Q&A participation and behavioral patterns on academic social networking sites: a comparative study of academic, corporate and government institutions on ResearchGate

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiwei Yan ◽  
Wanying Deng ◽  
Xiaorui Sun ◽  
Zihao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Question Answering ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Power Law Distribution ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Institutions

PurposeThis paper aims to explore question and answer (Q&A) participation and behavioral patterns on academic social networking sites (ASNSs) from the perspective of multiple subjects such as academic, corporate and government institutions.Design/methodology/approachFocused on the Q&A service of ASNSs, this study chooses ResearchGate (RG) as the target ASNS and collects a large-scale data set from it, involving a sample of users and a Q&A sample about academic, corporate and government institutions. First, it studies the law of Q&A participation and the distribution of the type of user according to the sample of users. Second, it compares question-asking behavior and question-answering behavior stimulated by questions among the three types of institutions based on the Q&A sample. Finally, it discusses the Q&A participation and behavioral patterns of the three types of institutions in academic Q&A exchanges with full consideration of institutional attributes, and provides some suggestions for institutions and ASNSs.FindingsThe results show that these three types of institutions generally have a low level of participation in the Q&A service of RG, and the numbers of questions and answers proposed by institutional users conform to the power-law distribution. There are differences in Q&A participation and Q&A behavioral patterns among academic, corporate and government institutions. Government and academic institutions have more users participating in the Q&A service and their users are more willing to ask questions, while corporate institutions have fewer users who participate in the Q&A service and their users are inclined to provide answers. Questions from corporate institutions attract much more attention than those from the other two types of institutions.Originality/valueThis study reveals and compares the Q&A participation and the behavioral patterns of the three types of institutions in academic Q&A, thus deepening the understanding of the attributes of institutions in the academic information exchange context. In practice, the results can help guide different institutions to use the Q&A service of ASNSs more effectively and help ASNSs to better optimize their Q&A service.

scholarly journals Researchers’ attitudes towards the use of social networking sites

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Greifeneder ◽  
Sheila Pontis ◽  
Ann Blandford ◽  
Hesham Attalla ◽  
David Neal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Implicit Attitudes ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to better understand why many researchers do not have a profile on social networking sites (SNS), and whether this is the result of conscious decisions. Design/methodology/approach Thematic analysis was conducted on a large qualitative data set from researchers across three levels of seniority, four countries and four disciplines to explore their attitudes toward and experiences with SNS. Findings The study found much greater scepticism toward adopting SNS than previously reported. Reasons behind researchers’ scepticism range from SNS being unimportant for their work to not belonging to their culture or habits. Some even felt that a profile presented people negatively and might harm their career. These concerns were mostly expressed by junior and midlevel researchers, showing that the largest opponents to SNS may unexpectedly be younger researchers. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this study was that the authors did not conduct the interviews, and therefore reframing or adding questions to specifically unpack comments related to attitudes, feelings or the use of SNS in academia was not possible. Originality/value By studying implicit attitudes and experiences, this study shows that instead of being ignorant of SNS profiles, some researchers actively opt for a non-use of profiles on SNS.

scholarly journals Constructing and enacting normality online across generations

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niki Panteli ◽  
Ben Marder
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how different age groups construct and enact normality within social networking sites (SNS) and consequently extend theory in the area of online interactions. Design/methodology/approach The chosen research site was Facebook and research design involved focus groups across three different age groups: teenagers, young adults and the middle-aged. In total, there were 78 participants. The focus groups explored the metaphoric images of Facebook interactions. In doing so, participants were asked to draw a picture to represent their metaphor and following this, to position themselves and other characters within the picture. The drawings as well as the facilitators’ records provided the main data set for the study. Findings Connective and protective encounters were found to be used by different age groups when constructing and enacting normality on SNS. Further, it emerged that the interpretation and enactment of normality across the different age groups significantly varied. The metaphorical images have transpired as being a resourceful way of unpacking these differences. Research limitations/implications The study relied on focus groups in order to capture metaphorical images across generations. It did not include interviews with individual participants to elicit the extent to which they agreed with the group metaphor or whether there was anything else they might have presented in the drawings. This could be on the agenda for future research. Practical implications The findings of the study suggest that SNS managers and designers should sympathise with the view that users of different ages engage in different ways with SNS and as a result, user interfaces should be customised according to the age of the user. Social implications The study has implications for those interested in cross- and inter-generational research. Originality/value This is the first study in which the concept of normality has been adopted as a theoretical lens for understanding the interactions on SNS. Further, this work adds to the limited body of research on SNS use across different generations whilst it expands on the range of methodologies used within the information systems field.

Financial distress determinants among SMEs: empirical evidence from Sweden

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darush Yazdanfar ◽  
Peter Öhman
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Distress ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically investigate determinants of financial distress among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the global financial crisis and post-crisis periods.Design/methodology/approachSeveral statistical methods, including multiple binary logistic regression, were used to analyse a longitudinal cross-sectional panel data set of 3,865 Swedish SMEs operating in five industries over the 2008–2015 period.FindingsThe results suggest that financial distress is influenced by macroeconomic conditions (i.e. the global financial crisis) and, in particular, by various firm-specific characteristics (i.e. performance, financial leverage and financial distress in previous year). However, firm size and industry affiliation have no significant relationship with financial distress.Research limitationsDue to data availability, this study is limited to a sample of Swedish SMEs in five industries covering eight years. Further research could examine the generalizability of these findings by investigating other firms operating in other industries and other countries.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine determinants of financial distress among SMEs operating in Sweden using data from a large-scale longitudinal cross-sectional database.

Different firm responses to the COVID-19 pandemic shocks: machine-learning evidence on the Vietnamese labor market

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lam Hoang Viet Le ◽  
Toan Luu Duc Huynh ◽  
Bryan S. Weber ◽  
Bao Khac Quoc Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Firm Responses

PurposeThis paper aims to identify the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor markets.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a large-scale survey on 16,000 firms from 82 industries in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and analyze the data set by using different machine-learning methods.FindingsFirst, job loss and reduction in state-owned enterprises have been significantly larger than in other types of organizations. Second, employees of foreign direct investment enterprises suffer a significantly lower labor income than those of other groups. Third, the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market are heterogeneous across industries and geographies. Finally, firms with high revenue in 2019 are more likely to adopt preventive measures, including the reduction of labor forces. The authors also find a significant correlation between firms' revenue and labor reduction as traditional econometrics and machine-learning techniques suggest.Originality/valueThis study has two main policy implications. First, although government support through taxes has been provided, the authors highlight evidence that there may be some additional benefit from targeting firms that have characteristics associated with layoffs or other negative labor responses. Second, the authors provide information that shows which firm characteristics are associated with particular labor market responses such as layoffs, which may help target stimulus packages. Although the COVID-19 pandemic affects most industries and occupations, heterogeneous firm responses suggest that there could be several varieties of targeted policies-targeting firms that are likely to reduce labor forces or firms likely to face reduced revenue. In this paper, the authors outline several industries and firm characteristics which appear to more directly be reducing employee counts or having negative labor responses which may lead to more cost–effect stimulus.

Connecting and being connected: investigating friending practices across multiple social networking sites

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien Wen Yuan ◽  
Yu-Hao Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Relationship Maintenance ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bonding Social Capital ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk

PurposeSocial networking sites (SNSs) offer people the possibility of maintaining larger networks of social ties, which also entails more complex relationship maintenance across multiple platforms. Whom to “friend” and via which platform can involve complex deliberations. This study investigates the relationships between users' perceived friending affordances of five popular SNSs (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn) and their friending behaviors concerning strong ties, weak ties (existing and latent ties) and parasocial ties.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey using Qualtrics was provided to participants (N = 626) through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The survey asked their SNS use and their friending behaviors with different ties on each of the sites.FindingsUsers' friending decisions are dependent on an interplay of socio-technical affordances of each SNS and specific needs for the ties. The authors found that the affordances of bridging social capital and enjoyment are aligned with friending weak and parasocial ties, respectively. The affordances of bonding social capital were not valued to friend strong ties.Originality/valueThe study extends the affordance and social capital literature by assessing users' perceived, contextualized SNS affordances in relation to actual communication behaviors in friending different social ties. This approach provides contextualized insights to friending decisions and practices on SNSs.

scholarly journals Perceived value of social networking sites (SNS) in students' expressive participation in social movements

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan D. Borrero ◽  
Shumaila Y. Yousafzai ◽  
Uzma Javed ◽  
Kelly L. Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Intention To Use ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the beliefs that influence university students to use social networking sites (SNS) for expressive participation in social movements. Design/methodology/approach – The original technology acceptance model (TAM), a quantitative methodological approach, and a survey were used to collect responses from 214 university students in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings – Results confirm that the perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of SNS significantly affect a student's intention to use SNS for expressive social participation in social movements, with use intention significantly affecting actual participation. There was no significant moderating effect of students' gender on these relationships. Originality/value – Although there is much discussion in the popular press about how people use SNS, there is no published empirical research on the determinants that contribute to a person's intention to use and actual use of SNS in the context of social movements. This paper is one of the first studies to investigate young people's perception of the SNS usefulness and ease of the use for participation in social movements.

Computational modeling of Weibo user influence based on information interactive network

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 867-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dingguo Yu ◽  
Nan Chen ◽  
Xu Ran
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
Message Content ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Content Type ◽  
User Influence

Purpose With the development and application of mobile internet access, social media represented by Weibo, WeChat, etc. has become the main channel for information release and sharing. High-impact users in social networks are key factors stimulating the large-scale propagation of information within social networks. User influence is usually related to the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors focused on Sina Weibo users, centered on users’ behavior and interactive information, and formulated a weighted interactive information network model, then present a novel computational model for Weibo user influence, which combined multiple indexes such as the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content influence, etc., the model incorporated the time dimension, through the calculation of users’ attribute influence and interactive influence, to comprehensively measure the user influence of Sina Weibo users. Findings Compared with other models, the model reflected the dynamics and timeliness of the user influence in a more accurate way. Extensive experiments are conducted on the real-world data set, and the results validate the performance of the approach, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the dynamics and timeliness. Due to the similarity in platform architecture and user behavior between Sina Weibo and Twitter, the calculation model is also applicable to Twitter. Originality/value This paper presents a novel computational model for Weibo user influence, which combined multiple indexes such as the user’s attention rate, activity level, and message content influence, etc.

User-generated content on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayan Chirayath Kurian ◽  
Blooma Mohan John
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Agency ◽  
Mixed Response

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore themes eventuating from the user-generated content posted by users on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency. Design/methodology/approach An information classification framework was used to classify user-generated content posted by users including all of the content posted during a six month period (January to June 2015). The posts were read and analysed thematically to determine the overarching themes evident across the entire collection of user posts. Findings The results of the analysis demonstrate that the key themes that eventuate from the user-generated content posted are “Self-preparedness”, “Emergency signalling solutions”, “Unsurpassable companion”, “Aftermath of an emergency”, and “Gratitude towards emergency management staff”. Major user-generated content identified among these themes are status-update, criticism, recommendation, and request. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to theory on the development of key themes from user-generated content posted by users on a public social networking site. An analysis of user-generated content identified in this study implies that, Facebook is primarily used for information dissemination, coordination and collaboration, and information seeking in the context of emergency management. Users may gain the benefits of identity construction and social provisions, whereas social conflict is a potential detrimental implication. Other user costs include lack of social support by stakeholders, investment in social infrastructure and additional work force required to alleviate the technological, organisational, and social barriers in communication among stakeholders in emergency management. A collective activity system built upon the Activity Theory was used as a lens to describe users’ activity of posting content on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency. Practical implications By analysing the findings, administrators and policy makers of emergency management could identify the extent to which the core principles of disaster recovery are accomplished using public social networking sites. These are achieved in relation to: pre-disaster recovery planning; partnership and inclusiveness; public information messaging; unity of effort; and, psychological recovery to maximise the success of recovery in a disaster. Furthermore, a core principle which evoked a mixed response was timeliness and flexibility. Originality/value Previous studies have examined the role of social networking sites in disastrous situations, but to date there has been very little research into determining themes found in user-generated content posted on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency. Hence, this study addresses the gap in literature by conducting a thematic analysis of user-generated content posted on the Facebook page of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

scholarly journals Question answering system for deterministic fault diagnosis of intelligent railway signal equipment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haosen Liu ◽  
Youwei Wang ◽  
Xiabing Zhou ◽  
Zhengzheng Lou ◽  
Yangdong Ye
Keyword(s):  
Question Answering ◽  
Failure Diagnosis ◽  
Semantic Matching ◽  
Equipment Failure ◽  
Text Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Question Answering System ◽  
Railway Signal ◽  
Matching Mechanism

Purpose The railway signal equipment failure diagnosis is a vital element to keep the railway system operating safely. One of the most difficulties in signal equipment failure diagnosis is the uncertainty of causality between the consequence and cause for the accident. The traditional method to solve this problem is based on Bayesian Network, which needs a rigid and independent assumption basis and prior probability knowledge but ignoring the semantic relationship in causality analysis. This paper aims to perform the uncertainty of causality in signal equipment failure diagnosis through a new way that emphasis on mining semantic relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a deterministic failure diagnosis (DFD) model based on the question answering system to implement railway signal equipment failure diagnosis. It includes the failure diagnosis module and deterministic diagnosis module. In the failure diagnosis module, this paper exploits the question answering system to recognise the cause of failure consequences. The question answering is composed of multi-layer neural networks, which extracts the position and part of speech features of text data from lower layers and acquires contextual features and interactive features of text data by Bi-LSTM and Match-LSTM, respectively, from high layers, subsequently generates the candidate failure cause set by proposed the enhanced boundary unit. In the second module, this study ranks the candidate failure cause set in the semantic matching mechanism (SMM), choosing the top 1st semantic matching degree as the deterministic failure causative factor. Findings Experiments on real data set railway maintenance signal equipment show that the proposed DFD model can implement the deterministic diagnosis of railway signal equipment failure. Comparing massive existing methods, the model achieves the state of art in the natural understanding semantic of railway signal equipment diagnosis domain. Originality/value It is the first time to use a question answering system executing signal equipment failure diagnoses, which makes failure diagnosis more intelligent than before. The EMU enables the DFD model to understand the natural semantic in long sequence contexture. Then, the SMM makes the DFD model acquire the certainty failure cause in the failure diagnosis of railway signal equipment.

Optimizing transparency for users in social networking sites

Info ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 8-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Wauters ◽  
Verónica Donoso ◽  
Eva Lievens
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose – This article aims to reflect on possible ways to optimise current ways to deliver information provision to make it more transparent to users. In particular, this article will refer to the benefits (and challenges) of using more user-centred approaches to inform users in a more transparent way. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper we analyse individual, as well as contextual factors (e.g. cognitive differences, time constraints, specific features of social networking sites [SNS] platforms) which may have an impact on the way users deal with Terms of Use, privacy policies and other types of information provision typically made available on SNS platforms. In addition, possible ways of improving current practices in the field are discussed. In particular, the benefits (and challenges) of a user-centred approach have been referred to when it comes to informing users in a way that is more meaningful to them. Finally, it is discussed how user-centred approaches can act as mechanisms to increase transparency in SNS environments and how (alternative) forms of regulation could benefit from such an approach. Findings – The authors believe that it is necessary to start focussing on users/consumers’ needs, expectations and values to develop visualisation tools that can help make law (more) meaningful to users/consumers by giving them a better insight into their rights and obligations and by guiding them in making truly informed decisions regarding their online choices and behaviour. Originality/value – By looking at different techniques such as visual design and the timing of information, the article contributes to the discussion on how people can be made more aware of legal documents and actually read them.

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