Determinants of user behaviour and recommendation in social networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (9) ◽  
pp. 1477-1498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Curras-Perez ◽  
Carla Ruiz-Mafe ◽  
Silvia Sanz-Blas
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Perceived Control ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Uses And Gratifications Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of social network use behaviour using Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Uses and Gratifications Theory. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative study was carried out with data gathered by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. Relationships proposed in the theoretical model were estimated through structural equation models. In total, 811 users of social networks over 14 and residents in Spain were part of the sample. Findings – Results indicate that use attitude and the subjective norm, both TPB variables, directly and significantly influence social network loyalty. Thus, network loyalty can be achieved if the individual shows a favourable attitude towards use and receives positive feed-back (comments, opinions, etc.) from friends, acquaintances and other individuals in their environment. Perceived control has no influence on social network loyalty. Finally, this research highlights the importance of socialisation and entertainment as antecedents of social network attitude. Research limitations/implications – Social network use has been analysed globally and database includes users with very different profiles (e.g. Facebook and Tuenti) what may skew the results. Practical implications – Individuals access social networks to establish social links with friends/family/acquaintances, seeking entertainment and fun, but they are never used to be fashionable or up-to-date. Given the importance of social relations, companies should motivate participation elements in their social networks profiles. Originality/value – The paper presents a model that explains the formation of loyal social network customers, integrating TPB and Uses and Gratifications Theory to enable understanding of the role of these networks in individuals’ lives.

I ♥ FB

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Robinson ◽  
Clark Callahan ◽  
Kristoffer Boyle ◽  
Erica Rivera ◽  
Janice K Cho
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Fourth Quarter ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Network Studies

Virtually seductive qualities of identity sharing, content gratification, and ample social atmosphere have made Facebook the most popular social network, boasting 890 million daily users (“Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter,” 2015; Joinson, 2008; Orchard et al., 2014, Reinecke et al., 2014). Online social network studies largely overlook the individual, limiting the understanding of what exactly drives people to use, abuse, even become dependent on sites like Facebook. Based on the theory of uses and gratifications, Q methodology subjectively observes what draws users to Facebook, focusing specifically on Facebook user characteristics. Past studies neglect the existence of three of the four factor groups discovered in this study, making these effectually new discoveries for academia (Alloway, Runac, Quershi, & Kemp, 2014; Cheung, Chieu & Lee, 2011; Sheldon, 2008, Tosun, 2012; Yang & Brown, 2013). These findings increase understanding of online usage, even addiction, and will help cater future social networks to specific users.

scholarly journals Standardized Methods of Assessment of Individual’s Social Network in Social Work and Psychological Practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
Psychological Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Function ◽  
Theoretical Overview

This article is a theoretical overview of the main standardized techniques for assessment of the social relations of the individual. The study of these techniques allows professionals to get the basic information about the microsocial environment of people. Theoretical analysis shows that the study of the social network of an individual involves the analysis of its structure, composition and function of its components. Described and analyzed the most common techniques for assessment of human social networks - "Name generator", "Drawing a social network", "Inventory of Social Network" (K. Bartholomew), "Social Networks Inventory " (Treadwell T. and co.), "Social Network Index "( L. Berkman, S. Syme), "Social Network List" (B. Hirsch, J. Stokes). Separately, the method of drawing up clients structured diary and method network card are shown.

The need for exercise in exergaming perspective of the uses and gratifications theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 120 (6) ◽  
pp. 1085-1099
Author(s):  
Thi Tuan Linh Pham ◽  
Han-Chung Huang ◽  
T.C.E. Cheng ◽  
May-Kuen Wong ◽  
Yen-Ni Liao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Continuance Intention ◽  
Uses And Gratifications Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health Consciousness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Physical Information

PurposePlaying exergames may resemble doing conventional exercise and thus has the potential to enhance users’ health. However, no study has yet examined whether and how a need for exercise impacts users’ intention to continuously play exergames, i.e. continuance intention and its antecedents. We developed a model grounded in the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachWe recruited 583 participants to play exergames and collected their psychological responses and physical information. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsWe found that health consciousness and perceived exercise benefits are positively related to a need for exercise, which is, in turn, positively related to continuance intention. Moreover, perceived exergame similarity with exercise strengthens the positive link between the need for exercise and continuance intention.Originality/valueThis is the first study using the UGT to explain the underlying mechanism linking health consciousness to continuance intention in the playing of exergames. In addition, we introduced the need for exercise as a novel construct in this study. Our findings provide insights to managers on incorporating health-related features into their exergame products to motivate users' engagement in playing exergames.

Applying uses and gratifications theory to students’ LinkedIn usage

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bela Florenthal
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Uses And Gratifications Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Professional Network ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Upper Level

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates college students to use LinkedIn and what inhibits them from fully adopting it. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach applying a “uses and gratifications” framework was used to identify the motives of and barriers faced by college students with respect to the LinkedIn usage. The study includes data collected from 30 upper-level, undergraduate business students. Findings – Four uses and gratifications categories emerged explaining why college students would be willing to use LinkedIn. Three categories – interpersonal communication, online identity and information – are similar to those identified for using social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Career development was found to be a category gratifying only LinkedIn users. Barriers to LinkedIn adoption included students’ ignorance of the network and the erroneous perception that a presence on LinkedIn should be initiated and/or developed only after graduation. Originality/value – College students’ behavior on social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, was extensively researched employing the uses and gratifications theory. LinkedIn has recently reached about 200 million users, of which about 30 million are college students and recent graduates. Still, students’ motives, usage patterns and barriers associated with LinkedIn have not been well-documented, which creates a gap that this study attempts to address. The aim is to shed light on what motivates students to use a professional network as opposed to using social networks and what key barriers might prevent college students from fully capitalizing on LinkedIn’s features.

What drives social integration in the domain of social network sites?

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel J. Sánchez-Franco ◽  
Eva María Buitrago-Esquinas ◽  
Rocío Yñiguez-Ovando
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Perceived Control ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Personal Innovativeness ◽  
Management Procedures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the study aims to investigate the effects of personal innovativeness and familiarity on social integration in the domain of social network site (SNS) innovation. Second, the study seeks to examine the influences of satisfaction and trust on social integration. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modelling is proposed to assess the relationships between the constructs, along with the predictive power of the model. Findings – The results demonstrate that increasing satisfaction, trust, and familiarity and assisting members’ personal innovativeness are important initiatives that promote social integration, reduce competition between my SNS and others, and consequently, inhibit opportunistic behaviour. Research limitations/implications – The model does not include all the relevant variables. The sample is not random and thus it is not necessarily representative of the population. Practical implications – Managers must take familiarity and innovativeness into account to customise their social strategies in order to ensure enduring enthusiasm for SNSs. Likewise, fostering members’ satisfaction through more gratifying and easier interactions is an effective strategy to promote social integration. Furthermore, SNSs should prioritise their initiatives for enhancing perceived control by making clear rules and management procedures available, as well as the required legal aspects and seals of approval that will increase levels of trust. Originality/value – A review of the literature reveals that very few studies analyse the effects of personal differences and relationship quality on social integration. This work therefore improves the explanatory power of existing theoretical frameworks.

Clean up your network: how a strike changed the social networks of a working team

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 43-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Thommes ◽  
Agnes Akkerman
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Conflict ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the impact of an intra-team conflict on the social relations within a team. The team conflict was triggered by a strike action which separated the team in two groups, the strikers and the worker, who continued to work. After the strike was settled, all had to work again cooperatively. This paper analyses how the strike action affects work and private social networks among workers. Design/methodology/approach The authors combine a qualitative ethnographic approach with quantitative network data. Findings The authors find that the strike action led to a separation between the former group of strikers and non-strikers. While the subgroups become more cohesive and their social network density increased, the links between both groups diminished. Research limitations/implications This study reveals that strikes and the accompanying separation of the workforce can improve social relations within the team, if individuals behaved alike during the conflict. Practical implications For managers, the results raise questions concerning typical managerial behaviour during strikes, as managers frequently trigger separation by trying to convince some individuals to continue to work. Instead, groups may even improve their performance after a strike, if they were allowed to behave alike by all joining the strike or refraining. Originality/value This study is the first to analyse social relations after a conflict. The authors combine qualitative and quantitative data and show the evolution of a social network after a strike. Moreover, they separate private communication flows and work-related communication and show that both networks do not necessarily evolve equally after a conflict.

scholarly journals Others' fortune in online vs offline settings: how envy affects people's intention to share information

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Suárez Vázquez ◽  
Manuel Chica Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Share Information

PurposeThis paper aims to fill a gap in the existing literature by answering the following question: is the effect of envy on people's intention to share information the same in offline settings and on online social networks?Design/methodology/approachTwo studies demonstrate (1) how envy that results from upward social comparisons affects people's intention to share information and (2) the difference between online and offline settings.FindingsThe likelihood of sharing information susceptible of triggering envy is lower in online social networks than in an offline scenario.Research limitations/implicationsIn digital environments, feelings of envy depend on the number of social comparisons that the individual is exposed to.Practical implicationsThis research recommends (1) incorporating tools that allow online social network users to feel part of their network's successes, (2) promoting offline diffusion of information and (3) encouraging people to play an active role when using online social networks.Social implicationsBenefits can be derived from offering tools that permit receivers to take advantage of the selective self-presentation of other users. Such tools could have positive consequences for the welfare of online social network users.Originality/valueTo date, the literature has paid no attention to envy as an engine of information sharing. This aspect is especially relevant when discussing platforms whose main goal is precisely information sharing and that offer fertile ground for upward social comparisons.

Collective Efficacy and Organizational Commitment in an Italian City Hall

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Borgogni ◽  
Silvia Dello Russo ◽  
Laura Petitta ◽  
Gary P. Latham
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
City Hall ◽  
Italian City ◽  
Public Sector Managers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Group

Employees (N = 170) of a City Hall in Italy were administered a questionnaire measuring collective efficacy (CE), perceptions of context (PoC), and organizational commitment (OC). Two facets of collective efficacy were identified, namely group and organizational. Structural equation models revealed that perceptions of top management display a stronger relationship with organizational collective efficacy, whereas employees’ perceptions of their colleagues and their direct superior are related to collective efficacy at the group level. Group collective efficacy had a stronger relationship with affective organizational commitment than did organizational collective efficacy. The theoretical significance of this study is in showing that CE is two-dimensional rather than unidimensional. The practical significance of this finding is that the PoC model provides a framework that public sector managers can use to increase the efficacy of the organization as a whole as well as the individual groups that compose it.

scholarly journals The Effect of Individual’s Technological Belief and Usage on Their Absorptive Capacity towards Their Learning Behaviour in Learning Environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 718
Author(s):  
Thomas Dolmark ◽  
Osama Sohaib ◽  
Ghassan Beydoun ◽  
Kai Wu
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Absorptive Capacity ◽  
Structural Equation Modelling ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Technology Readiness ◽  
Learning Behaviour ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Equation Modelling ◽  
The Individual

Absorptive capacity is a common barrier to knowledge transfer at the individual level. However, technology absorptive capacity can enhance an individual’s learning behaviour. This study investigates that technology readiness, the tools for knowledge sources, social influences, and social networks influence an individual’s absorptive capacity on an adaptation of the individual learning behaviour. A quantitative approach is used to assess the presence of a causal relationship from the constructs mentioned above. Data were collected from university students in Australia to examine the hypotheses. With 199 responses, a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for the analysis. The results generated mixed findings. Individual’s technological belief in optimism and innovation and social influences had a significantly weaker effect on individual absorptive capacity, which in turn had a significantly weaker impact on their learning behaviour.

Perceived marketization in Poland: Translating key concepts of institutional anomie theory to the micro level

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082199685
Author(s):  
Jacek Bieliński ◽  
Andreas Hövermann
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Institutional Anomie Theory ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Anomie Theory ◽  
Representative Random Sample ◽  
Order Factor ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Individual

Institutional anomie theory (IAT) describes the potentially criminogenic impact of economically dominated social institutions. Although originally cast at the macro level of society, more efforts have emerged lately to capture the IAT framework on the individual level, resulting in a need for appropriate measures representing the presumed marketization processes. Our study addresses this need by offering a theoretically derived, comprehensive measure of the individual-level instantiation of an anomic culture depicted in IAT, that is, ‘marketized mentality’. Structural equation models testing for the single higher-order factor marketized mentality are calculated with a representative random sample of Poland’s population. Finally, the implications and limitations resulting from the analyses are discussed.

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