IT Affordances Research Articles

Consumer resistance to mobile health consultation: the role of IT affordances and IT identity

Consumer resistance to mobile health consultation: the role of IT affordances and IT identity

The impact of complementary new ventures’ IT affordances on platform leadership in the Chinese context: based on bricolage and affordance theories

ABSTRACT Few studies have focused on the reverse empowerment of complementary new ventures using information technologies to platform leadership. Additionally, existing research tends to treat complementors as homogeneous and passive receivers and thus cannot explain the heterogeneous contribution of complementors to platform leadership. Based on the bricolage and affordance theory, this study empirically investigates the mechanism of IT affordances on platform leadership from the perspective of complementary new ventures in China while considering the variability among different types of complementors. This study enriches the research on the impact of complementors on platform leadership while further expanding bricolage theory.

IT Affordances, Flow, and Perceived Scarcity: A Study on Impulsive Buying Behavior and Post-Purchase Dissonance in Live Shopping

Live shopping has evolved significantly as extensive publications have explored this phenomenon from the perspective of streamers and consumers. However, there is limited analysis from the human-computer interaction perspective, particularly concerning IT affordances. Therefore, the research aimed to enhance the understanding of human-computer interaction in live streaming sessions, exploring flow experiences and the influence on impulsive buying behavior, which led to postpurchase dissonance. The moderating role of perceived scarcity was also examined. The research adopted convenience sampling and obtained 250 online survey responses. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results show that three IT affordance components, visibility, metavoicing, and interactivity, foster flow experiences, but guidance shopping does not. Furthermore, flow experiences are found to stimulate impulsive buying behavior, which subsequently leads to post-purchase dissonance. The results further show a negative impact of perceived scarcity on buying behavior, while the effect of scarcity is anticipated to enhance buying motivation. These results contribute to understanding the significant drivers of flow experiences in live shopping and the implications of perceived scarcity. Enhancing interactive communication between streamers and viewers is essential for businesses while promoting attractive visibility and comprehensive product information during live shopping sessions. Additionally, scarcity effects should be approached with caution only when necessary to accelerate the call to action.

How brand live streaming affects brand attachment in social commerce: from the perspective of IT affordances

ABSTRACT While promoting the prosperity of China’s social commerce in recent years, celebrity live streaming has been criticized for not being conducive to establishing a strong emotional relationship between brands and consumers. Our study focuses on the non-celebrity live streaming held by brands, called brand live streaming. Our research regards brand live streaming as a new form of brand community. According to IT affordances, We construct a structural model to examine whether and how brand live streaming affects Chinese consumers’ brand attachment. We empirically test the model through the questionnaire distributed to brand live streaming viewers. Our results show that metavoicing affordance, guidance shopping affordance, and trading affordance positively affect consumers’ brand attachment, while visibility affordance does not affect consumers’ brand attachment. In addition, this paper also reveals that symbolic value and sense of community mediate the relationship between IT affordances and brand attachment in brand live streaming. Our study validates the importance of brand live streaming as a viable social commerce form and provides marketers with ways to build brand attachment.

Toward a theory of technology desirability: Blending task and feature fit with mutual values

This investigation develops a theory of IT desirability to explain the human experience of IT in today's highly digitized world. The theory takes account of the actions that IT artifacts allow (IT affordances) and the tasks that users want to perform, and it also accounts for who these users are as persons and what the artifact represents for them in terms of values. The concept of Person-IT Fit is introduced to conceptualize the match (or lack of match) between a person's values and the spirit of an IT artifact—with IT spirit defined as a set of IT-promoted values embedded in a social context. The connections between Person-IT Fit and IT Desirability, user behavior, and reasoned appraisals of IT are theorized as extensions of the classic concept of Task-Technology Fit and then illustrated using two empirical studies. The concluding section discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Understanding the Relationship between IT Affordance and Consumers’ Purchase Intention in E-Commerce Live Streaming: The Moderating Effect of Gender

E-commerce live streaming is becoming increasingly popular in China, attracting great interest from practitioners and researchers. From an IT affordance perspective, this study explores how IT affordances (guidance shopping, triggered attending, and social interaction) impact consumers’ purchase intention in e-commerce live streaming. Moreover, gender is viewed as a moderator between IT affordances and consumers’ perception of trust, and its moderation effect is tested. Data were collected through an online survey in China (n = 266) and analyzed using structural equation model. The analysis results show that guidance shopping, triggered attending, and social interaction can influence consumers’ purchase intention through consumers’ trust and presence. In addition, guidance shopping exerts a greater impact on males’ trust in streamers than females’, while triggered attending exerts a greater impact on females’ trust in streamers than males’. The research conclusion makes a theoretical contribution by highlighting the impact of IT affordance such as triggered attending on purchase intention in e-commerce live streaming and the moderating effect of gender, and also makes practical contributions by guiding sellers or streamers to promote consumers’ purchases.

Discovering the juxtaposed affordances in digitally transformed live streaming e-commerce: A mixed-methods study from a vicarious learning perspective

ABSTRACT Live streaming technologies transform the information processing of customers by changing the way they interact with and acquire information. However, this emerging technological artefact may induce both positive and negative consequences for customer decision making. It is yet unknown what constitutes the dimensions of the juxtaposed IT affordances and how they affect customer behaviours in this new social phenomenon. This paper contributes to IS research by uncovering the specific bright and dark sides of IT affordances in live streaming e-commerce and by explaining the cognitive mechanisms underpinning customer purchase and brand citizenship behaviours. We employed a sequential mixed-methods design to embrace and contextualise the theory of affordance, vicarious learning, and cognitive load to rigorously develop a theoretical framework of the juxtaposed IT affordance in live streaming e-commerce. The results indicate that positive affordances (e.g., interactivity, visibility, and entertainment) have stronger effects on both economic and non-economic value. However, the potential dark side (e.g., broadcasting and source diversity) has more negative effects on purchase intention than brand citizenship behaviour, underscoring the importance of involving customers in co-creating brand-related value in live streaming e-commerce. Our findings contribute considerably to the emerging literature on live streaming e-commerce and provide actionable recommendations for practitioners.

How IT affordances influence customer engagement in live streaming commerce? A dual-stage analysis of PLS-SEM and fsQCA

Engaging customers and building loyalty are crucial for operators who embrace live streaming. While previous research has identified many social and technical factors that assist operators in engaging their customers, few studies have examined customer engagement from a sociotechnical perspective (i.e., IT affordances). To fill the gap, a theoretical model grounded in the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework is developed to explain how IT affordances (i.e., metavoicing, visibility, and guidance shopping affordance) influence customer engagement through swift guanxi and perceived enjoyment in live streaming. To test the model, a survey with 371 valid samples was carried out and a dual-stage analysis using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was employed. PLS-SEM results reveal that IT affordances in live streaming indirectly affect customer engagement through swift guanxi and perceived enjoyment. Additionally, fsQCA suggests that two different configurations with high or low visibility affordance can lead to the same outcome of high customer engagement. These findings offer insights into how IT affordances can promote customer engagement and assist operators of live streaming commerce (LSC) in developing effective strategies to engage their customers.

Design is More Than Looks: Research on the Affordance of Review Components on Consumer Loyalty.

Online review system contains multiple components, such as ratings, review text, product pictures, and video uploads, that could affect consumer loyalty. However, how the affordance of such components influences perceptions and behaviors of consumers remains unclear. We extend stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory to the online review system. Specifically, we combine affordance theory and the technology acceptance model (TAM) to investigate the relations among the affordance of review systems, consumers' perceived beliefs, and their loyalty. We surveyed 320 customers on their online shopping experiences in China. We tested our hypotheses using the partial least squares path structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. We report the direct effect of affordances of review components on consumer loyalty and its indirect effects on consumer loyalty through perceived beliefs. Our results show that integrity and social interaction affordance of review components have significant relations with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment. Intelligent topic mining reveals a positive relation on perceived enjoyment. Operability has a positive relation with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. These three consumer-perceived beliefs can mediate, to different degrees, the relationship between affordance of review components and consumer loyalty. This research takes an innovative approach to offer insights into the relationships between IT affordances and consumer perceptions. We examine S-O-R theory through the lens of information technology and extend S-O-R theory by integrating IT affordances. Our research findings pave the way for businesses to design and implement more effective online review systems.

Determinants of Livestream Shopping Reuse Intention in Social Commerce: Role of Trusting Belief and IT Affordance

Livestream commerce is an emerging form of online social commerce, gaining popularity due to its increasing volume. However, despite the importance of this development, only a limited number of studies exist pertaining to the determinants of livestreaming reuse intention. Additionally, the determinants, processes and consequences of trust in streamers remain largely unexplored in predicting the usage of livestream shopping. This study develops a model identifying the antecedents of livestreaming reuse intention to fill this gap. Based on the trust establishing theory and IT affordance theory, this study aims to examine the impacts of IT affordances (i.e., visibility, metavoicing, & guidance shopping) and trust in streamer on customer intention to reuse livestream shopping. We also examine the mediating effect of customer trust in streamer on the relationships between IT affordance factors and livestreaming reuse intention. For this purpose, the empirical data was collected via an online survey from the users of livestream shopping on the Facebook platform. The data was analyzed using SmartPLS 3, and the results showed that the visibility, metavoicing and guidance shopping affordances of livestream commerce positively influence customer trust in the streamer. The results confirm that customer trust in streamers significantly mediates the impact of IT affordance factors on livestreaming reuse intention. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications.

Expanding Students’ Choices in Language Education

Many teachers seem interested in their classes being more student-centered. Students making more choices about their own learning forms a key aspect of student-centered learning, as well as life-long learning. This article offers ideas for ways to provide students with more choices in their learning and suggests ways to encourage students to make choices when given opportunities to do so. These ideas for increasing student choice include extensive reading, cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, service learning, thinking questions, and use of the internet and other IT affordances. Student choice fits with an overall paradigm shift toward democratizing society, and it also fits with greater choice for teachers. Theoretical underpinnings of student choice include social cognitivism, social constructivism, humanistic psychology, self-directed learning, and social interdependence theory.

How do IT affordances support behavioral intention in charitable crowdfunding? The mediating effects of donor perceptions and motivations

PurposeSocial media technology has changed donors' decision-making process in online philanthropy compared with traditional charity. How do IT affordances support donor perceptions and motivations in charitable crowdfunding? The purpose of this study is to explore how the five sub-dimensions of charitable crowdfunding IT affordances (i.e. visibility, association, meta-voicing, trading and security) afford initiators and platforms in motivating donors to support charitable crowdfunding projects.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a quantitative research approach. An online survey was conducted to collect research data from WeChat users who had experienced charitable crowdfunding. A sample of 344 valid responses were received and analyzed.FindingsThe results show that four of the five IT affordances facilitate donors' perceptions (perceived emotions and trust) and motivations (intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations), and thereby increase behavioral intention on supporting charitable crowdfunding projects.Originality/valueThis study advances the affordances and online charity literature by examining the antecedents and outcome of perceptions and motivations that determining behavioral intention in more detail. The authors’ findings not only benefit researchers in explaining how technology helps donors perceiving projects and motivating them to donate online, but also assists practitioners in developing better charitable crowdfunding management strategy.

An empirical study on business analytics affordances enhancing the management of cloud computing data security

The mechanism of business analytics affordances enhancing the management of cloud computing data security is a key antecedent in improving cloud computing security. Based on information value chain theory and IT affordances theory, a research model is built to investigate the underlying mechanism of business analytics affordances enhancing the management of cloud computing data security. The model includes business analytics affordances, decision-making affordances of cloud computing data security, decision-making rationality of cloud computing data security, and the management of cloud computing data security. Simultaneously, the model considers the role of data-driven culture and IT business process integration. It is empirically tested using data collected from 316 enterprises by Partial Least Squares-based structural equation model. Without data-driven culture and IT business process integration, the results suggest that there is a process from business analytics affordances to decision-making affordances of cloud computing data security, decision-making rationality of cloud computing data security, and to the management of cloud computing data security. Moreover, Data-driven culture and IT business process integration have a positive mediation effect on the relationship between business analytics affordances and decision-making affordances of cloud computing data security. The conclusions in this study provide useful references for the enterprise to strengthen the management of cloud computing data security using business analytics.

Innovation in Game Development: IT Enablement and Affordances on Kickstarter

The rise of social media platforms has changed the nature of interactions between computer games companies and players. Computer games companies have greater access to information on their needs and wants as they share information and engage with players in the development process. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how crowd-funding social media platforms, in this case Kickstarter, can enable computer games companies and players to produce and utilize knowledge that can facilitate the game development process. In this paper, the Poppelbus and Malsbender conceptual framework and the IT enablement model by Jarvenpaa and Tuunainen are combined in order to evaluate how computer games companies can interact with players and accelerate games development using Kickstarter. The results show that Kickstarter is a useful platform for gaining access to a dedicated user base willing to share their knowledge. Kickstarter enables companies to build strong relationships with their backers via the processes of informing, responding and promoting response. Kickstarter helps to integrate the role of the games company with that of the users by enabling both parties to engage actively with each other, rather than the games company taking a passive role of simply gathering feedback from players.

Social tie formation in Chinese online social commerce: The role of IT affordances

Social media technology creates an opportunity to shift the formation of impersonal relationships from offline to online. The theory of IT affordances provides a basis for theorizing how the use of online social commerce (OSC) technology facilitates the formation of social ties in an OSC context. In this paper, integrating theories of IT affordances and social ties, we develop a model to explore how the six sub-dimensions of OSC IT affordances (i.e., visibility, metavoicing, triggered attending, guidance shopping, social connecting, and trading) aid buyers and sellers in building strong and weak OSC ties. A survey of 511 buyers from WeChat shows that five of the six IT affordances enhance the quality of interactivity, and thereby facilitate social ties (both strong and weak), which in turn contribute to buyers’ repurchase intentions. Additionally, the findings confirm the positive moderating effect of perceived effectiveness of e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM) on the strong tie formation process. This paper advances the affordances and social tie literature by examining the antecedents and outcomes of OSC social ties in more detail. Our findings not only benefit the researchers in interpreting how technology helps form different types of relationships in OSC, but also assists practitioners in developing better OSC management strategy.

The IT artifact and its spirit: a nexus of human values, affordances, symbolic expressions, and IT features

This article theorises the IT artifact using a new conceptualisation of IT Spirit that highlights the interrelationships between IT Features, Affordances, and Symbolic Expressions. Although these concepts have been discussed in the IS literature, researchers have mostly examined them independently. Drawing on the philosophical theories of Aristotle and Heidegger, this article discusses the “essence of technology” by conceptualising the IT artifact in terms of the intertwining relationships that exist between IT Features, their Symbolic Expressions, the Affordances connected to them at different levels of abstraction, and the Values that emerge from the enactment of their action possibilities within a user group. It is argued that these essential components of the IT artifact operate at variant levels of abstraction, instigate user sense-making, and subsequently form the overarching IT Spirit. The latter is presented as the incorporeal essence of a technology that shapes – and is itself shaped by – user sense-making and appropriation. With the emphasis that it gives to human values, the concept of IT Spirit offers researchers a high-level unit of analysis to tackle the IT artifact and a systematic framework that facilitates the identification of its prominent action possibilities.

Using IOS in a Collaborative Way

Interorganizational systems (IOS) are information and communication technology-based systems that transcend organizational boundaries. However, their use does not always lead to successful interorganizational collaboration, particularly in settings where significant changes in business processes are needed. The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry offers such a setting, in particular as its stakeholders are encouraged to use of a novel type of interorganizational system known as building information modeling (Building Information Modelling), which can only be successfully used if parties collaborate. This research seeks to uncover what leads to interorganizational collaboration in this particular context. Drawing on rich data from interviews with BIM users involved in interorganizational projects, the authors propose a conceptual model of how interorganizational collaboration unfolds. The authors highlight the central role played by interorganizational infrastructure, collective identity, and IT affordances, on interorganizational collaboration.

Developing a Leading Digital Multi-Sided Platform: Examining IT Affordances and Competitive Actions in Alibaba.com

Developing a Leading Digital Multi-Sided Platform: Examining IT Affordances and Competitive Actions in Alibaba.com