Blogging: mediating impacts of flow on motivational behavior

Abstract

PurposeUpon extending Hoffman and Novak's flow model, this paper aims to delineate the blogging motivations with an emphasis of flow mediation to predict blogging behaviors. Three objectives are to: identify determinant dimensions of blogging motivations, behaviors and flow; investigate the hypothesized relationships between blogging motivations, blogging behaviors with the mediation of flow; and control the moderating effect of individual differences (i.e. blogger and blog reader) to disperse their blogging behaviors.Design/methodology/approachUsing the self‐administered questionnaire, the data (n=432) are collected from students at a public Southwestern university in the USA. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 7.0 identifies and validates the measurement model prior to examining the hypothesized relationships. To test the hypothesized relationships, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis is employed in addition to the multi‐group SEM analysis to scrutinize the moderate effects of blog ownership.FindingsThe findings reveal that the desire for entertainment, information, and efficiency are the primary drivers for blogging behaviors. Specifically, information‐seeking is the decisive motivation to urge digital engagement and e‐shopping behaviors concurrently. This study concludes that telepresence of flow plays a pivotal mediating role to promote both digital engagement and e‐shopping behavior stirring entertainment and information‐seeking motivations. Interestingly, there are disparities between blogger and blog‐reader groups that entail divergent mediating effect of telepresence.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the preliminary nature of this approach, there are some limitations as follows: the convenience sampling limits the generalizability of the research; the individual factors as well as social and cultural factors in a global context need to counter why the majority of internet users do not participate in blogging.Originality/valueBlogging provides distinctive insight into comprehending e‐consumer behavior explicitly with respect to social networking and information searching behaviors while facilitating a state of flow. This approach allows e‐service providers' and researchers' efforts to be more effective and approachable in comprehending the phenomenon through the application of the appropriate theoretical platform.

Investigation of temporal dissociation and focused immersion as moderators of satisfaction–continuance intention relationship: Smartphone as an example

“…It defines the nature of compelling online experience (Novak et al, 2000;Hsu and Lu, 2004;Park et al, 2010). Past studies have discussed the effect of flow experience on online user behaviour in various contexts such as blogging (Park et al, 2010), e-learning (Ho and Kuo, 2010;Lee, 2010), mobile instant messaging (Zhou and Lu, 2011) and online shopping (Guo and Poole, 2009).…”

“…Different viewpoints on the components of flow exist. There are several contexts to operationalise, test, and apply flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000;Rodriguez-Sanchez and Schaufeli, 2008;Guo and Poole, 2009;Hausman and Siekpe, 2009;Hoffman and Novak, 2009;Park et al, 2010). There are also inconsistencies in how flow is modelled where ''what one researcher considers an antecedent of flow, another considers a consequence of flow, or perhaps a part of flow itself.…”

Understanding Social Media Mindset of Consumers: An Indian perspective

“…Next to the importance of SNS as social phenomena, they are a domain of interesting marketing opportunities for businesses engaged in internet marketing. Understanding the motivations of people to make use of SNS and identification of the parameters affecting the adoption of these applications are vital for marketers eager to utilize these environments as part of their marketing strategy (Park et al, 2010). Realizing the popularity of some of these sites, Indian marketers have started using them as a marketing tool.…”

¿Quién haba de ti en internet? Una exploración de la ‘blogosfera’ afín a temas alimenticios = Who talks about you on the internet? An exploration of the food-related ‘blogosphere’

“…Dentro de las aplicaciones más utilizadas por los consumidores para compartir sus opiniones, comentarios y críticas sobre productos se pueden mencionar los foros de discusión, las webs de opinión o las plataformas de redes sociales online, aunque es el weblog, o simplemente 'blog', el servicio más característico que ofrece la denominada Web 2.0 y que sirve como plataforma para la comunicación eWoM (Park, Ahn y Kim, 2010).…”