Will Flow Experience Lead to Better Outcomes in Online Shopping?

This paper reports the results of a study examining users’ perceptions of flow and outcomes in online shopping. Three characteristics of flow activities and six dimensions of flow are predicted to affect outcomes as measured by perceived usefulness, pleasure, and behavior intentions. Results show that flow affects all outcome measures. Implications for future research and practice are discussed

Behavioral Correlates of Flow in Internet Browsing

This study explores the relationship between flow experience and browsing behavior of online shoppers. Behavioral patterns were identified and extracted from screen recording. Analysis both positive and negative correlates of flow experience shows support of perception-based flow measures

Beyond the Test of the Four Channel Model of Flow in the Context of Online Shopping

In this study we investigate the effects of user skill and task challenge on online shoppers’ experiences. We use a model suggested by flow theory in which shoppers are grouped into four categories (flow, anxiety, boredom, and apathy) based on their perceptions of task challenge and their skill in performing an online shopping task. Results show that anxious shoppers have lower perceptions of the dimensions of flow, believe online shopping Web sites are less useful, and believe they are less likely to use the system in the future compared to the other three groups of online shoppers. In addition to challenge and skill, having a clear goal and fast feedback also contribute to the flow experience

Testing an Integrity-Checking DSS Component for Organizational Memory Building

Organizational Memory (OM) has become a critical component of organizations attempting to maintain a competitive advantage. The ability to retrieve accurate information, and interpret it from different perspectives, will both facilitate efficient problem solving and support efficient organizational learning. This research examines the effect of an informationbuilding and decision aid. The results indicate that the system positively affects OM by promoting user-entered knowledge bases with more accurate statements. However, the system did not significantly improve the ability of the users to solve a problem. These findings have important implications for designing information systems to support and expand OM while increasing the organization’s capacity to learn and solve problems

Longitudinal Studies in Information Systems Research: Practices, Findings, and Gaps

The longitudinal research approach has the potential to provide rich data about the information systems life cycle and organizational and societal shifts due to information technology implementation and adoption. With this research methodology, we can discern changes in user behaviors and attitudes over time. Despite the promise of the longitudinal research approach, it has not been widely used in information systems research in the past. The aim of the current study is to inventory longitudinal research studies published during the past twenty years (1995-2015) and to provide a status report of this research method in the information systems field. The study will also identify gaps in longitudinal research in the information systems field and make recommendations to information systems researchers considering the adoption of longitudinal research methodologies in their work

User Perceptions of Information Quality in China: The Boomerang Decade

China has adopted and implemented the Internet as a vehicle for economic development during the past several decades. As this has occurred, the Chinese national government has sought to control access to information in various ways over time. As political philosophies have changed over time, so has control over the ways in which users are able to publish and access information through the Internet in China. This study examines user perceptions of information quality in China over the decade beginning in 2007 and ending in 2017. Data were collected three times at five-year intervals. The results show that user perceptions have changed in a way that is consistent with changes in control over use of the Internet in China during this ten-year period. Specifically, user perceptions of information quality along a number of dimensions are similar at the beginning and end of this decade and either significantly higher or lower in the middle of the decade in ways that are consistent with Chinese control of the Internet in the middle of this decade. Our research shows that users are sensitive to information quality issues in that the changes in Chinese Internet users’ perceptions have shifted in parallel with public events and governmental practices. China is a prototypical case of tight government control of the Internet. The findings of this study shed light on user perceptions in one society of this type. In the long run, information providers should strive to provide high quality information as a strategy for mitigating the effects of fake news

Loyalty of Web 2.0 Sites: The Role of Sense of Belonging

The research investigates the factors leading to user loyalty of Web 2.0 sites. Survey of users in a popular Web 2.0 site in Taiwan was conducted. Results show that sense of belonging and service quality have direct effect while trust affects loyalty indirectly via sense of belonging. In addition, service quality also affects loyalty through trust and sense of belonging. One surprising finding is that trust has non-significant direct effect on loyalty as originally proposed. Another interesting finding comes from light user group. Among light users, service quality has no direct effect on loyalty, making sense of belonging the only direct impact on loyalty

An Overview of Flow Theory in Ecommerce

The present study examined flow theory in the literature and especially in ecommerce contexts: computer and online games,virtual environments, online shopping, interface design, marketing, and management. Designing for a positive userexperience has become an equally important goal of interface design in addition to usability. Thus, studying user’s flowexperience is a valuable undertaken, which will provide insights for human computer interaction and guidance to interfacedesign, including online and mobile applications. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using Webster et al. (1993)instrument, which was administered to 310 subjects, following their experience navigating an apparel commercial web site.Based on the results of the factor analysis, three dimensions of flow emerged: control, attention focus, and cognitiveenjoyment. Implications for contributions and future research are discussed

Are Importance Ratings Stable? A Study of Perceptions of Information Quality

Information consumption in China occurs in a rapidly shifting social and political environment. Understanding this group of information consumers is likely to play an important role in business and political decision making globally for the foreseeable future. Ratings of the importance of the dimensions of information quality and the way in which these ratings have shifted over time shed light on the beliefs of this group of information consumers. This study reports the results of a nonpanel longitudinal study involving two surveys conducted in China over a five year period examining information consumer ratings of the importance of the dimensions of information quality. Results show that Chinese information consumers rate the information quality dimensions of believability, reputation, and value-added as less important at the end of the five year period than at the beginning and rate representational consistency and concise representation as more important at the end of the five year period than at the beginning

An oligotrophic deep-subsurface community dependent on syntrophy is dominated by sulfur-driven autotrophic denitrifiers

Subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystems (SLiMEs) under oligotrophic conditions are typically supported by H₂. Methanogens and sulfate reducers, and the respective energy processes, are thought to be the dominant players and have been the research foci. Recent investigations showed that, in some deep, fluid-filled fractures in the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa, methanogens contribute <5% of the total DNA and appear to produce sufficient CH₄ to support the rest of the diverse community. This paradoxical situation reflects our lack of knowledge about the in situ metabolic diversity and the overall ecological trophic structure of SLiMEs. Here, we show the active metabolic processes and interactions in one of these communities by combining metatranscriptomic assemblies, metaproteomic and stable isotopic data, and thermodynamic modeling. Dominating the active community are four autotrophic β-proteobacterial genera that are capable of oxidizing sulfur by denitrification, a process that was previously unnoticed in the deep subsurface. They co-occur with sulfate reducers, anaerobic methane oxidizers, and methanogens, which each comprise <5% of the total community. Syntrophic interactions between these microbial groups remove thermodynamic bottlenecks and enable diverse metabolic reactions to occur under the oligotrophic conditions that dominate in the subsurface. The dominance of sulfur oxidizers is explained by the availability of electron donors and acceptors to these microorganisms and the ability of sulfur-oxidizing denitrifiers to gain energy through concomitant S and H₂ oxidation. We demonstrate that SLiMEs support taxonomically and metabolically diverse microorganisms, which, through developing syntrophic partnerships, overcome thermodynamic barriers imposed by the environmental conditions in the deep subsurface