Klarissa Ting-Ting Chang

Advertising Effectiveness in Social Networking Sites: Social Ties, Expertise, and Product Type

Social networking sites (SNSs) have gained immense popularity. This phenomenon has created new marketing opportunities for companies to leverage on online networks. In particular, SNSs allow the conceptualization of a new type of product endorser: the “friend.” However, the effectiveness of friends as endorsers on SNS remains unknown compared with other types of product endorsers. This paper investigates the impact of three critical factors on advertising effectiveness in SNS: tie strength, endorser expertise, and product type. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design, we found interaction effects among these factors. For hedonic products, strong-tie endorsers were more effective than weak-tie endorsers in influencing purchase intention. However, for utilitarian products, high-expertise endorsers were more effective than low-expertise endorsers. Based on these results, we discuss key theoretical and practical implications for research on SNS advertising.

An Exploration of Social Media in Public Opinion Convergence: Elaboration Likelihood and Semantic Networks on Political Events

This study investigated use of social media to enable public opinion convergence in activities with wide-scale interaction, such as in political events. Using theoretical foundations in elaboration likelihood, we explored the process of opinion convergence by analyzing Twitter data of Singapore General Election 2011. Our quantitative analyses showed that informative tweets were more effective than affective tweets in opinion convergence, and their interactive effect on social impact was significant. In addition, qualitative analyses using semantic network maps enabled us to distinguish the central and peripheral routes of influence. We discussed both theoretical and practical implications of our findings with respect to social impact and new media.

Interactive experiences designed for agricultural communities

With the rapid development of technology, smartphone and Internet adoption in the rural areas will continue to increase in the coming years. These technologies can easily support multimedia elements and are strong platforms to deliver added value. However, constraints faced by the rural population, including low literacy level and lack of exposure to electronic devices must be considered in order to develop suitable solutions. This paper introduces VillageTree, a unique suite of intelligent pest management solutions with the integration of analytical capabilities with simplicity in usability, to meet the needs of agricultural communities in developed and developing countries.

Location Based Services and Information Privacy Concerns among Literate and Semi-literate Users

Location-based services mobile applications are becoming increasingly prevalent to the large population of semi-literate users living in emerging economies due to the low costs and ubiquity. However, usage of location-based services is still threatened by information privacy concerns. Studies typically only addressed how to mitigate information privacy concerns for the literate users and not the semi-literate users. To fill that gap and better understand information privacy concerns among different communities, this study draws upon theories of perceptual control and familiarity to identify the antecedents of information privacy concerns related to location-based service and user literacy. The proposed research model is empirically tested in a laboratory experiment. The findings show that the two location-based service channels (push and pull) affect the degree of information privacy concerns between the literate and semi-literate users. Implications for enhancing usage intentions and mitigating information privacy concerns for different types of mobile applications are discussed.

Knowledge popularity in a heterogeneous network: Exploiting the contextual effects of document popularity in knowledge management systems

In organizations, the amount of attention that user‐generated knowledge receives in knowledge management systems (KMSs) may not imply its potential for benefiting organizational activities in terms of accelerating innovation and product development. To optimize the utilization of knowledge in organizations, it is crucial to identify factors that influence knowledge popularity. From a network perspective, this study proposes a model to evaluate knowledge popularity by investigating 2 attributes of contextual information (i.e., authors and tags) that are embedded in a heterogeneous knowledge network, and how they interact to impact knowledge popularity. Objective data obtained through the interaction history of a KMS in a global telecommunication company was applied to test the hypotheses. This paper contributes to the extant literature on knowledge popularity by identifying contextual attributions of knowledge, and empirically tests the impact of their interactions on knowledge popularity.

An Investigation of Usability of Push Notifications on Mobile Devices for Novice and Expert Users

Mobile devices in developing countries come in various platforms that require applications to be developed in various languages. Some examples of the platforms are iOS (Apple iPhone), Android and Symbian. Developers have tried to resolve the issue by introducing responsive web programming languages that can be supported by mobile devices. However, such languages do not have access to native platform resources such as push notifications. Push notifications is a critical feature for distribution of information. To fill that gap and better understand the usage behavior of novice and expert users, this studies draws upon cognitive fit theory to identify the importance of push notifications. We validated the effects of push notifications on usability on novice and expert users empirically. The findings provide significant theoretical and practical implications for the presence of push notifications.

Location Privacy Apprehensions in Location-Based Services Among Literate and Semi-literate Users

Personalized services provided by Location Based Services (LBS) are becoming increasingly prevalent to the large population of semi-literate users living in emerging economies due to the low costs and ubiquity. However, usage of LBS is still threatened by location privacy threats as it keeps track of the individuals’ location. Studies typically only addressed how to mitigate location privacy apprehensions for the literate users and not the semi-literate users. To fill that gap and better understand location privacy apprehensions among different communities, this study draws upon theories of Restrict Access/Limited Control and Familiarity to identify the antecedents of location privacy apprehensions related to personalized services provided by LBS and user literacy. The proposed research model is empirically tested in a laboratory experiment. The findings show that the different types of LBS do affect the degree of location privacy apprehensions between the literate and semi-literate users. Implications for enhancing usage intentions and mitigating location privacy apprehensions for different types of mobile applications are discussed.

Creative performance in the workplace

This study examines the impacts of three attributes of dyadic ties - Simmelian advice ties, Simmelian friendship ties, and communication media mix (i.e. the ratio of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to face-to-face (FTF) communication) - on the generation of creative ideas. A paper-based network survey was conducted in an R&D department that has a high demand for creative works. The findings showed that Simmelian advice ties and communication media mix have positive impacts on the generation of creative ideas. Moreover, the positive impact of Simmelian advice ties is amplified when two employees engage in more FTF communication than CMC. Additionally, Simmelian friendship ties have a significant and positive impact on the generation of creative ideas when two employees engage in more CMC than FTF communication. We discuss both the theoretical and practical contributions of this study based on these findings. Communication media mix has a positive impact on generation of creative ideas.Simmelian advice ties positively impact on generation of creative ideas.The impact of Simmelian advice ties is weakened by communication media mix.The impact of Simmelian friendship ties depends on communication media mix.

Mobile App Preferences: What Role Does Aesthetics and Emotions Play?

This research-in-progress reports on the development of a NeuroIS measurement model for studying the role of emotions in non-instrumental preferences. We aim at exploring the effects of emotions and aesthetics on users’ preferences for mobile application. The context of mobile apps is interesting because the phenomenon of high initial adoption but very low retention is still unexplained. For this, we aesthetically manipulated mobile apps, and measured subjects’ affective responses. Our approach builds on galvanic skin response (GSR) and surface electromyography of the face.

Getting Interrupted? Design Support Strategies for Learning Success in M-Learning Applications

This study explores how interruption support from a design standpoint can impact learning and resumption success with mobile applications. Building upon memory for goals theory, we propose that metacognitive support and interactive immediacy are two interruption support features that can increase user’s learning and resumption success. We also propose that these effects are moderated by the task complexity that user is achieving with the app. We aim to find a fit between task and feature that will guide developers and designers to support users during interruptions. The proposed hypothesis will be tested with laboratory experiments.