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This paper aims to examine the use of online social networks by doctoral students.

A quantitative online survey was conducted – 448 doctoral students from 15 universities and 11 research institutes in Lithuania were asked about their participation in both academic and non-academic online social networks.

The results show that despite efforts to link academics to society, doctoral students are not supported by universities/research institutes nor are doctoral students trained for this purpose, including regarding such threats as offensive posts. Additionally, more comprehensive information is disclosed in academic social networks, but these networks are less common and less frequently used.

International doctoral students in Lithuania cover about 4.4 per cent of the total population of doctoral students. They were not invited to participate in the survey. Furthermore, doctoral students consider any online social network as their professional (academic) network, as was found from our results. This resulted in the confusion of our definition of academic online social networks.

Learning about the diverse online roles doctoral students may take could be facilitated were doctoral students to receive clear and consistent awareness-raising and develop self-awareness in the importance of the roles, the most central online social networks and potential threats, and related institutional support to address them.

This study provides results on how engagement of doctoral students in online social networks might affect their links with society and what academic institutions should promote in doctoral education.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of organizational policy on the relationship between online social networking (OSN) and job performance of IT professionals engaged full‐time in offshore outsourced IT firms in Sri Lanka.

Survey methodology was used and a random sample of 215 respondents who fulfilled the selection criteria set for the study, responded. To examine the hypothesized relationships, factor analysis and multiple regression were used.

It was found that individuals engaged in online social networking while at work enjoy several benefits such as solving work‐related problems collaboratively. However, individuals also suffer from several drawbacks, which could be mainly categorized into two in terms of interference to job tasks and interference to workplace. Further, it was found that online social networking has significant effects on individual job performance; organizational policy moderates the relationship between online social networking and job performance.

Although online social networking has attracted a substantial amount of media attention over the last few years empirical research attempts have not taken off worldwide. Therefore, the influence of online social networking on employee job performance would be of interest to academics and practitioners worldwide. It is expected that the findings of this study will provide insight into benefits, challenges and issues associated with OSN to allow individuals, organizational leaders, and IT decision‐makers to better understand and utilize online social structures for success. Further, it is expected that the findings of this study will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area.

This study was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (1) determine the differences and reasons for using outgroup OSNs by gender, age and student groups (Mainland and Hong Kong [HK] students); (2) uncover the impact of online social networks (OSNs) on the development of Mainland–HK friendships and (3) determine the roles of different OSNs (social networking sites [SNSs] and instant messaging platforms [IMPs]) in the development of intercultural friendships in the real world.

To explore how OSNs facilitate (or inhibit) intercultural interactions, 198 students completed a questionnaire and 24 students participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews examining the role of OSNs in intercultural friendship development.

Results revealed that demographic and motivational preferences for using outgroup-OSNs differed among students. Both IMPs and SNSs helped students maintain friendships using little effort, whereas it tended to strengthen their existing social networks, rather than helping to start new friendships. IMPs helped develop a sense of “presence awareness”, strengthening pre-existing friendships and solidifying offline connections. SNSs also assisted students in exploring their shared interests while revealing their values and cultural differences.

The authors’ findings offered empirical evidence on social exchange theory and anxiety-uncertainty management theory regarding the perceived benefit of OSNs on students' friendship development.

The study sheds light on the differences between Mainland Chinese and HK students, including participants' perceptions of different friendship stages.

This study is interested in the roles of different SNSs and IMPs in intercultural friendship development, especially their strengths and weaknesses as perceived by students. Also, the authors are curious about how students select and use IMPs and SNSs differently according to their individual preferences and needs. To the authors’ knowledge, the dynamic link between online communication and intercultural friendship development has not been thoroughly examined in the field of intercultural communication.

Projecting the population distribution in geographical regions is important for many applications such as launching marketing campaigns or enhancing the public safety in certain densely populated areas. Conventional studies require the collection of people’s trajectory data through offline means, which is limited in terms of cost and data availability. The wide use of online social network (OSN) apps over smartphones has provided the opportunities of devising a lightweight approach of conducting the study using the online data of smartphone apps. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between the online social networks and the offline communities, as well as to project the population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in the online social networks.

In this paper, the authors propose the concept of geo-homophily in OSNs to determine how much the data of an OSN can help project the population distribution in a given division of geographical regions. Specifically, the authors establish a three-layered theoretic framework that first maps the online message diffusion among friends in the OSN to the offline population distribution over a given division of regions via a Dirichlet process and then projects the floating population across the regions.

By experiments over large-scale OSN data sets, the authors show that the proposed prediction models have a high prediction accuracy in characterizing the process of how the population distribution forms and how the floating population changes over time.

This paper tries to project population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in OSNs.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of perceived enjoyment in advertising response in online social networks (OSN). The authors propose and test a structural model explaining response to OSN advertisements embracing perceived enjoyment, social influence and advertising-related variables.

Data were gathered through the application of a structured questionnaire to a sample of 126 students of the same scientific area (marketing and communication studies).

The results validate the proposed model and support nine out of ten hypotheses. The study supports the role of perceived enjoyment as a predictor of both social identity and group norms. Furthermore, social identity and group intention have a positive impact on perceived advertisement relevance. Finally, group intention towards advertisements and perceived advertisement relevance have a positive impact on perceived advertisement value, which in turn impacts positively on response to OSN advertisements.

The main limitation relates to the fact that the study mainly covered a population aged between 18-35 years old. Despite its relevance as a segment of OSN users, some caution needs to be taken in generalizing findings to a broader population.

These results provide important indications for firms aiming at fully exploiting the computer-mediated communication of OSNs. Specifically, we confirm the role of perceived enjoyment in reinforcing group dynamics and shaping group intentions towards advertising.

The main contribution of this study lies in the focus on perceived enjoyment as a predicting variable of social influence and advertising variables, thus impacting response to OSN advertisements.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the role of individual–social–technology fit in online social network (OSN) value development. The social software features (e.g. communication and interaction), social features (e.g. privacy and trust) and individual features (e.g. sense of belonging and self-disclosure) are considered fitting forms to describe the OSN value. Implications and suggestions are addressed.

The literature review on social software, the social and individual characteristics and the research gap with respect to OSN value is presented. The research arguments are then hypothesized, and research model used to describe the proposed role is examined empirically. The research targeted mobile phone users as the subjects, and the extent of the activities of these users on OSN for both work and studies. A salient investigation explores the moderation effect of gender. The research results are obtained, and the findings are revealed on the basis of 468 social software users.

The significant effect of individual–social–technology fit on OSN value development is presented through the satisfaction of both participation and sharing information, and knowledge about this fit is verified. The interplay of social software, social and individual features contributes significantly to individual–social–technology fit development, implying that OSN value development is not a single issue. OSN value development should be considered concurrently with technological, personal and social issues.

The empirical study confirms that fitness analysis produces a systematic outcome, in which all elements (e.g. social, technology and individual) are required to cooperate with one another to maximize the OSN value. An individual adopts online channels to communicate with others; thus, the benefits may be a multidimensional issue instead of only a single information service issue. They also consider building an equal social relationship to be important, as it enables diverse propositions, maintains acceptable privacy and behaves on faith to enhance the fit of technology features and individual features to value development. The subjects also likely accepted the fact that emotion generation is important for the advantage of fit of technology features and social features, thereby likely benefitting OSN value development.

The OSN does not only add new values to the society but also brings new effects on social development, especially in terms of social cognition from virtual community formation, development and creation. Although existing studies in the literature present the important aspects and antecedents linked significantly to OSN value development, these studies also insufficiently discuss the effect of fit of these facets on OSN value development. This exploratory study mainly aims to propose and examine the individual–social–technology fit model through an empirical investigation. The main argument of the study is that when a positive and healthy virtual society is developed through social software, the individual and social characteristics, as well as the social software features, should be defined with a suitable fit to promote the social networking value.

Given the importance of online social network (OSN) media features, many studies have focused on how different types of OSNs with various media features influence users’ usage and engagement. However, a recent literature review indicates that few empirical studies have considered how different types of OSNs with different information accessibility levels influence users’ beliefs and self-disclosure. By comparing two OSN platforms (OSNs with high-level information accessibility vs OSNs with low-level information accessibility), the purpose of this paper is to address this opportunity by investigating the differential impacts of the two platforms on individuals’ psychological cognition – particularly users’ social exchange beliefs – and explaining how these beliefs translate into OSN self-disclosure.

This study used a factorial design approach in an experimental setting to examine how different levels of information accessibility (high vs low), influence the social exchange beliefs (i.e. perceived social capital bridging, perceived social capital bonding and perceived privacy risks) of OSN users and subsequently influence OSN self-disclosure.

The results show that users on OSNs with high-level information accessibility express significantly higher perceived social capital bridging and perceived privacy risks than users on OSNs with low-level information accessibility. However, users on OSNs with low-level information accessibility express higher social bonding beliefs than users on OSNs with high-level information accessibility, indicating that there are different effect mechanisms toward OSN self-disclosure.

The focus of this research helps unveil the complex relationships between OSN design features (e.g. information accessibility), psychological cognition (e.g. social capital bridging, social capital bonding and privacy risks) and OSN self-disclosure. First, it clarifies the relationship between information accessibility and self-disclosure by examining the mediating effect of three core social exchange beliefs. Second, it uncovers the distinct effects of high-level information-accessible OSNs and low-level information-accessible OSNs on OSN self-disclosure.

In modern society, considering the multi-channel of public opinion information (public opinion) propagation and its strong influence on social development, it is necessary to study its propagation law and discuss the intervention strategy in online social networks (OSN).

First, a conceptual model of double-layer OSN was constructed according to their structural characteristics. Then, a cross-network propagation model of public opinion in double-layer OSN was proposed and discussed its spreading characteristics through numerical simulations. Finally, the control strategy of public opinion, especially the timing and intensity of intervention were discussed.

The results show that the double-layer OSN promotes the propagation of public opinion, and the propagation of public opinion in double-layer OSN has the characteristics of that in two single-layer OSN. Compared with the intervention intensity, the regulator should give the priority to the timing of intervention and try to intervene in the early stage of public opinion propagation.

This study may help the regulators to respond to the propagation of public opinion in OSN more actively and reasonably.

This research has a deep comprehension of the cross-network propagation rules of public opinion and manages the propagation of public opinion.

This purpose of this paper is to investigate Iranian manager’s perceptions towards the use of online social networking (OSN) for improving corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication.

The websites and Facebook pages of 23 companies that had won National Excellence Awards for CSR were reviewed in 2011, and 15 managers from across these participated in a survey, to assess the extent these companies used online facilities to develop CSR practices. These interviews raised awareness of the potential of OSN, so company websites and Facebook pages were reviewed again in 2013 to assess changes to CSR and OSN practices.

Despite recognition for their high level of awareness and implementation of CSR practices analysis of the initial surveys indicated that OSN uptake among the respondent companies was poor in 2011. Managers saw little value in using OSN to promote and engage with CSR; however, the level of engagement and uptake had substantially increased by 2013.

This study is one of the first to evaluate the use of OSN to improve CSR in a developing country. The study examines managers’ perceptions of the effect of OSN on CSR. Findings suggest that once management became aware of the value of social networking, they used it to engage with stakeholders from the marketplace, community and workplace to promote their business and for CSR-related issues. This rapid uptake demonstrates how quickly OSN technology can be implemented once its potential is identified.

Although the inplementation of online social networking (OSN) within the hospitality industry is relatively new, its parameters possess unique implications for hospitality industry constituencies including guests, staff members, and management. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution, scope and types of online social networks and potential implications for hospitality businesses.

This paper is based on an in‐depth review of literature, including intended and unintended consequences of social media.

While social networking can assist a hospitality firm in strengthening guest loyalty and satisfaction, it may also expose itself to unfair criticism and unfounded speculation. In addition, some hospitality firms have sponsored coworker sites in an attempt to incentivize interactivity by encouraging peer‐to‐peer and staff‐to‐administrator participation, only to risk exposure of negative relationships and strained working conditions.

The literature related to hospitality OSNs is relatively sparse and thus this paper is intended to provide a basis for future investigation.

The literature related to hospitality OSNs is relatively sparse and thus this paper is intended to provide a basis for future investigation.