Analyzing the Employees’ New Media Use in the Energy Industry：The Role of Creative Self-Efficacy, Perceived Usefulness and Leaders’ Use

Zhang Zhang,Cai Cai,Li Li,Yu Yu

doi:10.3390/su12030967

Zhang Zhang, Cai Cai + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030967

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Abstract

Good management of companies in the energy industry is critical to the world’s sustainable development as they are the guarantor of social lives and the cornerstone of economic development. This study tries to figure out how to improve the management of energy companies from the angle of new media use. It is widely known that the emergence of new media has provided more opportunities for the development of various entities in society, especially in improving the interaction mode of “enterprise–employee” and “enterprise–consumer”, and boosting the efficiency of information transmission. However, the technical and cutting-edge features of those new media have also resulted in some obstacles in their promotion among employees. To address this problem, this paper took the perspective of the social influence theory and the technological acceptance model (TAM), and sampled 20,161 employees from the energy industry in China to explore the effects of creative self-efficacy, perceived usefulness in information acquisition and perceived usefulness in communication on employees’ use of new media. Results have shown that both creative self-efficacy and perceived usefulness have positive effects on new media use of employees, and perceived usefulness mediates the relationship between creative self-efficacy and new media use. Leaders’ use moderates the mediation relationship, while it weakens the relationship between perceived usefulness and new media use. Our study enriches the knowledge regarding new media promotion and thereby offers insightful and practical implications for corporate managers.

Highlights

There is a growing consensus amongst academics, business commentators and the public that new media are revolutionizing economic activities and social connections [1]
The results showed that creative self-efficacy was significantly positively related to perceived usefulness in communication and information acquisition as well as new media use of Employees
Results show that creative self-efficacy and perceived usefulness both have positive effects on new media use of employees, and perceived usefulness mediates the relationship between creative self-efficacy and new media use

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing consensus amongst academics, business commentators and the public that new media are revolutionizing economic activities and social connections [1]. New media contribute to enhancing corporate operational efficiency and management ability by optimizing the “enterprise–employee” interaction, and may help employees boost innovation, connect with executives and each other and spread the good word about companies [6]. Some employees even reduce the use of new communications technologies because of privacy concerns [8]. In this vein, even though there are numerous advantages of using new media, they are still underutilized. We wish to look into such mature issue and generate new insights, by investigating new media use’s relationships with major constructs proposed in the current study (i.e., creative self-efficacy, perceived usefulness and leaders’ use), and that in the context we research

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