uis Yi-Shih Lo

Online privacy control via anonymity and pseudonym: Cross-cultural implications

Privacys exact nature needs to reflect the contemporary view of a society. A growing number of online users demand the protection of their personal privacy via anonymity and pseudonym. The efficacy of these two privacy controls in different online environments is unknown. This study applies social psychology theories to explore the relationship between these personal sentiments—authoritative personality, empathy, fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, and motives of online privacy rights. We conducted a quasi-experiment by manipulating four online environments (personal e-mail exchange, members-only newsgroup, public newsgroup, and online chat room), and three user identification modes (real name, anonymity and pseudonym). More than 600 subjects from the USA and Taiwan participated in the experimental study. The results of path analysis confirm the effects of some personal sentiments on the motives of online privacy rights. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications for the roles of privacy in the online society.

Mechanisms to motivate knowledge sharing: integrating the reward systems and social network perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model that integrates two different mechanisms to explain knowledge sharing. First, adapted from traditional reward systems, the calculative-based mechanism (CBM) serves as the benchmark. Second, the relational-based mechanism (RBM) plays a complementary role. RBM is founded on social interaction and consists of two social network constructs: relational deposits (i.e. network and valued network centralities) and withdrawals (i.e. network and valued network densities). Design/methodology/approach – This study collected survey data in collaboration with a health-care organization. The data collected from 180 respondents were tested against the research model using a partial least squares analysis. Findings – This study found the CBM to be beneficial for knowledge sharing. The findings support the RBM prediction of a positive relationship between the deposit construct and knowledge sharing, but fail to support the RBM prediction on the withdrawa...

The Impact of Local Loop Unbundling on DSL Service Diversity

This paper focuses on the impact of unbundling the local loops (LLU) policy on DSL service diversity through mediation roles played by inter-DSL and intra-technology market competition. This study provides another interesting perspective on the influence of LLU policy on DSL service diversity, which is a key consumer concern for DSL services, and is usually taken for granted by researchers. However, the linkage between LLU policy and DSL service diversity has not been found in extant literatures. Our empirical evidence, based on data from 9 countries, partly confirms the prediction of the role of LLU policy as the main driver of value-added DSL service diversity.