• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.39-69
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• 2012

With the advent of communication technologies including electronic collaborative tools and conferencing systems provided over the Internet, virtual collaboration is becoming increasingly common in organizations. Virtual collaboration refers to an environment in which the people working together are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, are geographically dispersed, and rely on mediated rather than face-to face, communication to produce an outcome. Research suggests that new sets of individual skill, knowledge, and ability (SKAs) are required to perform effectively in today's virtualized workplace, which is labeled as individual virtual competence. It is also argued that use of online social networking sites may influence not only individuals' daily lives but also their capability to manage their work-related relationships in organizations, which in turn leads to better performance. The existing research regarding (1) the relationship between virtual competence and task performance and (2) the relationship between online networking and task performance has been conducted based on different theoretical perspectives so that little is known about how online social networking and virtual competence interplay to predict individuals' task performance. To fill this gap, this study raises the following research questions: (1) What is the individual virtual competence required for better adjustment to the virtual collaboration environment? (2) How does online networking via diverse social network service sites influence individuals' task performance in organizations? (3) How do the joint effects of individual virtual competence and online networking influence task performance? To address these research questions, we first draw on the prior literature and derive four dimensions of individual virtual competence that are related with an individual's self-concept, knowledge and ability. Computer self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to use computer technology broadly. Remotework self-efficacy is defined as the extent to which an individual beliefs in his or her ability to work and perform joint tasks with others in virtual settings. Virtual media skill is defined as the degree of confidence of individuals to function in their work role without face-to-face interactions. Virtual social skill is an individual's skill level in using technologies to communicate in virtual settings to their full potential. It should be noted that the concept of virtual social skill is different from the self-efficacy and captures an individual's cognition-based ability to build social relationships with others in virtual settings. Next, we discuss how online networking influences both individual virtual competence and task performance based on the social network theory and the social learning theory. We argue that online networking may enhance individuals' capability in expanding their social networks with low costs. We also argue that online networking may enable individuals to learn the necessary skills regarding how they use technological functions, communicate with others, and share information and make social relations using the technical functions provided by electronic media, consequently increasing individual virtual competence. To examine the relationships among online networking, virtual competence, and task performance, we developed research models (the mediation, interaction, and additive models, respectively) by integrating the social network theory and the social learning theory. Using data from 112 employees of a virtualized company, we tested the proposed research models. The results of analysis partly support the mediation model in that online social networking positively influences individuals' computer self-efficacy, virtual social skill, and virtual media skill, which are key predictors of individuals' task performance. Furthermore, the results of the analysis partly support the interaction model in that the level of remotework self-efficacy moderates the relationship between online social networking and task performance. The results paint a picture of people adjusting to virtual collaboration that constrains and enables their task performance. This study contributes to research and practice. First, we suggest a shift of research focus to the individual level when examining virtual phenomena and theorize that online social networking can enhance individual virtual competence in some aspects. Second, we replicate and advance the prior competence literature by linking each component of virtual competence and objective task performance. The results of this study provide useful insights into how human resource responsibilities assess employees' weakness and strength when they organize virtualized groups or projects. Furthermore, it provides managers with insights into the kinds of development or training programs that they can engage in with their employees to advance their ability to undertake virtual work.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.85-94
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• 2017

The paper examines critical factors affecting consumer behavioral intentions in accepting online health communication through social networking sites. Unlike recent research under this topic, the paper assimilates some components of service quality dimensions and consumer behavior theories. The paper employs factor analysis and structural equation modelling analysis with latent variables to identify critical factors from the survey data collected from Korean consumers. The results of the study identifies three major constructs: consumer needs for health information, the perceived value of tangible attributes of health information providers, and the perceived value of intangible attributes of health information providers. The results show that consumer needs for health information and the tangible and intangible attributes of health information providers should be considered as important antecedents of accepting online health communication through social networking sites. The findings suggest that the success of online health communication via social networking sites largely depends on the tangible and intangible attributes of health information providers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.421-429
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• 2022

Entrepreneurship research has focused on several factors that might affect the intention of an individual to start an enterprise. Using principles from social network theory and the entrepreneurial intention model (EI), the current research intends to investigate how social capital is formed on Social Networking Sites (SNS) and how the resulting social capital influences entrepreneurial intention. Using an online survey, 151 valid responses were received from university students. Applying partial least square structural equation modeling, positive and significant relationship was found between the SNS usage and bonding and bridging social capital. Further, it was also found that online-bonding social capital does not impact any of the three antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. On the other hand, online-bridging social capital significantly influences personal attitudes and subjective norms. It was also found that both personal attitude and perceived behavioral control significantly relate to EI, while the subjective norms do not relate significantly to EI. The paper contributes to the literature on technology-based human behavior and entrepreneurship in emerging countries, opening some areas for future research, while also providing some managerial insights. It also should be beneficial to educational institutions in understanding how the use of SNS use by students may be optimized.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.814-818
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• 2010

Online social networking services help people to migrate social networks from offline to online. Twitter, which has achieved incredible growth, showed that an online social networking service without offline bases can become large and successful. In this paper, we propose a twitter friend notification service using user‘s twitter messages and place recognizing technology. When there is a friend in user‘s nearby place, the service notifies the information to the users. Through the friend notification service, a user can easily extend his online social network to offline.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

The proliferation of social media has given rise to the new consumer group, namely, social consumers. This study identified the distinct characteristics of social consumers (i.e., online social search, online social navigation, online social connection) and examined the impacts of social consumer attributes on the engagement with fashion brands via brands' SNSs (BSNSs). A sample of 141 U.S. consumers who had browsed and/or participated in a fashion brand's BSNS (i.e., the Facebook page for fashion brands) was used to examine hypothesized relationships. The analyses involved running a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation modeling. The result indicates that the impacts of the social consumer attributes on the benefits of BSNSs (i.e., experiential and functional benefits) as perceived by consumers were significant, except the link between online social connection and functional benefits. In addition, consumers' existing relationship with a brand served as a moderating variable, strengthening the impacts of social consumer attributes on BSNS benefits. The perceived benefits of BSNSs positively affected perceived relationship investment which in turn influenced brand loyalty. Practical marketing suggestions are provided for fashion brands.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Nowadays, many first-time Internet users start off heavily using SNSs (Social Network Sites), such as Cyworld, Facebook, and Twitter. The reason for the growth of SNS use is closely related to the various services of gaming, playing, using entertainment items, sharing knowledge etc., provided by the SNS; technically, the most important of the services provided would be the behavior of sharing knowledge among people connected and networked in the site. In sum, we assume that the users may communicate well with each other and pay attention to building a close social network using the abovementioned activities. However, researchers have just begun to focus on the issues explaining why Internet users rush into SNSs and enjoy their time there. Therefore, we investigated the reasons for posting and sharing knowledge voluntarily on the SNS and how others respond to the posted knowledge and are actually affected by the behavior. We applied social identity theory and social capital theory in this study to find which network externalities in SNSs may affect online identity-based attachment and cause them to produce a knowledge sharing generation. We found that people's online identity in SNSs is closely related to and influences knowledge sharing. This empirical study resulted in the importance of social relations in SNSs, which leads to sharing knowledge.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.396-404
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• 2022

Online social networks contain a large amount of data that can be converted into valuable and insightful information. Text mining approaches allow exploring large-scale data efficiently. Therefore, this study reviews the recent literature on text mining in online social networks in a way that produces valid and valuable knowledge for further research. The review identifies text mining techniques used in social networking, the data used, tools, and the challenges. Research questions were formulated, then search strategy and selection criteria were defined, followed by the analysis of each paper to extract the data relevant to the research questions. The result shows that the most social media platforms used as a source of the data are Twitter and Facebook. The most common text mining technique were sentiment analysis and topic modeling. Classification and clustering were the most common approaches applied by the studies. The challenges include the need for processing with huge volumes of data, the noise, and the dynamic of the data. The study explores the recent development in text mining approaches in social networking by providing state and general view of work done in this research area.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.27-50
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• 2017

The impact of social networking is varied from good to bad. Online activities have also been categorized into pros and cons of social networking, either as reported as hiding Internet activities among teenagers or killing loneliness among elderly. In terms of relationships, there have been argument over its closeness and quality of an online relationship in Internet settings. Looking at the contradiction in an innovative interaction between classic community communication and social media, there is an unknown scent of the future struggling and challenging both human communication and relationships in the presence of digital culture. This research uses Diffusion of Innovation to study the wide and continuous spread of digital culture in human communication; and, Media Dependency in learning and structuring the cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of social media on each person uses the media in different ways. This research will be using online survey to gain opinions from a social network site as an update of views and reflection of self-awareness to all levels of people. Social media like Facebook (FB) is perceived as a good tool of communication that it is able to bring closeness among the family members. The results show that social media like FB brings positive impact towards family members; it would help to build a better and harmonic society; and, relationships among family members and communication shall be improved and enhanced to the level of a united society.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.12-28
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• 2017

In the era of social media, marketers have struggled to understand and serve participants' diverse and multifaceted needs in a novel form of online brand community in the social-networking sites such as Facebook. Thus, this study identifies different groups of participants affiliated with Facebook brand pages based on their needs for brand connection. The need-based segments are validated by comparing results across foodservice and consumer goods. Results of cluster analysis reveal three distinct segments (i.e., residents, lurkers, and peepers) based on participants' functional, experiential, and incentive needs. Results of multivariate analysis of variance illustrate significant differences in relational tendencies for a brand of interest among these three groups. The three groups are profiled based on participants' engagement level. Findings of this study are expected to help marketers better understand the needs of diverse participants in their SNS-embedded brand community so they can develop tailored communication strategies for targeted groups.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.9-21
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• 2024

Objective : This study investigated the effects of depression on online and offline social interactions among middle-aged and older adults with the aim of enhancing their social connectivity and mental well-being. Methods : Utilizing the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Lubben Social Network Scale-6, this study assessed depression and social relationships in 429 middle-aged adults. We explored the mediation effects of offline relationships on online interactions using path analysis and the Sobel test. Results : Significant links were found between depression and social relationships in a cohort of educated males averaging 63 years of age. Offline interactions mediated 32% of the influence of depression on online relationships, with strong model fit indices emphasizing the importance of offline social interactions. Conclusion : This study highlights the role of active engagement in online and offline networks in improving mental health and managing the impact of depression on social activity among older adults, helping prevent isolation.