A Case Study of Remote Monitoring of Health Status of the Elderly at Home in Taiwan

This case is a B2B2C model (service provider vs. community vs. the elderly) of innovative tele-care service provision. The service provider under study is the Chu-Shan Show-Chwan Hospital, a district hospital. The community consists of the social welfare institutions such as temples, community care centers, and nursing homes. The elderly are either residents of the community or the nursing homes. The community, as a service promoter, contributes to the increased acceptance compared to the traditional B2C model. Many communities under study and some social welfare organizations are highly interested in providing health care service to the elderly, and will support future operations if the results are satisfactory. Through this project, the district hospital can extend its primary care function to communities, build up trust among people, and improve the physician-patient relationshi

ALWAYS ON DUTY? THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF USING MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS FOR WORK

The high penetration rate of mobile internet access makes the social networking tools ubiquitous. Through social networking tools, people now can easily contact others for social purpose as well as for work purpose. As a result, mobile social networking tools are now blurring the boundary between work and family domains and creating a new work-life relationship. Using social networking tools for work provides a lot of benefits as well as some negative effects. In the paper, we develop two empirical studies to examine both the positive effects and negative effects of using social networking tools for work. Our finding indicates that using social networking tools increases group effectiveness, which results in improvement of group identity. Nevertheless, using social networking tools for work also blurs the boundary of work-life, which may raise the work load and work-home conflict. We concluded that both academics and practice should pay attention to and minimize the negative impact of increased work overload and work-home conflict induced by using social networking tools for work. Our research results also provide suggestion for future research

SELF-PRESENT BY AVATARS IN MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES: THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-ESTEEM, ONLINE DISINHIBITION, AND SELF-DISCREPANCY

Playing Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) is now a popular leisure activity for some people. Players spend significant energy and money on it. In MMORPGs, players can customize their avatars as virtual identities to present themselves in the virtual world. Avatars are important when playing MMORPGs. However, few previous studies focus on the psychological determinates for avatar presentation in MMORPGs. In this study, we used an online questionnaire of 337 participants to explore the antecedent factors influencing avatar presentation. The current study considers the influence of self-esteem, online disinhibition, and self-discrepancy on self-present and the influence of self-present on avatar presentation of idea self, stand out, and following a trend. The empirical survey result reveals the self-discrepancy between virtual and physical self are relative negatively with self-esteem and positive with online disinhibition. The self-present are influence by both self-discrepancy and online disinhibition. Besides, self-present perception will lead to avatar presentation. The current study provides contributions about confirming the antecedents of avatar presentation that may be serve as fundamental for future research on online game behavior

SHARING WORD-OF-MOUTHS OR NOT: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDEPENDENT AND INTERDEPENDENT SELF-CONSTRUAL

With the high penetration of Internet, consumers now can share their consumption experience online. Word-of-mouths (WOMs) are now an important information source to get product and service information before making purchase decision. However, not all consumers tend to share their own consumption experience online, the question then arises about which kinds of consumers will share WOMs online. The current study conducted an online questionnaire of 226 participants and adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to explore the influence of self-construal on the intention to share WOMs. The current study explored participants’ WOM sharing intention in three WOM platforms of instant messaging service, social network websites, and product review websites. Two scenarios of positive and negative consumption experience were considered in the study. The empirical survey results interdependent self-construal participants were with higher intention to share WOMs than independent ones. Participants tend to post positive WOM in social network sites. The intention to post negative WOM is lower than to post positive one. The current study provides contributions about confirming the influence of self-construal on WOM and may serve as fundamental for future research on WOM behavior