Earticle

Malicious rumors often emerge online. However, few studies have examined why people spread online rumors. Recognizing that spreading online rumors is not only rational, but also emotional, this paper provides insights into the behavior of online rumor spreading using the cognitive emotion theory. The results show that perceived credibility of online rumors enhances both positive and negative emotions. However, positive emotions affect neither attitude nor behavior, whereas negative emotions affect both aspects of the spreading of online rumors. The results also indicate that prior positive attitude toward object influences negative emotions. Issues involvement moderates the relationship between attitude and behavior.

Bitcoin (BTC) is a type of cryptocurrency that supports transaction/payment of virtual money between BTC users without the presence of a central authority or any third party like bank. It uses some cryptographic techniques namely public- and private-keys, digital signature and cryptographic-hash functions, and they are used for making secure transactions and maintaining distributed public ledger called blockchain. In BTC system, each transaction signed by sender is broadcasted over the P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Bitcoin network and a set of such transactions collected over a period is hashed together with the previous block/other values to form a block known as candidate block, where the first block known as genesis-block was created independently. Before a candidate block to be the part of existing blockchain (chaining of blocks), a computation-intensive hard problem needs to be solved. A number of miners try to solve it and a winner earns some BTCs as inspiration. The miners have high computing and hardware resources, and they play key roles in BTC for blockchain formation. This paper mainly analyses the underlying cryptographic techniques, identifies some weaknesses and proposes their enhancements. For these, two modifications of BTC are suggested ― (i) All BTC users must use digital certificates for their authentication and (ii) Winning miner must give signature on the compressed data of a block for authentication of public blocks/blockchain.

Stock markets are popular investment avenues to people who plan to receive premium returns compared to other financial instruments, but they are highly volatile and risky due to the complex financial dynamics and poor understanding of the market forces involved in the price determination. A system that can forecast, predict the stock prices and automatically create a portfolio of top performing stocks is of great value to individual investors who do not have sufficient knowledge to understand the complex dynamics involved in evaluating and predicting stock prices. In this paper the authors propose a Stock prediction, Portfolio Generation and Selection model based on Machine learning algorithms, Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used for stock price prediction, Mathematical and Statistical techniques are used for Portfolio generation and Un-Supervised Machine learning based on K-Means Clustering algorithms are used for Portfolio Evaluation and Selection which take in to account the Portfolio Return and Risk in to consideration. The model presented here is limited to predicting stock prices on a long term basis as the inputs to the model are based on fundamental attributes and intrinsic value of the stock. The results of this study are quite encouraging as the stock prediction models are able predict stock prices at least a financial quarter in advance with an accuracy of around 90 percent and the portfolio selection classifiers are giving returns in excess of average market returns.

The Internet and all of its possibilities and applications have changed individuals’ lifestyles in relation to socializing, working, and how they spend their leisure time. Social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook or Instagram, are ideal settings for interacting with others but, unfortunately, they are also ideal settings for motivated offenders to commit cybercrimes. Thus SNS users may be more vulnerable to cybercrime. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of cybercrime victimization, specifically cyber-harassment, cyber-impersonation, and hacking. Self-report surveys collected from a sample of 147 respondents were examined using the moderated multiple regression analysis and a logistic regression analysis to determine possible relationships between SNS lifestyle exposure activities and cybercrime victimization. The results indicate moderate support for the application of lifestyle-routine activity theory (LRAT) to cybercrime victimization. Possible educational and managerial implications, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.

With the proliferation of smart devices, mobile banking has become increasingly important. Customers can manage their banking needs without desktop computers or a face-to-face meeting with bank tellers. However, contrary to expectation of wide-spread use of mobile banking, several factors restrict its adoption. The purpose of this study is to explore what factors affect positively or negatively the adoption of mobile banking from economic (operational competence, convenience, mental accounting), psychological (hope, self-efficacy, optimism, resiliency) and social perspectives (normative social pressure, embarrassment avoidance). This paper suggests that three enablers would consequently affect a customer’s perceived utilitarian and hedonic value in mobile banking, followed by trust and intention to use. In testing the hypothesized research model, survey and analysis of a structural equation model using Amos are conducted. The findings emphasize that banks need to focus on perceived utilitarian and hedonic values when considering economic, psychological and social enablers most salient to customers in order to promote greater adoption of mobile banking services.

Digital platforms characterized by network effects enable provisioning of various types of services and provide a mechanism for linking producers and consumers. Identifying the key Quality of Service attributes of such platforms is vital for their continued success and growth. In this paper, a set of quality attributes for platforms is first extracted from different extant quality models. Then actual user feedback data from three platform providers are analysed and mapped against the set of quality attributes to determine the key attributes that are relevant. These findings are corroborated with qualitative data from interviews of different stakeholders. The results show that service quality characteristics are important to the success of platforms. Functional characteristics of platforms assume importance where the digital contributions of the platform is higher. Apart from these, ‘fitness for use’ as a major determinant of quality is also important in digital platforms.

Present-day organizations have become largely dependent on mobile instant messaging services (MIMs) for various organizational purposes. Focusing on the increasing use of MIMs in today’s organizations, this study aims to explain how different aspects of KakaoTalk, the most dominant MIM in Korea, influence employees’ attitudes toward their current employers, and how these attitudes impact the employees’ intentions to stay at their present workplaces. Overall, with the exception of one factor (satisfaction with KakaoTalk use), all other factors (perceived quality of information exchanged through KakaoTalk, belongingness through KakaoTalk, and KakaoTalk overload) significantly influenced employee’s attractiveness toward their current employers. Specifically, while KakaoTalk overload’s effect on perceived organizational attractiveness was negative, two other factors were positively associated with it. Perceived organizational attractiveness also strongly influenced employees’ intention to stay at their present workplaces. These findings contribute to expanding practical and theoretical understandings regarding the critical roles of MIMs in the efficient management of organizations in this hyperconnected society.

The rapid growth of economic transactions generated by live streaming broadcasts (“LSB”) has created opportunities for retailers to increase sales. However, little is known about what impact LSB celebrities have on customers and what causes LSB celebrities to become famous. This study aimed to fill this gap by studying the economics of LSBs. This study was conducted through a para-social relationship and attractiveness theory framework. Consequently, social and task attraction were assumed to be the antecedents of the para-social relationship that induced purchase intention. This study examined the impact of relationship rewards, self-disclosure, affective interactivity, informative interactivity, and the amount of information provided on purchase intentions through LSB. Celebrities can use the results of this study to enhance their appeal to fans and promote customers’ purchase on e-commerce. This study contributed to the IS field by investigate the impact of para-social relationship on the online shopping context.

College students experience more cyber bullying than youth and cyber bullying on college students may be more harmful than youth. But many studies of cyber bullying have been conducted in youth, but little has been studied for college students. Therefore, this study investigated the negative effects of college students’ cyber bullying experience on cognitive processing ability and emotional states. The social support of friends has a buffering effect that prevents stress and reduces the influence on external damage in stressful situations. But the impact of parental social support is controversial. Traditionally, the social support of parents has been claimed to mitigate the negative effects of external damage. Recently, however, it has been argued that parental social support, without considering the independence and autonomy needs of college students, does not alleviate the negative effects. Therefore, this study examined how the social support of friends and parents moderate the negative impact of cyber bullying. The results show that the more college students experience cyber bullying, the lower their cognitive processing ability and emotional states. And, the higher the social support of friends, the lower the harmful impacts of cyber bullying on cognitive processing ability and emotional states. But, the higher the social support of parents, the higher the harmful impacts of cyber bullying on cognitive processing ability and emotional states.

Various information and communication technologies (ICT) and electronic government (e-Government) projects have been planted in hopes of economic and social growth in developing economies. These types of ventures usually involve working in societies with their own unique cultures in various aspects that often cause “custom ways” of planning, implementing, coordinating, and controlling in IT projects, thus playing a grand role in determining the success of IT projects. Due to a lack of understanding of local cultural factors and a deficiency of cultural risk evaluation models, however, many IT projects especially in the context of developing economies face failure. This study investigates the major cultural factors involved in IT projects and their effects on IT projects in developing economies. The framework is validated using the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) information and communication technology (ICT) and e-Government project cases of two countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This study will help project managers develop management practices and strategies associated with the cultural factors they face during the various stages of their IT projects in their specific contexts.

Shared value enhances the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously reducing societal burdens. By allowing companies to share their resources, collaborative logistics systems provide companies with an opportunity to create shared value, namely, not only economic value by enhancing the utilization of resources, but also social value by reducing energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions associated with logistics and transportation. Emerging businesses, such as ES3 and Flexe, have recently demonstrated how they created shared value through collaborative logistics services, for example, ES3’s collaborative warehousing and direct- to-store (D2S) program, and Flexe’s on-demand warehousing platform. However, the development of collaborative logistics systems is currently at a nascent stage. There are quite a few socio-technical barriers to overcome for sharing resources (data as well as infrastructure). Drawing on the socio-technical approach, this research examines how companies create both economic and social value from collaborative logistics systems. We highlight socio-technical barriers, particularly one set of social barriers, that is, competition-oriented conservatism prevalent among companies. Using the case study methodology and interview data, we closely investigate ES3 and Flexe, which provide collaborative logistics services, and demonstrate how technical and social barriers are addressed to create shared value from collaborative logistics systems.