Internet Research最新文献

Purpose

Gamification has been widely applied in mobile fitness apps to motivate users to exercise continuously. Based on the affordances–psychological outcomes–behavioral outcomes framework, this study explores the roles of three specific gamification affordances (competition, visibility of achievement and interactivity) in self-health management (continuous use behavior and health behavior) from the perspectives of achievement satisfaction and gamification exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach

We test the research model using a structural equation model (SEM) with 505 self-reported data points. Furthermore, we apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore configurations of gamification affordances associated with self-health management behavior, reinforcing the SEM results.

Findings

Results indicate that competition, visibility of achievement and interactivity can enhance achievement satisfaction, which further boosts self-health management behavior. However, competition and interactivity can also cause gamification exhaustion, which undermines self-health management behavior to some extent. Overall, the positive impacts of the three affordances outweigh the negative impacts.

Practical implications

This study provides new insights for relevant practitioners on designing gamification affordances, aiding the sustainable development of mobile fitness apps and their long-term effects on self-health management. Visibility of achievement should be emphasized, and competition and interactivity should be thoughtfully designed to minimize their negative effects.

Originality/value

This study extends the affordances–psychological outcomes–behavioral outcomes framework and the literature on gamification and health management by applying both SEM and fsQCA methodologies to examine the relationship between specific gamification affordances and self-health management behavior.

Purpose

Addressing users’ migration is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of the sharing economy. Ethical concerns that may lead to users’ migration are frequent in sharing economy platforms. Therefore, this study explores whether the long-term governance of sharing economy platforms can effectively mitigate users’ migration caused by ethical concerns.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a questionnaire survey of 549 participants, this study investigated the mechanism of users’ migration and governance strategies in the platform ecosystem based on trust theory.

Findings

The results indicate that users’ ethical concerns regarding the platform ecosystem significantly and positively influence their migration. Furthermore, users’ continued trust played a significant mediating role in the relationship between ethical concerns and users’ migration. The results also showed that future orientation and resilience significantly moderated the impact of users’ ethical concerns on their continued trust, thereby weakening this effect.

Practical implications

The author clarified the relationship between ethical concerns and users’ migration, identified the underlying mechanisms and provided guidance on how to mitigate migration behavior. However, users’ migration is influenced by various factors beyond ethical concerns. In addition to some factors that lead to migration, other factors make users stay on the platform. Future research should integrate multiple factors.

Originality/value

This study reveals the mechanism of action between users’ migration and ethical concerns in the platform ecosystem and sheds light on the output of long-term orientation practices of the platform.

Purpose

In recent years, organizations have progressively adopted electronic performance monitoring (EPM) to obtain accurate employee performance data and improve management efficiency in response to the growing complexity of the work environment. However, existing research has primarily focused on examining the effect of EPM on employee behaviors within established job designs, neglecting the consequential role of EPM in shaping employees’ bottom-up job redesign (i.e. job crafting). This study aims to explore whether and how EPM affects employee job crafting.

Design/methodology/approach

To test proposed hypotheses, we conducted two time-lagged surveys across different cultural contexts and a scenario experiment on an online platform in China.

Findings

The results revealed the negative indirect relationship between EPM and employee job crafting via role breadth self-efficacy. This indirect relationship was moderated by constructive supervisor feedback and job complexity, with the above relationships being weak (versus strong) when constructive supervisor feedback was high (versus low) or job complexity was low (versus high).

Practical implications

The results have crucial implications for organizational practices, suggesting that managers should provide constructive feedback to break the trade-off between EPM and job crafting. Additionally, managers may need to give employees with high job complexity more autonomy rather than intense monitoring.

Originality/value

This study is the first to clarify the effect of EPM on employee job crafting. As job crafting captures the important value of employees in organizational job design, our effort helps to enrich the understanding of EPM effectiveness.

Purpose

Virtual idols have entered the golden period as the main form of future digital people. However, existing studies only focus on a single idol type and partial role relationships related to virtual idols, lacking synthesized insights. To address these gaps, this paper summarizes different types of virtual idols and all role relationships to achieve a comprehensive literature review.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the business ecosystem theory, this paper constructs a business role ecosystem framework for virtual idols from the two subsystems of value co-creation and value realization.

Findings

Firstly, we extract common characteristics and the generalized definition applicable to diverse idol types. Secondly, we find that there are commonalities and differences in the significant characteristics of virtual idols in different application fields. Thirdly, literature in the value co-creation subsystem mainly focuses on co-creation mechanisms in the role relationship between idols and demanders (RRID). A few focus on virtual idols’ constructions in the role relationship between producers and idols (RRPI) and co-creation phenomena in the role relationship between demanders and producers (RRDP). Finally, literature in the value realization subsystem mainly focuses on consumer attitudes and realization mechanisms in RRID. A few focus on realization phenomena in the role relationship between producers and tripartite enterprises (RRPT) and RRPI.

Practical implications

This paper points out future implementing directions of industry practitioners, gives strategies to promote economic value realizations and emphasizes the importance of cultural communication.

Originality/value

This paper discusses the existing theoretical gaps and possible future research directions regarding characteristics, applications and role relationships.

Purpose

Social media platforms offer users the opportunity to engage with fact-checking posts aimed at countering misinformation surrounding political figures. However, limited research considers how the efficacy of fact-checking messages hinges on individuals’ perceptions and acceptance of the information, with user comments and individuals’ pre-existing partisan viewpoints both presenting possible barriers to positive reception of fact-checking messages.

Design/methodology/approach

To bridge this research gap, this study conducted a 2 (misinformation exposure types: partisan worldview-consistent misinformation vs partisan worldview-inconsistent misinformation) × 4 (correction exposure types: a fact-checking post with no comments vs a fact-checking post with negative comments vs a fact-checking post with positive comments vs no fact-checking post) between-subject online experiment.

Findings

We found significant main effects of user comments and partisan worldview on political misbelief and political attitudes. Importantly, among participants exposed to worldview-inconsistent misinformation, negative comments significantly decreased voting support compared to positive comments or no comments.

Research limitations/implications

This research is significant for the theoretical examination of the interaction between user comments and partisan worldview in influencing the effectiveness of political fact-checking messages. In addition, it has practical implications for fact-checking organizations and comment moderation in the fight against political misinformation.

Originality/value

This study presents original research examining the impact of social media user comments beneath a fact-checking post on beliefs in misinformation and evaluations of political candidates. While prior research has demonstrated how partisan worldview affects the effectiveness of corrections, the interaction between social media user comments and partisan worldview has not yet been explored.

Purpose

Esports is emerging as a global sensation, yet its distinctive nature complicates our understanding of players' motivations. This study leverages self-hierarchy and self-determination theories to examine the motivations that define players at individual, relational, and community levels, seeking to identify which motivations are most valued.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-method approach was employed, focusing on Honor of Kings esports players in China to explore the answers to the research questions. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted to uncover self-definitional motivations at various levels. Second, a quantitative study was conducted with 607 regular Honor of Kings players to empirically examine the effects of the identified motivations on satisfaction.

Findings

The qualitative and quantitative data results reveal that self-efficacy and self-worth at the individual level, recognition and emotional attachment from close others at the relational-self level, and cocreation and belongingness at the collective level positively influence game satisfaction. More importantly, self-definitional motivations at the relational level are valued the most. Additionally, identification with a game character moderates the effects of self-definitional motivation at the collective level and emotional attachment at the relational-self level.

Originality/value

This research delves into players' motivations for engaging with Honor of Kings, anchored in self-hierarchy and self-determination theories. It uncovers that motivations rooted in different aspects of self-identity have distinct associations with players’ satisfaction level. This suggests a vital strategy for game designers and operators to adopt: to enhance player satisfaction, they should specifically address and emphasize the aspects of self-identity that matter most to their audience.

Purpose

The online healthcare platform (OHP) has become an essential element of the healthcare system, representing a technological shift in the job responsibilities of medical professionals. Drawing on a technology-based job demands–resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine how the technological characteristics of OHP affect doctors’ OHP use psychology and behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

This empirical study was based on a survey conducted among 423 doctors with OHP use experience. The proposed model underwent assessment through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to reveal the effects of technology-based job demands (i.e. technology-based work overload and technology-based work monitoring) and resources (i.e. perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions and IT mindfulness) on doctors’ OHP fatigue and continuance use intention.

Findings

Results suggest that technology-based work monitoring, perceived usefulness and facilitation conditions have significant impacts on doctors’ psychological and behavioral responses to using OHP, whereas technology-based work overload and IT mindfulness have a single impact on continuance use intention and fatigue of OHP.

Research limitations/implications

It assists doctors, healthcare administrators, policymakers and technology developers in understanding OHPs’ technological characteristics, enabling them to harness its benefits and mitigate potential challenges. Additionally, given the self-reported cross-sectional data from China, future studies can improve generalizability and adopt experimental methods or longitudinal designs with objective data.

Originality/value

It extends the research on OHP by employing a technology-based JD-R model to explore work attributes and dual effects associated with OHP’s technological characteristics. It also enriches existing research by examining the role of OHP’s technological characteristics in doctors’ psychological and behavioral responses.

Purpose

We argue that the information flow on Twitter is largely driven by elite communication with a top-down flow, while Facebook’s bottom-up flow is driven by mass public communication. Both are crucial news sources for democratic processes in Latin America. We explore how exposure to these flows affects opinions on democracy across 18 countries with varying democratic conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

Using mixed-effects models, our analysis draws on survey data from the 2018 Latinobarómetro paired with democracy measures from the 2018 Varieties of Democracy.

Findings

The results indicate that Facebook’s bottom-up communication correlates with negative perceptions of democracy, whereas Twitter’s top-down model correlates with more favorable views, especially among mass consumers. However, these differences are inconsistent across demographic factors.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-sectional survey data limits causal claims. Longitudinal data could provide stronger insights into the mechanisms underlying the observed relationships.

Practical implications

Understanding how different platforms influence democratic attitudes can inform strategies for political communication and digital governance in Latin America. Policymakers should consider platform-specific interventions to promote democratic engagement.

Originality/value

This study adds to the limited research on platform differences in political public opinion, particularly in Latin America, and highlights the need to explore mechanisms of change across various social media platforms.

Purpose

This study proposes and tests a model to analyse whether achievement, social and immersion motivational affordances embedded in gamified review platforms motivate consumers to altruistically create content in the post-consumption stage.

Design/methodology/approach

We used data from a sample of 343 reviewers and employed SmartPLS to test the research model.

Findings

Findings revealed that, while achievement affordances (i.e. points, levels and badges) have no significant effect, immersion affordances (i.e. avatars) and more especially, social affordances (i.e. receiving helpful votes from readers and having followers) are key for review platforms, as they drive consumers to develop pure, reciprocal and competitive forms of altruism, which, in turn, motivate them to create content.

Research limitations/implications

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of altruistic purpose in the context of gamified review platforms by proposing research questions aimed at eliciting the effects of achievement, social and immersion affordances on altruism, and by providing the first empirical evidence for these paths.

Practical implications

This study provides practical guidance on how review platforms can implement social and immersion affordances to foster altruism and, ultimately, promote user-generated content in the form of comments, photos and videos.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to develop a model to predict whether gamification affordances promote forms of altruism that result in user-generated content. The findings will improve practitioners’ strategies by focussing on social and immersion motivational affordances.

Purpose

With growing concerns about users’ well-being on social media, research stresses the importance of threat appraisals as a crucial first step in motivating self-protective actions. This study, in view of the prevalence of parasocial relationships between followers and social media influencers, aims to unravel the complex dynamics of followers’ threat perceptions within these relationships. Specifically, it examines how factors such as perceived self-efficacy to disengage and the positive affect of social media use influence threat appraisals.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model is proposed based on appraisal theory to examine the impact of parasocial relationships on threat perception in engagement. It is empirically tested with data from 186 Instagram users.

Findings

The study reveals an overall positive relationship between parasocial relationships and perceived threat. This relationship is moderated by followers’ perception of self-efficacy to disengage – followers with a high sense of self-efficacy to disengage experience a decrease in threat perception as their parasocial relationships strengthen, whereas followers with a low sense of self-efficacy to disengage report an increase in threat perception with higher levels of parasocial relationships. This interplay is pronounced when followers experience average or below-average levels of positive affect on social media but diminishes when the positive affect is high.

Originality/value

This work contributes insights into social media influencers, threat appraisal dynamics and digital well-being research. Bridging a critical gap in existing knowledge, the study identifies the pivotal roles of followers’ self-efficacy to disengage and positive affect in shaping their threat appraisals toward parasocial relationships with social media influencers. This not only advances theoretical frameworks but also enhances our understanding of the nuanced dynamics of user reactions to parasocial engagements. Our findings offer practical insights for researchers, practitioners and platform developers aiming to cultivate healthy and responsible social media engagement in the digital era, ultimately contributing to individual well-being.