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The purpose of study is to understand the motivation of academic library users by developing Vroom’s expectancy theory in the context of academic libraries using the grounded theory approach.

The grounded theory approach has been used for data collection, analysis and development of theory. The data were collected through the process of theoretical sampling. Interviews of faculty and students belonging to government and private universities in India were recorded and transcribed till theoretical saturation was achieved. The interviews were analysed in three stages, i.e. open coding, axial coding and selective coding, to identify concepts of Vroom’s theory and integrate them into a theoretical model.

The components of Vroom’s theory, i.e. motivation, expectancy, instrumentality and valence were generated from data. The motivation to visit an academic library can be classified as intrinsic motivation and force choice motivation. Expectancy in the context of academic libraries is related to ease or difficulty in accessing library and its resources which relates to ease of location access, timing access, remote access, access to siblings and discipline norms for access. Instrumentality is related to infrastructure, information, service and promotion. Valence is related to pleasure and satisfaction. The concepts were integrated into a theoretical model.

The study is limited to academic libraries under state universities and private universities in India. Hence, the study cannot be generalised across institutions enjoying autonomy by the Government of India. Users of academic libraries may be motivated by several factors other than those considered with respect to motivation, expectancy, instrumentality and valence. The findings are based on the grounded theory approach which is an inductive approach. Alternate research methodologies, both inductive and deductive, need to be used to strengthen the external validity.

The understanding of user motivation through Vroom’s theory will help academic libraries to increase user motivation, thereby increasing usage of library resources.

Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation in the context of academic libraries was developed using the grounded theory approach.

Firms increasingly rely on content marketing to trigger user engagement in social media brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three generic types of marketer-generated content (affiliative, injunctive and utilitarian content) drive user engagement by considering distinct motivational paths and the role of users’ preference for intimate (vs broad) social networks.

The authors conduct a field survey and a scenario experiment among social media users across different brands from three different product categories. They examine the impact of marketer-generated content on user engagement while considering the moderating role of network intimacy (i.e. the mutual confiding within a user’s social network in terms of small social circles) and the mediating role of user motivations (i.e. autonomous vs controlled motivation for community membership).

The findings show that affiliative content (i.e. content that highlights shared values) drives user engagement through autonomous motivation, and utilitarian content (i.e. content that highlights tangible benefits) drives user engagement through controlled motivation. Notably, injunctive content (i.e. content that demands specific user behavior) is not a promising instrument to increase user engagement in social media brand communities when not targeted correctly.

The authors link three generic content types derived from literature on communal systems to user engagement, demonstrate the motivational underpinnings of their translation into engagement behavior and show that network intimacy can explain why the same content type can impact user engagement through two motivational paths.

The authors present three types of content that marketers can craft to trigger users to engage with a brand’s social media community and show when this content is most effective and why. By examining the moderating role of network intimacy, this research aims at providing targeting implications to social media marketers.

This research provides new insights on the effectiveness of marketer-generated content. The authors reveal two motivational paths that compete in explaining the overall effectiveness of different types of marketer-generated content to fuel user engagement. The authors further demonstrate that these relationships depend on the intimacy of a user’s circle of online friends.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational process underlying users’ intention to provide feedback on user-contributed knowledge in professional online communities. User feedback can serve as a means of indicating the credibility of the online content, which can help community members in their knowledge-seeking process. Adopting such a user feedback mechanism is beneficial for users to identify relevant and credible content efficiently and for an online community to sustain itself.

Drawing on self-determination theory, an integrated model is proposed. In this model, behavioural intention is defined as the consequence of motivational orientations whose antecedences include various social factors. The model is empirically tested using survey data collected online and the structural equation modelling techniques.

The results show that users’ intention to provide feedback is primarily influenced by autonomous motivation. Autonomous motivation is in turn affected by social factors, including reciprocity, online reputation, trust in the user involvement mechanisms and affective and normative community commitments.

This study adds value to prior studies by stressing the significance and feasibility of user feedback in helping members of professional online communities with their knowledge-seeking process. It also contributes to the literature on user participation in these communities by showing the efficacy of a motivational process perspective and the role of motivational orientations, in particular, in explaining users’ behavioural intention.

The emergence of mHealth applications has led to the rise of health-based services delivered over smartphones. Younger people are often found to be more innovative toward technology, especially related to smartphones (Rai et al., 2013). Most mHealth application downloaders are continually shifting between applications because of the hyper-competition making achieving loyal consumers challenging (Racherla et al., 2012). The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants that help increase young consumers mHealth application loyalty. This study integrates self-determination theory (SDT), gamification elements and engagement to examine loyalty.

A valid sample of 263 college student’s data was obtained for data analysis from a survey conducted in multiple campuses of the Delhi University in India.

The three psychological needs: need for autonomy, need for competence and need for relatedness, showed a positive impact on intrinsic motivation. From the gamification factors; perceived playfulness, the level of challenge and social interaction, only the first two showed a positive impact on extrinsic motivation. Both motivation factors influence engagement, showing a frequent interaction with the application, leading to loyalty.

Previous studies examined the adoption of mHealth services, this study is one of the first to examine young consumers’ loyalty in using mhealth apps. It sheds light on the existing literature and contributes to research on mHealth applications by determining the factors that lead to loyalty by the young consumers.

This paper aims to examine the motivation for consumer participation in value cocreation and its impact on value cocreation behavior within cultural and creative virtual brand communities.

Through an in-depth analysis of the psychological needs of the users of short videos, the motivations for user participation in value cocreation are categorized based on the self-determination theory, and six theoretical models are proposed for the impacts of participation motivation on the different levels of value cocreation behavior. Our research hypotheses are validated by conducting a regression analysis based on the 277 valid responses collected.

Ranked from highest to lowest by the degree of impact, the motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on browsing behavior are altruistic motivation, information motivation, social motivation, and hedonic motivation. The motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on member interaction behavior are achievement motivation, hedonic motivation, social motivation, and brand identity, while the motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on content creation behavior are achievement motivation, altruistic motivation, information motivation, and social motivation.

This current paper enriches the research on the consumer’s value cocreation behavior in virtual brand communities and provides constructive relevant platform manager’s suggestions for increasing user participation.

This study aimed to investigate positive associations between three main motivations (social interaction, information and entertainment) for the use of social network sites (SNSs) and users' well-being, as well as the multiple mediating effects of perceived social support, positive and honest self-presentation.

A sample of 759 active users of SNSs (WeChat Moments, Qzone and Weibo) aged 14–43 years was measured with online questionnaires. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were implemented to examine the corresponding hypotheses.

The results showed the overall intensity of motivations was positively associated with users' well-being; perceived social support and positive self-presentation played intermediary roles and honest self-presentation and perceived social support had a chain mediation effect. However, the motivations of social interaction, information and entertainment indirectly affected users' well-being through three different mediation paths.

Although some studies have investigated the effects of motivations (including social interaction, information and entertainment) for SNS use on users' well-being, there has not been a consistent conclusion. The findings may shed light on the motivations for SNS use and how they may affect people's well-being in the digital era, thereby promoting their healthy use of SNSs as well as improved interface design and user management of SNSs.

Based on cognitive evaluation theory and gamification affordances, this study aims to understand how gamification affordances influence users’ intention to engage in sustainable behaviour and how new trends in Ant Forest influence its impact on green intrinsic motivation to support sustainable behaviours.

The authors developed a research model to explore the mechanisms underlying gamification affordances, psychological needs and green intrinsic motivation. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to assess the survey data (n = 393) and test the research model.

The results show that different gamification affordances can satisfy users’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which positively influences their green intrinsic motivation and engagement in sustainable behaviours. However, some affordances, such as competition, might negatively impact these psychological needs.

This research updates information system research on environmental sustainability and the Ant Forest context. The authors provide a new framework that links gamification affordances, psychological needs and sustainable behaviour. The study also examines changing trends in Ant Forest and their implications.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of user-motivation as well as demographics in developing an effective segmentation strategy of Facebook users. Additionally, the paper seeks to add validity to the scale developed by Park et al. (2009) by using a full spectrum of Facebook users.

A self-administered survey was employed to explore access motivations, frequency and session duration of Facebook users. The survey was e-mailed to 2,129 potential respondents with 530 valid responses received. Data were initially analysed by hierarchical cluster analysis to develop the cluster solution. Cluster means were then used as cluster centres for a K-means cluster analysis for all cases. The relationship between the clusters and Facebook activity variables was investigated through ANOVA while independent samples t-tests were employed to analyse the relationship between motivations and demographics. Lastly χ2-tests were used to explore the relationship between Facebook user segments and demographics.

The results indicate four distinct types of Facebook users: Devotee, Agnostic, Socializer and Finder. Devotees were highly positive about Facebook use while Agnostics were least motivated to use Facebook. Socializers were motivated to use Facebook for socializing and entertainment while Finders were motivated to use Facebook for information seeking. These four distinct groups are validated by examining their individual behaviour regarding frequency of access to Facebook and the average amount of time spent on Facebook per visit. Demographic variables such as gender and age were found to be significantly related to Facebook user-motivation and segmentation.

For marketers who communicate with market segments via social media, the findings of this study are highly significant. To date, marketers have found it difficult to fully exploit the benefits of Facebook. The authors argue this is due to a tendency to consider Facebook users as a single segment rather than understanding the nuances of different user segments. This research provides marketers with a motivation and demographic segmentation strategy for Facebook users.

Despite the popularity of Facebook as a communication channel, from a marketing perspective little is known regarding Facebook user segments. This research addresses this gap by undertaking a segmentation study of Facebook users. A segmentation typology is developed in which both Facebook user motivations as well as demographic variables are found to be useful in describing user segments. Additionally, the study makes important theoretical contributions by extending uses and gratifications theory to the Facebook context and adding validity to the scale developed by Park et al. (2009) for use with the full spectrum of Facebook users.

Social commerce sites offer fertile ground for users to communicate product information. Given that such sites have the potential to transform the way of doing business, it is clearly important for academics to understand user information sharing on social commerce sites. Existing research has considered motivations as core elements of user information sharing in online communities. The purpose of this paper is to advance the theoretical understanding of user information sharing by investigating differences in motivations between the different user types of social commerce sites: sellers and buyers, and the impact on social commerce.

The authors conducted an empirical study by analyzing data from a social commerce site in China, including panel data (n=892) and survey data (n=913).

This research showed that user type (i.e. sellers and buyers) plays an important moderating role in user information sharing: sellers exert a positive moderating effect on utilitarian and social motivations, while buyers are found to have a positive moderating effect on hedonic motivation.

This study contributes to existing literature, not only by exploring the antecedents of user information sharing on social commerce sites from utilitarian, hedonic and social dimensions, but also by providing an evaluation of user types (i.e. sellers and buyers). The authors believe that the results of this study offer important and interesting insights for IS research and practice.

This study will enhance social commerce site managers’ understanding of better features for information sharing and differences in motivation between sellers and buyers. This could improve the effectiveness of encouraging strategies and help social commerce sites be more sustainable in the highly competitive contemporary environment.

Based on social exchange theory and motivation theory, this paper takes user types into account, and postulate that user type (i.e. sellers and buyers) plays a moderating role in the relationships between motivations (i.e. utilitarian, hedonic and social motivation) and user information sharing intention on social commerce sites.

Although health question-and-answer (Q&A) communities have become popular in recent years, only a few communities have successfully retained and motivated their members to share knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the ways by which social capital and motivation influence knowledge sharing intention from the perspectives of health professionals and normal users in health Q&A communities.

The developed theoretical model integrates individual motivation and social capital theories. On the basis of a sample comprising 363 members from health Q&A communities in China, the authors tested the hypotheses by using structural equation modeling.

This study empirically finds that social capital positively affects intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, which then positively influence the intention of health professionals and normal users to share knowledge. Motivations of members fully mediate the effects of social capital on knowledge sharing intention. Specifically, intrinsic motivation influences knowledge sharing intention more for health professionals than for normal users, whereas extrinsic motivation influences knowledge sharing intention more for normal users than for health professionals.

This study explores the factors that affect the intentions of sharing knowledge in health Q&A communities by integrating social capital and motivation theories. Individual motivations can then bridge social capital and knowledge sharing intention. The effects of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of two user types were further examined and compared. These findings can extend the understanding of the underlying drivers of intention to share knowledge in the context of e-health.