scholarly journals Could Smart Tourists Be Sustainable and Responsible as Well? The Contribution of Social Networking Sites to Improving Their Sustainable and Responsible Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiwei Shen ◽  
Marios Sotiriadis ◽  
Qing Zhou

A key strategic aim of tourism destinations within the smart tourism paradigm is to achieve efficient, responsible and sustainable use of tourism resources. This aim can be achieved by promoting the appropriate practices and making tourists co-managers, co-designers and co-creators of tourism experiences. This paper argues that smart tourism destinations should manage their resources in a sustainable way and that smart technologies can make their contribution. Could a smart technology such as social media/social networking sites make a contribution to sustainable tourism within the smart tourism paradigm? To address this research question, a project was carried out to explore the perceptions and attitudes of Chinese tourist consumers about the contribution of social networking sites to adopting a sustainable and responsible behavior within the context of a smart tourism framework. First a research framework encompassing three hypotheses related to the influence of social networking sites at the three main stages of the travel cycle/tourist journey was designed. An exploratory quantitative research was then carried out using the online survey technique. The study’s findings indicate that the use of social networking sites influences the smart tourists at all three stages on adoption of sustainable and responsible behavior, the most significant influence is at the first two stages. The article is completed by discussing the related conclusions and management implications in the smart tourism management framework.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Majed Alharthi

The learning environment in 21st century schools has become the focus of attention for specialists in the educational field by equipping them with the right technologies to create an attractive and interactive learning environment. The purpose of this study was to find out university students’ attitudes toward technologies used in online courses and how employing these technologies benefit the learning environment. This paper reports the results of a quantitative research study examining university students’ attitudes toward technologies used in online courses. A total of 496 eligible students (268 male and 228 female) participated in the online survey through Social Networking Sites (SNS). This study found that, because of the complexity of the technologies used in these online courses, university students experienced difficulties using these tools and needed additional experience prior to their use in the online courses. The findings revealed that the most activities used in online courses in universities have largely focused on reading materials and online discussion forums, unlike other activities such as audio, social networking, online conferencing and games has not been widely used.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevil Yesiloglu ◽  
Juliet Memery ◽  
Chris Chapleo

PurposeThis study aims to investigate consumer motivations behind brand-related engagement on social media by exploring three different engagement types: consuming, contributing (to) and creating. Previous research suggests that many brands seek to engage with consumers via communications on social networking sites; however, most focus on quantitative metrics and measurement tools to evaluate such behaviour and so offer limited understanding and guidance. To address this gap, the current study utilises a mixed-method approach to investigate the motivations behind each brand-related engagement type to provide deeper insight into what motivates consumers to engage with brand-related posts on social networking sites. This study also aims to investigate whether the motivations between different engagement types exist and whether these vary between brands and other people's brand-related posts.Design/methodology/approachA two-phase integrated qualitative–quantitative research design was utilised. Twelve semi-structured interviews explored the range of consumers' brand engagement motivations before an online survey (N = 225) identified and confirmed the motivational similarities and differences between the three brand-related engagement types.FindingsDifferent motives influence each brand-related engagement type, bar the “enjoyment” motive, which triggers all three engagement types. Of particular interest is the identification of a new motive for engagement-seeking compensation that influences negative brand-related engagement.Practical implicationsThrough understanding what motivates consumers to consume, contribute and create, brands can tailor their marketing messages to each different brand-related engagement type. This will increase their engagement with consumers on social networking sites, as specific segments can be created by the brand to enhance their targeting strategies based on consumers' differing motivations within social media channels.Originality/valueThis study contributes a much-needed framework of motivations for brand-related engagement on social media, recognising variations in motivations by type of engagement (consume, contribute (to), create).


Author(s):  
Manuel Cargnino

Abstract Social networking sites are suspected to impede the communication between members of different political camps and thereby increase network homogeneity. This homogeneity can be a result of humans’ tendency to process information in confirmatory ways—a characteristic which is also ascribed to populist citizens and those who hold conspiratorial beliefs. It is hypothesized that populist views and conspiratorial beliefs are associated with higher exposure to like-minded information within Facebook. An online survey with German Facebook users (N = 469) revealed that populist attitudes are positively associated with conspiratorial beliefs but negatively associated with homogeneity. Conspiratorial beliefs are unrelated to homogeneity. Findings are discussed in the light of extant research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511770440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Santarossa ◽  
Sarah J. Woodruff

The aim of this study was to investigate whether problematic social networking site (SNS) use (i.e., degree of dependent relationship with SNSs), total SNS time/day, total SNS friends, and specific SNS activities were related to body image (BI), self-esteem (SE), and eating disorder (ED) symptoms/concerns. A sample of young adults ( N = 147) completed an online survey which measured SNS usage, problematic SNS use, BI, SE, and ED symptom/concerns. The findings revealed that females and males spent 4.1 ± 3.9 and 2.9 ± 2.8 hr on SNS, respectively, with the majority of time spent lurking (i.e., looking at another users’ profile but not actually communicating with them). Furthermore, problematic SNS use was found to be related to BI, SE, and ED symptoms/concerns. Moreover, SNS activities, such as lurking and posting comments on others’ profiles, were found to be related to BI, whereas SNS total time was found to be related to ED symptoms/concerns. Overall, this study demonstrates the possible correlational influence of SNSs on BI, SE, and ED symptoms/concerns.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien Wen Yuan ◽  
Yu-Hao Lee

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.


IFLA Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-222
Author(s):  
Deirdre McGuinness ◽  
Anoush Simon

This paper explores the use of social networking sites amongst the student population of a Welsh university, with particular respect to information-sharing and privacy behaviours, and the potential impact of social networking site checks by employers on future use of these sites. A mixed-methods research design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches was employed to investigate the research question. Results demonstrated that participants were concerned with maintaining privacy online, and were careful with regards to posting and protecting information on social networking sites; however, protective measures were imperfect due to human and system errors. Most respondents were aware of social networking site surveillance, with many noting that this would have an impact on their future use; however, users are active in protecting their privacy through a combination of use of privacy settings and varied levels of information disclosure dependent on context.


Society ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saud ◽  
Rachmah Ida ◽  
Ansar Abbas ◽  
Asia Ashfaq ◽  
Araz Ramazan Ahmad

Digitalization in the modern era has provided opportunities for the youths to participate in this information and social spheres. The concentrated use of social media has contributed to the astonishing factor among the voters where social media has changed the preferences of youths toward the right to vote. The research aims to investigate the contributions and preferences of youths toward political participation in the contemporary discussion in Indonesia. This research was quantitative research using a purposive random sampling technique to give equal opportunity to each respondent. The mode of data collection was an online survey. The majority of the respondents in this research were the student of the universities. Data were collected in April 2019 to examine the interest of youths in general elections in Indonesia. This research found that social media and Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have provided a unique platform to discuss political matters and ‘take apart’ in political discussions. Existing in-depth researches on this phenomenon show that political awareness among youths in Indonesia is an essential part and social media is the leading indicator. This research suggested some recommendations for to usage of social media for the socialization of youths.


Author(s):  
Nguyen Minh Dang ◽  
Vo Thanh Thao

Social networking sites (SNS) are a modern form of communication used by the young people across the world. Many young people discuss on forums and exchange information, opinions on SNS. This study empirically examines the effects of consumer opinion leadership (COL) and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) on young people’s tourism destinations information seeking and dissemination behavior on SNS from consumers’ point of view. The study aimed to answer the following questions: Does COL and CSII affect young people’s tourism destinations information seeking and dissemination behavior on SNS? Is there gender difference in young people’s tourism destinations information seeking and dissemination behavior on SNS? The data generated from various instruments were organized into emerging themes to validate the findings. The results indicated COL and CSII only affected tourism destinations information seeking and dissemination behaviors on SNS of young people. Gender was not supported by the research. These findings suggest that, marketing activities and tactics should be engaged to attract opinion leaders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Mohammad Badruzzaman BHUIYAN ◽  
◽  
Md. Aminul ISLAM ◽  
Md. Ziaul HAQUE ◽  
Chhanda BISWAS ◽  
...  

More recently social networking sites (SNSs) users are extensively using the emerging geotagging technology for tourism motivation. The study aims to examine the relationship between determinants of geotagging technology and intention to adopt geotag technology as well as the extent to which technology readiness moderates the link between determinants of geotagging technology and intention to adopt geotag technology. Data were collected from a sample of 356 university students by using convenience sampling technique. Partial least square structural equation modelling has been used to measure the results. The empirical outcome uncovers that social influence, performance expectancy and facilitating condition are the factor that have direct impact on SNSs user’s willingness to adopt geotag for smart tourism experience. The present paper enriches UTAUT model by understanding the association between two variables namely effort expectancy and performance expectancy as well as the moderating role of the technology readiness. The findings of the study will assist to SNSs service providers by understanding the moderating role of technology readiness in the relationship between determinants of geotagging technology and intention to adopt geotag technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Satish Kumar ◽  
Amit Sharma ◽  
Varinder Verma

Social Media is an important tool for sharing information and communication among the people. Mobile Applications enable these social networking sites (SNS) to send and receive info-content to the target audience. Especially, University students in the country today use SNS extensively for information and entertainment needs. Social media is playing a crucial role in social and political awareness for inclusive development. The study focuses on how social networking apps help in fulfilling the social needs of youth? What are the effects of social media on studies of university students? How do political parties use SNS apps for youth? And how mobile apps are contributing to the Digital India movement? A survey method was used for quantitative research methodology with a stratified random sampling of 100 university students of two state university of Haryana. The study reveals that students consider mobile apps help in socially connected with well known, to whom they are meeting personally and they feel happy for sharing their thoughts. It also explains the use of social media can create a negative effect on studies. Political parties and political leaders are targeting youth for their propaganda and agenda-setting through mobile apps. In the Digital India movement mobile apps are empowering youth for inclusive development.


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