An Integrative Theory Addressing Cyberharassment in the Light of Technology-Based Opportunism

What Drives Health Information Exchange on Social Media? Social Media Affordances and Social Support Perspectives

Despite the prevalence of health communication on social media, the mechanisms by which social media affect health information exchange have received less than adequate investigation. By integrating the lenses of affordance and social support, this study examines the effect of social media affordances on health information exchange, with a particular focus on the mediation effect of social support and the boundary condition of health consciousness. Results of an online survey indicated that the affordances of information accessibility and metavoicing are positively related to both general and experiential informational support. Moreover, the affordance of association is positively related to experiential informational support and emotional support. Additionally, three types of social support have positive effects on health information exchange, and health consciousness positively moderates the effect of experiential informational support on health information exchange. This study enriches existing literature by revealing the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between social media affordances and health information exchange. Furthermore, it provides new insights for practitioners to promote health information exchange on social media.

Psychometric Properties of the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) in a Sample of Chilean University Students

In the virtual environment, hostile and aggressive comments that could negatively affect university students who often use different digital platforms are frequently observed, more than other age groups who have little or no supervision. In this sense, moral disengagement (MD) has been linked to different negative behaviors that manifest in physical interactions and which currently take place on the Internet, creating the need for instruments that specifically address MD online. The aim of this study is to adapt and validate the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) with Chilean university students. The sample comprised 527 university students (43.14% men, 56.86% women), with an average age of 22.09 years (SD (Standard Deviation) = 3.59) enrolled in 12 universities. First, a linguistic adaptation of the scale took place, and the surveys were applied considering ethical principles. Then, two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed, which considered four correlated factors, and provided satisfactory indices, agreeing with the original theoretical proposal, and demonstrating suitable reliability by internal consistency. In relation to the analyses of invariance according to sex and social media use, the MDTech-Q is stable up to scalar invariance. This study provides evidence of the psychometric quality of the MDTech-Q for its use on Chilean university students.

Cyberharassment Victimization on Three Continents: An Integrative Approach

This article introduces and applies an integrative model of cyberharassment victimization. The model combines routine activity theory (RAT), the general theory of crime (GTC), and the personal resources approach to analyze risk factors for victimization while acknowledging the protective role of a sense of mastery. Survey respondents were aged 15 to 25 years (N = 4816) from the U.S., Finland, Spain, and South Korea. Logistic regression models were used to analyze cyberharassment victimization. RAT-related factors were positively associated with cyberharassment victimization. Low self-control was positively associated with cyberharassment victimization in the U.S., Finland, and Spain but not in South Korea. The sense of mastery was negatively associated with cyberharassment victimization in the U.S., Finland, and South Korea but not in Spain. Protective factors against cyberharassment victimization should be utilized in future studies as adequate knowledge of protective factors could assist policymakers in generating preventative measures against cyberharassment. Our study demonstrates the benefits of integrating criminological theories and protective factors in studies using cross-national data to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of cyberharassment.

Going Beyond Deterrence: A Middle-Range Theory of Motives and Controls for Insider Computer Abuse

Reports indicate that employees are willing to share sensitive information under certain circumstances, and one-third to half of security breaches are tied to insiders. These statistics reveal that organizational security efforts, which most often rely on deterrence-based sanctions to address the insider threats to information security, are insufficient. Thus, insiders’ computer abuse (ICA)—unauthorized and deliberate misuse of organizational information resources by organizational insiders—remains a significant issue for industry. We present a motive–control theory of ICA that distinguishes among instrumental and expressive motives and internal and external controls. Specifically, we show that organizational deterrents (e.g., sanctions) do not create motives for ICA, but weaken existing motives (e.g., financial benefits). Conversely, financial benefits and psychological contract violations create motives to perform ICA, and insiders’ self-control diminishes the influence of these motives. The implications for practice are threefold: (1) organizations should make efforts to reduce psychological contract breach for employees by increasing the congruence between expectations and reality to reduce expressive motives for ICA; (2) organizations should seek maintain personnel with adequate self-control to diminish the impact of harmful ICA motives should they arise; and (3) organizations should develop targeted sanctions for committing ICA to control the harmful influence of financial motives.

Conflicting social influences regarding controversial information systems: the case of online dating

Purpose

Controversial information systems (IS) represent a unique context in which certain members of a user's social circle may endorse the use of a system while others object to it. The purpose of this paper is to explore the simultaneous and often conflicting roles of such positive and negative social influences through social learning and ambivalence theories in shaping user adoption intention of a representative case of controversial IS, namely online dating services (ODS).

Design/methodology/approach

The model was tested with two empirical studies using structural equation modeling techniques. The data of these studies were collected from 451 (Study 1) and 510 (Study 2) single individuals (i.e. not in a relationship).

Findings

(1) Positive social influence has a stronger impact on perceived benefits and adoption intention, while negative social influence exerts a greater impact on perceived risks; (2) positive and negative social influences affect adoption intention toward ODS differently, through benefit and risk assessments; and (3) ambivalence significantly negatively moderates the effects of social influences on adoption.

Originality/value

This study enriches and extends the IS use, ambivalence theory, prospect theory, and social learning theory research streams. Furthermore, this study suggests that it is necessary to focus on not only the oft-considered positive but also negative social influences in IS research.

Time flies when chatting online: a social structure and social learning model to understand excessive use of mobile instant messaging

Purpose

Widespread concerns about excessive use of mobile instant messaging (MIM) have inspired research in different disciplines. However, the focus thus far tends to be on diagnostics and cognitive predictors. There is little understanding from the socio-technical perspective to capture the drivers of excessive use of MIM. To address this research gap, the authors aim to enrich existing literature by adopting a social structure and social learning model (SSSLM) to understand the excessive use of MIM. The authors argue that excessive MIM use is developed and reinforced in highly interactive online communication, through a social learning process.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct a cross-sectional online survey to validate our proposed research model on excessive use of mobile instant messaging (MIM). 368 valid responses are obtained from active MIM users in China.

Findings

The results suggest that highly interactive MIM creates a technology-based social structure that facilitates the social learning process of excessive technology use. The influence of perceived interactivity of MIM on excessive MIM use is mediated by a series of contextualized social learning factors. Furthermore, the influences of perceived interactivity on social learning factors are moderated by MIM use experience.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to literature in related fields by highlighting the crucial role of social learning in facilitating excessive technology use. The authors contribute to the social structure and social learning model by contextualizing it into the context of excessive MIM use. Design guidelines are provided with a purpose to inhibit excessive use of MIM.

Withholding effort in sharing knowledge in online space: differential effects of task characteristics

Purpose

Knowledge withholding is an important but under-studied topic, which refers to the phenomenon that individuals give less than full effort to contributing knowledge. This study aims to investigate the differential effects of task characteristics on individuals’ knowledge withholding behavior in online space, this study develops and empirically verifies a theoretical model that covers the five core task characteristics in job characteristics model (autonomy, identity, feedback, skill variety and significance), knowledge sharing self-inefficacy and withholding effort in sharing knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

Using an online survey method, this study collected empirical data from 351 general internet users from 30 provincial administrative units in China. The data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique of partial least squares.

Findings

The analysis results indicate that autonomy negatively affects, while identity, skill variety and significance positively affect users’ knowledge withholding behavior in online space through the mediation of knowledge sharing self-inefficacy, and that three task characteristics (autonomy, identity and feedback) strengthen the relationship between knowledge sharing self-inefficacy and knowledge withholding.

Practical implications

This study provides valuable insights for reducing knowledge withholding behavior in online space. Operationally, different levels of task characteristics such as autonomy, identity and feedback can be set to prevent users from perceiving themselves as inefficacious, and to weaken the behavioral expression of knowledge sharing self-inefficacy.

Originality/value

This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the differential effects of task characteristics on knowledge withholding in online space, and improves the cognition of the boundaries of withholding effort in sharing knowledge in online space.