Tang Yao

The Impact of Online Social Support on Patients’ Quality of Life and the Moderating Role of Social Exclusion

Social support is critical for improving patients’ health outcomes. People living with chronic diseases are often socially excluded and thus face many challenges in their lives. The type and amount of social support they receive from online health care communities can potentially enhance their quality of life. This research verifies emotional support, informational support, companionship, and relatedness as four categories of online social support pertinent in health care communities. In examining the detailed effects of multidimensional online social support on physical, psychological, and existential quality of life, this research finds that the impact of emotional support on psychological quality of life is most effective. An empirical survey of 349 participants finds that the influential outcomes of online social support on quality of life depend on stigmatized patients’ perceptions of their level of social exclusion. In general, stigmatized patients with high levels of social exclusion seek a variety of online social support and attain a more improved quality of life than those patients with lower levels of social exclusion. This research recommends that the health care sector emphasize patients’ synergies and develop online customer resources to extend the limited medical support available.

Improving customer well-being through two-way online social support

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of online health care communities and the impact of two-way online social support on customers’ well-being and patients’ quality of life, at different social exclusion levels. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey in China’s Anti-Hepatitis B Online Community includes 326 respondents. A combined hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation model test the hypotheses. Findings – Both receiving and giving online social support, as reciprocal altruism behaviors, enhance patients’ well-being. Receiving online social support influences psychological well-being most; giving has the largest impact on existential domains. Social exclusion boosts the benefits of giving online social support but attenuates the benefits of receiving it. Research limitations/implications – This research focusses on the effects of online social support among socially excluded patients. Extensions could rely on objective instead of subjective measures and...

The effect of Country of Brand image on symbolic value: Brand prestige as a mediator

Seeking symbolic value has become one of the most significant motivations that drive the consumers make brand decisions. The study is intended to confirm the relationship between Country of Brand, brand prestige and symbolic value. Symbolic value includes three factors, such as prestige value, self-expressive value, and social expressive value. The survey was conducted in four mobile stores. In contrast to the general notion that there is only interaction between Country of Brand and perceived quality, Country of Brand was found to be positively related to the symbolic value in an international branding context which was mediated by brand prestige except social expressive value. The findings have managerial implications for marketing managers and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

Research on Psychological Mechanism of Sharing Behavior—Take "Flower" APP as an Example

With the rapid development of smart phone technology, people are becoming more and more addicted to mobile phones, which lead to depression and other undesirable social phenomena. The mobile app of Flower is such applications that can help people get rid of mobile phone addiction. The apps design is based on flow theory and tries to help people get rid of mobile addiction through sharing behavior. It uses the users positive flow experience for app to replace the users negative flow experience for mobile phone. Based on the technology acceptance theory, flow theory and extended-self theory, this paper explores the motivation and user’s acquisition of the sharing behavior in the use of the mobile app of Flower, and constructs a new model of internet sharing behavior. And the practical applications of app have proved that sharing behavior contributes to the solution of mobile phone addiction. We hope to be able to make a contribution to app designing and user behavior analysis.

Research on Sharing Behavior in Tourism Sharing Platform —Take "Breadtrip" APP as an Example

With the development of the Internet, tourism sharing has become a universal behavior in the virtual world. When users share tourism strategy, suggestions, scenic spots or delicacy in the tourism sharing platform, others can obtain asymmetric information and facilitate decision-making. On the other hand, sharing behavior also increases the value of tourism sharing platform. Breadtrip APP is a place where consumers can record information, share information and make friends, making travel life rich and colorful. Taking Breadtrip APP as an example, this paper explores the motivations, intention, behavior and consequences of sharing in the tourism platform, and then putting forward some suggestions to management practices.

The Individual Psychology and Group Creation Mechanism of Customer Generated Content in Consumer-generated Media

User-generated content(UGC) is the cornerstone of consumer-generated media(CGM). It has a great and far-reaching influence on internet companies and traditional enterprises. CGM research has just started, and research on consumer participation in creation is still limited. The few studies about group creation focus on organizations or teams but little on customers. Based on motivation theory, emotion theory, individual creation and group creation theory, this research explores individual psychological reaction, group creation process, group creation mode and environment mechanism of UGC from the customers perspective. The authors use experiment, social network analysis and survey method, at the same time, try to collect objective data by psychological instruments such as Polygraph. The expected results will help internet companies to establish scientific mechanisms of user participation to enhance competitiveness, and help traditional companies to carry out sales promotion and maintain long-term customer relationship by customer participation.

Meta-view of consequence of customer satisfaction

Over recent many years, customer satisfaction logic obtained acceptance in marketing academy because it is believed to affect customer loyalty. Does customer satisfaction, however, really bring customer loyalty? Based on 85 quantitative researches from 1980 to 2011 and by meta method, this paper finds that although customer satisfaction affects composite customer loyalty, the impact of customer satisfaction on behavioral loyalty is not salient as that on attitudinal ones.

Consumers' perception of the internationalism effect on symbolic value: Brand prestige as a mediator

Seeking symbolic value has become one of the most important reasons that drive the consumers choose brands. The study is intended to confirm the relationship between perceived brand internationalism, brand prestige and symbolic value. Symbolic value includes three factors, such as prestige value, self-expressive value, and social expressive value. The survey was conducted in four mobile stores. In contrast to the general notion that there is only interaction between perceived brand internationalism and perceived quality, perceived brand internationalism was found to be positively related to the symbolic value in an international branding context which was mediated by brand prestige except social expressive value. The findings have managerial implications for marketing managers and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

Research on the mechanism of self-determination for online customer participation psychology and behavior

One student sample experiment was designed to test the mechanism of self-determination for online shopping customer participation, and proved that website familiarity (high vs. low), website norm (high vs. low) and online customer participation motivation (autonomous vs. controlled) were the effective factors triggering the mechanism of self-determination and online customer participation. The results showed that in the case of customer-led autonomous participation motivation, the websites with high familiarity help to meet the online customer self-determination demand and promote participation behaviors. Moreover, the implications for marketing theory and website practice are also originated from the results.

Research on the Psychology Mechanism of Consumer Internet Sharing Behavior

This paper examines internet sharing behavior. Sharing is a kind of reciprocal prosocial behavior, which can help consumers to cooperate with each other and reduce the transaction costs during the consumption process. Sharing is a public behavior, which is a powerful tool to combine consumers together and establish stable sensation and bonds among them. With the innovation and development of Internet technology, and also with more and more consumers like to participate in product or service and production with their increasing ability, it becomes much more convenient to share on the Internet, which can radiate to a widen area and gain a larger synergy effect. Therefore, as an instinct behavior of human beings, sharing is a old and hot topic in consumption field, which has a valuable theoretical and practical meaning especially in Internet marketing field. In this study we examine the antecedents and moderators of internet sharing behavoir, we put forwad our hypothesis and research model and then we draw some conclusions and recommendations.