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Article
Publication date: 12 August 2011

Lan‐Ying Huang and Ying‐Jiun Hsieh

This paper aims to explore the factors affecting consumers' loyalty toward online games based on the uses and gratifications theory and the flow theory.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the factors affecting consumers' loyalty toward online games based on the uses and gratifications theory and the flow theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The research employed two approaches to collect data: personal interview and online survey. Each data collection approach consists of two phases to overcome method bias. This study adopted structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

Findings

The results focusing on popular massively multiplayer online role‐playing games reveal that players' sense of control, perceived entertainment, and challenge affect their loyalty toward an online game. Conversely, sociality and interactivity produce negligible effects on loyalty.

Practical implications

First, game designers may strengthen gamers' sense of control and challenge by adding more status information, gaming options, or through the designed system of goals and achievements. Second, the entertaining nature of online gaming suggests greater demand for content design, and points to the direction of mobile gaming. Third, considering the recent growth of online social network services, consumers regard online games as lower priority when prompted by socially related motives. Additionally, people mostly reckon online relationships as virtual and not gratifying real‐world social needs.

Originality/value

In view of the prevalence of computer and Internet usage, online gaming research should shift more focus toward the non‐technological aspects of gaming. This paper is one of the few studies that examine online game loyalty from the non‐technological aspects while adopting a multi‐disciplinary approach based on theoretical parsimony.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 May 2008

Lan‐Ying Huang and Liqun Cao

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conceptual and empirical issues related to sexual harassment (SH) in a police department in Taiwan.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conceptual and empirical issues related to sexual harassment (SH) in a police department in Taiwan.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected. Through the analysis, the paper proposes that SH can be better divided into two subcategories: quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassment. Multivariate analysis is used to explore the sources of SH.

Findings

It was found that both types of SH can be better explained by work environment variables than by demographic variables, but the specific sources differ. Hostile work environment harassment is predicted by the extent to which female officers perceive or experience that deployment and transfer practices are influenced by their gender. Quid pro quo harassment is related to job barriers and dodging from work.

Research limitations/implications

The two scales used in this research have captured the core of SH, but they might not fully depict the nature of SH in the police department in Taiwan. The sample was limited to the largest police department in Taiwan and it may not represent the entire police in Taiwan.

Practical implications

If hostile work environment and quid pro quo harassments are related to different organizational factors, it is useful for policy makers in the police to differentiate these two different types of SH and develop differential prevention and response measures.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the need to differentiate quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassments. It fills a gap in the literature by providing the baseline information on the prevalence of SH in one police department in Taiwan and by examining sources of SH in a profession dominated by males.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

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