Adoption of mobile social networking sites for learning?

Undergraduate students' perceptions of using videoconferencing for EFL learning: Evidence from Tencent Meeting application

This paper examined Chinese undergraduate students' perceptions of using videoconferencing in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected among 348 Chinese university students who attended sixteen-week learning of Integrated English Course through Tencent Meeting, the most widely used videoconferencing application in China. We adopted voluntary response sampling method in this cross-sectional study. Students completed an online survey on "Wenjuanxing", China's biggest online questionnaire distribution platform. A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed and analyses revealed that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were significant predictors of students' satisfaction and participation intention. Students' computer self-efficacy had a positive effect on their perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and participation intention while their frequency of using videoconferencing did not influence these variables. This study contributes to the existing literature on the acceptance of videoconferencing in the context of EFL learning and offers insights for developing up-to-date videoconferencing teaching strategies.

Age in the Acceptance of Mobile Social Media

This paper focuses on determining the age-based differences among consumers in terms of the acceptance of mobile social media. In doing so, the younger age group is represented by Generation Y and the elderly by Baby Boomers. Further, the famous UTAUT2 model is applied, and relationships mentioned in it are evaluated for the two age groups. For this purpose, a sample of 249 respondents was obtained from the online survey conducted in the state of Punjab in India. The statistical technique of multi-group path analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to the generated data. The findings of the study reveal that the young age and elderly groups differ significantly in terms of the impact of effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation on behavioral intention, and facilitating conditions on use behavior. It may provide important implications for future research related to internet marketing and mobile social media.

Adapt or die: a competitive digital supply chain quality management strategy

Purpose

The evolution of modern digitalization technologies necessitates the development of a competitive digital supply chain quality management (SCQM) strategy by manufacturers. Using the new institutions and institutional theory (IIT), the study research first aims to identify the most important SCQM practices that can influence competitive performance (CP). Second, the authors intend to investigate the role of digital strategy alignment (DSA) in moderating the relationship between the multidimensionality of SCQM practices and CP among manufacturers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to examine 225 valid samples from Malaysian manufacturers who use SCQM practices.

Findings

The study findings indicate that five of the twelve hypotheses developed were accepted. This suggests that supplier focus, strategic collaboration, information sharing and customer focus are positively and significantly correlated with CP. Unexpectedly, DSA moderates the relationship between leadership and CP.

Originality/value

This study extended the new IIT by empirically testing the six SCQM practices for CP in a DSA context, which can serve as a model for future research in the SCQM, CP and DS fields.

Understanding Consumer Buying Intention of E-Commerce Airfares Based on Multivariate Demographic Segmentation: A Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The internet offers enormous development opportunities for airline firms and a lot of information for consumers to pick the finest available options. This research aims to study the consumer buying intention of e-commerce airfares in an emerging economy based on the technology acceptance model. This article employed a sample of 3064 respondents at six airports in Thailand. It used cluster analysis (a multivariate analysis approach) to determine two main customer segments and then used a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique utilizing demographic segmentation as a moderator to explain the behaviors of those two segments. The findings demonstrated two customer segments: (1) the older with high and middle-income segment, and (2) the young with low-income segment. The empirical results revealed that price sensitivity and perceived ease of use substantially impacted behavioral intention to use e-commerce airfares in both segments. The users from segment (1) are more likely to look for the fun experience and entertainment value of using e-commerce airfares than those from segment (2). However, perceived usefulness is unlikely to be a vital factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions about using e-commerce airfares. It is recommended that airline companies and online travel agencies should consider perceived ease of use, price sensitivity, and hedonic motivation when implementing e-commerce airline websites for selling tickets.

The Impact of Beliefs on Health Information Social Sharing for Users: The Perspectives of Social Psychology and Information Technology

With the integration and penetration of digitization into healthcare services, the comprehensive health industrial market is developing flourishingly. Users are fast-changing the way of health communication. This study investigates psychosocial and technological factors on health information sharing adoption through social sharing services. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, social influence theory, and innovation diffusion theory, we developed a hypothesized model for health information social sharing adoption (HISSA), and dimensions of attitude beliefs, control beliefs, and normative beliefs were created. We conducted an empirical study on the adoption intention using a survey for data collection. The results were obtained from 375 valid questionnaires, and their interactions were tested and analyzed using PLS-structural equation modeling. Results implied that (1) social identity of normative beliefs was the most critical variable affecting behavioral intention, which revealed the importance of psychosocial factors; (2) behavioral intention was also determined by user's performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, subjective norm; (3) personal innovativeness had a negative effect on behavioral intention and positive effect on effort expectancy; and (4) effort expectancy and social identity had a positive effect on performance expectancy. This study advances the understanding of social sharing for health and provides references for the development of both virtual health communities and social sharing services to upgrade their products from user's behavior and psychology. This empirical research model may also be useful for researchers who are interested in user's health information behavior.

Facebook/Meta usage in higher education: A deep learning-based dual-stage SEM-ANN analysis

The paper's main aim is to investigate and predict major factors in students' behavioral intentions toward academic use of Facebook/Meta as a virtual classroom, taking into account its adoption level, purpose, and education usage. In contrast to earlier social network research, this one utilized a novel technique that comprised a two-phase analysis and an upcoming the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analysis approach known as deep learning was engaged to sort out relatively significant predictors acquired from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This study has confirmed that perceived task-technology fit is the most affirmative and meaningful effect on Facebook/Meta usage in higher education. Moreover, facilitating conditions, collaboration, subjective norms, and perceived ease of use has strong influence on Facebook usage in higher education. The study's findings can be utilized to improve the usage of social media tools for teaching and learning, such as Facebook/Meta. There is a discussion of both theoretical and practical implications.

Applying the time continuum model of motivation to explain how major factors affect mobile learning motivation: a comparison of SEM and fsQCA

Purpose

Studying mobile learning – the use of electronic devices (i.e. cellphone and tablets) to engage in learning across multiple contexts via connection to peers, media, experts and the larger world is a relatively new academic enterprise. This study analyzes the influencing factors of mobile learning (M-learning) motivation based on the time continuum model of motivation (TCMM).

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to verify relationships between mobile learning motivation, attitude, need, stimulation, emotion, ability and reinforcement. Justification for the use of both methods lies in the complementarity relationships that existed between the variables and research methodologies. The sample contains 560 mobile learners' feedback.

Findings

Results show that attitude, need, emotion, ability and reinforcement are important factors to enhance mobile learning motivation, while stimulation is not.

Practical implications

This work highlights the importance of training for app designers on how to design an M-learning App with high learning motivation by paying prior attention to learning content, teaching team and online learning communities.

Originality/value

This study proposes three precise solutions (scholars, managers and practitioners) to improve learning motivation based on the categorization of mobile learners.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2021-0226.

The Dark Side of Mobile Learning via Social Media: How Bad Can It Get?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread at an unprecedented rate, many universities around the world halted physical forms of teaching and learning to stop the spread of the virus. As a result, many university students were forced to utilize online learning through channels such as mobile social media. Due to the novelty of this situation, there are many unknowns particularly with the negative influences of mobile learning via social media on university students. Thus, this study looks to examine this subject matter from the perspective of the stimulus-organism-response theory. The uniquely developed research model included four stimuli (i.e., social overload, information overload, life invasion, and privacy invasion), two organisms (i.e., technostress and exhaustion) as well as a response in terms of reduced intention to use mobile learning via social media. The responses were collected from 384 university students via an online survey and analyzed with the Partial-Least-Square-Structural-Equation-Modelling. It was found that the antecedents for both technostress and exhaustion were able to account for more than half of their respective variances. Furthermore, technostress and exhaustion were significant facilitators of the students' reduced intention to use mobile learning via social media. In addition to the practical insights for stakeholders in the education industry, this study also posited several theoretical implications for researchers.

Can COVID-19 pandemic influence experience response in mobile learning?

The mass spreading of COVID-19 has changed the paradigm of the education industry. In China and many other nations, universities have introduced compulsory remote education programs such as mobile learning (m-learning) to prevent public health hazards caused by the pandemic. However, so far, there is still a lack of understanding of student's learning experience responses in compulsory m-learning programs. As such, there is a necessity to explore the factors and mechanisms which drives students' experience. This paper evaluates the influence of both pedagogy and technology on learner's compulsory m-learning experience response (ER) by extending the mobile technology acceptance model (MTAM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, which was then analysed through SmartPLS 3.2.9. Importance-performance matrix analysis was applied as a post-hoc procedure to gauge the importance and performance of the exogenous constructs. The results revealed that perceptions of m-learning's learning content quality, user interface, and system's connectivity affect the perceived mobile usefulness and easiness which in turn affects ER. This paper validates MTAM in the field of education by integrating MTAM with pedagogy and technology attributes under a social emergency setting such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the current research explains users' ER rather than behaviour intention which is commonly adopted in past studies.

Investigation of the relationships among educational application (APP) quality, computer anxiety and student engagement

Purpose

Numerous educational applications (APP) have been developed to assist traditional classroom teaching and student learning. APP quality plays a critical role in influencing students' learning behaviors. However, the role negative mindsets, especially computer anxiety, play in how APP quality affects student engagement remains unknown. To address the relationships among APP quality, computer anxiety and student engagement in an APP-based learning environment, we developed an extended information system (IS) success model that includes interface and instructor quality.

Design/methodology/approach

To empirically test the proposed model, we conducted a survey with a sample of 225 university students and examined the hypotheses using the partial least squares (PLS) method.

Findings

Computer anxiety was demonstrated to fully mediate the relationships between student engagement and interface quality and service quality and system quality. In addition, the instructor quality acts as a partial mediator of the relationship between computer anxiety and student engagement.

Originality/value

This study reveals the important mediating role of computer anxiety in APP-assisted learning and the special status of instructor quality and user experience in influencing student engagement. The findings of this study shed meaningful light on the practical implications for instructors and APP software developers.

QR code and mobile payment: The disruptive forces in retail

The emergence of mobile payment (m-payment) resulted in the disruption of many sectors in the business sphere, particularly the retail industry. However, the acceptance of m-payment still has substantial room for improvement. Therefore, this study purports to ascertain the critical antecedents that impact the m-payment adoption intention, in particular the type of m-payment that utilizes the Quick Response (QR) code technology, through an extended Mobile Technology Acceptance Model. On top of offering several theoretical implications, numerous practical implications are also provided for stakeholders in the retail sector.

Social Media in Micro-Enterprises

Social media is increasingly gaining traction as a valuable tool for small business. This is particularly the case in micro enterprises in the Indonesian retail industry, where adoption is anecdotally increasing, but with little understanding of the factors enabling such adoption. Consequently, this study proposes a research model derived from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and the Use of Technology and extended by integrating the task-technology-fit framework, along with price value propositions. Online surveys were sent to micro enterprises operating in the Indonesian retail industry with 153 valid responses received. Data analysis used structural equation modelling with SmartPLS 3. The results show that price value and task-technology-fit are perceived as significant factors for influencing positive attitudes towards the adoption of social media among micro enterprises. In addition, attitude and facilitating conditions were found to have a significant influence on intention to adopt social media. These findings hold import implications to theory and practice in this nascent field of research.

Understanding the Role of Mobile Internet-Based Health Services on Patient Satisfaction and Word-of-Mouth

With the rapid advancement of Web 2.0 technologies, Internet medicine, and mobile healthcare, the influence of the use of patient-oriented Mobile Internet-based Health Services (MIHS) on patient satisfaction and the electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) of health service agencies is becoming the focus of the academic research community. Many large hospitals, including some Internet hospitals, have provided various online healthcare service platforms that enable patients to expediently consult with physicians and obtain healthcare services in an online to offline format. The purpose of this study is to analyze the main mechanisms of how the features and users' experiences of MIHS influenced patient satisfaction and continuous use behaviors of the system to generate additional WOM dissemination behaviors. Based on post-adoption behavior and Expectation Confirmation Model of Information Technology Continuance (ECM-IT), this study conducted an empirical study through data collection from users (patients) from a large hospital providing online healthcare services. A total of 494 pieces of data were collected and analyzed using SmartPLS2.0(SmartPLS GmbH, Hamburg, Gernmany). The results show that: (1) patient satisfaction with MIHS and their intentions to continue use of MIHS have significantly positive influences on WOM; (2) patient satisfaction with MIHS is positively influenced by perceived usefulness and confirmation of MIHS performance expectations; (3) and patient intentions to continue use of MIHS are also affected by some technology factors, such as facilitating conditions and perceived risk, as well as some subjective feelings, such as perceived usefulness and perceived interactivity. The results of this study provide important implications for both research and practice of public health.

Attitudes, perceptions and prospectings on mobile information literacy training: Design and validation of the MOBILE-APP questionnaire

The basic aim of this paper is to outline the process of designing and validating an instrument for measuring teachers’ perceptions regarding the importance of using mobile technologies in the teaching-learning of information competencies (MOBILE-APP). Validation was carried out by administering the instrument to a pilot group of teachers, all of whom were experts in new technologies selected from the Information and Communication, Business and Education degrees, together with a rubric to analyse the quality and relevance of the content, as well as the wording of the items. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were combined (statistical and descriptive analyses). The results from the quantitative-qualitative analysis of the evaluation rubric and the psychometric analysis of the items show the strengths of the questionnaire and the possible improvements that could be made to optimise it, which were focused on small adjustments to some of the categories and the reordering of several items. The quantitative analysis shows a high degree of internal consistency, thus ensuring the usefulness and applicability of the instrument for evaluating teachers’ perceptions regarding the use of mobile technologies in the teaching-learning of information competencies. The validity and reliability of the instrument mean that it can be transferred to other academic settings as a platform for future diagnostic studies that allow advances to be made in teaching innovation using mobile technologies, while at the same time permitting it to be reviewed and updated. The innovative element of the MOBILE-APP questionnaire lies in the interrelation between the mode of learning (mobile learning) and the information literacy competencies.

Understanding social influence on mobile social networking sites: A social support perspective

Due to the social networking relationship, users’ continuance of social networking sites (SNS) may receive social influence from their peers and referents. This research identified the effect of social support on social influence in mobile SNS. Social support consists of both informational support and emotional support. Social influence is reflected by three factors: subjective norm, social identity and group norm. The results suggested that social support has a significant effect on social influence. The results imply that service providers need to build a supportive climate in order to facilitate social influence and users’ continuance usage.

Understanding link sharing tools continuance behavior in social media

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the continued use behavior (CU) of link sharing tools based on uses and gratifications theory, the theory of planned behavior and expectation confirmation theory. It then builds a conceptual model that is empirically tested.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 343 students (undergraduates, masters, PhD students, and MBAs) from three Chinese universities via a two-phrase survey. The tools SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 were used to analyse the reliability, validity, model fits and SEM, respectively.

Findings

The results indicate that an individual’s CU of link sharing tools was determined by his or her continued use intention directly and subjective norm indirectly. Users’ satisfaction on link sharing tools was the main factor affecting the continuance intention. Individuals’ motivation needs such as cognitive needs, personal integrative needs, and social integrative needs were found to be the significant predictors of his or her satisfaction. Besides, people with high privacy concern tended to have less satisfaction with link sharing tools.

Originality/value

This study explores users’ CU of link sharing tools in social media for the first time. The theoretical model developed shows the predictors behind people’s CU.