Internet Research

Kelley, James B; Alden, Dana L

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-01-2015-0017

Purpose– The purpose of this paper to use Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to explain the online brand community (OBC) identity internalization process through brand website interactivity. Secondary purpose of the research is to explore the role of several individual difference factors and brand-specific constructs in predicting brand website interactivity. Design/methodology/approach– This study proposes the OBC motivation development continuum of brand website interactivity. Thus, a national panel was collected by a reputable online survey firm and a structural equation model was used to test the proposed model. Findings– The authors examined four brand-related antecedents and mediators (brand engagement in self-concept, susceptibility of normative influence, opinion leadership, and consumer innovativeness) and found evidence of the differing roles that brand engagement in self-concept and purposive motives play as mediators to brand website interactivity. Practical implications– Marketing managers can use the proposed model as a useful tool for understanding ways to target and motivate segment specific consumers in ways that will increase the effectiveness of managers’ OBC building strategies. Originality/value– This study utilized SDT to explain the internalization process of brand website interactivity. Further, several individual difference factors were explored as antecedents and mediators of brand website interactivity.

Zhang, Mingli; Luo, Nuan

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-05-2015-0149

Purpose– Brand communities have been labeled as a social aggregation of brand fans and businesses. Yet, limited research has examined customers’ perceived relationship benefits in brand community on social media. Drawing from social capital theory and relationship benefits research, the purpose of this paper is to discover how online harmonious brand community influence customers’ perceived relationship benefits (i.e. confidence, special treatment, social and honor). Design/methodology/approach– Hypotheses are tested by applying a structural equation modeling and the data are collected from a survey of smartphone community members (n=543) based on Sina Weibo. Findings– The results suggest that harmonious brand communities strengthen customers’ perceived relationship benefits on social media, which are the important factors to form community satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth of community. And community engagement amplifies the influence of harmonious brand communities and has a moderating effect on the role of harmonious community relationships in confidence benefits. Originality/value– The present study extends prior research on relationship benefits from the perspective of brand community based on social media and reveals the role of harmonious community relationships in developing community satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth.

López-López, Inés; Parra, José Francisco

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-07-2014-0176

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of signaling a review as the most helpful review according to other users’ votes on product attitude. Thus, the first study focuses on the influence of signaling a review as the most helpful on consumer attitude and analyzes whether the interaction between that signaled review and incongruent aggregate information in valence clarify the main effect. Additionally, the authors further investigate whether the level of fit between the consumer’s goals and the content of the signaled review moderates the initial effect. Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted two experiments: a 3 (presence of most helpful review) × 2 (overall valence) between-subjects design and a 2 (presence of a most helpful review) × 3 (level of fit between the consumers’ goals and the most helpful review content) × 2 (overall valence) design. Findings– The results confirm that the presence of a “most helpful” review whose valence is incongruent with the overall valence of the reviews significantly impacts attitude towards the product. Specifically, the authors found that the impact of a review which has been voted as the most helpful on consumers’ attitudes depends on: the congruity between the valence of the most helpful review and the overall average valence of all the reviews received by the product; and the congruity between the consumer’s goals and the most helpful review content. Originality/value– This paper contributes to the electronic WOM literature by examining how signaling a review as the most helpful affects attitude, being that effect moderated by the congruency between that signaled review and the aggregated overall valence of the reviews and the level of fit with the consumer’s goals.

Liou, Dah-Kwei; Chih, Wen-Hai; Yuan, Chien-Yun; Lin, Chien-Yao

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-10-2014-0256

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the factors from environmental level and personal level influence the knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. Design/methodology/approach– This research study, which consisted of 394 valid respondents who were members of the Yambol online test community, used online survey to collect data. This research used the structural equation modeling to analyze the data with good model fit. Findings– The results of this research showed the following: the anticipated reciprocal relationship, norm of reciprocity, and anticipated extrinsic rewards had a significant and positive effect on knowledge sharing behavior, respectively; knowledge sharing behavior had a significant and positive effect on community participation; knowledge sharing self-efficacy was the mediator between anticipated extrinsic rewards and knowledge sharing behavior; and community identification moderated the relationship between knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. Research limitations/implications– This study was a cross-sectional study. Future research can employ a longitudinal study to conduct long-term observations of knowledge sharing behavioral changes among members of the Yambol online test community. Moreover, this study applied social cognitive theory as the basis to explore the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior of members of the Yambol online test community. Future research can apply a broad range of behavioral theory or combinations of research variables to explore comprehensive factors of knowledge sharing behavior. Practical implications– From a managerial standpoint, this study can assist professional online learning community in understanding the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior and community participation from personal and environmental level. Social implications– Yambol online test community managers can enhance reciprocity relationship between members in the emotional level. In addition, Yambol online test community managers can use the appropriate norm of reciprocity to strengthen the trust of community members and enhance the knowledge sharing behavior of community members in the rational level. Originality/value– First, most scholars viewed knowledge sharing from perspectives of corporate, organizational, or a typical internet community, but rarely applied a perspective from a professional online learning community to conduct research. Therefore, this research focussed on professional online learning community as the research subject. Second, the literature review revealed that reciprocity divided into anticipated reciprocal relationship and norm of reciprocity. Previous studies have used anticipated reciprocal relationship or norm of reciprocity as research aspects for examining reciprocity; however, no other study has evaluated both concurrently. Third, studies on the behavioral dimension have included knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. This study examined the influence of knowledge sharing behavior on community participation. Additionally, community identification was the moderator of the effect of knowledge sharing behavior on community participation.

Wu, Ya-Ling; Li, Eldon Y.; Chang, Wei-Lun

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-10-2014-0239

Purpose– Creative performance relies on the capability of developing and presenting an original concept or idea, and the collaborative production of creative content which enhances feeling of connection with others and formation of strong community. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of work performance containing four dimensions (capacity, opportunities, willingness, and performance) to investigate how the capabilities of social network sites enhance user creative performance through collective social capital and information capital (opportunities) for and individual habit of use (willingness) of the user to engage in social learning process. Design/methodology/approach– Many measurement items are adapted from the literature, except those measuring the constructs of social media capabilities (i.e. transmission velocity (TV), parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reprocessability) and user creative performance. The study uses survey method to collect data from social media network (SMN) users in Taiwan. Facebook is chosen as the source because it is the most prevalent and sophisticated social media platform that provides a home for users to interact and communicate. Structural equation modeling with partial least square is used to analyze the usable data collected from 533 Facebook users. Findings– The results show that the constructs are significantly and positively correlated, meaning that social media capabilities enable social capital, information capital, and habit of use to improve user creative performance in SMNs. Three out of five social media capabilities (i.e. TV, parallelism, and rehearsability) are identified as the key enablers. Research limitations/implications– Because of the sampled surveyed subjects and the single research method, there are some limitations in this study. The research results may lack generalizability that should be taken into account when they are interpreted. The authors encourage researchers to test the proposed theoretical model further with additional subjects, variables, and linkages. Practical implications– The findings of this research shed light for managers of SMN platforms on how to manage the platforms more effectively. A healthy SMN platform must implement at least these three media capabilities: the functions of news feed (i.e. TV), chat (i.e. parallelism), edit (i.e. rehearsability), in order to sustain its service. Social implications– This study confirmed that user creative performance can be increased in various ways through social capital, information capital, and habit of use. Company management should use SMNs (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) to enable employees to interact and exchange ideas and promote “coopetition” among employees across the company. If the organizational culture supports free expression of ideas and sharing of opinions, the development and robustness of group creativity can be enhanced, leading to higher competitive advantage for a company against its competitors. Originality/value– Past studies related to individual creativity have mostly discussed it as a personality trait or talent; yet, personality trait or talent is implicit until it is shown by one’s behavior. Thus, for the collective performance of user creativity on SMNs, the authors elicit individual creativity through the creative performance manifested by user behavior. Furthermore, the authors confirm that social capital, information capital, and habit of use are the critical antecedents of user creative performance, and that the five social media capabilities are the enablers of social capital, information capital, and habit of use on SMNs.

Naseer, Mirza Muhammad; Mahmood, Khalid

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-04-2014-0099

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of political party websites for e-electioneering and their impact on the outcome of the elections. Design/methodology/approach– Empirical data for the study were collected from the websites of 11 major political parties of Pakistan using modified version of the coding scheme used by Gibson, Rommele and Ward for the evaluation of functionality and delivery of websites. Data were analysed using web content analysis method to achieve the objectives of this study. The study also ranked the party websites based on points scored for functionalities and delivery. Findings– The study found that although Pakistani political parties have started using their websites for communication with their voters during the general elections but they have not utilized the full potential of the website functionalities for e-electioneering. Research limitations/implications– The study focused on content analysis of political party websites of Pakistan only. However, comparisons were made to other studies where possible to contextualize the results of this study in international perspective. It is suggested to replicate this study after ten years to study the changing behaviour of political parties. Practical implications– Political parties might like to improve their websites in the light of findings of this study to spread their message more effectively to larger voter base. Social implications– Findings of the study will help in improving the readiness of political parties for e-electioneering and improved websites will help voters in making an informed decision during election. It will overall improve the electoral process in the country where democratic system is not very strong. Originality/value– With the advent of internet, political parties are using their websites during elections for various purposes. This study, first ever in Pakistan on the topic, provides empirical evidence on the use of political party websites during May 2013 general election in Pakistan and presents its impact on the outcome of the election. The study will be valuable for political science researchers especially those focusing on Asia and Pakistan.

Lwin, May O.; Wirtz, Jochen; Stanaland, Andrea J. S.

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-05-2014-0134

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the business communication-related variables of reputation, communication quality and information sensitivity are mediated by trust and privacy concern to influence the privacy dyad (i.e. promotion- and prevention-focused privacy behaviors). Design/methodology/approach– Regulatory focus theory (RFT) is used to build a framework to examine antecedents of promotion- and prevention-focused privacy behaviors as well as mediators of these relationships. Hypotheses were tested using a 2 (firm reputation: strong/weak)×3 (communication quality: high/neutral/low)×2 (data sensitivity: high/low) between-subjects factorial design. Findings– The findings support the proposed model. Specifically, high reputation and communication quality increased promotion-focused behaviors and were mediated by trust. In contrast, low communication quality and high data sensitivity increased prevention-focused behaviors and were mediated by privacy concern. Consistent with RFT, higher trust led to promotion-focused behaviors such as willingness to invest in the relationship (e.g., by providing information to the service provider and investing time and energy) and loyalty behaviors. Furthermore, higher privacy concerns led to prevention-focused behaviors such as deflective (e.g., using privacy protection measures such as disguising one’s IP address and disabling cookies) and defensive behaviors (e.g., taking action to have one’s name removed from mailing lists). Originality/value– This study contributes to the literature on customer relationship management, RFT and trust and privacy in an online context.

Agag, Gomaa M.; El-Masry, Ahmed A.

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-06-2015-0168

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that focuses on the cultural and religiosity drivers and satisfaction outcomes of consumer perceptions about online retailers’ deceptive practices. It specifically investigates: the role of cultural orientation and religiosity in forming consumer ethical ideology; the link between the consumer’s ethical ideology and his/her perceptions regarding the deceptive practices of online retailers; and the effect of perceived deception on consumer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 468 Egyptian consumers aged 18 and above. These were measured on a five-point Likert scale. To test the hypothesized relationships among the constructs of the model, structural equation modelling was employed. Findings– The study confirmed that power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and religiosity are important in forming idealistic attitudes, while both individualism and masculinity lead to an egoistic attitude. Idealism was observed to have a positive association with consumer perceived deception, while egoism was found to negatively affect consumer perceived deception. Finally, it was revealed that the perceptions of consumer about the deceptive practices of online retailing decrease consumer satisfaction. Originality/value– This research puts together in a single model both antecedents and outcomes of the perceptions of consumer about the deceptive practices of online retailing; concurrently examines the role of cultural orientation, religiosity, and ethical ideology of the consumer in forming ethical attitudes and responses; focuses on the instrumental role of cultural characteristics on consumer ethical perceptions from the perspective of the individual, rather than the society as a whole; and provides useful examination of the effects of perceived deception on consumer satisfaction.

Hassan, Mahmud; Casaló Ariño, Luis V.

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-03-2015-0090

Purpose– Effective handling of negative word of mouth in the social media has dramatic impact on customer retention, deflects potential damage and improves profitability. Although marketers enact various defensive strategies to combat such negative publicity, consumers are increasingly acting on behalf of marketers and new value creating behaviors are noticed within virtual brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the kind of consumers’ defensive behaviors present within Facebook brand communities (FBCs). Design/methodology/approach– A netnographic approach guided the data collection. Data were gathered by downloading messages; only the threads related to member’s defensive behaviors were downloaded and archived. This resulted to 34 pages of data with 418 individual comments and 6,257 words in total. Findings– Data reveals that defensive behavior is practiced within Facebook, noticing that more diverse types of defensive behaviors are practiced in high involved products. Also, defensive behaviors are more prevalent within utilitarian rather than hedonic brands. Research limitations/implications– This study suggests that marketers should be open to engage and empower consumers to fulfill the role of defending the brand within brand communities first. Originality/value– This work adds to previous literature on handling complaints in social media by analyzing how devoted consumers may defend the brand against negative remarks done by other consumers in FBCs. This study not only confirms that defensive behaviors are apparent within the eight FBCs considered, but also investigates possible differences between high and low involved brands and also utilitarian and hedonic brands.

Yang, Shuiqing; Liu, Yuan; Wei, June

2016 Internet Research

doi: 10.1108/IntR-01-2015-0010

Purpose– Social capital has been identified as a valuable resource that can lead to various positive outcomes of social activities in both online and offline communities. The purpose of this paper is to argue that social capital can also be an important ingredient in the development of adverse outcomes, such as technology addiction. Design/methodology/approach– Based on social capital theory and prior research related to perceived integration, a research model that reflects the effects of online and offline social capitals as well as perceived integration on mobile social networking service (SNS) addiction was developed and empirically examined based on data collected from 458 mobile SNS users in China. Findings– The structural equation modeling analysis shows that online social interaction ties and online social supports positively affect mobile SNS addiction, whereas offline social supports and online social identification negatively affect mobile SNS addiction. In addition, perceived integration between online and offline channels by using mobile SNS positively influences online social interaction ties, offline social interaction ties, and mobile SNS addiction. Practical implications– From the practical perspective, the results of the study offer interesting implications for managing mobile SNS addiction. The study found that online social interaction ties and online social support positively influence mobile SNS addiction, whereas offline social support negatively influence mobile SNS addiction. Social implications– The mobile SNS users should invest more time to participate in offline social activities and maintain good social relationships with their family, colleagues, and friends in the real world. Originality/value– The present study has both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, unlike many previous studies tend to regard social capital as the predictor of positive outcomes of users’ social activities, the study contributes to the extant information systems literature by exploring the potential negative consequences of social capital on users’ social lives. The results of the study indicate that social capital is a significant predictor of mobile SNS addiction.