Internet Research最新文献

Purpose

The metaverse enables users to create their own avatars in a shared virtual space, giving rise to a new avatar personality that differs from their real-self personality. The aim of this research is to explore how users' real-self and avatar personalities may affect their behavioral engagement and satisfaction in the metaverse context.

Design/methodology/approach

This research applies self-discrepancy theory to investigate how the big five traits of both real-self and avatar personalities influence users' engagement and satisfaction in the metaverse. The present research employed a mixed-methods approach, beginning with a qualitative study to identify prevalent personality cues among users on metaverse social media platforms. Subsequently, a quantitative study was conducted to further validate the findings of the qualitative study.

Findings

The results indicated that avatar personality scored higher than the real-self personality in the dimensions of openness, conscientiousness and extraversion, while scored lower in the dimensions of agreeableness and neuroticism. Both real-self and avatar personality traits positively influenced metaverse satisfaction via behavioral engagement in the metaverse. Notably, avatar personality traits had a stronger impact on behavioral engagement compared to real-self personality traits, which further influence metaverse satisfaction.

Practical implications

The present study offers practical insights for metaverse developers and managers to enhance user satisfaction by focusing on users’ big five traits of both real-self and avatar personality. It suggests implementing personalized tools, organizing personality-based social activities and other initiatives to encourage user’s behavioral engagement and ultimately enhance metaverse satisfaction.

Originality/value

Unlike existing research that concentrates on a single facet of personality traits, this research employs a mixed-methods approach to conceptualize users' real-self personality and avatar personality, further exploring their impacts on metaverse satisfaction.

Purpose

The study investigates the relationship between social presence dimensions and customer brand engagement (CBE) as well as the relation between customer brand engagement and purchase intention (PI) in the fashion retail metaverse with self-efficacy moderating between CBE and PI.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were gathered by conducting an online survey (n = 476) from young adults exposed to fashion retail metaverse platforms. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings discovered that social presence dimensions positively impact CBE, which substantially impacts the PI of young consumers in the fashion retail metaverse. The findings demonstrate that self-efficacy moderates the relationship between CBE and PI.

Research limitations/implications

This study uses cross-sectional data in the fashion retail metaverse for young consumers. Future studies can use longitudinal data in the context of other industries and demographic profiles to assess changing customer behavior.

Practical implications

This study implies that customer experiences can be enriched through social presence dimensions, helping brands adapt their offers to create more engaging and rewarding customer interactions. It offers insights for brand managers aiming to augment the relationship between CBE and PI.

Originality/value

The study uniquely explores the relationship between social presence dimensions and CBE within the fashion retail metaverse. It examines self-efficacy as a moderator between CBE and PI, providing fresh insights into consumer behavior in the fashion retail metaverse.

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between digital transformation and corporate fraud.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses panel data of Chinese listed corporations from 2010 to 2021 and captures digital transformation from the perspectives of awareness and investment by extracting related content from annual reports. Our work investigates whether and how digital transformation influences corporate fraud and examines the moderating effects of the legal environment, media environment and privacy concerns.

Findings

Our findings show that digital transformation, captured either from awareness or actual investment, can significantly alleviate corporate fraud. Our results are robust in a set of endogeneity tests and robustness checks. Additionally, we confirm that digital transformation alleviates corporate fraud through two mechanisms: improving internal monitoring and boosting information flow. Additionally, this alleviating effect is more pronounced for corporations with fewer privacy concerns and in worse legal and media environments.

Practical implications

Our findings provide insights for policymakers to motivate corporations to engage in digital transformation for fraud prevention. We also offer guidelines for corporations to improve their awareness and actual investments in digital transformation and take advantage of its governance effect in preventing corporate fraud.

Originality/value

Overall, we highlight the governance role of digital transformation in alleviating corporate fraud and provide policy implications for regulators in emerging economies to regard digital transformation as an effective tool for fraud prevention.

Purpose

Given the urgency of corporate engagement in sustainable development, companies seek ways to involve their employees in sustainability efforts. In this regard, gamified systems have gained attention as a novel tool to promote sustainable employee behavior. However, as the research field matures, researchers and practitioners are confronted with a scattered academic landscape that makes it difficult to grasp how gamification can be designed to engage employees in sustainable behavior and to understand how gamification effects unfold at psychological, behavioral and corporate levels of sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a systematic literature review to consolidate the existing knowledge on gamification designs and their effects on sustainable employee behavior.

Findings

Studies have explored a variety of utilitarian and achievement-, immersion- and social-related gameful affordances to promote positive behavior- and system-related psychological effects as a basis for employee engagement in sustainable behavior. However, the evidence regarding their impact on rational decision-making processes and overcoming the intention-action gap inherent in sustainability is still limited. Nevertheless, several studies in focused areas indicate the potential to elicit behavioral changes that drive sustainability outcomes at the corporate level as well.

Originality/value

Our study provides three main contributions. First, we develop a conceptual framework that illustrates how gamification can drive sustainable behavior in the workplace. Second, we derive seven agenda points to guide future research on gamification for corporate sustainability. Third, we deduce three practical approaches to use gamification as a strategic intervention to promote sustainable behavior in organizations.

Purpose

The metaverse, a virtual space where one can build and explore with others using avatars, is drawing global interest. Then questions arise: What drives consumers to customize their avatars and purchase virtual items in the metaverse? Who customizes and purchases virtual items more than others? To find the answers, this study tested a research model that explains why consumers customize their avatars and buy virtual items in the metaverse.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the stimuli-organism-response model, this study posits that metaverse characteristics (i.e. escapism, visual attractiveness, social interaction and autonomy) arouse consumers’ curiosity toward the metaverse, which in turn evokes avatar customization behavior and virtual item purchase intention. Survey data from 501 metaverse-experienced consumers in both the US and Korea are analyzed.

Findings

The result revealed that all four metaverse characteristics were found to stimulate consumers’ curiosity. Consumers’ curiosity enhances avatar customization behavior and purchase intention of the virtual items. Further, avatar customization behavior increases the purchase intention of virtual items.

Practical implications

The findings provide valuable insights into how metaverse platforms can effectively engage consumers by stimulating curiosity, especially through social interaction, and offering extensive avatar customization options and virtual items.

Originality/value

This study highlights how the metaverse’s open-ended experiences, user-driven customization and social interactions – unlike traditional online games – spark consumer curiosity. It emphasizes the pivotal role of curiosity in driving metaverse engagement and highlights the need to consider it as a central construct in future research. Additionally, this study provides managerial implications for virtual item purchases in the metaverse.

Purpose

Influencer transgressions can disappoint their followers. However, there is a lack of clarity about the effects of a false allegation on an influencer–follower relationship. Drawing from cognitive dissonance and moral reasoning theory, the current study aims to examine how this relationship is shaped across three time periods (before the allegation is leveled, after the allegation is leveled, and when the allegation is found to be baseless).

Design/methodology/approach

We study comments posted by followers of two falsely alleged social media influencers (SMI) on their YouTube and Instagram channels. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) followed by netnography is used for thematic analysis. LDA is a social media topic modeling method that processes a statistically representative set of words to explain the tone and tenor of qualitative conversations. A sentiment analysis of the comments is done using SentiStrength.

Findings

When an allegation is leveled initially, the response from followers is overwhelmingly negative toward the influencer owing to moral coupling. However, when the allegations are proven to be false, the followers return to a positive opinion of the influencer, owing to feelings of dissonance and guilt.

Practical implications

The study contributes to the fields of influencer marketing, cognitive dissonance and moral reasoning. It highlights how endorsers can take advantage of the positive sentiment that arises once an accused SMI’s transgression is proven false.

Originality/value

This study introduces the concept of “Sentiment Reversal,” which is exhibited in the social media space. In this phenomenon, sentiments move from negative to positive toward the falsely accused SMI as they are vindicated of the previous charge.

Purpose

The rapid growth of professional esports has highlighted the lack of a universally recognised governing body to standardise operations and competition rules. This absence presents many challenges. A key concern is the well-being of professional esports players (e-pro-players), who often suffer from exhaustion. This study aims to examine the factors contributing to exhaustion among e-pro-players.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the conservation of resources theory, we developed a framework to explain the factors leading to e-pro-players’ exhaustion and the conditions under which it occurs. We tested this framework with 126 responses in a dyadic survey from e-pro-players and their coaches in China. Additionally, we gathered qualitative insights from 50 interviews with esports stakeholders to provide more context for our quantitative findings.

Findings

Our study found that e-pro-players’ intrinsic motivation to engage in training reduces their exhaustion, while their struggle to cope with uncertainty in esports environments (intolerance of uncertainty) increases it. The effect of intrinsic motivation is weaker for those who believe their talent for playing esports is fixed (entity belief) but stronger for those with high relational identification with their coaches. Additionally, the link between uncertainty intolerance and exhaustion is stronger in players with strong entity beliefs.

Originality/value

Our study sheds light on the factors contributing to e-pro-players’ exhaustion within the partially regulated professional esports environment, a phenomenon that significantly influences their overall well-being. Through the identification and examination of these factors and the conditions under which they affect exhaustion, we deepen the understanding of the drivers of exhaustion for e-pro-players who operate in an industry lacking standardised regulations.

Purpose

This study examines the phenomenon of “knowledge influencers,” individuals who convey expert information to non-expert audiences and attract users to subscribe to their self-created knowledge products. It seeks to address two research questions: (1) What are the antecedents that promote perceived attractiveness of knowledge influencers? and (2) How does perceived attractiveness of knowledge influencers affect users’ willingness to subscribe to knowledge products?

Design/methodology/approach

Guided by self-branding theory, which suggests that individuals strategically shape user perceptions and interactions to create an appealing image, the study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach. Qualitative interviews were conducted with knowledge influencers and their subscribers, followed by a quantitative survey of users with knowledge subscription experience to validate the findings.

Findings

Results suggested that knowledge influencers could enhance their attractiveness to users by promoting perceived professionalism, perceived familiarity, and perceived connectedness. Perceived attractiveness of knowledge influencers could directly affect users’ willingness to subscribe or indirectly through the role of users’ attachment to knowledge influencers.

Practical implications

By understanding the factors driving users’ subscription intentions, platform operators and influencers can refine their strategies to enhance user attachment and optimize monetization opportunities through personalized interactions and tailored content offerings.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by elucidating the relationship between perceived attractiveness and users’ subscription intentions, offering new insights into the dynamics of online knowledge consumption.

Purpose

This study explores the potential impact of enterprise social media (ESM) communication visibility on knowledge sabotage to reduce knowledge sabotage within organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected data from 389 Chinese employees across three stages and used hierarchical regression analysis and the bootstrap method to test our hypotheses.

Findings

Communication visibility negatively affects knowledge sabotage, and the loss of knowledge power mediates the relationship between communication visibility and knowledge sabotage. Digital work connectivity strengthens the negative relationship between message transparency and loss of knowledge power but weakens the negative relationship between network translucence and loss of knowledge power. Therefore, digital work connectivity plays a dual role.

Practical implications

Managers can encourage employees to share their knowledge advantages through ESM and seek cross-disciplinary knowledge cooperation, which helps restrain knowledge sabotage from the source. At the same time, maintaining appropriate digital work connectivity enables employees to leverage their knowledge interaction advantages of ESM, thereby fostering their knowledge competitiveness.

Originality/value

This study is the first to reveal the internal mechanism (loss of knowledge power) through which ESM communication visibility affects knowledge sabotage and explores the boundary condition (digital work connectivity) impacting the effectiveness of communication visibility. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the inherent nature of knowledge sabotage from an information technology perspective and offers novel technical insights into its management.

Purpose

This study aims to identify a value co-creation framework for live streaming through tourism scenes (LStTS). It also clarifies the value attributes of LStTS and makes an empirical test.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a mixed-method approach. In Study 1, a total of 12,216 pieces of viewers’ comments and ten web news reports were coded and analyzed employing a grounded theory approach. In Study 2, data were collected from 587 Douyin e-commerce users. Exploratory factor analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling were used to test the value co-creation framework of LStTS.

Findings

In Study 1, six value attributes in three categories were identified based on a content analysis of viewers’ comments. In Study 2, a three-order factorial model of value co-creation in LStTS was identified and tested.

Research limitations/implications

Our study is limited by the preponderance of female respondents in the sample and the unique nature of the research context.

Practical implications

Merchants and streamers should consider whether there is a fit between the merchandise and the tourism scene when selecting the tourism scene for live streaming marketing; they can select novel and beautiful natural tourism scenes to attract viewers. Detailed and comprehensive product information should be provided in the process of live streaming marketing and sharing with consumers.

Originality/value

The novelty of our study lies in the provision of a new value co-creation framework in LStTS, which offers a theoretical basis for analyzing the value of the tourism scene in live streaming marketing.