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Why Do I Keep Checking My Facebook? The Role of Urge in the Excessive Use of Social Networking Sites

With the advance of information technologies and widespread deployment of data services, users can access social networking sites (SNSs) almost anytime and anywhere, resulting in an incessant urge to check SNSs. Till now, little is known about the precursors of urge and its role in the development of SNS excessive use. Therefore, we proposed and tested a research model that examines the role of urge in checking SNSs. Empirical evidence from a survey of 205 respondents showed that instant gratification and withdrawal are important factors of the urge to check SNSs, the urge to check SNSs was found to have a significant impact on the excessive use. We concluded with implications to research and practice.

What's in it for Me? Conceptualizing the Perceived Value of Knowledge Sharing

Social theories suggest that individuals expect something in return when they decide to share knowledge. These expectations of benefits vary from tangible incentives provided by organizations to positive feelings aroused by altruistic behavior. The theory of consumption values (TCV) allows a specification of distinct types of benefits (functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditional) which individuals consider before they decide to share knowledge. Furthermore, the perceived costs of sharing can reduce the perceived value of knowledge sharing. These costs are non-monetary sacrifices (effort and risks) reducing the perceived value of sharing. In this work we develop the perceived value of knowledge sharing as a multidimensional construct, grounded in assumptions of social exchange theory, consumer research and knowledge sharing literature. This conceptualization is intended to serve as a basis for the operationalization of perceived knowledge value in a future study on knowledge sharing intentions.

Understanding Visual Appeal and Quality Perceptions of Mobile Apps: An Emotional Perspective

In this study we look at user judgments like perceived quality and also visual appeal from an emotional perspective. This is important to examine since unlike existing studies that focus on the cognitive mechanism of first impression judgments, we use aesthetics framework forwarded by Lavie and Tractinsky, and Russells’ circumplex model of emotions to examine the phenomenon. We also try to answer whether aesthetics lead to significant affective responses from users, which then trickle into quality perceptions and visual appeal, which are otherwise considered higher order judgments. Measurement of emotions has mostly been done through subjective evaluation e.g. self-report or survey. We use objective data (electro-dermal activity for arousal and facial electromyography for valence) in addition to subjective data to measure emotions. We design custom mobile app interfaces which users get exposed to achieve effective aesthetic manipulation.

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.

Cross-Organizational Software Development: Design and Evaluation of a Decision Support System for Software Component Outsourcing

While the decision to outsource software development tasks was mainly considered strategically and economically, it relies on technical properties of single components and their integrability into complex systems, as well. This paper suggests a decision model that evaluates technical properties of software components to support the outsourcing decision with its implications on the cross-organizational distribution of development tasks. Following a design science approach decision criteria are deduced and logically combined in order to design a decision model. The model is then used to implement a mobile prototype for a decision support system in order to classify all software components regarding their outsourcing applicability. Both model and tool are evaluated in depth: we examine the quality of model and tool in a naturalistic and experimental evaluation setting. The overall satisfaction with utility, ease of use and intention to use is very positive.

Cognitive Load and Attention for Mobile Applications: A Design Perspective

Aesthetics has been the success factor of Apple products. Despite of knowing aesthetics as a success factor, researchers and practitioners have limited aesthetics to purely defining it without any factors of practicability being instilled to it. Two factors of practicability could be design balance and complexity. To fill the gap of the need for practicability factors to be instilled into the understanding of aesthetics, this studies draws upon the Gestalt theory to examine how design balance and complexity could be applied on mobile app design. As a research in progress, we plan to validate the effects of design balance and complexity empirically.

Measuring Appeal in Human Computer Interaction: A Cognitive Neuroscience-Based Approach

Appeal refers to the positive emotional response to an aesthetic, beautiful, or in another way desirable stimulus. It is a recurring topic in information systems (IS) research, and is important for understanding many phenomena of user behavior and decision-making. While past IS research on appeal has relied predominantly on subjective self-rating scales, this research-in-progress paper proposes complementary objective measurement for appeal. We start by reviewing the linkages between the theoretical constructs related to appeal and their neurophysiological correlates. We then review past approaches to measuring appeal and discuss their characteristics. Finally, we arrive at a recommendation that builds on a combination of psychophysiology (EDA, facial EMG) and brain imaging (fNIRS).