Platform Adoption Factors in the Internet Industry

Self-Consciousness in Online Shopping Behavior

Self-consciousness can be considered as the internal disposition to direct attention to oneself. This dispositional tendency can be focused on private aspects of the self, but also on public characteristics of the individual. We examine self-consciousness in online consumer behavior. This concept has been poorly investigated in consumer research. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of the dimensions of self-consciousness in consumer adoption of online shopping. This study is based on a sample of 725 Spanish undergraduates. Findings indicated that public self-consciousness is a significant predictor of the adoption of online shopping, and inversely affects perceived ease of use and usefulness. These results may have important implications in the segmentation of users of self-service technologies.

National Disaster Management System: COVID-19 Case in Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for governments and societies around the world and represents a global crisis of hitherto unexperienced proportions. Our research seeks to analyse disaster management systems from a national perspective by examining the Korean management of the COVID-19 crisis according to a four-phase epidemiological disaster management system. Utilising a meta-study, official documents, reports and interviews, we explore the role of the control tower mechanism related to the life-cycle of disaster management, and Korea’s sustainable containment strategy. This study begins with a discussion of the crisis and disaster management literature and provides specific information related to the Korean government’s response to COVID-19. It continues by detailing specific strategies such as wide-spread testing, tracking, treatment and quarantine that have enabled Korea to prevent wide-spread community transmission. The study concludes emphasising the relevance of systematic national disaster management, providing insight into methods for containment in Korea – a system commended by the WHO. Implications include the extension and the efficient application of disaster management theory by empirical application and integration of concepts.

Platform Growth Model: The Four Stages of Growth Model

As the platform business becomes more important, it is crucial to make adequate decisions and choices for strategies, considering influence factors in relation to the platform for each growth model. This study researched how to build a platform business in the IT industry from the perspective of a dynamic approach to understand how the platform growth model successfully enables business entities to enter the market and to continue expansion. Through 21 case studies, this research formulated the four stages of platform growth model: entry, growth, expansion and maturity, providing a conceptual framework to build a platform growth model ecosystem.

Do Gender and Prior Experience Moderate the Factors Influencing Attitude toward Using Social Media for Festival Attendance?

Male and female consumers differ in terms of decision-making. This is also true for inexperienced and experienced consumers. Although the extant research delineates studies that have centered on the interrelationships between perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived enjoyment (PE), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude toward using social media (ATUSM), and users’ behavioral intentions, there is still a dearth of empirical research about gender and prior experience as the two potential moderators. With this recognition, our study examines gender and prior experience as moderators of the effects of PEU, PE, and PU on ATUSM. Our study also investigates ATUSM as a full mediator of the impacts of PEU, PE, and PU on users’ intentions to attend festivals (IAF). Data came from the students of the Korean Government Scholarship Program. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that the positive influence of PE on ATUSM is stronger among female users. As expected, the positive impact of PU on ATUSM is stronger for male users. As hypothesized, prior experience strengthens the positive effects of PE and PU on ATUSM. The results further reveal that ATUSM fully mediates the effects of PE and PU on IAF. Based on the aforesaid findings, theoretical implications are discussed and managerial implications to enhance business sustainability are offered.