackle such problems. Practical approaches such as measuring the success of mindware in the marketplace of ideas are implied in the proposed framework.

The increase in complexity of social problems has not been accompanied by an evolution in the discipline of social marketing. The lack of proper conceptual tools has prevented the discipline from contributing to tackling these problems effectively. Some interventions may actually worsen the underlying problems, as illustrated in the paper.

This paper identifies two major gaps associated with the social marketing discipline, in particular the lack of complexity and systems thinking and the forsaking of ideas (mindware) as a legitimate goal of the discipline. This realization corroborates the claim that boundaries among disciplines are often artificial, hindering the proper understanding of complex social problems. In turn, only the use of adequate conceptual lenses makes it possible to devise interventions and programs that tackle actual causes (instead of symptoms) of complex social problems.