Jieun Sung

Building common ground and reciprocity through social network games

Social network games (SNG) are an extremely popular and rapidly growing application of social network sites (SNS). But are SNGs really social? A survey based on a social cognitive theory approach to uses and gratifications revealed that people are motivated to play the game to create common ground, reciprocate, cope, and pass time. People play SNGs to create common ground for future social interaction rather than seeking direct social interaction in the game. Customization was strongly correlated with social motivations; in particular, use of avatar customization was different from use of space customization. Reciprocity was facilitated more by the design of the game than social motives.

Antecedents and consequents of a mobile website’s interactivity

The value proposition of mobile technology for education is expected to grow as forecasts speak of mobile internet users exceeding desktop internet users by 2014. A key concern for higher education administrators will be how to implement a mobile website that attracts and retains students in its use. To answer this question, a scenario-based study of 288 USA college students was conducted involving two wireframes of a mobile website design varying only in its degree of interactivity. A PLS-based data analysis offered support for the positive effects of interactivity on the perceived usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment of the university’s mobile website, which in turn positively influenced their intention to use it. The measurement model offered high explanatory power (47% of the variance in the behavioral intention to use the university’s mobile website was explained by its three antecedents). Implications for both theory and practice are also discussed.

Social network games: exploring audience traits

The audience of social network games is an as of yet unexplored group. Given the growing number of users and people spending time playing social network games, a better understanding of the audience, and how they are using social network games is important to crafting better social networking tools in the future. Respondents of this survey reported personality factors, demographics, habit strength, self-efficacy of social network games, and types of use by different features.

Twitter Users vs. Quitters: A Uses and Gratifications and Diffusion of Innovations Approach in Understanding the Role of Mobility in Microblogging

Twitter, the most popular microblogging service by the end of 2009, has gained much interest among Computer-Mediated Communication scholars and practitioners. As a new social medium, Twitter shows distinguished characteristics such as text-based posts of up to 140 characters delivered in real-time, and via multiple access modes including the Web, SMS, and mobile device applications. Interestingly, and in spite of an explosive growth in 2009, Twitter is also experiencing higher dropout rates compared to other social networking sites giving rise to the term Twitter Quitter. This study will examine which factors influence Twitter Quitters in their decision to discontinue Twitter’s use through the use of perceived motivations and innovation related constructs. Uses and Gratifications (UG) and Diffusion of Innovation theory (IDT) are employed to frame the theoretical background. Also, this study will offer support for the effects of mobile device usage to access Twitter on self-reported motivations and perceived outcomes of using Twitter. An online survey will be used to collect data from 300 undergraduate students at a large U.S. mid-western university. A Partial Least Squares (PLS)-based data analysis will be used to provide support for which constructs explain differences between Twitter users and Twitter quitters. Also, the influence of mobile device use on the continuance or discontinuance of Twitter will be examined. Implications for both theory and practice, as well as suggestions for further research will also be presented.

Effects of Message Characteristics, Age, and Gender on Perceptions of Mobile Advertising An Empirical Investigation among College Students

A tremendous opportunity emerges for marketers to push effective advertisements to target audiences. One forecast suggests mobile advertising will represent one-fifth of the global Internet advertising revenue by 2011, generating

A "Cloud Lifestyle": The Diffusion of Cloud Computing Applications and the Effect of Demographic and Lifestyle Clusters

14.4 billion of revenue. Hence, the need for knowledge advances in this fairly young area is warranted. A study of 344 U.S. college students was conducted to answer two questions in the context of mobile message advertising via SMS: i) How does a mobile advertisement’s message length affect the receiving mobile user’s attitude toward the advertisement? Ii) Are there age and gender differences in the evaluation of SMS-based mobile advertisements? A PLS-based data analysis offers support for the positive effects of mobile ads’ message length on the perceived informativeness and entertainment of the mobile ad, which in turn positively influence both attitude toward the mobile ad and the mobile user’s intention to click through it and learn more about the advertised brand. Gender effects were found regarding perceptions of a mobile ad’s informativeness. Specifically, women reported higher levels for all dependent constructs, i.e. informativeness and entertainment of the mobile ads, attitude toward the ads, and intention to click through and learn more. Also, age was shown to negatively influence the attitude toward the mobile ad, i.e. older users reported lower levels regarding the mobile ad’s value, their attitude toward the ads, and their likelihood to click through than younger users. Implications for both theory and practice are also discussed, including an expanded model regarding mobile advertising effectiveness with high explanatory power (i.e. 69% of the variance in the attitude toward mobile ads and 54% of the variance in the behavioral intention to respond to the ad by clicking through was explained).

Website design and usability assessment implications from a usability study with visually impaired users

Does a cloud lifestyle exist? If so, are people with a cloud lifestyle more likely to adopt and use cloud technologies? Whereas adoption studies have repeatedly analyzed dimensions of the technology, including usefulness and ease of use, for understanding peoples behavioral intention to adopt and use a novel technology, we currently have limited understanding of the effect of user characteristics, in particular various user lifestyles. Based on a U.S. national random sample of 402 non-cloud service users, we propose, analyze, and validate a multi-faceted model of adoption that integrates technological, demographic, lifestyle, and contextual variables for providing a holistic theoretical understanding of the adoption processes as well as practical insights regarding the target population - i.e., vis-a-vis a proposed Cloud Lifestyle - that is most likely to adopt cloud technologies.

Disentangling Twitter’s Adoption and Use (Dis)Continuance: A Theoretical and Empirical Amalgamation of Uses and Gratifications and Diffusion of Innovations

Outdoor recreation websites present complex design considerations because of their wide range of potential users and the variety of their needs. Usability testing allows users to interact with websites and give feedback on its usability. Knowledge acquired during the usability testing process can be used to improve the information architecture of the website and its content. This study included usability tests with both visually-impaired and sighted participants visiting the Natural Resources Management Gateway, a complex information-rich website. The study identified best practices for designing and testing websites that effectively and efficiently meet the needs of visuallyimpaired and sighted website users. In addition to design recommendations, the study also looked at the impact of visual impairments on usability test duration, determining a rule of thumb for allocating time for usability testing of websites.