Search results

The use of social networking sites (SNSs) can promote life satisfaction mainly because of their social relationship benefits. Although prior studies examined the roles of different types of social capital (SC), the association between online and offline SC is ignored. This research addresses this gap by uncovering a mechanism of transformation between online and offline SC in terms of bonding and bridging types when linking SNSs usage and life satisfaction.

Categorizing the concept of SC into four sub-types from bonding/bridging and online/offline dimensions, the paper establishes a theoretical framework based on the transformation mechanism among these four kinds of SC. A component-based approach, partial least square method, is chosen for hypothesis testing with a survey-based sample collected from WeChat users.

First, SNSs usage is positively related to life satisfaction and four types of SC (i.e. online/offline and bonding/bridging SC). Second, both online bonding SC and offline bridging SC are positively related to life satisfaction and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and life satisfaction. Third, offline bonding SC is positively related to online bonding SC and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and online bonding SC; on the contrary, online bridging SC is positively related to offline bridging SC and can mediate the relationship between SNSs usage and offline bridging SC.

In the environment of SNSs, users can take vigorous strategies to better balance online and offline spaces and improve life satisfaction by adapting to the characteristics of SNSs in developing different types of SC. Specifically, it is encouraged for users to transfer online bridging SC into offline space and offline bonding SC into online space.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study exploring the association between online and offline SC when linking SNSs usage and life satisfaction. Instead of the single transformation direction from online to offline in prior Internet research, this research has revealed different transformation directions between online and offline SC in terms of bonding and bridging types in the context of SNSs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to investigate the determinants of continuance intention toward social networking sites (SNSs) by integrating the perspectives of the uses and gratifications theory, perceived interactivity and network externalities.

Data collected from 255 Facebook users in Taiwan were used to test the proposed model. The partial least squares method was used to test the measurement model and the structural model.

The findings reveal that emotional gratifications and social gratifications are the key predictors of users’ continuance intention toward SNSs. Further, the results indicate that perceived network size, perceived complementarity, machine interactivity and person interactivity influence information gratifications significantly, while perceived complementarity, machine interactivity and person interactivity exert positive effects on emotional gratifications. Finally, the results show that machine interactivity and person interactivity impact social gratifications positively, whereas perceived network size and perceived complementarity affect machine interactivity and person interactivity significantly.

This study is one of the earliest research inquiries to examine the effects of various types of gratifications on continuance intention. It is also one of the earliest studies to identify the antecedents of gratifications from social factors and technological attributes simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and assess the awareness and extent of the use of social networking sites (SNSs) by the students and research scholars of universities of North India.

The study is a questionnaire-based survey on the usage of SNSs among the students and research scholars of the universities of North India. The data of the study were collected through questionnaires, which were personally distributed to the identified population, i.e. undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research scholars, by the authors. The survey was based on a sample of 610 questionnaires; of which, 486 questionnaires were received, having a response rate of 79.67 per cent.

The study showed that all the respondents were found to be aware of and making use of such applications in their academic affairs. It was revealed from the study that Facebook is the most popular SNS by all categories of respondents. To determine the purpose of SNSs, it emerged that SNSs are mostly used for entertainment and communication. The study also found that the majority of respondents were aware about the security aspects of SNSs. It signifies that excessive time consumption and fear of misusing personal information were the major hurdles in the way of accessing SNSs.

The study covers the students and research scholars of select universities of North India. It also signifies the use of SNSs in their research and academic environment.

The paper provides reliable and authentic data. The study is worth, justifiable and enlightens the salient findings on the topic, which will be very useful for researchers in this area.

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of product placement acceptance in social networking sites (SNSs) and the mediating role of consumer materialism in the relationship between SNSs usage frequency and product placement acceptance.

A survey was conducted with a structured questionnaire for a sample of 327 SNSs users in Sri Lanka. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares–structural equation modeling with Smart PLS to test the hypotheses derived.

The results of this study revealed that SNSs usage frequency and consumer materialism positively predict the acceptance of product placement in SNSs and materialism partially mediates the relationship between SNSs usage frequency and product placement acceptance in SNSs.

This study fills the gap in the existing literature by finding the factors that predict the acceptance of product placement in SNSs and the mediation effect of consumer materialism in the relationship between SNSs usage frequency and acceptance of product placement in SNSs.

This study aims to evaluate the fears of individuals on their profiles’ sharing in social network sites (SNSs), regarding its advantages and disadvantages. The researched issues are related with the employment seeking process. The concern of this study is the deviation observation between the fears acquired by the business and private social media members.

This study included an online survey with 236 respondents and calculated indicators of central tendency or location parameter, correlation coefficients and performed analysis of variance.

The result indicated and revealed the hidden danger and opportunities among social network members’ profile. This result addressed the need to consider the issue of user’s fears in reengineering the practical use of SNSs by organisations.

Interesting for further research would be to transfer this research from the employment seeking process in other research fields to generalise the results more accurately.

The contribution to the research field is to compare different SNSs and to explain the reasons to use SNS profiles to support organisations by their decisions for a valuable strategy. This study provides an insight in use and behaviour of SNS members that support researchers to understand the behaviour of SNS members regarding their profile under consideration of the employment seeking process.

The paper aims to study the purpose of using social networking sites (SNSs) among the research scholars of Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh and Kurukshetra University (KU), Kurukshetra in India.

The study was conducted through a questionnaire administered to the research scholars in two universities in India. The questionnaire was distributed among the randomly selected research scholars of the two universities in India.

It is observed that the majority of the research scholars from both the universities are aware of the SNSs and have their accounts on them. Facebook is the most popularly accessed SNS both in PU (83 per cent) and KU (77 per cent) followed by Orkut (46 per cent) in PU and Research Gate (38 per cent) at KU. The majority of the research scholars who use SNSs for various purposes from both the universities are in the age group of 20-30 years. 46 per cent of the researchers surveyed from PU do not have any publications and only 5 per cent have more than ten publications so far, whereas 54 per cent research scholars do not have any publications to their credit in KU.

The study is limited to two universities in India, namely PU, Chandigarh and KU, Kurukshetra. There are a total of 75 teaching departments at PU and 46 departments at KU. The present study is limited to 20 departments each of both the universities. The PU has approximately 500 research scholars and KU has approximately 450 research scholars. The representative sample was formed by taking approximately 15 per cent of respondents (i.e. 65) from 20 departments of each university. 130 questionnaires were received and analyzed for the present study.

The paper attempts to find out the awareness and use of SNSs among the research scholars perusing their research in different disciplines in PU, Chandigarh and KU, Kurukshetra in India. It is the first of its kind survey to find out the purpose of using the SNSs by the researchers of this region.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence and interaction of social networks and personality traits on the self-disclosure behavior of social network site (SNS) users. According to social capital theory and the Big Five personality model, the authors hypothesized that social capital factors would affect the accuracy and amount of self-disclosure behavior and that personality traits would moderate this effect.

A survey was conducted to collect data from 207 SNS users. The questionnaire was administered in university classrooms and libraries and via e-mail. The measurement model and structural model were examined by using LISREL 8.8 and SmartPLS 2.0.

Based on the path analysis, the authors identified several interesting patterns to explain self-disclosure behavior on SNSs. First, the centrality of SNS users has a positive effect on their amount of self-disclosure. Moreover, people who are more extroverted disclose personal information that is more accurate with the level of the cognitive dimension held constant and disclose a greater amount of personal information with the level of the structural dimension held constant. From a practical perspective, the results may provide useful insight for companies operating SNSs.

This study analyzed the influence of social capital factors on SNS users’ self-disclosure, as well as the interactions between personality and social capital factors. Specifically, the authors examined six important variables of social capital divided into three dimensions. This research complements current research on SNSs by focusing on SNS users’ motivation to disclose self-related information in addition to information sharing.

Building upon studies of value theory and social psychology literature, the purpose of this paper is to empirically test a research model that incorporates antecedents of value (mobile convenience, service compatibility, security risk, and cognitive effort) and mobile value (utilitarian and hedonic value), and social influence (social norms and number of peers) to examine factors affecting user intention toward mobile social networking sites (SNSs).

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 318 users on their perceptions of mobile SNSs. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the relationships of the research model.

The results revealed that mobile convenience, service compatibility, security risk, and cognitive effort have a significant and indirect impact on the user acceptance of mobile SNSs through their respective paths on hedonic value and utility value.

Mobile SNSs practitioners should focus on enhancing users’ mobile value through perceived benefits, lower perceived costs, and simultaneously developing social influence to further boost users’ intention to use for mobile social networking services.

This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of factors that explain users’ intention to use the mobile SNSs.

This study attempts to investigate how electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), consisting of (1) opinion seeking, (2) opinion giving, and (3) opinion passing, influences consumers’ purchasing intentions for tourism services on Social Networking Sites (SNSs). Two hundred and seventy three American college students participate in a self-administered survey concerning their use of SNSs and ways of making online recommendations. Based on four hierarchical regression analyses, this study finds that both opinion seeking and opinion passing significantly influence respondents’ purchasing intentions. Additionally, time spent on SNS use reveals a positive relationship with opinion seeking and opinion passing. The conclusion of the present study highlights the eWOM as a cost-effective communication tool for tourism marketing and renders practical and theoretical implications along with suggestions for future research.

This study aims to propose and empirically test a cognitive-behavioral model of the perceived benefits of social networking sites (SNSs), trust in SNSs, brand trust, brand loyalty and customer equity in the context of fast fashion brand communities in Thailand. Using a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, a proposed model was successfully established. Importantly, this research delineates the mediating role of the relationship between the perceived benefits of SNSs and brand trust, as well as emphasizes the importance of trust in generating customer equity. In addition to its theoretical contribution, this study also provides practical implications for brand managers to develop customer equity through their brand pages on SNSs. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

The online surveys were administered to Thai consumers. An email invitation with an embedded link was sent by the researchers asking receivers to participate or forward the survey to others who were interested in participating in the study. As the purpose of this study is to investigate interrelationships among SNSs benefit, trust and customer equity in fast fashion retail domains, only responses from those who were current SNS users and had visited fast fashion SNS brand communities in the past three months were considered for analysis. A total of 227 participants completed the survey; however, eight of those responses were incomplete. Thus, 207 usable responses were analyzed by using SEM.

Thai SNS users who believe they receive practical and social benefits from engaging in SNSs were likely to trust the sites instead of directly forming trust toward the brand. However, perceived entertainment benefits did not influence trust in SNS. This study found that brand trustworthiness is not directly predicted by practical benefit from SNSs. Instead, brand trustworthiness is formed through consumers’ trust toward SNSs. Brand trust induces a high degree of brand loyalty for fast fashion brands, and those individuals with higher brand loyalty were likely to purchase the brand’s products more frequently as well as in a higher volume.

Although the research included general fashion SNSs brand communities users, the samples are not fully representative. Particularly, the majority of respondents of this study could be college students; as such, this may have influenced the results. Thus, to enhance generalizability of the findings, the model should be examined using non-student samples. In addition, a greater number of samples will better reflect the actual demographic profile of SNS users. Second, although the study results generally support the proposed model, the results are necessarily limited to the study’s context, which is Thailand. Likewise, the study needs to be replicated with consumers in other countries, particularly in countries with the fastest increase of SNS users such as India, Indonesia, Mexico, China and Brazil.

The results provide practical implications to apparel brands for establishing customer equity through their brand pages on SNSs. As discussed, consumer trust toward the SNSs is favorably strengthened by SNSs benefits (i.e., practical and social). Consumer trust in SNSs can impact how they perceive the brands and their purchase behaviors. This study encourages companies to strengthen consumers’ trust in SNSs by enhancing perceived practical and social benefits. In addition, companies need to closely monitor information/conversations about the product/brand being presented on their SNS brand community because the quality of information and conversation available in the SNS can affect consumer trust in that SNS.

This study contributes to the existing literature in the area of social media, trust, brand loyalty and customer equity in the context of the apparel industry. Importantly, this study uncovered the mediating role of trust in SNSs in a practical benefit-brand trust relationship, indicating that brand trustworthiness is not directly predicted by practical benefit from SNSs, but is formed through consumers’ trust toward SNSs. Brand trust induces a high degree of brand loyalty for fast fashion brands, which in turn, led to customer equity relative to number of purchases and purchase volume.