, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (FB), announced that a billion people had used FB in 1 day to connect with friends and family, a milestone that was reached about a decade after the launch of the social media platform in 2004 (facebook.com). This rapid growth of FB brought with it an increase in the use of its "social media buttons" such as the "Like" and "Share" features. In May 2013, FB estimated that 4.5 billion Likes were generated daily by its users, a 67% increase from August 2012 (facebook.com). Like and Share buttons are plugged into more than 10 million websites globally (facebook.com) at present, and many companies and organizations have integrated a FB platform into their websites. However, despite this dramatic increase in the use of the Like feature, research into user motivations to engage in Liking behavior is scarce. Many studies have concentrated on the outcomes of the Like, such as purchase intentions and service quality

A study into reading behavior and reading compliance among 2,600 students in five universities in Ecuador found that their reading behavior and reading compliance were better than among students in the United States, despite the challenges that exist in Ecuadorian higher education. Suggestions for future research, in particular with regard to improving students’ time management skills as a way to enhance their reading compliance, are included.

Cultural tightness-looseness represents the degree to which a particular culture possesses strong behavioral norms, and the degree to which members of that culture are likely to sanction individuals who deviate from those norms. While tightness-looseness has been quantified for a large and growing number of countries around the world, there are many countries where a tightness-looseness score has yet to be determined, thus impeding the inclusion of those countries in cross-cultural research with a tightness-looseness focus. There is a dearth of research on cultural tightness-looseness in South America in particular. We report results from a national survey of 1,265 Ecuadorian residents which provided quantification of the relatively tight culture of Ecuador.

In light of recent changes in Ecuador's higher education system that are aimed at enhancing the universities' academic performance and thereby their ability to help address the country's socioeconomic problems and contribute to the country's growth, this article reports on a study that investigated the research and reading behaviors of faculty members in a private and a public university in Cuenca, Ecuador. An analysis of the self-reported reading and research behaviors of 129 professors in both universities revealed that professors are poorly prepared to conduct research and are even less familiar with publishing its results in peer reviewed journals. Hardly any differences in faculty reading and research behaviors were observed between both universities. Additionally, no significant differences in research productivity were detected between those professors who held graduate degrees and those who did not. The article concludes that greater research and publication expectations need to be placed on professors with advanced degrees, in particular those holding doctoral degrees. The latter should take on leadership roles in the universities' research efforts. However, to make this happen Ecuador's universities need to take steps to reduce faculty involvement in teaching, provide adequate resources and create an infrastructure that is truly conducive to research growth. This process will be further enhanced if a reward system for research and publication is in place.