The Role of Technology, Content, and Context for the Success of Social Media

Social media, a new form of electronic media for social engagement and interaction, are becoming important means of communication and valuable assets for both individuals and organizations. Used by millions of online consumers and many leading business practitioners, social media, however, has remained largely unexplored by business researchers. This study, therefore, seeks to broaden our understanding by investigating weblog success in achieving readership popularity. Drawing on the techno-social perspective of media and the cognitive psychology concepts of mindfulness and mindlessness, we conjecture that readership popularity of a social media site is associated with its technology-dependent, content-dependent and context-dependent characteristics. To validate the proposed research model, a set of very popular weblogs will be studied over a period of time. We will adopt a methodology which includes an objective evaluation of the sites and a survey of individual readers

An Analysis on the Formation and Cultivation of Environmental Protection Norms in the Context of Green Gamification

Currently, individual green behaviors have attracted great attention from many countries for environmental degradation. It is particularly critical to identify useful strategies to motivate users’ green behaviors. Based on the goal framing theory, this paper considers three target motivations (hedonic goal, gain goal, and normative goal) of users’ behaviors, proposes the formation and cultivation mechanics of green behaviors in the green gamification platform, and builds a model considering the process of users’ engagement. By comparing users’ quality situation (high, general, low), this paper concludes that a lower involvement degree is required by high-quality individuals when forming and cultivating an environmental behavior habit. The result also benefits organizations that apply gamification designs in varieties of ways to engage and steer users like employees or consumers toward targeted goals

A Techno-Social Approach for Achieving Online Readership Popularity

Understanding what drives readership popularity in online interactive media has important implications to individual practitioners and net-enabled organizations. For instance, it helps generate a success “formula” for designing potentially popular websites in the increasingly competitive online world. So far, research in this area lacks a unified approach in guiding the design of online interactive media as well as in predicting their successful adoption and use, from both technological and social orientations. Drawing upon the media success literature and related social cognition theories, we establish a techno-social model for achieving online readership popularity, accounting for the impacts of technology-dependent and media-embedded characteristics. The proposed model and hypotheses will be tested by a content analysis of 100+ very popular weblogs and survey of 2000+ active weblog readers. This research carries significant value for sustaining community- and firm-based user networks that have been recognized as an important source of social and knowledge capitals

Online Readership Popularity and Media-embedded Characteristics

Readership popularity has been an important proxy for the success of many online interactive media. Given the exponential growth of new web properties and the hype of competition among them, attaining and retaining popularity is difficult. One possible approach to this problem is to enhance the competitiveness of web presence by using appropriate web design mechanisms. So far, research in this area has been focused on technological issues or usability studies. Few studies have recognized the importance of media-embedded social scripts or environmental cues in influencing online communication. Drawing on social cognition theories, we identified two important media-embedded characteristics: source credibility and content freshness; and tested their impact to readership popularity in online interactive media. The content analysis result from 100 very popular weblog sites strongly supported our hypotheses. Our findings highlight key web design principles, which may serve to guide the practice of millions of online users and practitioners

Calling for Information Systems Research on Esports: An Overview Study

Online gaming has become a pervasive entertainment activity, and its professionalization has resulted in esports (i.e., electronic sports)—a new blend of sport and business. Esports has a promising future given its widespread acceptance and significant business value. Its innovative nature necessitates more research to help understand and shape its future. We hold that scholars, especially information systems (IS) researchers, should pay more attention to this phenomenon since the IS discipline has a key interest in examining esports’ constituents (i.e., people, organizations, and technologies). To increase research attention and help readers understand esports, we compiled this research overview. In it, we first comprehensively define esports. Then, we summarize the esports development. We outline the current state of research in general and systematically review the IS perspective. Based on these efforts, we propose an esports research framework with four promising IS research avenues. We end by discussing “IS contributions” to esports and this overview’s implications. This study serves as a foundation for comprehensively mapping the esports practice and research landscape. We hope our findings can help others, especially IS researchers, more clearly understand esports and guide them towards creating increasingly impactful works

Developing Individual Dynamic Capabilities by Social Media: A empirical Investigation

Nowadays, we are in the midst of another social-technical revolution stimulated by the interaction between the human desire for efficiency and connectivity. During such revolution, the pace of life and work are becoming increasingly fast and usually erratic. Therefore, people are required to be more responsive and effective in dealing with changes happening in their lives. Social media are the predominant online offerings created in such revolution for fulfilling people’s needs of shaping social relationships. Besides serving users’ socialization purposes, social media have also rapidly changed the way individuals interact with others and even the way of learning, thinking and working. With the comprehensive use of various social media, individuals can perform information processing (e.g., information acquisition, assimilation and sharing) and external representation (e.g., shaping relationship, coordination and conflicts solution) more easily and frequently, which may further help them to develop their personal capabilities in dealing with changeable environments. However, there is limited research and empirical evidence regarding the bright sides of the diverse use of social media on the development of users’ individual capabilities in coping with dynamic environmental changes. Drawing upon the theories of media system dependency, boundary spanning and dynamic capability, this study thereby proposes that the comprehensive use of social media can be transformed into an individual’s dynamic capabilities through two important mechanisms: information processing and external representation. This study contributes to the literature by revealing how individuals can better deal with changing environments in the social media era and establishing the conceptualization and operationalization of individual dynamic capabilities

Can Lean Media Enhance Large Group Learning? An Empirical Investigation of Mobile Information and Communication Technology

A mobile information and communication technology, namely the Mobile Interactive Learning System (MILS), was used to enhance large group learning in a university setting. Expectations concerning learning outcomes, based on the social construction perspective of media richness and constructivist pedagogical principles, were supported. Under similar study conditions, learners with the MILS system demonstrated better (perceived) understanding than those without. Furthermore, learning satisfaction among MILS users was significantly higher. The results were drawn from an empirical evaluation of a structural equation model, and from analyses of variance between the two users groups (with versus without MILS). The results support our hypotheses concerning the impact on understanding and satisfaction. They also suggest that mobile technology affects the learning process, leading to more individual practice and peer influenced learning

The association of hyperglycaemia with prevalent tuberculosis: a population-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews suggest that the incidence of diagnosed tuberculosis is two- to- three times higher in those with diabetes mellitus than in those without. Few studies have previously reported the association between diabetes or hyperglycaemia and the prevalence of active tuberculosis and none in a population-based study with microbiologically-defined tuberculosis. Most have instead concentrated on cases of diagnosed tuberculosis that present to health facilities. We had the opportunity to measure glycaemia alongside prevalent tuberculosis. A focus on prevalent tuberculosis enables estimation of the contribution of hyperglycaemia to the population prevalence of tuberculosis. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adults in 24 communities from Zambia and the Western Cape (WC) province of South Africa. Prevalent tuberculosis was defined by the presence of a respiratory sample that was culture positive for M. tuberculosis. Glycaemia was measured by random blood glucose (RBG) concentration. Association with prevalent tuberculosis was explored across the whole spectrum of glycaemia. RESULTS: Among 27,800 Zambian and 11,367 Western Cape participants, 4,431 (15.9%) and 1,835 (16.1%) respectively had a RBG concentration ≥7.0 mmol/L, and 405 (1.5%) and 322 (2.8%) respectively had a RBG concentration ≥11.1 mmol/L. In Zambia, the prevalence of tuberculosis was 0 · 5% (142/27,395) among individuals with RBG concentration <11.1 mmol/L and also ≥11.1 mmol/L (2/405); corresponding figures for WC were 2 · 5% (272/11,045) and 4 · 0% (13/322). There was evidence for a positive linear association between hyperglycaemia and pulmonary prevalent tuberculosis. Taking a RBG cut-off 11.1 mmol/L, a combined analysis of data from Zambian and WC communities found evidence of association between hyperglycaemia and TB (adjusted odds ratio = 2 · 15, 95% CI [1 · 17-3 · 94]). The population attributable fraction of prevalent tuberculosis to hyperglycaemia for Zambia and WC combined was 0.99% (95% CI 0 · 12%-1.85%) for hyperglycaemia with a RBG cut-off of 11.1 mmol/L. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates an association between hyperglycaemia and prevalent tuberculosis in a large population-based survey in Zambia and Western Cape. However, assuming causation, this association contributes little to the prevalence of TB in these populations

A strategy for the characterization of minute chromosome rearrangements using multiple color fluorescence in situ hybridization with chromosome-specific DNA libraries and YAC clones

The identification of marker chromosomes in clinical and tumor cytogenetics by chromosome banding analysis can create problems. In this study, we present a strategy to define minute chromosomal rearrangements by multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with whole chromosome painting probes derived from chromosome-specific DNA libraries and Alu-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of various region-specific yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clones. To demonstrate the usefulness of this strategy for the characterization of chromosome rearrangements unidentifiable by banding techniques, an 8p+ marker chromosome with two extra bands present in the karyotype of a child with multiple anomalies, malformations, and severe mental retardation was investigated. A series of seven-color FISH experiments with sets of fluorochrome-labeled DNA library probes from flow-sorted chromosomes demonstrated that the additional segment on 8p+ was derived from chromosome 6. For a more detailed characterization of the marker chromosome, three-color FISH experiments with library probes specific to chromosomes 6 and 8 were performed in combination with newly established telomeric and subtelomeric YAC clones from 6q25, 6p23, and 8p23. These experiments demonstrated a trisomy 6pter6p22 and a monosomy 8pter8p23 in the patient. The present limitations for a broad application of this strategy and its possible improvements are discusse

A Global Portrait of Counselling Psychologists’ Characteristics, Perspectives, and Professional Behaviors

Counselling psychologists in eight countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) responded to survey questions that focused on their demographics as well as their professional identities, roles, settings and activities. As well, they were asked about satisfaction with the specialty and the extent to which they endorsed 10 core counselling psychology values. This article reports those results, focusing both on areas in which there were between-country similarities as well as on those for which there were differences. These data provide is a snapshot of counselling psychology globally and establish a foundation for the other articles in this special issue of the journal