Social Computing and Social Media

By identifying interaction design patterns of an existing website with common language, it is possible to integrate cross-cultural features to the interaction design patterns. The purpose of this paper is the development of a set of interaction design patterns from a multicultural and emotional perspective. This research analyzes cultural behaviors of users from Spain, Panamá and Colombia, which is based on Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, and Aaron Marcus’s cross-cultural user experience design. In order to evaluate the impact of these patterns on users, the research proposes three prototypes using these patterns. Therefore, questionnaires were used as usability evaluation method, and the results showed acceptance by users. The PrEmo test was also used in order to recognize user’s emotions. The results of the PrEmo test showed most people evoke positive emotions while interacting with the interface.

Emotion is considered a critical component in human computer interaction and intelligent interfaces. However, the social context in which the emotion is manifested is rarely taken into account. In this paper, we present a set of two empirical studies, taking a social network perspective to examine the contextual effect on emotional expression. In study 1, we conducted a scenario-based experiment to examine people’s intention to express in social networks with different structural properties. Study 2 investigated the actual expression on Facebook, and the roles of social network structure and personality traits play in the process. Altogether, it is found that an individual’s tendency for expressing positive emotions and negative emotions is affected by the size and density of the social network he/she belongs to, and the effects vary with individual personality traits. Drawing on these findings, we propose to add the role of social context into existing emotion models, the context profile can be defined by each individual’s social network structure. For different personality traits, the weightage of social context on the outcome expression will be adjusted accordingly. Implications on human-centered design are discussed.

In this paper we focus on the automatic creation of infographics based on automatic extraction of tweets. To achieve this goal, we define a model where five types of information can be represented: spatial, chronological, quantitative, hierarchical, and contextual or, as is usually the case, a combination of all five. To demonstrate the suitability of this approach a prototype was generated in order to create automatic infographics without any user assistance.

With the drastic expansion of mobile technologies, mobile health has become ubiquitous and versatile to revolutionize healthcare for improved health outcomes. This study takes initiatives to investigate a new paradigm of automated mobile health as the process automation of mobile-enabled health interventions. Through the realisation of the paradigm, a novel social reasoning platform with a comprehensive set of design guidelines are proposed for efficient and effective remote health management. The study considerably contributes to the cumulative theoretical development of mobile health and health decision making. It also provides a number of implications for academic bodies, healthcare practitioners, and developers of mobile health.

The centrality metrics such as Closeness and Betweenness in Online Social Network (OSN) determine how much end-to-end delay and queue-load of a node can have as a source or as a destination through Social Routing. Experimentally, we find that nodes with high Out-Closeness centrality in OSN suffer from high end-to-end delay as a target, but not as a source. We show that the cause of this end-to-end delay is that most nodes with high Out-Closeness centrality have low In-Closeness centrality. Moreover, we show that the increase in the local In-Degree centrality will increase the global In-Closeness centrality. We also find that the promised level to increase the In-Closeness centrality of a node is its Friends of Friends-Of-Friends (Level-3). An agent-based Model for Social Routing is proposed and a set of large-scale Google+ Graphs are used. A simulation study is also completed by propagating a set of requests in different societies with different routing schemes and diverse queue disciplines, in order to compare the average end-to-end delays from the source and target perspectives.

Heuristic evaluation is a well-known and widely accepted usability evaluation method. When performing a heuristic evaluation, generic or specific heuristics may be used. But forming heuristic evaluators may be a challenging task. The paper presents a study that evaluates the perception of (novice) evaluators on Nielsen’s usability heuristics. A standard survey was applied in five experiments.

In this paper we analyze how effective the interactions between Mexican individuals that share a relationship, like family or friends, can be measured with a proposed social network tool. This tool is called Circles and its main function is to apply visualization methods to show graphically parameters like quality and quantity of time, where quality becomes more important due to the relation within interests or hobbies sharing. The process was based on User-Centered Design methods in order to find the main user’s needs, build prototypes according to final users, test the prototypes and get knowledge about the tool’s relevance in improving life quality.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of Location-Based Social Networks, information presents a trend of explosive growth. In order to locate the valuable information in tremendous amounts of location-based service data and prosperi O2O business through LBS, recommender system based on location-based service was presented. This paper takes Sina Microblog LBS data as research object. By analyzing the features of the crawled data and the existing problems of current LBS recommender systems, we present Region-density-based Clustering (RC) recommendation algorithm. For optimization, this paper also presents another algorithm called Distance-and-Category-based Clustering (DCC). This algorithm is mainly about clustering spots base on their distance similarity and category similarity. If two spots are nearby and both category attributes are similar, they will be more likely to gathered into a cluster. Finally, this paper also proposed the visualization method of the LBSNs recommender system.

With the emergence of the Web 2.0, (digital) services are coverging and moving into the digital and mobile world, producing lots of information in real-time, such as traffic conditions, points of interests and so on. With the big amount of collected data from community-based applications, it becomes necessary to know wheather such content is trustworhty. When using applications such as Waze, we are supposed to trust in the information provided by unknown users, which act as digital content producers. However, it needs to be transparently clear where this information comes from and how trustable are its providers/endorsers. This paper presents the results of a two-step study to investigate how users recognize (or not) the signs and the reputation model of digital content producers in Waze app. We analysed and found out how the reputation is communicated to the users and the potential impacts on human computer interaction.

The communication among the individuals having commonality in interests has been empowered by the emergence of the social media. Twitter is one of the social media platform used by individuals, activist, politicians, academicians and celebrities and is used for diversified purposes. Despite being a brilliant medium in facilitating the process of communication, Twitter still has a gap in targeting specific people, attracting attention, and increasing the opportunity to get more interaction with the user’s followers. This is due to the nature of the timeline that presents the recent tweets every time the user logins his account. In this situation the many significant tweeters may go un-noticed. In this paper we have addressed this problem by proposing a system that uses a novel method dedicated to discover the appropriate times to tweet based on the analysis of the active followers’ usage behavior. Then, a tool that utilizes this method launches tweets during the time these followers are expected to be active. The tool helps the tweeters to receive the highest percentage of engagement and the proliferation of tweets among their targeted followers by finding the best times to tweet. The results of the experiments show the effectiveness of this system in raising the level of activity and interaction with the user’s tweets.

Instant Messenger is a social media which is focused on communication. The aim of system is to enhance relationships of acquaintances. Stickers of Instant Messenger are popular with persons, so there is a big business opportunity in the design market of the stickers. The main findings are as follows: the impact of social context and personality toward the usage of stickers in Instant Messenger are significant. Persons use the most of stickers in chat contexts, and persons use the fewest of stickers in business contexts. Furthermore, high extraversion persons use more stickers than low extraversion persons. In business contexts, high extraversion and low neuroticism persons use more stickers than low extraversion and high neuroticism persons. The most usage of sticker is emotion type, the second are atmosphere and personality type, appearance and story type are used the least.

Exercise report posts generated by mobile exercise apps (i.e., Nike Plus and Endomondo) have shown potential to encourage exercisers (e.g., runners) by providing them a sense of social support from others. From the perspective of support-givers, the motivational factors for engaging in such exercise-related posts are largely underexplored. Under the framework of Self-Determination Theory, this study investigates associations among need satisfaction for relatedness, autonomy, tie-strength, exercise intention and viewers’ viral behaviors for exercise posts in social media. Study findings highlight the importance of increasing viewers’ relatedness through engaging exercise posts.

Nowadays Social Systems (SS) are widely used by users who want to interact expressing their thoughts and values in their posts. In this study, we present a research over the values expressed in user posts to investigate the following questions: what are the relationships between personal and social values in the users posts; which social or personal values can express (positively or negatively) the technical values and; how the expression of personal and social values in SS posts can assist in SS evaluation. The results showed that the analysis of values can be used as filters for an empirical assessment of the quality and technical problems of SS as well as a source of knowledge for the construction of new SS requirements.

In online settings, people often face inconsistent or conflicting information about a target of judgment. To make an accurate judgment, they need to determine which information is most relevant, reliable, and trustworthy and how to incorporate it into their judgment making processes. In this paper, we call this the second-order judgment problem—evaluating the value of the information on the target of judgment before making judgments. Extending previous research on online impression formation [1], this study examined the impact of perceived social closeness between the target person whose personality is to be judged and those who provide the information about that person (e.g., comments), which is, in particular, in conflict with the information generated by the target person (e.g., online profiles) on impression formation. To this end, a web-administered experiment was performed, where participants were asked to judge the personality of a target person after reviewing the person’s Facebook page, which had conflicting information. The results showed that the information generated by distant others was more influential on judgment making than that generated by close others, confirming that perceived social closeness functioned as a critical cue for judging the value of the available information. The current findings provide an important implication for the design of the interface of social media: the method of presenting the information about the available information can alter the allocation of judgment makers’ attention, and thereby, final judgments.

The increasing number of users and data generated is leading the Social Networks to a scenario where the information cannot be verified. Social networks developers have faced problems about unreliable information sharing and availability of content intentionally prepared to confuse or mislead users. This paper presents a solution to add audit capacity in social networks. It is based on a catalog that organizes characteristics and operationalizations which support auditability of information in social networks and a guide that can help developers to build software that allow evaluation of information reliability.

A culture’s social fabric is deeply dependent on how its members establish romantic bonds. What happens when the way those bonds are formed is radically changed over the course of a single generation? This is the case with the rise of online dating, which is now the second most common way for people to meet a romantic partner. Despite existing research exploring issues such as mate selection, self-presentation, and impressions, we still do not know how online dating systems affect people’s perceptions—about technology, relationships, romantic partners, and themselves—and how these perceptions affect behavior. In this paper, we introduce and explicate the Source Multiplicity, Attribution, Recognition, and Transformation (SMART)Model of Online Dating. The SMART model is a comprehensive theoretical framework that has interdisciplinary roots in human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-mediated communication (CMC), psychology, and decision science.

Social and traffic dynamics of mobility in urban areas can be derived from people’s behavior on social networks. In this research study, we take steps towards a conceptual framework for visualizing the social and traffic dynamics of urban mobility. We present an overview of transportation modes and services that have a digital presence, and illustrate these with a number of examples, along with the information available from public and private modes of transportation. Further, we derive insights gained from investigating social media communities that are active in the scope of mobility, using Saudi Arabia as a case study. By conducting an exploratory survey of related social media communities, we describe the socio-cultural factors that were considered in the design of mobility-oriented services. We also provide insights for investigating social communities in urban mobility.

Public opinions play an important role in planning policies. A beneficial population intervention may not be publicly acceptable, or policymakers may be over-cautious and believe their constituents do not sufficiently support it. Understanding the feasibility and framing of interventions based on public support is thus an important endeavor for public health. While surveys or qualitative analyses are a typical approach, they can require significant time or manpower. In contrast, algorithms for text analytics are now available that could be readily used by policymakers. As a case study, this paper used the debate that surrounded taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) in California. Our main contribution lies in detailing the process of automatizing the analysis of public health opinions, particularly using off-the-shelf software that policymakers can use, and exemplify the types of policy questions that can be investigated.

This paper discusses the advantage of social media in providing continuous non-liner, non-redundant information, taking advantage Global Systems Science (GSS) research tools and techniques. GSS matrix can indicate series of fortunate and unfortunate events that are not isolated but rather connected in time and space, sometimes appearing as events rising from serendipity. This proposition suggests that such hidden connections can be a new form of multiple intelligence named Chrono-Spatial Intelligence This is occurring by apparent or hidden connections between human or machine generated data and the time these occur so to investigate their connecting nodes, also linked to political decision making and learning. Although major prediction frameworks and systems exist as part of the GSS, it seems they cannot not successfully indicate or predict major or massive activities with global impact following the latest global events. Social media, semantic associations, local security camera data and other information have not been connected and analysed enough to predict undesirable events. Therefore, the main aim of this proposition is the identification, analysis and understanding connections between real-time political events for time-space investigation as Chrono-Spatial Intelligence. A second aim is to identify tools, methodologies and evaluation techniques to facilitate shedding light in Chrono-Spatial Intelligence understanding, analysis and impact related to political decision making, as for example quality in education. Future research suggests the proposition implementation.

Citizen engagement, human infrastructure and engaging citizens to facilitate bottom up social innovation through technology is an important part of Human Smart Cities, which was the main focus of the EU MyNeighbourhood project. The main research question addressed in this paper is how to design social software to support neighbourhoods and encourage the social cohesiveness through social-spatial spaces in the real and virtual world where neighbours could come together and act towards improving the neighbourhood. The paper describes the co-design process in the project to design services and a technological platform for citizen engagement. The co-design process provided a rich set of requirements for a diversity of users. The challenges in designing the technology and the user engagement activities that were experienced and addressed during the project are discussed.

Online social media (OSM) has become a preferred choice of police to communicate and collaborate with citizens for improved safety. Various studies investigate perceptions and opinion of high ranked police officers on use of OSM in policing, however, understanding and perceptions of field level police personnel is largely unexplored. We collected survey responses of 445 police personnel and 204 citizens’ survey in India to understand perceptions on OSN use for policing. Further, we analyzed posts from Facebook pages of Indian police organizations to study the behavior of police and citizens as they pursue social and safety goals on OSN. We find that success of OSN for policing demands effective communication between the stakeholders (citizens and police). Our results show preliminary evidences that OSN use for policing can help (1) increase participation in problem solving process, (2) increase community engagement by providing unique channel for both Feedback and Anonymity. However, such a system will need appropriate acknowledgment and trustworthiness channels to be successful. We also identify challenges in adopting OSN and outline design opportunities for HCI researchers and practitioners to design tools supporting social interactions for policing.

With the constant improvement of the science & technology and the rapidly spread mobile internet, the information dissemination method is also appeared a variety around the world. And the position of the social media being the main force of information dissemination is also much more prominent. In contrast, the speed of information dissemination is also becoming faster and faster, the rapid and convenient information dissemination has accelerated the globalization process, making the relations between the countries all over the world much closer. Today, while the exchange of information among different countries in both the economic, political and cultural fields etc. Becoming more frequent, the quality of the national image shall influence the speaking right and competitiveness of one country among the international society directly. Therefore, being the important part of the national “soft power”, the design of national image is becoming crucial. In this paper, it took the Weibo of China Sina - such an important social media as the study platform, by selecting the Weibo accounts that certified by Sina and having the important influence on the design of American national image as the object of study, including the Weibo account of American Embassy in China that representing American political affairs, the TNC (The Nature Conservancy) Weibo account that representing the non-governmental organizations, and the personal Weibo account of Rupert Murdoch - the famous pressman, the executive chairman of US-based News Corp, by using the study methods of statistical analysis and text analysis, it focused on the analysis of the popular micro-blogging inside the three Weibo accounts, to analyze the important influencing effects that the Sina Weibo made on the design of the American national image, summarize the strategy and inspiration that using the social media to make the framework for national image, in order to provide some practical proposals for each country using the social media to improve their national image under the new media environment.

The efficient management of crowded events remains a challenge, mainly due to several factors involving infrastructures, crowd dynamics, and service provision. In spite of recurrence of disasters such as stampedes, fires, and riots resulting in many situations which pose serious threats to the personal safety and security in crowds, there are no universal criteria and standards for controlling and managing crowds. The Hajj pilgrimage is the fifth pillar of Islam. Every year, muslims around the world gather in Mecca, Saudi Arabia to perform a series of rituals and prayers. In this paper, we describe crowd analytics in the study of masses of pilgrims taking part in the annual Muslim ritual of the Hajj. Technology solutions have been proposed for crowd analytics in the Hajj. Those solutions from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to Mobile Crowd Sensing and Computing (MCSC). We describe trends and challenges in urban analytics for crowd monitoring and management in the Hajj.

Analyzing and accessing information related to coupled urban socio-technical systems can provide insights into social subcultures, mobility patterns and behavior that are critical to decision making systems at an urban scale. In this paper, we examine the question of how can urban analytics provide a classification of subcultures or urban tribes for the context of Saudi Arabia. Data analytics and classification methodology of urban tribes will be used to guide the discussion, and computational challenges and directions for future research will be discussed.

Research interest in Arabic sentiment analysis (ASA) is rapidly increasing, therefore it is important to compile, document and analyze efforts in this area to facilitate further development. These ASA efforts aim to create tools that can sift through and gain meaningful knowledge from the unending data explosion. ASA approaches have continued to evolve despite lack in Arabic linguistic resources. In this paper we conduct a comprehensive and up-to-date review of recent resources for ASA.

This research aims to determine why people use Social Networks using an adaptation of the UTAUT2 model. The proposed model considers Subjective Norm, Perceived Playfulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and Perceived Usefulness as predictors of the Intention to Use. Five social networks were chosen in order to carry out this research: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn. Findings shows that social networks are more useful to serve his or her purposes when more people close to the individual are using them. Perceived Playfulness proves to be a strong predictor of Intention to Use Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all these social networks are used for leisure purposes. Perceived Usefulness proves to be the most powerful predictor for Intention to Use in LinkedIn, this social network is mainly used for work purposes. Finally, both Perceived Playfulness and Perceived Usefulness are good predictors of Intention to Use Twitter. Implications are discussed.

The effect that social media have in our lives nowadays is apparent. Many studies focused on how the differences we hold as people due to our personality, reflect our activities online. In this work we aim to exploit reports of previous work to implicitly build a personality model of Facebook users, based on their Facebook activity. An initial evaluation study shows that using Facebook activity data, we can extract information on user personality and at the same time points in further improvements necessary for more accurate personality prediction.

Sentiment analysis can be performed using machine learning algorithms to automatically identify the sentiment associated with reviews about products or services available online. In many sentiment analysis practical scenarios, it is necessary to classify reviews in rates between 1 to 5 stars – a multiclass problem. In literature, we found that the best results for reviews classification are those who propose solutions based on binary splits, achieving accuracies above 90 %. As such, we propose a model, based on the Nested Dichotomies algorithm, that performs multiclass classification in successive steps of binary classification operations. For this classifier to be more effective, we propose that the first split should be defined by identifying users’ recommendation threshold. We present a case study in which this classification model is applied to a set of subjective data extracted from TripAdvisor, discuss the process of determining the first split and evaluate the accuracy of the proposed model.

Many computer science programs require some kind of culminating “capstone” course where students demonstrate skills learned in their CS curriculum. These capstone courses typically focus on the technical skills that students have learned, but one skill that is becoming more critical in our ever-global world is the ability to work in an international setting. Specifically, working on a team with students from a different country and/or culture. Over the past three years we have successfully offered an international capstone experience requiring students to work on a virtual team with students from a different country. For instructors, the primary challenge in offering such a course is collaboration between the instructors prior to the start of class. For students, the primary challenge is collaboration while the course is underway. This paper examines how we support instructor/instructor, instructor/student, as well as student/student communication and collaboration. This paper highlights how current web-based technologies provide support for collaboration. More specifically at least shared online storage for standard documents such as text or spreadsheets as well as video conferencing facilities are required for all the relations. Additionally, shared code repositories (and corresponding presentation) as well as online and offline messaging is necessary for a satisfactory experience. Software project management platforms provide additional important features. We show how technologies such as GitHub, Google Drive, Google Hangouts and Redmine provided the necessary support in several projects. At the same time other project teams have employed other similar technologies successfully as well. Our hope is that others are encouraged to attempt similar international efforts in order to broaden their students’ non-technical skills as all the technologies are already in-place, well-known and stable, thus lowering the barrier for these important international experiences significantly.

This paper presents a model based on the needs of children with an auditory impairment, in which the dual research lines of Human Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence are employed in the design of intelligent interactive systems able to meet the requirements of the user. In following a philosophy of user-centered design, different characteristics of children with hearing disabilities are identified, along with AI techniques that could be applied in the model. The main issues involved in designing a user profile and the techniques used in order to create the process of adapting the system to the user are also discussed.

In the context of the Bologna process the “shift from teaching to learning” is postulated to meet two central goals: To increase the students’ employability and to foster needed competencies.To be in a position to process methods and find solutions for highly complex, abstract, large, and multilayered problems, a Software Engineer has to have a lot of subject knowledge and technical competencies; but above all, he/she has to be able to work in – at least one – team.For the purpose of preparing the students with professional know-how and moreover with teamwork skills, the approach shown in this paper supplements an ex-cathedra teaching by a seminar and a project phase. This combination is dedicated to acquire theoretical knowledge in a collaborative and self-directed way. This is done in order to be able to deepen the learned matter, to share content through learning-by-teaching in groups and furthermore to apply the knowledge and skills in a simulated project, which constitutes a realistic situation and teamwork of an engineer as good as possible.

The aim of this paper is to propose the most appropriate tools and techniques to evaluate geolocated video games with augmented reality (RA). To do this, we have studied the assessment tools recommended by leading authors and User Experience (UX) researchers, Playability and Player Experience (PX). Of these instruments and techniques, tools and methods suitable for these types of games were selected. As a study case, it has been taken Progrezz assessment, a platform that allows gamificating real social actions, using this technology as support for mobile augmented reality geographic location. Finally, an organized initial assessment phase guide, which allows a multidimensional measure for UX/PX geolocated mobile games with RA is proposed.

Law is behind other industries and professions in its implementation of technology that could make the practice of law and the delivery of legal services more effective and satisfying. Although there has been considerable development in legal technology over the past few years, research identified the need for an interactive LinkedIn-style online community for lawyers to communicate other lawyers. Such a community would be particularly beneficial for solo practitioners, lawyers in small firms and lawyers in rural communities and would also provide a convenient way to connect with lawyers for referrals and recommendations, for specialized expertise and to develop contacts in different geographic locations. Tentatively titled Gaggle on the Gavel is an attempt to create such a community that would gather a number of attractive features and functionality under one umbrella and be compliant with the rules of professional conduct with respect to client confidentiality, security, advertising and solicitation. A system has been designed, prototyped and revised based on feedback from a focus group of lawyers.

Collaborative Development Environments (CDEs) play a significant role in modern software engineering by integrating multiple crucial tools and functions for the development process at a single point and therefore by providing elemental support for the collaboration of the developers and utilizing synergetic effects through the combination of these tools and social functions. To prepare students optimally they should be trained to use those systems effectively. In this paper we define a criteria list for the evaluation of CDEs to be able to decide which CDE or combination of tools is most suitable for the use in a certain software engineering course in higher education. We build this work on our accumulated experiences and findings of six years of project support for students and scientists in a computer science department.

This paper presents the development process of the web application that extends the Question Game giving it support to be played over the internet with a distributed setup. The game scenario is treated as a shared workspace, and the players its users.

Most universities include a senior capstone project as part of their curriculum. These projects are designed to provide students with the opportunity to utilize the skills which they have acquired over the course of their education and to apply them to a large project. Recent trends in software development include increasing globalization and international collaboration both between companies as well as among international teams within an organization. In response to these changes, some instructors of capstone courses have begun to conduct international capstone projects where students in one country are paired with industry companies or other organizations from a different country. This paper presents the results of a survey of educators, software professionals, and former students who have participated in some form of international capstone project. This research is aimed at providing a better understanding of these projects to those who are interested in participating in international capstone projects themselves.

The use of collaboration platforms with social media mechanisms turned out to be an efficient way to integrate costumers and external experts during the innovation processes in companies through Open Innovation. While the governmental sector more and more jumped on that band wagon, higher education hasn’t exploited the full potential yet. In this paper we analyze the project “Tomorrow’s MBA” of the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary, Virginia, and show success factors on how social media can be used on a collaborative and integrative model. Hereby we show that the communication strategy with its diverse online and offline facets is indispensable and highlight the key success factors on how to execute an open innovation project in higher education.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is seen as a means to solve complex problems that surpass disciplinary boundaries. By combining methods from different disciplines advances can be achieved that were previously inaccessible. In the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” — a research cluster with over 180 staff members from various disciplines — interdisciplinary collaboration is applied intensively. In order to support this collaboration process, we set up a scientific cooperation portal that supports the researchers in various ways.

The usage of selfies has become increasingly popular as a central element in social media campaigns. This study interviewed 9 professionals from marketing agencies to explore the role of selfies in corporate social media campaigns. We identified three distinct types of selfies, i.e. “classic selfies”, “polished selfies”, and “faked selfies”. We found that professionals strive for perceived authenticity of user communication (which is best conveyed by “classic selfies”), while they want to maintain control over the campaigns (e.g. to ensure the aesthetic value and the ad authenticity) leading to the use of “polished selfies” or “faked selfies”. As a result of this tension, we identified three distinct approaches agencies and their clients adopt balancing this tension. Our research offers insights how to design and manage selfie campaigns.

User entrepreneurs develop innovative products or services for their needs and then found firms to commercialize their innovations. Their ability to coordinate the innovation related efforts is vital for both these steps. Drawing upon six cases on user entrepreneurial firms, the study explores how user entrepreneurial firms use social media, highlighting firm resources that are associated with social media and give them a competitive advantage. It was seen in these six technology based firms that social media was used for outside-in, Spanning as well as inside-out resources, especially external relationship management, market responsiveness, new product/service development and technology development.

Unethical behavior of entrepreneurs in the use of social media can have detrimental effects, both for the own entrepreneurial firm and also on competitors. In order to understand why entrepreneurs show unethical behavior a conceptual framework is developed in this paper, linking motives for financial gains, moral awareness, moral disengagement, and the tendency to make unethical decisions in the use of social media. This paper offers therewith insights into the cognitive processes of entrepreneurial decision-makers with respect to moral reasoning and ethical decision-making.

This article presents a guiding framework on how to use social media as a marketing tool for academic researchers. We present fundamentals of a modern communication strategy, which is tailored to the needs of scholars and highlights the importance of personal brands, especially in academia. We offer concrete recommendations regarding target audiences and discuss various social media channels, including researcher-specific platforms such as SSRN, Mendeley, or ResearchGate. We then present an organizational approach to managing social media activities on a daily basis. In particular, we outline a workflow that can be used to efficiently manage social media activities. Because various social media sites differ fundamentally not only in their architecture but also in regard to their optimal use, we finally point out operational recommendations to increase effectivity throughout a researcher’s portfolio of social media channels.

Social media represents a substantially new way of communicating with customers. Whereas marketers used to spread their messages without receiving any direct feedback or reactions, customers now have the possibility to instantly reply to companies’ communication efforts. Adapting to altered communication patterns poses a huge challenge especially for premium brands. On social media, premium brands are not anymore able to entirely rely on their huge marketing budgets but rather need to embrace and utilize newly emerged communication approaches. This study examines a sample of 1156 car brand posts of US Facebook pages and reveals that premium brands possess specific characteristics in their communication strategy. Our findings offer valuable insights into marketing communication activities of premium brands on social media sites.