What’s App: a social capital perspective

Intergenerational family online community and older adults' overall well-being

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate the potential contribution of a membership in an online family community to older adults' overall well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 427 respondents over the age of 64 participated in the study (M = 74.55, SD = 7.13), answering a survey. To test the contributing of belonging to family online communities (WhatsApp), three hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, with well-being, self-perceptions of aging and loneliness as outcome variables.

Findings

Findings show that belonging to an intergenerational family online community was associated with higher levels of well-being, less loneliness and better self-perceptions of aging, even once demographic characteristics and using social media were controlled for.

Social implications

This study demonstrates the important role that the family online community membership plays in older adults' lives. This has significant implications that may contribute to intergenerational emotional solidarity.

Originality/value

The authors suggest that technology is not per se, but the intergenerational opportunities that technology facilitates that make a difference.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2021-0332

eWOM credibility: a comprehensive framework and literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) credibility. Further, the authors propose a comprehensive and integrated model on eWOM credibility.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic review of the extant literature on marketing, sociology and psychology to identify the factors that affect eWOM credibility. Further, the authors developed themes and identified factors which lead to eWOM credibility.

Findings

Four factors were identified, i.e. content, communicator, context and consumer, which affect eWOM credibility. Several variables associated with these four factors were identified, which result in eWOM credibility. Further, the authors developed 22 propositions to explain the causal relationship between these variables and eWOM credibility.

Research limitations/implications

The conceptual model needs empirical validation across various eWOM platforms, i.e. social networking websites, e-commerce websites, etc.

Practical implications

Managers and e-commerce vendors can use these inputs to develop specific design elements and assessment tools which can help consumers to identify credible eWOM messages. Credible eWOM messages, in turn, will increase the “trust” and “loyalty” of the customers on e-commerce vendors.

Originality/value

This paper provides a conclusive takeaway of eWOM credibility literature by integrating multiple perspectives and arguments from the extant literature. This study also presents an integrated model, which provides a theoretical framework for researchers to further examine the interaction effect of various variables, which results in eWOM credibility.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0263

Readiness for information security of teachers as a function of their personality traits and their assessment of threats

Purpose

This study examines the impact of personality traits on the degree of challenge experienced by individuals with respect to the threat on their information, the evaluation of their self-efficacy to secure the information and hence, their readiness to secure information.

Design/methodology/approach

The study's population consisted of 157 teachers from various educational institutions across Israel. We used five questionnaires to gather data.

Findings

Findings reveal a link between participants' personality traits, situation evaluation indicators and their readiness to secure information. Further, the greater subjects' information security awareness and familiarity with information security concepts, the better their application of the tools for securing information will be.

Originality/value

The importance of this research lies primarily in that it highlights the importance of individual differences while dealing with information security awareness. The findings constitute a theoretical and empirical basis for building tools toward guiding teachers to protect their information, as well as for devising educational and pedagogic programs for making a cultural change.

Structural barriers to adhering to health behaviours in the context of the COVID-19 crisis: Considerations for low- and middle-income countries

In seeking to limit the number of new infections of COVID-19, governments around the world have implemented national lockdowns and guidelines about safe behaviours. Lockdown requires people to stay home and only leave when essential such as to purchase groceries and medication. In low- and middle-income countries, many of which have large proportions of the population living in precarity, lockdown forces millions of people to spend prolonged periods of time together in close proximity to one another and with limited resources. In many ways, efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in densely populated communities with limited access to food, water and sanitation may seem counter-intuitive and even impossible under conditions of precarity. In this paper, we explore the barriers to implementation of lockdown rules in conditions of precarity. We conceptualise the structural barriers by drawing on the Theoretical Domains Framework to explain how these barriers influence adherence to lockdown rules. We argue that without sufficient support or intervention to help poor communities mitigate these structural barriers, adhering to lockdown rules is difficult, resulting in continued COVID-19 infections.

Factors explaining participation in WhatsApp groups: an exploratory study

Purpose

To date, only a limited number of studies have considered WhatsApp groups. The purpose of this paper is to focus on single WhatsApp groups and explore their special characteristics and dynamics. The present study used the social support perspective, Big Five model and narcissism paradigm to predict the level of participation in WhatsApp groups with these variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted in Israel during the Spring semester of the 2017 academic year and encompassed 127 students. Researchers used eight questionnaires to gather data: a demographic questionnaire; a perceived social support questionnaire; three characteristics from the BIG5 questionnaire: extroversion, openness to experience and neuroticism; a narcissistic questionnaire; questions about WhatsApp usage; questions about one meaningful WhatsApp group; participation level in the meaningful group; and group importance.

Findings

The findings confirmed that psychological factors such as social support, extroversion and narcissism significantly predict the level of participation in WhatsApp groups. It was also found that age, the level of group importance, being the group’s manager, WhatsApp usage and group’s subject play an important role in the participation level.

Originality/value

These results affirmed the importance of psychological factors when exploring new technological platforms, as the paper proposes that individuals may behave differently in various technological environments due to their psychological characteristics. The study expanded current research about a popular communication tool, WhatsApp, by examining it within the special context of WhatsApp groups. This focus enables researchers to follow the special dynamics that take place in a new technological platform.

Consumer engagement with eWOM on social media: the role of social capital

Purpose

The nature of digital media channels are important factors in explaining consumers’ behavior over the Web, and specifically on social network sites (SNS). The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework explaining consumer engagement with electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication via SNS, based on key attributes of this media channel.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the expectancy value theory (EVT), a conceptual framework is proposed to model the effect of eWOM channel attributes on eWOM engagement process. Consumer eWOM engagement is conceptualized as a second-order construct. A structural equation modeling procedure was employed to empirically test the model using data collected from two social media communication channels.

Findings

First, results suggest that engagement with eWOM can be conceptualized as a second-order construct based on user tendency to receive or share eWOM with other network members. Second, the path analysis model supports the employment of EVT and shows that two key attributes of eWOM channels, social capital and credibility, significantly affect consumer attitude toward eWOM via SNS. Attitude toward eWOM, in turn, affects eWOM engagement. Third, SNS channel type moderates the effect on attitude.

Practical implications

Marketing communication practitioners should note that the strength of social ties plays a key role in spreading eWOM on SNS effectively. This insight should be employed a part of social media marketing strategy.

Originality/value

This is first research that models the effect of social media attributes on eWOM engagement and demonstrates the moderating role of channel type. The model is highly valuable in light of the importance of the concept of engagement in internet research.

Implications of integrating e-leisure constraints and means-end hierarchies of young people’s perceptions toward video-sharing websites

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is, based on leisure constraints and means-end theories, to identify the e-leisure constraints of using the video-sharing websites/apps; demonstrate how means-end theory can be used to reveal the differences between high- and low-leisure constraints in an e-leisure environment; and provide designers and marketers with valuable insights for developing e-leisure products and e-marketing strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed to collect data. By eliminating three participants whose age range did not meet our criterion (15 to 24 years old), 57 one-on-one in-depth interviews were then content analyzed to design the survey questionnaire. A total of 514 valid samples were collected for hierarchical value map (HVM) construction.

Findings

By comparing the full HVM vs the e-leisure constraints HVM, the analytical results indicate that the importance of attributes, consequences and values for the young people using video-sharing websites/apps is quite different. “Unable to resume the video after leaving the screen,” “creating playlist,” “providing movies” and “location restrictions” are extremely important features that influence the willingness of such users with high e-leisure constraints to participate in e-leisure activities. By understanding the differences between these two HVMs, it is possible to provide marketers or designers with valuable insights for website/app design and marketing strategies.

Research limitations/implications

This study only focused on young people’s perceptions of video-sharing websites/apps, so the findings are limited to those aged between 15 and 24 years old. Since managers today are challenged to design effective strategies that can meet target users’ demands across different ages with different economic, social and sub-cultural groups, future research may consider gathering a wider age range of respondents in order to obtain more robust results.

Originality/value

This is the first paper integrating leisure constraints theory and means-end theory to understand young people’s cognitive structure of using video-sharing websites/apps, especially when they encounter e-leisure constraints.

Relationships among attachment theory, social capital perspective, personality characteristics, and Facebook self-disclosure

Purpose

– Due to the growth of Facebook use, the question arises regarding which factors may influence individuals’ self-disclosure while using the site. The purpose of this paper is to examine: first, to what extent does attachment theory explain users’ self-disclosure on Facebook; second, to what extent does the social capital paradigm explain users’ self-disclosure on Facebook; third, to what extent do personality characteristics explain users’ self-disclosure on Facebook; and fourth, to what extent do demographic details explain users’ self-disclosure on Facebook.

Design/methodology/approach

– Research was conducted in Israel and included 183 library and information science students. Participants were asked to complete the following questionnaires: personal details, Facebook use, importance of Facebook use, demographic disclosure, picture disclosure, disclosure, social capital, attachment, and personality.

Findings

– The current study extends research about Facebook self-disclosure and confirms that attachment theory, as well as social capital, personality traits, and age significantly predict Facebook self-disclosure.

Originality/value

– We should bear in mind that there are certain people who may benefit from disclosing information on Facebook, while there are others who may be at risk, because they reveal more personal information than they intended and the line between the two is fuzzy. Individuals should bear in mind that if they disclose too much information, they might become easy targets for abuse, internet predators, sexual solicitation, sexting, cyberbullying, and online harassment.

The importance of the Whatsapp family group: an exploratory analysis

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to focus on WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service for smartphones that began in 2009. The study uses attachment theory, a social support perspective and one personality characteristic derived from the Big Five theory of personality (“openness to experience”) and attempts to predict how these variables influence the importance of the WhatsApp family group.

Design/methodology/approach

– Research was conducted in Israel during the first semester of the 2015 academic year and encompassed 191 undergraduate communication students. Researchers used six questionnaires to gather personal details, WhatsApp use, WhatsApp importance, attachment, openness to experience, and social support.

Findings

– The findings confirm that the personality characteristic of openness to experience and social support significantly predict the importance of WhatsApp family group. Findings present a complex and ambiguous relationship between the attachment variables and the importance of WhatsApp family group.

Originality/value

– The literature has not yet dealt with the issue of WhatsApp groups. Hence, the current study highlights associations between WhatsApp family group and attachment theory, the personality characteristic of openness to experience, social support, and family frequency use.

Adoption of mobile social networking sites for learning?

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence users’ behavioral intention (BI) to adopt mobile social networking sites (mSNS) in facilitating formal/informal learning. Specifically, the study also investigates the association of mobility, reachability and convenience with performance expectancy (PE) and effort expectancy (EE).

Design/methodology/approach

– Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was applied to test on 266 valid responses.

Findings

– The findings indicated that learning compatibility (LC), PE, EE and copyright clearance (CC) has a significant effect on BI. The results also revealed that EE is influenced by mobility, reachability and convenience. PE however was found to be influenced by convenience.

Practical implications

– The results of this study provides valuable insights and references for practitioners and mobile network providers in developing mSNS in facilitating learning.

Originality/value

– While mSNS have the potential to become a new research area with numerous benefits for the learning community, there is little research on the adoption factors on mSNS in facilitating learning. This study therefore attempts to close the research gap by contributing to the mobile literatures.