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The purpose of this paper is to identify the mediating effect of fan-page followers’ engagement activities and moderating role of followers’ demographic profile and trust level on their purchase intention.

This study utilised the customer engagement behaviour and consumer involvement theory as a foundation to explore the impact of variables. Structural equation modelling was utilised to test the model with the data collected from 307 Facebook fan pages’ followers of five Malaysian companies.

It was shown that following fan pages will influence fan page engagement, which in turn affects purchase intention and social media connectedness. Further analysis indicated that the impact of “follow” and “engagement” on purchase intention differs between genders, ages, level of trust and income.

The study serves as a basic fundamental guideline for academics and researchers to interpret the concept of following fan pages and engagement actions and its effects on purchase intention and social media connectivity, as well as opening a vast area of unexplored researches on the subject of social media.

The research provides information for business-to-consumer companies in utilising fan page based on user categories.

This study proposes the application of an empirically tested framework to the fan-page follow actions. The authors argue that this framework can provide a useful foundation for future social commerce research. The results would help academics be aware of fan page and its user’s engagement actions, which will provide a new avenue of research.

Lockdowns are generally characterised by financial depletion, loneliness, stress, depression, loss of jobs and businesses, among others. The effect of the recent lockdown in Ghana as a result of COVID-19 pandemic has not been different. The primary question this study seeks to answer is: are lockdowns only characterised by negativity, or could there be a positive side that has not yet been harnessed?

To answer this question, the authors rely on a dataset of 879 observations obtained through an online survey administered from 25 April to 3 May 2020. Using a regression approach, the authors applied an ordered probit econometric technique with its associated predicted margins.

The authors show evidence that in the midst of the negativity surrounding the lockdown, social connectedness is evident, especially in relatively less busy cities. The authors recommend that instead of losing oneself through social isolation and loneliness during lockdowns, people should use lockdowns as an opportunity to build and exhibit social capital and harness the opportunities associated with it. The authors also recommend that during lockdowns, channels of social connectedness should be made easily accessible and cheaper through a well-targeted government subsidy programme for the poor.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is a novel study that provides the first empirical evidence on the relationship between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown and social connectedness.

The effectiveness of a message and its attributes have become important for digital media. This study aims to investigate how different elements of a website including both argument-oriented and emotional stimuli based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) can affect the issue involvement and change the attitude of the website visitors of a healthcare service provider.

The Ministry of Health and Education (MOHME) website was selected to explore how its content and design can persuade visitors. An online survey was conducted on 355 adults engaging in health protection behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that one design element, i.e. website navigation and one social cue, i.e. social connectedness, have positive impact on issue involvement, while social presence and website satisfaction have a negative effect on issue involvement because of the random fluctuation suppressor effect. In addition, prior knowledge significantly influenced the issue's involvement. Further, website satisfaction has impacted attitudes directly. There was no significant relationship between argument quality and issue involvement.

Previous works have studied health-related behaviors in offline contexts; however, the scholars have not focused on the individuals' persuasion using ELM regarding the healthcare services provided in online communities. The results of the current study have theoretical and practical implications for scholars, website designers and policymakers.

How can social presence, participation and a sense of community be formed in an online setting without compromising on social connectedness through physical distancing? Under consideration of the goals for an Education for Sustainable Development, transformative science and the social techniques of Theory U, developed by Otto Scharmer (2016), an online Community of Inquiry of researchers, practitioners and learners was to be developed, followed and observed to discuss the question whether and how it was possible to create an awareness-based, future-oriented and socially committed online community that would enrich social transformation processes.

Methods of 1st, 2nd and 3rd person research were applied, as well as group discussions, one Mentimeter survey and one standardised questionnaire with an open question.

Results indicate that it is not only possible to create a feeling of community in an online setting, but also point to the terms and conditions which act as enablers and influencers, like seeing each other face-to-face, collective check-ins and check-outs as well as small group break-out sessions. Video conferencing and the practicing of rules of conduct and communication, also referred to as netiquette, enable a transcendence of the physical distance to reach a feeling of belonging and social presence in the perception of the participants.

In line with global sustainable development, the study also sets an example for how to reduce personal emissions when planning an international conference. Also, it shows how to create online spaces to connect people worldwide, which will support to take over responsibilities as world citizens.

This paper aims to explain how Web 2.0, social connectedness online, has created incredible new business options. This research’s primary goal is to help businesses use these resources more effectively and perform better.

Variance-based structural equation modeling with the ADANCO program was used to examine the data. ADANCO software is used explicitly for variance-based structural equation modeling. To evaluate research models and test hypotheses, partial least square path modeling is used.

Theories encompassing social support and related approaches to “word of mouth” online, electronic purchasing and virtual communities mediated by technological platforms are the foundational frameworks for this research piece. It then produces a statistical model that enables users to predict how social commerce (s-commerce) building blocks, including forums, communities, ratings and reviews and recommendations, assist businesses in introducing innovative strategies to win in the digital markets. The results necessarily focus on trust, an essential component of e-commerce. Reciprocally, the study reverses engineer’s trust through the constructs of this moment mentioned.

The present study describes the scope of empirical testing and validation of this framework and assists practitioners in further strengthening s-commerce strategy, an emerging and essential platform in the e-commerce industry.

Research highlights the dearth of current analysis in such conceptual domains while generating novel research insights aimed at e-commerce and digital business. From the viewpoint of potential and recurring customers who interact with online communities and product offerings, the study captures the essence of human interactions, often known as trade relationships, online.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in online traffic, with many assuming that this technology would facilitate coping through active social connections. This study aims to interrogate the nature of this traffic-engagement relationship by distinguishing between passive (e.g. browsing) and active (e.g. reacting, commenting and sharing) engagement, and examining behavioral shifts across platforms.

Three field studies assessed changes in social media engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies included social media engagement with the most followed accounts (Twitter), discussion board commenting (Reddit) and news content sharing (Facebook).

Even though people spent more time online during the pandemic, the current research finds people were actively engaging less. Users were reacting less to popular social media accounts, commenting less on discussion boards and even sharing less news content.

While the current work provides a systematic observation of engagement during a global crisis, it does not claim causality based on its correlational nature. Future research should test potential mechanisms (e.g. anxiety, threat and privacy) to draw causal inference and identify possible interventions.

The pandemic shed light on a complex systemic issue: the misunderstanding and oversimplification of how online platforms facilitate social cohesion. It encourages thoughtful consideration of online social dynamics, emphasizing that not all engagement is equal and that the benefits of connection may not always be realized as expected.

This research provides a postmortem on the traffic-engagement relationship, highlighting that increased online presence does not necessarily translate to active social connection, which might help explain the rise in mental health issues that emerged from the pandemic.

The 2020 Coronavirus pandemic forced universities to hastily transition to eLearning on a mass scale, necessitating the identification of populations who are more challenged by the transition. This study aims to identify how students’ level of introversion/extraversion and digital literacy come to play in their satisfaction with the eLearning environment.

The analysis examined 272 Israeli students who moved from a face-to-face learning environment to a Zoom learning environment between March–July 2020, following the outbreak of the pandemic. All the participants completed two rounds of surveys, and 62 of the 272 participants were then interviewed, and their social network was mapped using a sociogram.

Findings indicated that, in accordance with the “poor get richer” hypothesis, introverts expressed more satisfaction from the transition to the video-conferencing Zoom platform than extraverts. In addition, for highly introverted people, high digital literacy was significantly associated with increased course satisfaction, whereas for highly extraverted people, a high number of social ties with peers from the course was associated with course satisfaction.

As expected, the study’s findings shows that there is no “one size fits all” approach for online learning. Learners with different personalities can benefit from learning environments that foster greater satisfaction with the learning experience. Online platforms can, and should, be designed in a way that offers this needed personalization, and this study provides initial principles that can inform such personalization.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2023-0028

This paper investigates the social online learning experiences of teacher trainees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study's model gauges the relationships between social presence, sense of community, and collaborative learning in online work-based learning environments.

This study uses a cross-sectional design, specifically an online questionnaire, to collect data from teacher-trainees in different years of their university programs.

The findings indicate significant and positive relationships between social presence and both sense of community and collaborative learning, and between collaborative learning and sense of community in a work-based online learning environment. Moreover, collaborative learning was found to mediate the relationship between social presence and sense of community in the study's model.

The use of questionnaires to collect self-reported data from a mostly female undergraduate sample is expected to affect the generalizability of the results. Experiments or observation methods and a wider sample of participants can be used in future research to build on the findings of this study.

The authors recommend that educators play an active role in improving the students' online social learning experiences, especially their social presence and collaborative learning. By using different interactive methods (e.g. encouraging students to ask questions, express emotions, share resources, and reflect on their learning in a group), educators can help students achieve a sense of community and, hence, realize the many beneficial outcomes tied to community creation in online learning environments.

The study contributes to knowledge by highlighting students' social experiences while learning online, a usually overlooked area of study. These insights are especially important in a time when online learning has become a necessity rather than a choice and when students are in dire need of social support and community. Researching the online social learning experiences of teacher-trainees lends additional value to the study, as it is necessary for future teachers to experience and master this type of learning during their pre-service training so they can apply it with higher levels of confidence and efficacy in their future classrooms.

This case study aims to explore how to provide an informal space to connect members socially, informally and with peers, to provide opportunities for collaboration and informal conversation. The purpose is to analyze the use of technology to promote collaborations and networking within online professional settings.

In this case study, the authors particularly examine the initiatives as they contribute to the organization, which allows us to understand the interactions between information technology-related tools and online communication.

Successful engagement in informal gatherings was initiated through the planning and implementation with a focus on the following: thematic meetings, time management and participation.

The case study presents an analysis of the use of technology integration into the planning processes that were undertaken by a group of members to enhance informal gatherings for relationship building within a global community of members during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors suggest ways of engaging users that could be used as a model for organizations alike.

This study aims to investigate the role of multidimensional social capital and consumer subjective well-being in online brand communities (OBCs). The aim was to provide practical guidance to global brand marketers for cultivating and strengthening OBC operations, optimizing consumer-brand-community relationships and creating value in the digital age.

A total of 576 valid questionnaires were collected through an online survey, and the model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

In OBCs, the cognitive dimension of social capital (i.e. shared language and shared vision) strongly affects the relational dimension of social capital (i.e. social trust and reciprocity). Both these dimensions also positively influence consumer community subjective well-being, which, in turn, enhances consumer brand subjective well-being. Thus, community subjective well-being has a mediating role in the aforementioned relationship, and brand community is an antecedent to brand subjective well-being.

Future studies should investigate other dimensions of social capital and well-being, as well as moderator variables, social environments and types of culture.

This study constructed a conceptual framework that focused on the effect of multidimensional social capital in OBCs to elucidate antecedents of brand subjective well-being from the perspectives of social networks and relationships. Moreover, it examined how brands strategically expand their clientele base with regard to target customers.