Social Networking and Social Media in the United States, South Korea, and China

This article summarizes the panel discussion at Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2012 on the social media environment around the world, particularly the United States, South Korea, and China. The panelists discussed the current status of social networking and social media in the aforementioned countries. The first section begins with United States, with social networking pertaining to the population at large, the use of social networks in the business environment, and observed overuse and addictive behavior of wireless mobile devices (WMD) among users. The second section covers South Korea, with the discussion addressing social networking sites (SNS) and its history; the collectivism of Asian culture and how it affects users’ behavior toward SNS; current trends, which include privacy concerns; and the future direction of SNS in Korea. Finally, in China, social media is further explored in the business models of SNS providers, followed by the customer base comparison between the United States and China

Familiarity with Big Data, Privacy Concerns, and Self-disclosure Accuracy in Social Networking Websites: An APCO Model

Social networking websites have not only become the most prevalent communication tools in today’s digital age but also one of the top big data sources. Big data advocates promote the promising benefits of big data applications to both users and practitioners. However, public polls show evidence of heightened privacy concerns among Internet and social media users. We review the privacy literature based on protection motivation theory and the theory of planned behavior to develop an APCO model that incorporates novel factors that reflect users’ familiarity with big data. Our results, which we obtained from using a cross-sectional survey design and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, support most of our proposed hypotheses. Specifically, we found that that awareness of big data had a negative impact on and awareness of big data implications had a positive impact on privacy concerns. In turn, privacy concerns impacted self-disclosure concerns positively and self-disclosure accuracy negatively. We also considered other antecedents of privacy concerns and tested other alternative models to examine the mediating role of privacy concerns, to control for demographic variables, and to investigate different roles of the trust construct. Finally, we discuss the results of our findings and the theoretical and practical implications

The Impact of Social Media Sentiment on Market Share for Higher Education Institutions

In recent years, university enrollment and market share have been discussed among administrators. With declining populations and increased educational pathways for students, the need to capture the attention of prospective students is of increased interest. At the same time, social media has become a significant factor in the lives of current and potentially future generations. This factor influences not only trends but also decision-making. As a result, higher education institutions must ensure a requisite social media presence and manage their social media reputation to impact potential students’ intent to enroll. This study explores these components and how one influences the other. A quantitative exploratory study utilizing social media data was deployed for this research study. This allowed for the examination of the level of influence social media posts have on a student’s decision to apply to an institution of higher education. Social media sentiment of various institutions was used to develop a net sentiment score. This score was then compared to the number of applications received yearly. It was posited that the two items would be positively correlated. Regression, correlation, and time series analyses were used to explore the relationship between the variables. This study contributes to practice and theory by identifying tools to assist institutions in monitoring social media sentiment, forecasting applicant pool size, and highlighting social media reputation as a statistically significant element in students’ college choices. The inclusion of social media sentiment as a factor in the information component of choice models adds a brick to the current literature around college choice. Therefore, this study provides a valuable contribution to understanding social media and its impact on higher education institutions’ reputation and applicant pool size