THE EFFECT OF PRICE PRESENTATION, SALES RESTRICTIONS, AND SOCIAL NETWORKS ON CONSUMER EWOM ACTIVITIES: TWO-PHASE VALIDATION

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is recognized as an effective communication channel among consumers. The Internet provides consumers with richer sales information and more online associates than do brick-and-mortar stores but makes complex the assessment of the shaping of electronic WOM (eWOM) intention and return on eWOM. Thus, we will conduct two experiments to examine the shaping of eWOM intention and return on eWOM. The first experiment explore the eWOM broadcasting from the perspective of eWOM senders in a laboratory setting, and the second experiment will validate the eWOM model from the perspective of both message senders and receivers. The first experiment will allow us to control for variables that are difficult to control in the field and examine the mechanisms behind eWOM intention. The preliminary validation of the research model will increase its explanatory power in the field and allow us examine the value of eWOM associated with eWOM intention

MOTIVATION FOR USING THE SOCIAL COMMERCE WEBSITE IN THE SHARING ECONOMY: A TWO-FACTOR THEORY PERSPECTIVE

The influence and power of the sharing economy are beginning to change our lifestyles and consumption patterns. Among the sharing firms operating in the sharing economy, Airbnb is not only a well-known example of a successful O2O (online to offline) giant but also positions itself as a social commerce website. This study intends to remove the mask of Airbnb from the perspectives of website decomposing because it is important to understand how social commerce is incorporated into the websites of e-commerce retailers to support their online business models. Drawing on the two-factor theory, we focus on the following two research questions: (1) Which website features are hygiene factors and which are motivation factors? (2) How are the hygiene and motivation factors that affect a consumer’s motivation for using the Airbnb website distributed across the stages of the consumer decision-making process? To answer these questions, this study will be conducted by a survey methodology to collect the data

Reduce Uncertainty of Online Potential Mates: Employing Signalling Theory

The online dating environment is full of uncertainties, and thus online daters use various searchable and experiential cues to determine whether online potential partners are in line with their expectations. Uncertainties caused by information asymmetry between dating parties are likely to influence their predicted outcome value judgment. To reduce the uncertainty of online mating, we propose a research model based on signalling theory to examine how two evaluative approach (the trait-evaluation and live-interaction approach) influence the level of online mate uncertainty and the predicted outcome value judgment of online daters. In addition, we also examine the moderating effect of perceived physical attractiveness on the relationship between online mates’ levels of uncertainty and the perceived outcome value judgment. The contributions of two evaluative approach on online dating are also discussed in this study

Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Acupuncture in Migraine Patients: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACTWe review the literature conjoining acupuncture, migraine, and cerebral hemodynamics. To do so, we searched PubMed in March 2013 for studies investigating cerebral hemodynamics with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound, and other tools in migraineurs, acupuncture recipients, and migraineurs receiving acupuncture. Our search identified 1321 distinct articles – acupuncture (n=463), migraine (n=866), and both (n=8). Only three (n=3) satisfied our inclusion criteria. Based on these three, we found the following: (1) Acupuncture may positively influence not just dynamic, but also static cerebral autoregulation during the interictal phase, depending on the intervals between sessions of acupuncture as dose units. (2) TCD can detect pretreatment differences between responders and non-responders to acupuncture, which may be predictive of clinical response. (3) “Point-through-point” needling (at angles connecting acupoints) may be clinically superior to standard acupuncture, thus needling angles may affect treatment effectiveness. None of the reviewed articles investigated patient responses during migraine attack. Although the 2009 Cochrane review affirmed acupuncture as effective prophylaxis for migraine, few studies investigated the cerebrovascular aspects – only analyzing arterial blood flow, but not microcirculation. Future research is warranted in monitoring brain tissue oxygenation to investigate acupuncture as both a preventive and abortive treatment for migraine, varying the type and dose interval and analyzing variations in clinical response

MOTIVATING KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOR FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE CONVERTIBILITY OF ECONOMIC BENEFITS

Past research has extensively studied individuals knowledge-sharing behavior. Identifying the effective mechanisms that motivate individuals to share their valuable knowledge has become an important issue and a major challenge for researchers and practitioners. Past studies fail to consider the readiness of conversion of motivational mechanism to economic benefits of knowledge sharing on knowledge sharing behavior. This study develops a theoretical model of the convertibility of economic benefits that integrates the calculative-based mechanism (CBM) modified from organizational reward systems and the relational-based mechanism (RBM) founded on social interaction to explain knowledge sharing behavior. The research will be conducted by a field study in collaboration with a district hospital to secure the survey data. The objective of this study is to help answer the following research questions. 1. How does the CBM, which incorporates the construct of organizational reward systems, facilitate knowledge sharing behavior 2. How does the RBM, which incorporates the construct of deposits, withdrawals, and relationship account balance, facilitate knowledge sharing behavior 3. Against the benchmark of the CBM, does the addition of the RBM give a better explanation of individual knowledge sharing behavior Keywords: Knowledge sharing behavior, Calculative-based mechanism, Relational-based mechanism, Convertibility of economic benefits

Influence of Socioeconomic Factors, Gender and Indigenous Status on Smoking in Taiwan.

The indigenous Austronesian minority of Taiwan is heavily affected by health disparities which may include suffering from a greater burden of the tobacco epidemic. While a lack of representative data has historically precluded an investigation of the differences in smoking between Taiwanese ethnicities, these data have recently become available through an annual population-based telephone survey conducted by the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare (previously known as the Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP), Department of Health). We used the BHP monitoring data to observe the prevalence of smoking and environmental tobacco smoke exposure among indigenous and non-indigenous Taiwanese surrounding a tobacco welfare tax increase in 2006, investigate ethnic differences in smoking prevalence and environmental tobacco smoke exposure each year between 2005 and 2008, and perform multiple logistic regression to estimate measures of association between potential risk factors and smoking status. Despite significant ethnic and gender differences in smoking prevalence, smoking status was not found to be significantly associated with ethnicity after controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors