{"title":"Why do some watch while others donate? An S-O-R Perspective of live streaming engagement","authors":"Tsai-Hsin Chu, Wei-Hsin Chu","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104235","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104235","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>User engagement is crucial for streamers on social live streaming services (SLSS) to generate revenue. Active engagement, such as subscriptions and donations, can boost income, while passive viewing can still yield earnings through ads and brand partnerships. To achieve sustainable success in the streaming industry, an SLSS streamer must effectively balance both types of engagement. Current studies focus on media influences and motivations to explain how people engage with SLSS. However, these studies do not address how individuals decide on their engagement practices in SLSS. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, this study aims to answer the research question: How can SLSS engagement be explained by environmental stimuli and individual emotion and cognition? To explore this research question, we conducted an interpretive qualitative study to investigate users’ S-O-R paths, particularly among two extreme groups (i.e., lurkers and donors). Our findings indicated that individuals selectively focused on environmental stimuli that evoked various emotional states, shaped different interpretations, and led to distinct behavioral responses during SLSS engagement. Lurkers tended to notice stimuli that provided entertainment, developing an emotional connection to the streamers while feeling detached from the audience. They viewed themselves primarily as observers participating in SLSS for enjoyment. In contrast, donors concentrated on game and social events, demonstrating a higher level of empathy toward the streamer and establishing emotional connections with the audience. Donors set goals to enjoy a festive gathering and leveraged donations to foster shared experiences within the community. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104235"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144867125","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 to enhance antiphishing training performance? The roles of performance facilitators and message-specific coping responses","authors":"Jungwon Kuem , Dong-Heon Kwak , Sanjay Goel","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104234","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104234","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Phishing has become one of the most pervasive security threats in today’s world. Despite much research on antiphishing behavior, little attention has been paid to how performance facilitators and individuals’ phishing message-specific coping responses operate jointly to determine antiphishing training performance in the context of this training. Based on goal-setting theory and coping responses, this study was designed to develop and test a model of antiphishing training performance by focusing on performance facilitators (e.g., incentive structures, feedback, time constraints) and their interactions with message-specific coping responses (e.g., task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, avoidance-oriented coping). To empirically test the proposed model, we performed three experiments on 692 subjects in the United States. Our results suggest that performance facilitators and message-specific coping responses are important predictors in understanding antiphishing training performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104234"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144892795","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":"Streaming together: Unraveling social experiences in social live streaming services","authors":"Fangfang Hou , Zhengzhi Guan , Boying Li , Alain Yee Loong Chong","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104230","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104230","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global rise of social live streaming services (SLSS) highlights the importance of social interactions in digital spaces. This study explores previously underexamined dimensions of social experiences within SLSS, specifically investigating how social presence influences parasocial relationships (viewer–streamer connections) and viewers' sense of belonging within viewer communities. Additionally, the study examines the effects of these social experiences on viewers' behavior, notably virtual gifting and session visit durations. It also investigates the moderating roles of viewer loneliness and streamer physical attractiveness. Data from 434 respondents, analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), demonstrate that social presence contributes significantly to the development of parasocial relationships and a sense of belonging. Furthermore, viewer loneliness moderates these relationships, diminishing the effects of social presence. Parasocial relationships and a sense of belonging affect viewers' visit duration positively, while parasocial relationships additionally encourage virtual gifting. Notably, streamer physical attractiveness amplifies the impact of parasocial relationships on viewers' visit duration. A supplementary lab experiment complements these findings by capturing actual viewer behavior. This research enriches social presence theory and the theory of parasocial relationship by highlighting their relevance in SLSS contexts, and highlights the significance of personal predispositions in shaping social interactions online. Practical implications are offered for SLSS practitioners to strategically enhance user engagement and platform success.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104230"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144810346","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":"The impact of physicians’ value co-creation behavior on their online performance in intelligent collaborative healthcare","authors":"Huiyuan Liu , Yang Huang , Jian-Jun Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104221","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104221","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the growth of Internet Healthcare, Intelligent Collaborative Healthcare (ICH) services are being increasingly recognized by physicians and patients as an essential channel for value co-creation. However, limited research has examined how value co-creation behaviors between physicians and patients, as well as among physicians, influence their online performance. To address this gap, we used data for 6600 physicians and 870,000 unstructured interaction records from a leading mobile health app in China. Based on trust transfer theory, we empirically examined how different types of physicians’ value co-creation behaviors influence their online performance. We also analyzed the moderating effects of physicians' status capital and disease risk. Before conducting the analysis, we categorized physicians' value co-creation behaviors into instrumental type and emotional type, with instrumental behaviors further divided into cooperative sharing and informational support. Using a combination of coarsened exact matching and staggered difference-in-differences, the results revealed that physicians’ active instrumental and emotional value co-creation behaviors positively influence their online performance. Moreover, the positive effects of cooperative sharing and informational support behaviors on their online performance are further amplified for physicians with higher status capital. When physicians address diseases with higher risk levels, the positive impact of informational support behavior on their online performance is strengthened, whereas the effects of cooperative sharing and emotional behaviors are diminished. These findings offer significant theoretical and practical implications for promoting physicians' sustained participation in ICH services and enhancing value co-creation between physicians and patients, as well as among physicians.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104221"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144763982","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 emotions don’t match: Effects of multimodal emotional misalignment in virtual streamers on viewer engagement","authors":"Menghan Duan , Qi Zhang , Yueyue Zhang , Cheng Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104222","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Virtual streamers have been increasingly adopted in entertainment live streaming, yet the effectiveness of their social interactions remains unexplored. Owing to the avatar abstraction of faces and the limited flexibility of facial expression, they rely primarily on vocal tone and textual content to convey emotion. Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Cognitive Tuning Theory, this study examines how streamers' cross-modal emotional misalignment between voice and text influences viewer engagement through streamer-viewer emotional synchrony. Using moment-to-moment data and machine learning–based emotion recognition techniques, we find that greater cross-modal emotional misalignment of streamers increases viewer engagement by heightening viewers’ emotional responses to vocal cues. Additionally, the positivity of the streamer’s vocal tone strengthens the effect of cross-modal emotional misalignment on vocal–emotional synchrony. Finally, we reveal the dual effects of cross-modal emotional misalignment on viewer consumption; while it increases short-term spending on paid comments and virtual gifting, it reduces long-term commitment in the form of premium subscriptions. Our study contributes to the research on live streaming and emotional interaction, and provides practical implications for designing emotionally intelligent virtual streamers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104222"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144771360","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}
Zach W.Y. Lee , White Z.H. Liu , Tommy K.H. Chan , Gwen G.Z. Wei
{"title":"Impulse buying in live streaming commerce: A literature review and research agenda","authors":"Zach W.Y. Lee , White Z.H. Liu , Tommy K.H. Chan , Gwen G.Z. Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104220","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104220","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Impulse buying in live streaming commerce (LSC) is an emerging phenomenon characterized by spontaneous, unplanned purchases driven by real-time social interactions. Despite increasing scholarly attention, the existing literature remains fragmented, lacking consensus on antecedents, theoretical perspectives, and outcomes. This fragmentation hinders theoretical development and accumulation of knowledge of this research stream. To address these issues, this study provides a systematic review of impulse buying in LSC, synthesizing key research trends, theoretical foundations, and methodological approaches. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, we propose an integrative framework that consolidates antecedents, psychological mechanisms, and outcomes of impulse buying within LSC. This comprehensive synthesis clarifies existing inconsistencies and offers structured avenues for future research. For practitioners, our framework identifies critical platform features, streamer attributes, and consumer characteristics that influence impulse buying, enabling more effective strategies and responsible practices in LSC.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104220"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144781125","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}
Tao Liu , Wenhuan Yu , Liqiang Huang , Jun Wu , Matthew Pelowski
{"title":"Collaborative online shopping with virtual reality: An explorative investigation using fNIRS-based hyperscanning","authors":"Tao Liu , Wenhuan Yu , Liqiang Huang , Jun Wu , Matthew Pelowski","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104218","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104218","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores consumers’ shopping satisfaction within an innovative shopping context—collaborative shopping with friends enabled by virtual reality (VR) technology. In the experiments, a series of scenarios was devised, and participants’ brain responses were measured using a relatively novel brain imaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The experimental conditions included (1) shopping alone in a VR environment; (2) shopping alone without VR; (3) shopping collaboratively with a friend in a VR environment; and (4) shopping collaboratively with a friend without VR. The results reveal that collaborative shopping in a VR setting reduces selection conflict at the individual level. Participants in condition (3) exhibited significantly lower activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) compared to those in the other three conditions, suggesting reduced conflict when making choices among alternatives. Notably, activation in the left IFG was negatively correlated with consumers’ reported shopping satisfaction. At the group level, which examined dynamic information exchange between dyads in the collaborative VR condition, higher satisfaction was associated with stronger inter-brain neural alignment over the frontoparietal junction. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104218"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144771359","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}
Haoyue Fan , Qiuju Yin , Junwei Kuang , Zhijun Yan
{"title":"Suicide risk prediction for users with depression in question answering communities: A design based on deep learning","authors":"Haoyue Fan , Qiuju Yin , Junwei Kuang , Zhijun Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104219","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104219","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Predicting suicide risk for people with depression is crucial for preventing adverse events. Existing research has mainly focused on users’ current post in online communities, overlooking historical posts that can provide a comprehensive representation of users’ emotional changes. In this study, we propose a deep learning-based method called dynamic historical information-based suicide risk prediction (DHISRP), which integrates current and heterogeneous historical posts to capture the dynamic and complicated features of users’ post sequences for suicide risk prediction. Empirical evaluation shows the superior effectiveness of our method compared to the baseline model and emphasizes the importance of considering both current and historical posts to predict suicide risk.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104219"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144712981","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":"An empirical investigation of users’ engagement in online health communities for chronic diseases","authors":"Yanyan Shang , Xin (Robert) Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online Health Communities (OHCs) have emerged as a pivotal resource for individuals managing chronic diseases, serving as a vital supplement to traditional healthcare delivery systems. This study seeks to investigate the dynamics of OHC engagement among users with chronic diseases at various stages of their membership lifecycle. We hypothesize that the initial objectives users have when joining OHCs significantly shape their continued involvement. By embracing the theories of Uses and Gratifications (U&G) and Social Support (SST), we examine how users' goals for seeking information and emotional support, as well as the support they receive in these areas, influence their progression through different stages of engagement. Our empirical analysis uncovers that the goal of seeking information is most closely associated with the selection stage, while the goals of seeking emotional support and receiving emotional support are more closely linked to the commitment stage. Moreover, the degree of alignment between seeking emotional support and receiving emotional support has a significant impact on users' commitment stage activities, whereas the alignment between seeking information and receiving informational support does not significantly affect users' activities. The pattern of user interaction also plays a role in shaping their commitment stage activities and moderates the relationship between emotional support and commitment stage engagement. Our findings can guide OHC moderators and healthcare providers in more effectively leveraging OHCs for healthcare-related purposes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104213"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144738192","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 will online free product trials contribute to product sales? The impacts of trial periods","authors":"Xue Yang , Yuting Xu , Lele Kang , Xueyan Yin","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104214","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104214","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To enhance market penetration and expand their consumer base, many e-commerce retailers implement trial marketing strategies. Extant research has investigated the impact of product trials. However, one unique feature that has garnered little attention is that online free product trials are a process consisting of successive yet distinct trial periods. The effectiveness of trial marketing throughout this process remains an open question. Drawing on the hierarchy-of-effects theory, this study posits that consumers are sequentially exposed to the advertising effect and the word-of-mouth effect in the context of online free product trials, with the intensity of these effects varying as the trial progresses. Utilizing data from the free trial center of a leading e-commerce platform, this study demonstrates that the advertising effect of trial-product-related information on consumers decreases over different trial periods. In contrast, the word-of-mouth effect of trial-outcome-related information remains consistent across all trial periods. Additionally, heterogeneity has been found among different product types (e.g., search and experience products) and across different retailer groups (e.g., junior and senior retailers). This study modestly extends the literature on product sampling and marketing strategies and seeks to offer guidance on enhancing marketing efforts and improving resource allocation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"62 8","pages":"Article 104214"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144712982","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}