Search results

Prior research has extensively examined how bringing technology from work into the non-work life domain creates conflict, yet the reverse pathway has rarely been studied. The purpose of this study is to bridge this gap and examine how the non-work use of smartphones in the workplace affects work–life conflict.

Drawing from three literature streams: technostress, work–life conflict and role boundary theory, the authors theorise on how limiting employees' ability to integrate the personal life domain into work, by means of technology use policy, contributes to stress and work–life conflict. To test this model, the authors employ a natural experiment in a company that changed its policy from fully restricting to open smartphone access for non-work purposes in the workplace. The insights gained from the experiment were explored further through qualitative interviews.

Work–life conflict declines when a ban on using smartphones for non-work purposes in the workplace is revoked. This study's results show that the relationship between smartphone use in the workplace and work–life conflict is mediated by sensed stress. Additionally, a post-hoc analysis reveals that work performance was unchanged when the smartphone ban was revoked.

First, this study advances the authors' understanding of how smartphone use policies in the workplace spill over to affect non-work life. Second, this work contributes to the technostress literature by revealing how, in specific situations, engagement with ICT can reduce distress and strain.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt the uses and gratifications theory to tourism.

We have witnessed an evolution in the use of smartphones in recent years. We have been aware for some time of the potentially deleterious impact of smartphones on users' lives and their propensity for user addiction, as reflected in the large and growing body of work on this topic. One modern phenomenon – the distracted mobile phone user in public, or “smartphone zombie” – has received limited research attention. The purpose of the present study is to develop a robust measure of smartphone zombie behaviour.

The research deign comprises three studies: A round of focus groups (n = 5) and two online surveys (survey one n = 373, survey two n = 386), in order to develop and validate a three-factor, 15-item measure named the Smartphone Zombie Scale (SZS).

Following the round of focus groups conducted, Exploratory Factor Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the SZS measure (Cronbach's α = .932) is demonstrated to be robust and comprises three factors: Attention Deficit (Cronbach's α = .922), Jeopardy (Cronbach's α = .817) and Preoccupation (Cronbach's α = .835), that is shown to be distinct to existing closely related measures (Smartphone Addiction scale and Obsessive Compulsive Use).

The present study represents the first extant attempt to produce a measure of smartphone zombie behaviour, and provides us with a reliable and valid measure with which we can study this growing phenomenon.

The purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge gap hypothesis in the context of smartphone use for news to understand whether mobile news consumption could bridge or widen the knowledge gap between people of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES).

The authors examine how smartphone news consumption is associated with the knowledge gap hypothesis by analyzing a survey dataset from Hong Kong. This study focuses specifically on a moderated mediation model in which the indirect effect of mobile news consumption on political knowledge via discussion network heterogeneity is contingent on level of education.

Smartphone use for news/information was positively associated with level of discussion network heterogeneity. The indirect effect of smartphone news use on political knowledge via discussion network heterogeneity was stronger for those with lower levels of education.

This study advances the understanding of the role of smartphone use in contributing to the functioning of deliberative democracy as this use enhances discussion network heterogeneity and general levels of political knowledge. Moreover, our study contributes to the literature on the knowledge gap by not only examining the relationship between smartphone use, discussion heterogeneity, and political knowledge but also taking into consideration individual levels of education.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence college students’ smartphone use for academic purposes by identifying the task-technology fit (TTF) of smartphones. A research model is proposed to explain how TTF of smartphones affects college students’ perceived academic performance and smartphone use.

Online surveys were administered to college students at a South Korean university that has offered online academic services for more than five years, and 1,923 valid responses were analyzed. The study used partial least squares path modeling to evaluate the measurement model, and the bootstrapping technique to test the significance of the hypotheses.

The findings highlight that the TTF of smartphones has a direct influence on students’ perceptions of performance impact and an indirect influence on smartphone use through a precursor of utilization, such as attitude toward smartphone use, social norms and facilitating conditions.

Despite a reasonably large sample, a single cross-sectional survey has a likelihood of selection bias in the sample.

This study applies the TTF model to smartphone use among college students and suggests an effective way to motivate them to use mobile technologies for their academic activities.

The present study develops an empirical model to assess the adoption of smartphones and its effect on college students’ academic performance. Above all, the study identifies a causal relationship among TTF, precursor of utilization, smartphone use and a perceived impact on academic performance based on the development and validation of the TTF constructs of smartphones.

Understanding user behavior is increasingly critical for information security in the use of smartphones. There is, however, lack of empirical studies about the behavior of smartphone users for information security in China. The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis of the behavior of smartphone users in China in relation to information security.

A review of the related literature is conducted, leading to the development of a questionnaire for investigating the behavior of smartphone users. An online survey of the smartphone users in China is conducted. The collected data are analyzed with the use of descriptive analysis and Pearson’s chi-square test to better understand the behavior of smartphone users on information security.

The paper shows that there are serious concerns about information security in the use of smartphones in China including the ignorance of security information in downloading and using applications, inadequate phone settings, inappropriate enabling of add-on utilities and lack of proper disaster recovery plans. The study also reveals that there is a significant difference between different groups of users on information security in smartphone use.

This paper is based on a purposeful sample of smartphone users in China. It is exploratory in nature.

The paper can lead to a better understanding of the behavior of smartphone users and information security in China and provide relevant government departments and institutions with useful information for developing appropriate strategies and policies and designing specific training programs to improve information security in the smartphone use.

This paper is the first of this kind to collect quantitative data from users in China for better understanding the behavior of smartphone users on information security. It provides insight towards the adoption of various measures for information security from the perspective of smartphone users in China.

Due to the advances in smartphones, many companies in the tourism industry have launched mobile applications intended to reach their target audience. Design of these smartphone strategies requires identification of the profiles of individuals that use tourism services. The purpose of this paper is to explore the predictors of smartphone use for travel planning.

To achieve this goal, the authors carried out a hierarchical segmentation analysis selecting a group of different socio-demographic (gender, age, education level, marital status, occupation, and income) and behavioral (length of smartphone use and number of yearly leisure trips) variables to explain the use of these devices to search and book tourism products. The study is based on an online survey of 618 Spanish travelers.

Smartphone use for tourism can be primarily explained according to the users’ degree of daily experience of mobile phone internet use. That is, a spillover effect can be identified from the context of everyday mobile phone use to travel planning. Age, gender and the number of yearly vacations can also be distinguished, to a certain degree, through the use of smartphones. Specifically, there is an inverted U-shape quadratic relationship between the variable of age and the behavior of a potential tourist.

The authors conducted a segmentation study selecting a series of different socio-demographic and behavioral variables with the greatest discriminant power to explain the use of these mobile devices for travel planning. The paper concludes with compelling implications for management.

With the rise in adverse impact of excessive technology use, such as smartphone; the issue of smartphone addiction has gained the attention of researchers in recent years. Therefore, this study undertakes to review the literature on smartphone addiction research by identifying the current state of research in this domain and the future avenues that need to be addressed.

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted on 652 articles extracted from SCOPUS database. Publications were extracted from Scopus by performing a keyword search of “Smartphone Addiction” OR “Problematic smartphone use”. Bibliometric methods such as performance analysis and science mapping were used to perform the overview of smartphone addiction research. In addition, VOSviewer software was used to organise, analyse and present the data. This study identifies the most prolific authors, journals, documents, collaborative work, major research themes, potential research avenues in this field of research.

The result shows that the research on smartphone addiction has increased recently, the dominance of research is found in few countries only. There is preponderance of research in this domain in Asian countries, particularly South Korea and still there is a significant scope for future research in this area, which is presented in detail in this study. The research on smartphone addiction has been mainly conducted in the field of medicine and psychology; the other subjects lack behind by a significant margin in terms of research publications in this domain. The findings suggest Elhai (US) is the most influential researcher in this field, and US has shown high collaboration in smartphone addiction research with other countries as well as with authors within its domestic territory. Thematic map obtained from R software presents the evolution of themes. It shows that quality of life, social support, self-efficacy, anxiety and depression are major variables studied over the period. Respondents in most of the studies were university students, as the young generation is technology-savvy and is more attracted to gadgets such as smartphones.

This study provides an overview of research on smartphone addiction through an exhaustive bibliometric analysis to organise the fragmented literature on smartphone addiction and provide structure for future research in the domain. This is the first study of its kind on the subject. This study has found important future research avenues in the domain, which need to be addressed. Also, it will provide guidance to stakeholders from different backgrounds like, manufacturers, marketers, regulators, policymakers, consumers and academicians to contribute in controlling this problem as a part of their social responsibility.

This paper is unique in the sense that it, for the first time, attempts to provides valuable insights on the current status of research on smartphone addiction and also provides guidance for potential future agenda through bibliometric and content analysis techniques.

The research purpose is to investigate the mediating and moderating relationships between smartphone addiction and well-being (i.e. health-related quality of life).

A survey of 236 smartphone users was used to test the research model.

The structural equation modeling analysis results show that smartphone addiction negatively impacts well-being by draining a key personal resource, energy, thus creating strain. The adverse effect of smartphone addiction on users' well-being is found to be more intense when smartphones are used for hedonic purposes.

Through the conservation of resources theory lens, this study increases our understanding of the role of strain in mediating the negative effect of smartphone addiction on well-being. This study also has practical implications. By exploring the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying when and how smartphone addiction can be detrimental to well-being, interventions can be carried out to mitigate the adverse effects on well-being.

Past research has focused on the antecedents and consequences of smartphone addiction while ignoring the contextual factors of smartphone addiction effects as well as the intervening mechanism through which smartphone addiction impacts well-being. Through the lens of the conservation of resources theory, we close this gap in the literature by providing a better understanding of the mechanism by which smartphone addiction reduces well-being and identifying a relevant contextual factor (i.e. hedonic use) that can worsen the impact of smartphone addiction on well-being.

Smartphones have great potential to bridge the digital divide that low-socioeconomic status (SES) Hispanics have been experiencing. However, little is known about this group’s use of smartphones for health information. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by exploring the context in which smartphones were used for health information.

The authors interviewed 20 low-SES Hispanic participants using the semi-structured interview method. Participants had not obtained college degrees and had annual incomes less than $30,000, but had used their smartphones for health information. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method.

Being economical was an important reason for low-SES Hispanic users to use smartphones for health information. The users relied heavily on public Wi-Fi to access the internet. They searched a wide range of health topics, mostly using the mobile web rather than apps. They lacked knowledge and skills to effectively using apps, evaluating the quality of health information, and comprehend information.

Having access to smartphones alone does not help bridge the digital gap for low-SES Hispanics. Interventions need to consider improving these users’ smartphone literacy and health literacy, as well as improving their access to Wi-Fi services and to more quality content in Spanish.

Prior studies speculated that smartphones could be a means to bridge digital divide experienced by the Hispanic ethnic group. This study provided empirical knowledge about how smartphones are used by these users for health information, and shed light on the design of future informational interventions.