• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

As online communities proliferate, online news sites have received great attention in news media research. Although most of the online news sites provide contents for free, some have adopted the Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) model by offering a voluntary payment option to the readers. In this study, we investigate the factors which influence subscribers' voluntary payment behavior on an online news site. Drawing upon both the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we hypothesize that appreciation has a direct effect on the subscribers' voluntary payment behavior, whereas central factors (positive emotional content, cognitive content) and peripheral factors (news sharing, news article length) of the news articles have indirect impacts on voluntary payment behavior through the enhanced appreciation. Based on an empirical analysis of 172 news articles from the Korean online news site that adopted the PWYW pricing model (i.e., Ohmynews.com), we find that appreciation plays a critical role in voluntary payment behavior and that peripheral factors have significant impacts on appreciation. However, the impacts of central factors on appreciation are not found. By identifying influencing factors of subscribers' voluntary payment behavior on online news sites for the first time, this paper suggests a prospective alternative profit model for online news providers faced with fierce competition.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.177-195
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• 2017

Traditionally, news was consumed only through printed newspapers and broadcasting media, such as radio and television. However, the Internet has enabled people to consume news content online. Since most of online news content has been provided for free, it is not easy for news providers to charge the fixed subscription fee for online news content. Therefore, as an alternative strategy, some online news providers have tried to adopt the Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing model, which allows users (readers) to pay as much as they want after consuming news content. As this pricing model shows some possibility to grow and replace the unsuccessful monetization strategy of online news content, we therefore examined the comparative importance of seven heuristic attributes (i.e., article evaluation, article share, article comment, article information design, article length, writer SNS, and writer information) affecting readers' voluntary payment behavior through a conjoint analysis with 379 news articles collected from online news Website (i.e., Ohmynews.com) where the PWYW model has been working successfully. This study found that article share and article length are the most important factors which affect online news content users' voluntary payment. Finally, two major and eight minor propositions are suggested based on the findings of the study. This study would suggest guidelines for how to create online news content which induces much more voluntary payment.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.131-148
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• 2021

This study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects corporate tax avoidance behavior. Using a sample of publicly listed U.S. firms, we find that legal CSR-which is required by law-reduces the level of corporate tax avoidance because this type of CSR reduces information asymmetry between investors and corporate management in such a way that investors are less likely to perceive tax avoidance behavior as a risk. On the other hand, we find that the relationship between normative CSR-which is a voluntary type of CSR behavior-and tax avoidance is not statistically significant. Instead, our additional analysis reveals that normative CSR increases the level of corporate tax avoidance conditional on reporting quality. This study provides meaningful implications to the academic literature and to practitioners. Not only does this study highlight the fact that not all CSR are alike, it highlights that it is important to provide transparent CSR information in order to allow stakeholders to estimate the net effects of firms' CSR activities and tax payment.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.75-100
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• 2018

Mobile devices have become an important channel for news content usage in our daily life. However, online news content readers' resistance to online news monetization is more serious than other digital content businesses, such as webtoons, music sources, videos, and games. Since major portal sites distribute online news content free of charge to increase their traffics, customers have been accustomed to free news content; hence this makes online news providers more difficult to switch their policies on business models (i.e., monetization policy). As a result, most online news providers are highly dependent on the advertising business model, which can lead to increasing number of false, exaggerated, or sensational advertisements inside the news website to maximize their advertising revenue. To reduce this advertising dependencies, many online news providers had attempted to switch their 'free' readers to 'paid' users, but most of them failed. However, recently, some online news media have been successfully applying the Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) payment model, which allows readers to voluntarily pay fees for their favorite news content. These successful cases shed some lights to the managers of online news content provider regarding that the PWYW model can serve as an alternative business model. In this study, therefore, we collected 379 online news articles from Ohmynews.com that has been successfully employing the PWYW model, and analyzed the comparative importance of systematic attributes of online news content on readers' voluntary payment. More specifically, we derived the six systematic attributes (i.e., Type of Article Title, Image Stimulation, Article Readability, Article Type, Dominant Emotion, and Article-Image Similarity) and three or four levels within each attribute based on previous studies. Then, we conducted content analysis to measure five attributes except Article Readability attribute, measured by Flesch readability score. Before conducting main content analysis, the face reliabilities of chosen attributes were measured by three doctoral level researchers with 37 sample articles, and inter-coder reliabilities of the three coders were verified. Then, the main content analysis was conducted for two months from March 2017 with 379 online news articles. All 379 articles were reviewed by the same three coders, and 65 articles that showed inconsistency among coders were excluded before employing conjoint analysis. Finally, we examined the comparative importance of those six systematic attributes (Study 1), and levels within each of the six attributes (Study 2) through conjoint analysis with 314 online news articles. From the results of conjoint analysis, we found that Article Readability, Article-Image Similarity, and Type of Article Title are the most significant factors affecting online news readers' voluntary payment. First, it can be interpreted that if the level of readability of an online news article is in line with the readers' level of readership, the readers will voluntarily pay more. Second, the similarity between the content of the article and the image within it enables the readers to increase the information acceptance and to transmit the message of the article more effectively. Third, readers expect that the article title would reveal the content of the article, and the expectation influences the understanding and satisfaction of the article. Therefore, it is necessary to write an article with an appropriate readability level, and use images and title well matched with the content to make readers voluntarily pay more. We also examined the comparative importance of levels within each attribute in more details. Based on findings of two studies, two major and nine minor propositions are suggested for future empirical research. This study has academic implications in that it is one of the first studies applying both content analysis and conjoint analysis together to examine readers' voluntary payment behavior, rather than their intention to pay. In addition, online news content creators, providers, and managers could find some practical insights from this research in terms of how they should produce news content to make readers voluntarily pay more for their online news content.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.245-255
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• 2012

Greenberg(1990) suggested that organizational justice research may potentially explain many organizational behavior outcome variables. One such example of nontraditional job behavior is organizational citizenship behavior and service quality, for they are part of the spontaneous and innovative behaviors noted by Katz(1964). Stimulated by conceptualizations of justice in organizations by such theorists as Homans(1961), Admans(1965), and Walster, Berscheid, and Walster(1973), organizational researchers devoted considerable attention in the 1960s and 1970s to testing propositions about the distribution of payment and other work-related rewards derived from equity theory. Although reviews and critiques of equity theories once dominated the pages of organizational journals, more recently it has been the subject of far more attention(Reis, 1986). In one notable recent trend, researchers and theorists have expanded on conceptualizations of procedural and distributive justice by turning attention to the interpersonal aspects of justice, the perceived fairness of the way people are treated by others. With the rapid and uncertain changes of organization, such voluntary behaviors as OCB, service quality, and innovative behavior have become more important for the development and survival of organization. Thus it is very important to keep the organization fair for keeping employees participative in organization. Here it is reviewed the relationship between organizational justice and it's related factors(OCB, service quality and innovative behavior).