THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS ON THE RELATIONSHIP QUALITY OF FACEBOOK USERS

Armed with the great potential for business value and social networking, social media have generated great interests in academia and practice. Rare studies investigated the impact of social psychological factors on the usage of Facebook and the formation of quality relationship. The objective of this paper is to examine the key social psychological factors to better explain the formation of quality relationship. Our proposed theoretical model combined the theories of social influence, social identity, and social presence to capture the essences of the relationship quality between users and Facebook. We conducted a survey to collect data and empirically test our proposed model. Overall, our findings provide theoretical insights to explain the influence of social psychological factors on the usage of Facebook and quality relationship. These findings also help practitioners to plan marketing strategies in better utilize social network sites

Analysing and using subjective criteria to improve dental care recommendation systems

Online reviews and rating sites are shaping industries as the users rely on recommendations given by former consumers and sharing opinions on the web. Dentistry has also been impacted by dental patients' reviews. This paper classifies trust-related information for dental care recommendations onto 4 categories: context, relationship, reputation and subjective criteria. It discusses each category and describes how they help focussing on trust when matching patients and dentists in brief. The paper then focuses on subjective criteria and presents the results of a survey aimed at showing trustrelated information emerged from subjective characteristics. Traits of personalities are used as subjective characteristics of patients and that of dentists are derived from the online patients' reviews. 580 Australian patients were surveyed to determine what factors affect their decision to find the trusted dentist. Subjective characteristics of dentists such as dentists' qualities and experienced dentists are considered the most important factors after location and cost. The most preferred dentists' qualities by almost all types of personalities are experienced, professional and quality of service. When the patients are further classified based on levels of fear, their preferences for dentists' qualities changed. Subjective qualities of both patients and dentists are important factors to improve the matching capability for the dental care recommendation systems

A mediated model of E-WOM effects towards continuous use intention of social commerce

Electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM) plays a significant role in influencing users’ behavioural intention in social commerce (s-commerce). Research on the influence of perceived attributes of e-WOM on continuous use intention of s-commerce is limited to users’ attitudes in continuous usage of s-commerce. However, other contextual factors like trust and commitment are very crucial in sustaining a seller-buyer relationship on s-commerce. Moreover, there has been fierce competition to retain customers and ensure continuous usage of s-commerce to gain competitive advantage. This study integrates Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Commitment-Trust Theory (CTT) to examine the relationship between perceived attributes of e-WOM, trust, commitment, and continuous use intention of s-commerce. The framework also examines the mediational effects of those factors and their relationships. This study adapts post-positivism paradigm and quantitative research method. Data was collected from 365 s-commerce users in Malaysia through online survey. The data was analysed using statistical analysis techniques and Structural Equation Modelling. The results showed that continuous use intention is significantly affected by perceived usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment of e-WOM. It is also revealed that trust and commitment significantly affected continuous use intention. Meanwhile, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are found to significantly influence trust. Furthermore, perceived enjoyment influenced commitment only. Additionally, trust significantly mediated the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and continuous use intention. Lastly, commitment significantly mediated the relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and continuous use intention. Theoretically, this study contributes by incorporating CTT and TAM to show the relationship for perceived attributes of e-WOM, trust, and commitment in the context of continuous use of s-commerce. Practically, it provides knowledge about the factors that are vital to businesses operating over the s-commerce platforms

Análisis de las redes sociales online como entorno seguro de comunicación para inclusión familiar-social gerontológica

Este estudio permitió afirmar que la red social Facebook, es una alternativa tecnológica válida, para apoyar la inclusión familiar y social del adulto mayor, y favorecer adicionalmente su salud física y mental, es decir, tiene el potencial para elevar el nivel de la calidad de vida del adulto mayor. Por otra parte, siendo el entorno de Facebook, una tecnología soportada en Internet, no está exenta de riesgos para sus usuarios. Sin embargo, este estudio evidenció que el nivel de conciencia sobre seguridad y privacidad del usuario adulto mayor de Facebook, es el factor determinante de la exposición al riesgo atribuible al usuario; y concluyó que, mediante ajustes en sus comportamientos psicosociales, y en su cultura de seguridad y privacidad, podría reducir su nivel de exposición al riesgo; haciendo de la red social un entorno más seguro de comunicación. Frente a los potenciales beneficios que puede tener el adulto mayor con el uso de Facebook, y la posibilidad cierta de reducir la exposición a los riesgos propios de Internet, se concluyó que debería impulsarse el uso de la red social entre los miembros del segmento poblacional mayor a 65 años. Tomando en cuenta que el estudio giró alrededor del adulto mayor y la red social Facebook, para su desarrollo se seleccionó un enfoque metodológico predominantemente cualitativo, suplementado por análisis cuantitativos de datos cualitativos previamente cuantificados. Para desarrollar la investigación, se establecieron dos marcos conceptuales derivados de la literatura, el uno relacionado a los potenciales beneficios del uso de Facebook para la calidad de vida del adulto mayor, que fueron parte importante del estado del arte del adulto mayor frente a Facebook; y el otro, respecto de las diversas causas de los ciber-riesgos en el entorno de Facebook, con especial atención a aquellas causas que tienen que ver exclusivamente con los comportamientos psicosociales, y la cultura de seguridad y privacidad del usuario de la red social. Para aproximarse a la realidad, se recurrió a la observación cualitativa directa; y, a la recopilación de datos a través de entrevistas estructuradas, aplicadas a los AM y otros usuarios ecuatorianos de Facebook. Los aportes generados en el proceso de investigación son: el modelo de sensibilización del adulto mayor hacia el uso y la apropiación de tecnología; el proceso evolutivo de apropiación de tecnología; el modelo integral de apropiación de tecnología (MIAT); el decálogo para moldear una actitud positiva del adulto mayor hacia el uso de la red social Facebook; el modelo conceptual, con perspectiva interdisciplinaria, de las causas de los ciber-riesgos en el entorno de Facebook; los factores determinantes del grado de conciencia sobre privacidad y seguridad de un usuario de Facebook, que fundamentaron, el proceso de estimación del nivel real de conciencia de los usuarios de Facebook respecto a privacidad y seguridad en la red social; y, la propuesta de marco de referencia para conformar en Facebook, un entorno seguro de interacción social virtual que apoye la inclusión familiar y social del adulto mayor.Facultad de Informátic