{"title":"Understanding player's purchase intention in MOBA games: an affordance actualization theory perspective","authors":"Yiran Liang, Yang Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102453","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102453","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games predominantly operate under a free-to-play model, in which in-game purchases constitute the primary revenue source. However, sustaining purchasing behavior remains a persistent challenge. Based on affordance actualization theory, the study examines how the actualization of MOBA game affordances relates to player's in-game purchase intention through continuance and affective commitments, and how gaming motivation moderates these relationships. Game affordances are classified into instrumental affordances (fairness and competition), hedonic affordances (novelty and design aesthetics), and social affordances (socializing and self-expression). Survey data were collected from 585 players and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that the actualization of social, fairness, and novelty affordances is positively connected with continuance and affective commitment. In contrast, the actualization of competition affordance is negatively connected with continuance commitment, while actualizing design aesthetic affordance positively relates to affective commitment. Continuance and affective commitments are positively connected with purchase intention. Moreover, gaming motivation serves as a modest boundary condition, where intrinsic motivation augments the pathway between affective commitment and purchase intention, while extrinsic motivation intensifies the pathway between continuance commitment and purchase intention. The study extends affordance actualization theory by clarifying how game affordance actualization translates into in-game purchase intention. It also contributes to commitment and motivation research by highlighting the differentiated roles of continuance and affective commitments and identifying gaming motivations as important boundary conditions. The findings offer practical implications for designing game features and monetization strategies that foster sustainable consumption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 102453"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human-like or not? The persuasive effects of virtual influencer types: The moderating role of product involvement","authors":"Duurenjargal Enkhtaivan, Hyejin Bang","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102450","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102450","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how virtual influencer (VI) types (human-like vs. animal-type) impact consumer responses in eco-friendly advertising. Integrating Construal Level Theory (CLT) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we propose that VI types influence reactions through psychological distance and message credibility, moderated by product involvement. Analysis of two online experiments revealed that in Experiment 1, animal-type VIs fostered closer psychological distance than human-like VI, thereby increasing message credibility, and the mediating effect of psychological distance was confirmed. In Experiment 2, message credibility was found to fully mediate the relationship between the VI type and brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, a moderated mediating effect of product involvement was confirmed, indicating that the influence of VI type is stronger under low-involvement conditions and weaker under high-involvement conditions. These findings offer practical implications for digital marketing strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 102450"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From perception to participation: How older adults' digital travel skills shape activity patterns and life satisfaction","authors":"Huiqian Sun, Jianghua Zhang, Xuemei Fu, Peng Jing","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102452","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102452","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid digitalization of travel services presents both opportunities and challenges for older adults, yet the mechanisms underlying their proficiency in digital travel technologies remain underexplored. Drawing on a questionnaire survey conducted in China, an integrated theoretical framework (Technology perception → Digital travel proficiency → Activity participation → Life satisfaction) is developed to investigate the antecedents and consequences of digital travel proficiency among older adults. Building on the foundational finding that digital travel skills enhance life satisfaction, our study reveals several novel insights. First, digital travel proficiency does not uniformly benefit all forms of activity participation; rather, its effect is contingent on the nature of the activity, enhancing physical exercise and medical visits (an enhancement effect), yet substituting for daily shopping and social interaction (a substitution effect). Second, using random forest modeling to disaggregate technology perception constructs into their constituent measurement items and proficiency into four service-based skills, we find that the importance of perceived usefulness and perceived risk varies considerably by service type. Third, while SEM confirms that all technology perception variables significantly influence digital travel proficiency, random forest modeling further reveals that perceived social support consistently ranks as the least important predictor across all service types, calling for a shift from informal support to structured capacity-building. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying older adults' digital travel proficiency and its differentiated effects across service types and offers practical implications for businesses, policymakers, and researchers engaged in smart mobility systems and healthy aging.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 102452"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148952226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When AI lies to me: understanding user recognition, attribution, and response to AI hallucinations in human-AI interaction","authors":"Shu Fan, Xueqi Wang, Bingqian Zhang, Xiaobei Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Generative AI models frequently produce fluent yet fabricated content, known as hallucinations, which poses significant risks for misinformation. Although hallucinations have been widely examined from a technical perspective, with limited attention to how users recognize and manage hallucinated outputs in practice, this is essential for advancing theories of human-AI interaction. Addressing this gap, this study investigates how users perceive and respond to hallucinations in generative AI systems through semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Drawing on folk theories, expectancy violation theory, and attribution theory, this study develops a recognition-attribution-response (RAR) framework that conceptualizes hallucination management as a dynamic sensemaking process under uncertainty. The findings reveal that hallucination recognition is a three-stage cognitive progression, including suspicion, verification, and confirmation, which is governed by the decision gate, where users weigh task stakes against cognitive costs. Furthermore, this study identifies that these recognition patterns are orchestrated by internalized folk theories, which calibrate the user's sensitivity to anomalies and dictate their subsequent attributional logic. Following hallucination confirmation, users deploy diverse coping strategies ranging from corrective, defensive, and resilient adaptation strategies, reflecting a recursive feedback loop of trust calibration and appropriate reliance. Finally, this study contributes a process-oriented explanation of user-driven hallucination management and offers actionable design interventions for enhancing human-AI collaborative resilience in the generative AI era.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 102434"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148569456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating the impact of content warning labels on individuals with prior fringe beliefs","authors":"Benjamin D. Horne","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent academic research suggests that exposure to misinformation is rare and heavily concentrated among a small group of people who already have extreme or misinformed views. Despite this evidence, research on content interventions, such as content warning labels, has measured intervention effectiveness on the typical news consumer, not the small minority of people who are most frequently exposed to misinformation. To begin filling this gap in efficacy testing, this paper describes the results of three between-subjects studies (<em>n</em> = 2981) that test the impact of content warning labels on people who already have extreme, radical, or misinformed views. Together, these studies provide some evidence that content labels are less effective at decreasing trust in false information for people who already have radical or misinformed views, but this result is strongly dependent on the information being intervened with. That is, content labels were more effective when they reinforced ideological positions or had no connection to prior opinions, and content labels were less effective when they undermined ideological positions or closely held misinformed viewpoints. These results reflect the well-studied theories of confirmation bias and motivated reasoning. Further, these results imply that content interventions should be studied in communities where misinformation is most frequently consumed rather than the broader population of typical news consumers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 102433"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148569455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Motivational factors and psychological correlates of AI dependence among college students: Competitive conformity, noAIphobia, and AI use stigma","authors":"Junga Kim, Chunsik Lee, Joon Soo Lim","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid adoption of generative AI in higher education has outpaced institutional policy, creating uncertainty regarding AI cheating and appropriate AI use. Building on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, this study examines the motivational predictors of AI dependence among college students and the psychological states associated with it: “noAIphobia” (anxiety when AI is unavailable) and AI use stigma. To empirically test the model, we surveyed 393 U.S. college students and analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that competitive conformity—the fear of falling behind peers—is a strong predictor of AI dependence, alongside efficiency and quality expectancies. AI dependence predicts two psychological states that affect continuance intention in opposing directions: noAIphobia is positively associated with continued use as students seek to avoid AI deprivation anxiety, whereas AI use stigma is negatively associated with continued use due to fear of negative social judgment. Academic integrity concerns further amplify the dependence–stigma relationship. These findings reveal the psychological tensions students experience when using AI and underscore the need for clear institutional policies to mitigate psychological distress and promote healthy AI engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 102436"},"PeriodicalIF":9.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148569458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating the socioeconomic effects of a digital public policy: the case of FTTH deployments in Uruguay","authors":"Juan Jung","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102420","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102420","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research estimates the socioeconomic effects of the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) program conducted by Uruguayan state-owned operator ANTEL. This company, that enjoys the monopoly of FTTH fixed broadband services, conducted an aggressive program of deployments across all the country since year 2011, until reaching 100% coverage in 2023 (with respect to those services supported by copper). These massive investments were motivated by the government universalization program to modernize the country’s infrastructures, rather than to seek an economic return. Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021) differences-in-differences estimators are applied to conduct the empirical analysis. Results indicate that the policy has been successful in generating an increase in average individual incomes. However, the evidence presented here also suggests mixed effects in inequality levels, possibly because deployments started first in the capital city of each department, then favoring those already well-positioned within each region. On the other hand, the effects on income levels have been heterogeneous, being able to extract more economic gains those regions with more educated people, those with enhanced digital environment, and those located closer to the capital city.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 102420"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148167625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Damião Magido Muara , Amarolinda Zanela Klein , Celso Augusto de Matos , Darci de Borba , Bruno Bentes Gonçalves
{"title":"Beyond adoption: How public value drives the success of mobile government: evidence from the Global South","authors":"Damião Magido Muara , Amarolinda Zanela Klein , Celso Augusto de Matos , Darci de Borba , Bruno Bentes Gonçalves","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102393","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102393","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Governments are increasingly adopting mobile applications to deliver public services, making it essential to evaluate their success. This study develops and tests a model that assesses mobile government (m-gov) applications from the citizen’s perspective, emphasizing perceived public value. Survey data from 233 respondents in Brazil and Mozambique were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Findings show that ease of information retrieval, well-informedness, and trust are the most salient values shaping satisfaction with m-gov applications, which in turn strongly predicts continuance intention. Importantly, facilitating conditions moderate the satisfaction–continuance relationship. The study advances theory by extending public value perspectives to m-gov evaluation and clarifying the conditional role of facilitating conditions. It also provides guidance for policymakers and developers to improve effectiveness by enhancing citizen-perceived value and ensuring adequate support mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 102393"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How much potential do on-device systems hold in the large language model service market? Focusing on providing sustainable business models","authors":"Sesil Lim , Hanseul Jo , Daeho Lee , Jungwoo Shin","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102395","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102395","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence are driving innovation across diverse industries, with large language models (LLMs) expanding their application scope as they acquire near-human language-processing capabilities. However, existing research has primarily focused on qualitative evaluations and performance comparisons of LLM models, limiting our objective understanding of how consumers evaluate LLM services and assign them economic value. To address this gap, this study quantitatively evaluates the user experiences of LLM services and analyzes their economic value. Using a discrete choice experiment, we systematically examine consumer preferences for key attributes, including price, response accuracy, response speed, maximum response length, content type, and lexical comprehension level. The results reveal that response accuracy is the most important factor, followed by price, language comprehension, and content type. Particularly, users demonstrate a significantly higher willingness to pay for image-generation functions than for text-generation ones. Simulation outcomes further indicate that depending on pricing and functionality strategies, on-device models have the distinct potential to compete with cloud-based models. By classifying LLM service attributes into industry-driven and user-centered factors, this study provides actionable insights for firms seeking to design user-centric and sustainable business models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 102395"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147656934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital accessibility research from 1997 to 2024: A triangulated review and conceptual framework","authors":"Seungyeon Ha, Seongcheol Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102394","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tele.2026.102394","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital accessibility is a dynamic process that evolves alongside technological advances; thus, it is essential to examine how it adapts over time. Through a review of scholarly articles published from 1997 to 2024 in Scopus and the Web of Science, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the digital accessibility research over this period. Employing a triangulation approach, we integrated bibliometric and quantitative content analyses of 410 papers with a thematic analysis of a subset of 66 papers, combining quantitative and qualitative methods for both broad and in-depth analysis. The results show a steady growth in scholarly output, with research led primarily by the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Empirically, literature is dominated by evaluation-oriented studies, focused largely on public-sector contexts, web-based platforms, and individuals with disabilities. Based on the results, we present an overview map of the digital accessibility research landscape, highlighting metadata trends, thematic divisions, and recurring themes. We also propose a synthesized definition and conceptual framework of digital accessibility, clarifying its relationship to related concepts. This study is intended to serve as a foundation and guide for future research on digital accessibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 102394"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147656936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}