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Virtual reality (VR) offers unprecedented immersion and interactivity in education, and working and learning from home have become the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study empirically investigated the factors affecting the use of a VR online learning system (VROLS).

To explore factors affecting users’ continuance behavioral intentions toward using VROLSs, a research framework was formed comprising factors that constitute benefits (i.e. pull factors) and costs (i.e. push factors); these factors included perceived value, flow and social influence. The data for this study were collected via online survey questionnaires. A total of 307 valid responses were used to examine the hypotheses in the research model, employing structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques.

Perceived value, flow experience and the number of peers using VR primarily affect the decision to adopt a VROLS. The pull factors of spatial presence, entertainment and service compatibility, along with the push factors of complexity and visual fatigue, affect perceived value. Therefore, we conclude that perceived value is a primary factor positively influencing both flow experience and the decision to adopt the service.

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

The number of smartphone users has increased with the maturity of mobile networks, which has not only led to a new lifestyle but has also facilitated the development of mobile application services. Smartphones are regarded as essential communication devices. Currently, diverse groups of people are considering using mobile payment services. Thus, the motives for using mobile payment as well as individual motives for continuing usage are of great research interest. The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavioral motivations underlying individual intentions to continue using mobile payment.

To explore the factors affecting the intention to use mobile payment services, this study constructed a theoretical framework based on cost-benefit theory that also considers social influences to form an integrated research model that explains the intentions of individuals to use mobile payment services. Online questionnaires were used to evaluate individuals with experience using mobile payment services. A total of 302 questionnaires were collected. Structural equation modeling was employed to assess the relationships among factors included in the research model.

Perceived value, social norms and social self-image played crucial roles in the intention to use mobile payment services. Furthermore, perceived benefits (relative advantage and service compatibility) and perceived costs (security risks and perceived fees) determined users’ perceived value. Social self-image positively affected users’ perceived value; in the context of a mobile-oriented information system, the ability of a mobile payment service to satisfy a user’s demands with respect to social self-image influenced the user’s perceived value of using such services.

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

Smartphones have become a critical medium by which people remain in contact with family, friends, and colleagues. A variety of factors have contributed to the rapid prevalence of smartphones. The most influential factor is definitely the mobile platform or mobile operating system (OS). The purpose of this paper is to employ a theoretical framework based on an information systems success model and a theory values to examine the factors that affect smartphone users’ switching mobile OSs. Habit is regarded as a moderating variable to construct an integrated research model which helps researchers unveil the puzzle of users’ switching mobile OSs.

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 424 users on their perceptions of smartphones. A structural equation modeling was used to assess the relationships of the research model.

The results of the study have shown that users consider the perceived switching value and satisfaction arising from their behaviors when deciding whether to switch to another mobile OS. Quality characteristics, including information quality, system quality, and service quality, are the key factors determining people’s perceived switching value and satisfaction. The participants of the study were grouped by degree of habit. The effect on satisfaction was not significant in the high-habit subgroup. Nevertheless, it has been found that the influence of the perceived switching value was stronger in the low-habit subgroup than in the high-habit subgroup.

This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of factors that explain users’ intention to switch mobile OSs.

This study aims to examine members’ perceptions of interactivity in brand communities on social networking sites in the Super Basketball League (SBL) context in Taiwan.

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 332 followers of the SBL teams’ Facebook pages on their perceptions of brand communities. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships in the research model.

The results suggest significant relationships between perceived interactivity and community benefits, including special treatment, social influence, sense of membership and the notion that community satisfaction has a strong and positive effect on brand loyalty. Both social influence and a sense of membership positively affect community satisfaction. However, special treatment negatively affects community satisfaction. Perceived interactivity positively affects a sense of membership and social influence, which, in turn, positively affect community satisfaction.

This study examines the effects of members’ perceived interactivity and community benefits. The results significantly advance the understanding of the antecedents of members’ loyalty to specific brands. The study offers insights into practical ways of improving community satisfaction and brand loyalty by running brand communities on social networking sites. The findings also augment the theory of brand management.

In recent years, the ongoing development and rapid popularization of mobile devices, not only has brought new forms of lifestyle but also has boomed a wide array of service contents, allowing users to engage in entertainment, study and other daily activities, in addition to business transactions. To explore the factors that affect users' continued use of mobile app software, this paper aims to take into account the utilitarian value and privacy, as well as security factors and intends to propose an integrated research model based on the information systems success (ISS) model.

The data for this study were collected via an online survey questionnaire. A total of 190 valid responses were used to examine the hypotheses in the research model. The casual model was assessed using partial least squares techniques.

The results indicated that the three quality factors (information quality, system quality and service quality) in the ISS model significantly affected satisfaction and utilitarian value. Private and security have significant negative association with utilitarian value. The results also showed that private and security did not significantly affect satisfaction. The findings also provide some directions for further research.

The results show that user's continued use of mobile app software depends upon the perceived utilitarian value and satisfaction. The quality characteristics are the three critical factors that would affect the perceived utilitarian value and satisfaction. Compared to information quality and service quality, system quality has a higher degree of positive impact, which indicates that users are more concerned about the immediate download ability and ease-of-use provided by the system. Furthermore, the research also finds that privacy and security concerns have a negative influence on the utilitarian value, showing that in the context of task-oriented IS, the perceived risk of privacy and security during the process of using mobile app software services, will negatively affect users’ perception of utilitarian value. The insights provided by this study can help mobile app developers optimize design and marketing strategies.

This study provides a better understanding of how the factors in the theories influence the continuance usage intention of life style mobile applications.

This study conducts a logistic regression analysis of the ability of excess cash and short-term bank loans to substitute for each other and a multiple regression analysis of the factors influencing excess cash and short-term bank loans holdings. In addition, a questionnaire is used to survey the views of Taiwan’s corporate financial leaders on the factors influencing these two liquidity resources. The empirical results support a certain level of substitution between the two types of holdings. The regression analysis shows that for companies that would accumulate more excess cash when interest rates are low, have strong corporate performance, have low debt ratios, and whose chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) are not the same person. Companies tend to have more short-term bank loans when corporate performance is poor, debt ratios are high, and the chairman of the board and CEO are the same person, as well as when the degree of the deviation of control is small. We find that factors on financial structure, operating performance, cost of capital and corporate governance have significant influence on the holdings of these two liquidity facilities in regression, whereas the influence factors exclude corporate governance in questionnaire.

Recent academic studies, as well as media reporting, have devoted substantial attention to the ongoing “crisis of democracy.” Democratic “backsliding” of Central and Eastern Europe – sometimes referred to as an effort to establish a new system of “illiberal democracy” – is one of the most visible symptoms of this crisis. This narrative is supported by the quantitative metrics of democratic quality, reflecting professional community views on the appropriate criteria to define and assess democracy. However, once general public views expressed in the survey item of “satisfaction with democracy” are taken into account, the picture changes markedly. This chapter analyzes quantitative metrics reflecting expert community consensus and the general public assessment of the quality of democracy in the 27 EU members over the period 2010–2019. It documents substantial divergence between the perspectives of the experts and the general public – while expert-based indexes portray Central and Eastern European backsliding as the most significant trend in the EU democratic landscape, public opinion identifies a very different set of democracy's successes and failures. As experts and the general public fail to arrive at mutually accepted criteria of democratic performance evaluation, public debate has become futile. Meaningful discussion and systemic corrections have become unlikely, creating conditions easily exploitable by the populists, eager to frame it as an example of “elite” detachment from the “ordinary people”.

Because of the slow market growth of and intense competition among coffee shops, increasing brand preference and patronage intention is crucial in the coffee shop industry. Although place attachment theory (PAT) and social identity theory (SIT) stipulate that place attachment and social identity are key constructs of revisit intention, no studies have yet integrated the dimensions of SIT into PAT to predict place preference (PP) and repatronage intention (RI). In this study, the authors aimed to develop a theoretical model grounded in PAT and SIT to predict PP and RI.

A total of 648 coffee shop customers participated in an online survey, and their data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The results indicated that cognitive and affective place identity (PI) directly affected place dependence (PD) but did not directly affect PP. Cognitive PI also indirectly affected PD through affective PI. PD exerted a positive and significant effect on PP and thus affected RI.

These findings provide insights into the importance of cognitive and affective PI in shaping PD, PP and RI. From a place attachment perspective, the theoretical model enables coffee shop managers to cultivate strong PP to increase customer RI.

With the rapid development of the economy in China, the wealth of residents has continued to increase, and most families have gradually been aware of the importance of commercial insurance. The family purchase of insurance in China was still not optimistic. Many scholars focus on wealth allocation, but the attention to the commercial insurance market was still less. Based on previous research studies, this study aims to investigate the impact of education and financial literacy on the commercial insurance purchase in China.

China Household Finance Survey data was used to investigate the purchase of commercial insurance in Mainland Chinese families. Factor analysis was used to construct financial literacy, and the education data were combined to analyze the commercial insurance purchase using the Probit model and the Tobit model. Finally, the contributions of education and financial literacy to commercial insurance purchases were analyzed.

Both education and financial literacy exerted a positive impact on the purchase of commercial insurance in China. Individual characteristics such as gender, age, marital status, risk attitude, purchase of social insurance and consultation with a financial advisor possessed significant effects; household factors like household size and assets, macro factors such as the density of financial institutions and the density of financial industry staff, and regional factors as local unemployment rate excreted influences on the commercial insurance purchase.

Based on the current economic development in China, this study investigated and expressed opinions on the public and insurance companies regarding commercial insurance purchases. It accentuated financial literacy and education as factors that facilitated commercial insurance development.

The purpose of this study is to review the levels of open government data (OGD) among various countries that are not consistent with the development levels of those countries. This study evaluates the associativity between OGD Index (OGD) and the characteristics of those countries as well as to compare the degree of OGD among countries. Accordingly, an advanced discussion to explore how a country’s characteristics affect how that country’s government opens data was presented.

The stakeholder relationships of OGD is analysed with the characteristics of a country. The usage data are compared with the data availability according to nine indicators. These data collected from the statistics and OGDI websites are grouped for comparative statistical analyses based on basic descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance and a regression model with variance inflation faction.

The results 1) revealed the reasons some countries have high-ranking indexes and 2) verified the high index values of countries in terms of their degrees of development. This study, thus, attempted to derive a balanced appraisal of national development and OGD.

The study sample is limited only to countries 1) which open the statistical data; and 2) are of uneven population density and development degree. The OGDI is limited to expert evaluation. The score might be vary to experts and users with diverse countries at different evaluation period. The limitations can be attributed to the differences between OGDI and real open levels. These differences might influence the reliability and validity.

Government departments with OGD policies provide raw data in various formats and with application interfaces for user access. This study, thus, attempts to derive a balanced appraisal of national development and OGD. The factors that evaluate which types of countries open the level of data are explored.

This study establishes stakeholder relationships of OGD and extends to analyse the characteristics of a country and OGD that affect the government data open level. The relationships are evaluated through the OGDI with design score scheme. The measurement results indicated that a country possesses high relation to open data with high DI and nature resource.