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Web personalization has been widely adopted in the mobile shopping context to improve shopping experience and consumer loyalty. Timing is a crucial issue of the implementation of web personalization, a topic not yet adequately investigated in the extant literature. Web personalization could classify into two forms, namely Before-search Web Personalization (BSWP) and After-search Web Personalization (ASWP), in the mobile shopping context. Besides, motivations are the critical factors in mobile shopping, and seldom research has studied the effects of motivation on consumer's use of web personalization in the mobile shopping context. To advance understanding of the timing issue of web personalization, this paper employs the Uses and Gratifications method to investigate how mobile shopping motivations influence consumers' use of BSWP and ASWP, respectively. Furthermore, this paper also investigates the role of an important personal disposition (i.e. need for cognition). Empirical results indicate that shopping motivations could have significant effects on web personalization use; furthermore, BSWP use and ASWP use are predicted by different shopping motivations. Besides, need for cognition is found to positively moderate some effects of mobile shopping motivations on web personalization use. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respondents of online surveys may exhibit some answering behaviors, which lead to inconsistent survey results between online surveys and traditional paper surveys. Extant research has not yet devoted sufficient effort to the mechanisms of different answering behaviors on the inconsistent results, especially in cross-cultural survey contexts. For this reason, this study examines how shirking behavior (i.e., a form of disengaged behavior that the respondents expend insufficient mental effort on the questionnaire) and socially desirable responding result in incomparable responses between online surveys and paper surveys. We especially investigate how the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism relate to shirking and social desirability. Our results reveal two different pathways leading to inconsistent results across different survey modes. Respondents from collectivistic cultures are more likely to shirking in online surveys. Consequently, they are more likely to provide varying responses than respondents from individualistic cultures. Collectivists are more likely to engage in impression management in paper surveys than in online surveys, while individualists have a greater tendency to provide inflated assessments of their skills and abilities in both survey modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of numerous Internet celebrities on social media platforms has created fierce competition among this group of individuals, making the maintenance of enduring involvement among followers a crucial concern. Building upon theories of social exchange and interpersonal attraction, this paper investigates the effects of Internet celebrities' self-disclosure (across the dimensions of amount, relevance, and negativity) on their followers' interpersonal attraction to them (across the dimensions of familiarity, similarity, and expertise), as well as on their followers' enduring involvement with them. A survey was administered to 695 Internet celebrity followers, and structural equation modeling was performed to examine the hypothesized intervariable relationships. The amount of self-disclosure negatively affected followers' perceived similarity but did not significantly affect perceived familiarity or perceived expertise. Relevance positively influenced perceived familiarity, perceived similarity, and perceived expertise. Negativity positively affected perceived familiarity and negatively influenced perceived expertise but did not significantly affect perceived similarity. Enduring involvement was positively influenced by perceived familiarity, perceived similarity, and perceived expertise. The findings have various theoretical and practical implications. • The amount of self-disclosure negatively affected fan-perceived similarity. • Relevance fosters the three dimensions of fan-perceived interpersonal attraction. • Negativity fosters perceived familiarity and declines perceived expertise. • The three dimensions of interpersonal attraction fosters enduring involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Uses and Gratifications theory, this paper proposes and empirically tests an integrated model that depicts the factors that have the potential to impact the behavioral intention to adopt online games. The model is tested with data collected from 308 students in an American university. Overall, the results revealed that the effect of enjoyment was very crucial, and those of social interaction and achievement are moderate, but that of flow of experience did not influence behavioral intention. Results also indicated that visual appeal and escapism are important factors that affect and precede enjoyment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of customer reviews from smart tourism systems provides an interesting research opportunity to investigate the role of consumer’s perceived quality relative to a reference group on online satisfaction scores. This paper shows a positive relationship between the satisfaction score and the difference between the consumers’ perceived quality and the reference group’s quality level. The findings support comparison-level theory coupled with the product-based norm as a comparison standard, which posits that consumers use the average quality of the product’s reference group as the relevant comparison standard. Furthermore, consumers are found to be more sensitive to negative deviations from the reference group’s quality than from positive deviations, which is consistent with prospect theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underpinned by the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and the anchoring effect, this paper investigates how perceived message properties of online rumor rebuttals are related to perceived utilitarian and hedonic values, which further could determine rebuttal acceptance. Given the possibility that Internet users can confront a rebuttal when they are not even aware of the rumor, this paper takes into account the role of exposure sequence as a moderator. Data were collected from 322 social media users in a between-participants experiment, which manipulated the exposure sequence. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Perceived message properties were positively associated with perceived utilitarian and hedonic values, both of which were positively related to rebuttal acceptance. Exposure sequence significantly moderated the underlying mechanism of rebuttal acceptance. This paper contributes to the online rebuttal literature by examining how individuals respond to rebuttals in terms of intention to believe and share such messages. It also has implications for practitioners and other Internet users. • Informativeness of rebuttals was positively related to perceived utilitarian value. • Credible source of rebuttals was positively related to perceived utilitarian value. • Persuasiveness of rebuttals was positively related to perceived hedonic value. • Perceived utilitarian and hedonic values determined rebuttal acceptance. • Exposure sequence played a significant role in influencing rebuttal acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided psych challenges for many in society. One such challenge is the anxiety that is created in many people faced with the risk of death from the disease. Another issue is understanding how individuals cope psychologically with the threat of death from the disease. In this study we examine the manifestation of death anxiety and various coping mechanisms through the lens of terror management theory (TMT) and online platforms. We take a novel approach to testing the theory using big data analytics and machine learning, focusing on the user-generated content of Twitter users. Based on a sample of all tweets in the UK mentioning COVID-19 terms over a 5-month period, we evaluate dictionary mentions of anxiety and death, and various TMT defense mechanisms, and calculate the pattern of latent death anxiety or 'terror' states of Twitter users via Hidden Markov Models. The research identifies four online 'terror' states, with high death and anxiety mentions during the peak of the pandemic. Further we examine various TMT defense mechanisms that have been proposed in the literature for coping with death anxiety and find that online social connection, achievement and religion all play important roles in improving the model and explaining movement between states. The paper concludes with various implications of the study for future research and practice. • Extends terror management theory in an online social media context during the pandemic. • Examines death anxiety and online coping mechanisms from terror management theory. • Combines text analytics and hidden Markov models using a big data set. • Results support online social connection, achievement and religion coping mechanisms. • Contributes to the understanding of online individual behavior during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Online services and applications extend the influencing opportunities of traditional word-of mouth (WOM). Unlike traditional word-of-mouth, the online environment allows for special features such as anonymity in user-generated content. Furthermore, the personality of online users affects their motivation when creating this content. The aim of this paper is to link specific online activities, i.e., the posting of product ratings and participation in discussions in online forums, with certain personality traits within an empirical study. The findings, based on an online survey with more than 16,900 completed questionnaires, indicate that opinion leaders in the online environment cannot be compared with traditional opinion leaders in terms of their articulation and personality structure. In regard to online activities with a high influencing potential, the results of moderated regression analyses show that persons with an introverted personality are more active as online opinion leaders due to the lack of social recognition they experience. The results have implications for how marketers should present incentive structures to address and integrate potential online opinion leaders, and how scholars should understand the role of opinion leaders in the online environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A number of studies have examined the relationship between privacy concerns, perceived control over information, trust and online self-disclosure, highlighting different points of view to understand this connection. This paper intends to compare these different models of explanation for self-disclosure behaviors in online social networks. Three different hypotheses are verified, using mediation and moderation analyses. The results allow underling the effect of the interaction between privacy concerns and trust on online self-disclosure, along with the absence of a direct influence of privacy concerns on disclosure itself. The results suggest practical implications for online social network providers, most of all with regard to privacy policies in online environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates whether perceived risk online is affected by the language in which a user browses a given website. In order to achieve this objective and test the proposed hypotheses, a 2×2 between-subjects experimental design was chosen, using two independent variables with two levels each, namely: culture (Spanish vs. British) and processing language (Spanish vs. English). The final sample comprised 491 individuals (264 Spanish and 227 British). Half the sample browsed in their mother tongue, and the other half in a second language. The results showed that Spanish users perceive less risk when browsing in English than in Spanish, while for the British there was no difference, in terms of perceived risk, between browsing in Spanish or English. Another interesting finding is the moderating effect of message involvement on the processing of information from the website, and thus its effect on the user’s perception of risk. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The phenomenon of social learning analytics presents a synergy between variety of disciplines, such as business intelligence, educational data mining, cyberlearning, and cyber infrastructure. The main contribution of this research is to combine two types of social learning analytics, social learning network analysis and social learning content analysis in studying the impact of the Social Multimedia Systems (SMSs) on cyberlearners. The research study provided in this paper is based on the survey data collected in spring 2011 at Western Kentucky University. The evidence obtained from the analysis shows that SMS impacts (a) the digital communication between faculty and students; (b) students’ success and grades; (c) the amount of materials covered and learned; (d) the effectiveness of studying; (e) the depth of learning; (f) the ability to focus on the most important learning objectives; (g) the degree of collaboration among students; and (h) the students’ motivation of studying. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Shyness is a debilitating experience for a large proportion of the population. Shyness can be defined as a form of excessive self-focus, a preoccupation with one’s thoughts, feelings, and physical reactions and may vary from mild social awkwardness to total social inhibition. This article explores shyness, its prevalence and effects and examines the role of the internet in the experience and expression of shyness. Compared to research on shyness in the offline world, empirical work on shyness online is relatively scarce. Nevertheless, the research that does exist can be categorized into two seemingly contradictory positions. The first position views the internet as an isolating medium, attractive to shy people and enhancing shyness. The second position describes the internet as an empowering medium, offering opportunities to experience disinhibition and social competence. This paper considers how the two positions might be reconciled. In addition, in order to reduce inconsistencies in the literature and to determine how shy people use the internet, it is suggested that more research, incorporating objective measures and experimental methodologies, is needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ever since the beginnings of the internet researchers have questioned its utility in developing and maintaining psychological healthy romantic and sexual relations. Advocates of the social presence theory and media richness theory purport that in leaner media individuals can be quite aggressive towards one another (e.g., in the form of flaming). In contrast, others believe that the lack of traditional cues in CMC can in fact be overcome and instead lead to more personal, intimate relationships. As this paper will demonstrate, when we consider how beneficial it is to form relationships online we also need to consider individuals’ characteristics (e.g., personality characteristics and physical attractiveness), the amount of time people spend online, the duration of online relationships, and how these relationships effect individuals’ offline activities and relationships. Overall, the view here is that online relationships can be empowering for many people; that is, cyberspace provides a unique environment for people to experience and learn about relationships and sexuality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]