Online communication of visual information. Stickers’ functions of self-expression and conspicuousness

Published date26 November 2019
Date26 November 2019
Pages43-61
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-08-2018-0235
AuthorWen-Hsuan Lee,Yu-Hsun Lin
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management
Online communication of
visual information
Stickersfunctions of
self-expression and conspicuousness
Wen-Hsuan Lee and Yu-Hsun Lin
Department of Business and Management,
Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of whytext messages are superseded by
using stickers, thus driving instant messaging software (IMS) usersvisual communication process.
Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Uses & Gratifications (U&G) theory and using a semantic
technique, this research begins by identifying design indices of stickers and users perceived gratifications
that they describe and evaluate at their first impression of using stickers in Study 1. Study 2 introduces media
richness theory and the expectancy model into the framework of U&G theory and further explains several
causal linkages from the LINE stickersdesign quality indices to proximal usersperception of gratifications
and distal sticker use intention.
Findings Study 1 explores four variables, playfulness, variety, delicacy and uniqueness, as stickersdesign
quality indices and discloses two user perceptions of gratifications, i.e., the needs of self-expression and of
flaunting to someone, as main intrinsic motives for users sending stickers. The results of Study 2 further
support the finding that self-expression and a mentality that seeks conspicuousness are two important
psychological variables mediating the effects of three design quality indices playfulness, variety and
uniqueness on visual image use intention.
Originality/value The main contribution of this research is to verify the psychological mechanism of
visualized communication between IMS users. Moreover, the finding extends the digital marketing literature
by highlighting conspicuous consumption that occurs not only in consuming luxury goods, but also in
costless or cheaper digital product such as IMS stickers.
Keywords Conspicuous consumption, Self-expression, Uses & Gratifications (U&G) theory,
Visual information
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Communication is the social interaction process wherein people transmit their opinions, feelings,
ideas, attitudes, perceptions and instructions to others through verbal or nonverbal methods,
including spoken and written words, gestures, images, behaviors, etc. With the popularity of
smartphones, mobile communication tools have enabled ubiquitous communication that
transcends limitations of time and space, allowing for seamless and more convenient online
social interaction. Among these tools, instant messaging software (IMS), a kind of online chat
software that transmits instant information for communication purposes, installed on
Smartphones, namely messenger App, has become one of the platforms most frequently utilized
by people to communicate online (Statista, 2019). Examples of this include Facebook messenger
and WhatsApp, developed exclusively for users of IOS and Android smartphones. In some
areas of the Asian IMS market China, South Korea and Taiwan, the major players recently are
WeChat and QQ as well as LINE, developed by LINE Corporation based in Japan.
The emergence of LINE in recent years is a successful example of IMS. It has become one
of the popular IMSs in Asia. Its success may be attributed to its wide variety of stickers
provided for users to select and use to assist them in mobile communication. Actually, LINE
was not the IMS pioneer in the use of stickers. Yahoo and MSN messenger were its
earliest proponents, providing users with images having various expressions to simulate
Online Information Review
Vol. 44 No. 1, 2020
pp. 43-61
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-08-2018-0235
Received 9 August 2018
Revised 11 February 2019
21 May 2019
Accepted 2 October 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
43
Online
communication
of visual
information
different feelings. According to statistics from the Vulcan Post (Vincent, 2014), LINE was
ranked No. 6 in the Top Apps of 2013: Worldwide IOS and Google Play Downloads Outside
of Games;its revenues are the highest in the world for a non-gaming APP and its global
registered users now exceed 1bn. LINE made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange at
$42 per share in 2016. Further reporting shows that over 30 percent of LINE revenues came
from stickers in 2017 (Statista, 2018). Consequently, the development and success of the
LINE sticker market indicate that the popularity of stickers is definitely not an incidental
short-term phenomenon. For comprehensively understanding the sticker popular
phenomenon, it is necessary to explore what factors attract a growing number of social
media users to use stickers as a means for online communication.
Stickers as well as emojis are visual elements of social media; they are embedded and
simple graphics that can be shared, sent and received within instant messaging apps,
anything as a character-driven emoticon from Jamess smile to angry Cony (Stark and
Crawford, 2015).Compared with text in an instant message,they can help social media users
to send a message with nonverbal cues, such as body language with a facial reaction, to
enhance their emotionexpression (Derks et al., 2008) and are of increasing importance to our
everyday life for communication online (Highfield and Leaver, 2016; Stark and Crawford,
2015). The originsof the occurrence of thissticker popular phenomenonmay be attributed not
only to the herding behavior of individuals (Asch, 1951), but also to their internal needs that
are triggeredthrough the uses of new media (Katz et al., 1973; Palmgreen,1984), causing users
to substitute stickers for text in a message as a tool for effective communication. That is,
gratifyingtheir internal needs may serveas drivers for the social mediausers to select and use
the stickers for better communication.
To date, the popularity of social mediahas attracted many scholars to explorethe motives
of social media usage (e.g., Sheldon and Bryant, 2016; Smocket al., 2011). Among theories to
explain why people use social media, Uses & Gratifications (U&G) have been acknowledged
as a useful approach to explore and identify the determinants of social media usage
(e.g., Sheldon and Bryant, 2016; Smock et al., 2011). U&G theory assumed that users are
goal directed to select the mass media to come up to expectations (Zhang et al., 2011).
The gratificationsperceived to be obtained via using the specificmedia will attract audiences
to select and use the media for satisfying their social and psychological needs (Katz et al.,
1973). Thus, userspsychologicalneeds are likely to be gratified fromusing the favorite media
with specific characteristics (cf. Palmgreen, 1984). However, U&G theory fails to explain and
identify what selected media characteristics fulfill usersexpectations of gratifications.
In this regard, Bloch (1995) proposed a product consumption model by causally linking
product characteristics with psychological needs to explain how consumers seek the ideal
product and then psychologically respond to the products form. The model indicates that a
well-designed product, such as stickers in the present study, could arouse consumers
psychological needs, thus leading to them having subsequent behavioral responses. In the
same vein, stickersdesign characteristics are likely to stimulate usersneeds of sticker
gratifications and, therefore, affect their intention toward using stickers. Nevertheless, the
issue of how the visual characteristics of media technology, such as stickers in the present
paper, could shape and fulfill usersexpectations of gratification via using the social media,
as advocated by some researchers (Lev-On and Uziel, 2018; Sundar and Limperos, 2013;
Palmgreen, 1984), is still vague and worthy of further exploration.
With respect to social media gratifications, recent research has disclosed that users tend
to differentiate their social media usages and have many different channels to satisfy their
variety of needs (Highfield and Leaver, 2016; Lev-On and Uziel, 2018). For example, Smock
et al. (2011) indicated that Facebook is a toolkit and users employ different Facebook
features available to satisfy their specific needs. The motive of social interaction predicts the
chat feature use; the motives of professional advancement and social interaction associate
44
OIR
44,1

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