An integrated framework of online generative capability: interview from digital immigrants
| Pages | 219-239 |
| Published date | 10 March 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-08-2013-0068 |
| Date | 10 March 2014 |
| Author | Yuxiang Chris Zhao,Xiaojuan Xu,Xiaoling Sun,Qinghua Zhu |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
An integrated framework of
online generative capability:
interview from digital immigrants
Yuxiang Chris Zhao and Xiaojuan Xu
School of Information Management, Nanjing University,
Nanjing, China
Xiaoling Sun
School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University,
Nanjing, China, and
Qinghua Zhu
School of Information Management, Nanjing University,
Nanjing, China
Abstract
Purpose – In the Web 2.0 era, more and more digital immigrants actively participate in blogging,
video sharing, online rating, and micro blogging, etc. However, some may be more skilled in producing
and generating online content while others still meet some barriers in doing so. Thus, it is interesting
to investigate the online generative capability of digital immigrants in Web 2.0 context. This paper
seeks to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors selected Shanghai as their target province in this
study for its large scale of internet users. An in-depth semi-structured interview was used as their
research method. They selected several community clubs as the interview settings. In addition, age
was adopted as a threshold to define the Chinese digital immigrants for its convenience in sampling.
Findings – Chinese digital immigrants are playing an important role in content generating, and have
a great potential in the future contribution, and a number of digital immigrants regard the content
generating as a pretty easy work while some others felt difficulties, even frustrated and exhausted
when generating content. About the content type, digital immigrants prefer to generate that content
with low granularity. About the motivation, the intrinsic motivation and the extrinsic motivation with
an internalized focus play a dominant role. About the generating mode, digital immigrants prefer to
generate content individually or collectively.
Originality/value – This paper develops the concept of online generative capability by adapting the
notion of generativity from other disciplines to the characteristics of Web 2.0. Then an integrated
conceptual framework is built and evaluated. Practically, the paper puts forward some implications for
the designers, managers, and information service staff from different perspectives to facilitate the
digital immigrant’s online generative capability.
Keywords Web 2.0, Digital immigrant, Online generativecapability, Social informatics,
User-generatedcontent (UGC)
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
This work is jointly supported by the Jiangsu Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science
under Grant 13XWC015, and the Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Council
in China (Grant No.13YJC870033).
Online
generative
capability
219
Received 8 August 2013
Revised 4 October 2013
22 December 2013
Accepted 22 January 2014
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 66 No. 2, 2014
pp. 219-239
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-08-2013-0068
1. Introduction
With the emergence of Web 2.0 applications, user-generated content (UGC) has become
one of the dominant forms of global media. New hybrid terms such as
“peer-production” and “co-creator” have meanwhile aroused great attention from
academia and industry (Bruns, 2007). UGC is fundamentally altering how users
interact with the internet, and how those UGC platforms reach their audiences. It is of
little doubt that UGC has been penetrating into people’s lives in various aspects of
work, study, and entertainment.
Digital natives and digital immigrants are two terms coined by Marc Prensky in a
2001 essay (Prensky 2001a, b). Digital natives are those who have grown up in a digital
world where the use of ICT is pervasive and ubiquitous. Digital immigrants are those
who learnt to use computers and other IT devices at some stage during their adult life
(Vodanovich et al. 2010). The novel classification provides an interesting perspective
from which to examine the type and role of ICT users and attract some attention from
both practitioners and scholars. According to the China Internet Network Info rmation
Centre (CNNIC) 30th report (CNNIC, 2012), internet usage by the Chinese users from 30
to 50 years old is steadily increasing. This group clearly falls into the category of the
digital immigrants. Moreover, the growth has been gradually shifting to the
middle-aged and elderly. However, while some digital immigrants appear to be qui te
skillful in producing and generating online content, others seem to experience strong
barriers and obstacles. This disparity presents an interesting opportunity to
investigate the online generative capability of digital immigrants in the Web 2.0
context. Although some studies or annual reports offer statistical data about the status
quo of UGC in China (CNNIC, 2012; Zhao et al. 2010), few have focused on the
middle-aged and elderly and how they participate, produce, use, and share onlin e
digital content.
The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the online generating behaviour of
Chinese digital immigrants. Hence, our first research question is:
RQ1. What is the online generative capability from an information management
perspective?
We theoretically develop the concept of online generative capability based on the
extant literature and the characteristics of Web 2.0 and UGC. Since it is an exploratory
study focused on the digital immigrants, our second research question is:
RQ2. How to measure the online generative capability of digital immigrants in
Web 2.0 era?
Specifically, we build an integrated framework based on three components, namely
user, content, and process, and we raise a set of related questions
(what-where-who-why-how-when) to clarify the di fferent dimensions of online
generative capability. Using a semi-structured interview as the research method, an
iterative interview protocol is developed based on our conceptualisation of online
generative capability. Our third research question is:
RQ3. What about the current online generative capability of Chinese digital
immigrants based on some local communities in China.
AJIM
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