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The purpose of this paper is to examine how subjective characteristics of social network sites (SNSs) affect consumers' positive and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) sharing.

The data used for this study were obtained from an online survey with a sample size of 369 consumers. Structural equation modeling was performed to test hypotheses and examine the research questions.

The authors found that the perceived anonymity of an SNS is negatively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends, and the number of friends in an SNS is positively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends. With regard to positive WOM, the perceived anonymity of the SNS has a significant negative influence on consumers' WOM, and both perceived interpersonal closeness and the number of friends have a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM. But, in the case of negative WOM, only perceived interpersonal closeness of friends has a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM.

When attempting to promote positive WOM, marketers should choose consumers who possess the “right” subjective characteristics of SNSs (i.e. low anonymity, high interpersonal closeness of friends and a large number of friends). At the same time, marketers should monitor the emergence of consumers' negative WOM, especially those consumers who have a high level of interpersonal closeness of friends in SNSs, and respond to the content of negative WOM without delay.

This study investigates the influence that subjective characteristics of SNSs have on consumers' WOM sharing and therefore contributes to the literature on the antecedents of WOM generation and also contributes to the research that compares positive WOM with its negative counterpart.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of defensive biasing in work stress surveys, which occurs when employees trivialize potential stressors and strains due to fear of negative consequences from their supervisors or management. This study aims to better understand the factors that influence this behavior and to develop a scale to measure it.

The study used an online survey of 200 employees to investigate the factors influencing defensive biasing behavior. The researchers developed a scale for defensive biasing with the help of subject matter experts and derived possible factors from the literature. Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which they imagined a work stress survey in their organization and were asked to answer related items. The data were analyzed using regression analysis.

The study found that defensive biasing behavior was significantly predicted by perceived anonymity and neuroticism. Participants who felt less anonymous and had higher levels of neuroticism were more likely to engage in defensive biasing. Job insecurity and trust in supervisors were not found to be significant predictors of defensive biasing.

This study contributes to the literature on work stress surveys by developing a scale for defensive biasing and investigating the factors that influence this behavior. The study highlights the importance of making the survey process more transparent to reduce defensive biasing and obtain trustworthy results.

With the rise of cryptocurrency and its influence on the financial industry, this paper aims to explore cryptocurrency affordances that lead to approach–avoidance behavioral intentions for non-users (potential) and the intention to continue use for users (actual), drawing upon affordance theory and chasm theory.

The authors collected data from 480 potential and actual users in Germany and used maximum likelihood structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) to analyze it. In particular, the data consisted of 301 cryptocurrency users in Germany\ the authors used ML-SEM to test the post-adoption model. Additionally, logistic regression was utilized to determine the dominant actual usage method (store of value or medium of exchange) for various cryptocurrency coins.

According to the study's results, the perceived value benefits have a positive impact on the behavioral intention of potential users to adopt cryptocurrency, and they influence the intention of actual users to continue using it. However, both perceived volatility and financial risk tolerance are the most crucial factors hindering cryptocurrency adoption, whether in the pre-adoption or the post-adoption stage.

This is the first study to reveal cryptocurrency affordances and examine their effect on behavioral intentions toward cryptocurrency adoption based on the differences between non-users (potential) and users (actual). Furthermore, the authors explore how cryptocurrency holders perceive and invest in different coins (e.g. NFTs), which sheds light on factors such as financial risk tolerance that affect their decision making.

Whistleblowing has been receiving increased attention and support in recent times as a means of detecting and correcting wrongdoing in organizations. This study aims to examine perceptions, attitudes and consequences (actions and reactions) of whistleblowing, as well as the predictors of internal and external whistleblowing intentions, by using Graham’s (1986) model of principled organizational dissent in a small emerging and collectivist culture like Barbados.

The study utilized a self-administered survey of 282 accounting employees working in organizations in Barbados.

Results reveal that there is little awareness of whistleblowing legislation. Most respondents perceive whistleblowing as ethical and favor internal over external whistleblowing. Findings show that personal responsibility and personal costs significantly influence internal whistleblowing intentions, while personal costs influence external whistleblowing. Using qualitative data, several themes emerged as influencing whistleblowing: perceived benefits of whistleblowing, actual whistleblowing experiences (handling of reports), personal costs (climate of fear and hostility), perceived lack of anonymity and cultural norms.

Future research should control for social desirability bias and use more rigorous qualitative approaches such as face-to-face interviews and focus groups to gain in-depth opinions and feelings on the topic.

Whistleblowing can be achieved through such mechanisms as perceived organizational support, strong ethical codes of conduct, rewarding ethical behavior and promoting sound work ethics in organizations.

This paper explores whistleblowing in an emerging economy where there has been little research on the topic. Thus, this study supplements the existing research in emerging economies by examining the applicability of Graham’s (1986) model of principled organizational dissent.

The study aimed to investigate the information disclosure behavior of women bloggers who suffer from infertility by examining their self-disclosure as it relates to the anonymity patterns they adopted.

A survey was distributed to approximately 300 authors of infertility blogs, 135 bloggers answered the request to take part in the study. The survey gathered basic demographic and blogging practice data, and measured different elements of the bloggers' discursive and visual anonymity as well as their patters of self-disclosure.

Findings reveal that the majority of respondents identify themselves on their blogs and only a small percentage decided to be totally anonymous, and about half of the bloggers post actual photos of themselves and their lives. The participants reported a high rate of self-disclosure, revealing sensitive information, letting their defenses down, disclosing highly intimate details about their lives, writing openly about their infertility treatments on their blog. No significant correlation was observed between visual and discursive anonymity and the perceived self-disclosure of participants. Results show that the more anonymous the bloggers are, the more afraid they become that their blog may be read by people they know offline. On the other hand, the more identifiable the bloggers are, the more willingness they show to share the content of their journal with people they know offline. The majority of participants expressed concerns that blogging could negatively impact their lives.

This study explores an alternate explanation through the examination of the bloggers' self-disclosure patterns as they relate to the degree of anonymity adopted.

The continuous evolution of e-commerce with young consumers’ growing interest in online shopping has transformed the retail landscape across the world. With the surge in online sales, counterfeits of luxury goods have also found themselves from brick-and-mortar shelves to online e-commerce sites. Against this backdrop, this study aims to understand and analyse young consumers’ online counterfeit purchase behaviour (OCPB). Additionally, it also aims at identifying the determinants that influence their purchase decisions.

Following an extensive review of the literature, the present study pursued a quantitative approach in exploring critical demographic, psychographic, behavioural and situational factors influencing OCPB. The study was conducted in India through an online survey using a structured questionnaire.

The findings indicate that young consumers’ OCPB is significantly related to influencing factors like brand consciousness, fashion involvement, face consciousness, impulsive buying tendency, acquisition centrality and utilitarian shopping values. Furthermore, moderating effects of perceived anonymity (PA) and moral disengagement (MD) on OCPB were also observed and validated.

The study examined the critical factors and their linkages while building upon a structural framework on OCPB, keeping India as a representative sample. The proposed framework will bring more clarity and further insights that will help scholars expand the research domain with more cross-cultural studies and aid brand e-marketers to strategize their action towards developing strong brand aesthetic values.

The study contributes towards the literature by introducing PA and MD vis-à-vis building a framework for studying young consumers’ OCPB.

This paper aims to identify and discuss selected reasons for social media disengagement (SMD). Drawing upon two-factor theory, it is argued that the determinants of consumer disengagement may be different from those that enable consumer engagement. Accordingly, extrinsic factors of social media experiences (SMEs), subjective norms (SN), perceived anonymity (PA) and perceived credibility (PC) trigger previously engaged consumers to terminate their interactions with the brand on social media.

A quantitative survey targeting young members from one of the largest social media communities in Vietnam was used in 2018. A total of 387 completed questionnaires were used for data analysis using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Results reveal that PC is the main driver of SMD. Moreover, PA, SME and SN are indirectly related to SMD via PC.

The study provides some strategic recommendations for brand managers to re-design user interaction with social media brand pages to improve consumer retention and minimize consumer disengagement.

While consumer engagement with social media has received much attention from practitioners and academics, a research gap exists around the “dark side” of consumer engagement in which consumers can disengage from their relationship with brand on social media. This disengagement can lead ultimately to the termination of the relationship between the consumer and the brand. This research contributes to marketing literature by providing empirical evidence for relevant constructs driving consumer disengagement from the brand’s social media pages.

Technology facilitates certain behaviours. This underlies the argument that the Internet may not be as benign as we might like to think. It is argued in this paper, through examination of the case of the capture of a large number of people on charges of possession of child pornography, that the Internet constitutes a kind of unintentional entrapment. Some consequences of this are explored.

There has been a lack of an information systems architecture which explicitly illustrates processes that make and maintain the anonymity of student responses in an online system for student opinion survey of faculty teaching. The purpose of this paper is to present an information systems architecture which explicitly shows the process of disassociation of student credentials and their responses. It also shows that the process guarantees a complete anonymity of student responses.

The system was developed to satisfy the needs of students, faculty and administrators of a higher education institution with several objectives, one of which is the complete anonymity of student responses.

The system developers were successful in designing and developing a student opinion survey system that keeps student responses completely anonymous.

The anonymity of student responses improves students’ trust in the survey system and may increase student response rate. Other factors that affect student response rate should be analyzed to determine their effect on student response rate and adjust those factors to improve student response rate.

This paper shares the success of developing an information system that makes student responses anonymous. The goal is to increase the discussion of this topic among researchers and practitioners to further improve the system to increase student response rate.

The proposed information system architecture is novel because it keeps student responses completely anonymous.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate toxic behaviour (TB) that significantly harms individuals’ gameplay experience in multiplayer online video games. Multiplayer online video games allow to simultaneously interact with others in real time. They can be considered as digital communities unifying a group of players within a video game. TB is characterized by spreading a bad mood (e.g. upsetting and insulting) leading to unsatisfying outcomes in team-based multiplayer environments.

Using mixed methods, the authors show that handling TB should be addressed more firmly on a level of game design. First, the authors test the explanatory power of the online disinhibition effect (ODE) and its antecedents on TB using a quantitative survey (N = 320) and structural equation modelling. Specifically, the authors show that dissociative anonymity, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination and minimization of authority have a mediated effect through toxic disinhibition as predictors of TB. Second, the authors conduct a focus group workshop (N = 10) with experts from diverse disciplines to derive design principles on a level of game design.

The results indicate that transparency and imminent feedback are still underutilized elements in game design that can significantly buffer several forms of TB. By developing a heuristic prototype and exemplary design principles in subsequent categories, the authors address all relevant in-game scenarios. With this study, the authors provide researchers and practitioners helpful insights on how to increase the well-being and safety of gaming communities.

ODE already showed its explanatory potential in the neighbouring context of cyberbullying. Embedded in theories of negative behaviour on the internet, the authors propose a holistic and theory-driven approach to handle TB on a level of game design. The authors’ insights allow for a better understanding of an innovative entity of the dark side of technology diffusion and adverse side effects linked to it.