Social media use in academia. Towards topology development and investigation of dominant use motive
| Pages | 255-280 |
| Date | 13 January 2020 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-08-2019-0093 |
| Published date | 13 January 2020 |
| Author | Shivinder Nijjer,Sahil Raj |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
Social media use in academia
Towards topology development and
investigation of dominant use motive
Shivinder Nijjer
Chitkara Business School, Chitkara University, Chandigarh, India, and
Sahil Raj
School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, India
Abstract
Purpose –The high rate of internetpenetration has led to the proliferation of social media (SM)use, even at
the workplace, including academia.This research attempts to develop a topology and thereby determine the
dominantuse motive for faculty’s use of SM.
Design/methodology/approach –In this two-part study,a two-stage research design has been adopted
for topology developmentbased on the application of Uses and Gratifications Theory. In the second part, the
TechnologyAcceptance Model is applied to discern the dominantmotive for SM use in academia.
Findings –The work is able to develop a seven-item topology,conforming to the basic three use motives,
namely, hedonic, utilitarianand social. The work shows faculty attach more valueto the instrumental utility
of SM, while the hedonic functionis also significant.
Practical implications –Discerning dominant motive impliesthat SM use at the workplace should not
be banned, rather effective regulated use will instil the faculty to enhance work outcomes. The
conceptualisation of topology for SM use in academia at the workplace can aid in designing an effective
organisationpolicy, and design of an internal SM platform.
Originality/value –The study is unique towards topology development for academic faculty and has
many important implicationsfor management and academia, especially towardspolicy design for SM use at
the workplace.
Keywords Social media, SmartPLS, Social motivation, Intention to use, TAM model,
Hedonic and utilitarian motives, Uses and gratifications theory, Hedonic motivation, Academia
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Social media (SM) is defined as Web-based services that allow individuals to construct a
profile and connect with users in a bounded system (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). High rate of
internet penetration (Bolton et al., 2013) has made SM an integral part of individual lives
such that a variety of reasons are cited for SM use at the workplace also, like distraction
from work and monotony (Olmstead et al.,2016), job-related or purely personal reasons
(Landers and Goldberg, 2013;Landersand Callan, 2014). Although digital platforms distract
employees roughly every three minutes from their work (Silverman, 2012), they also
contribute to their productivity(Charoensukmongkol, 2014;Issa et al., 2016).
Theories on motivation (Kanfer, 1990) and on consumption behaviour (Voss et al.,2003)
summarize that any (technological) product is consumed for two primary reasons –either
hedonic or utilitarian, where the former results from sensations derived from product
experience, and the latter results from functions performed by the product (Brecht et al.,
2012). Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory, dominantly used to identify motives for a
Social media
use in
academia
255
Received16 August 2019
Revised11 December 2019
Accepted13 December 2019
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.18 No. 2, 2020
pp. 255-280
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-08-2019-0093
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1477-996X.htm
particular media, also confirm the presence of above (Rubinand Perse, 1987), in addition to
social motives (Sundarand Limperos, 2013).
SM finds widespread usage in academia as well, as academician use it as an effective
coping mechanism against stress and burnout (Schultz and Peltier, 2013), for
communication, education and learning (DeLima, 2004) and to build professional digital
identities (Duffy and Pooley, 2017). SM alsoserves as professional communities (Jude-York
et al.,2000). Therefore, the purpose of this research work is to identify individualmotives of
SM use by faculty at the workplace, to developa topology and determine their dominant use
motive. The study populationencompasses the faculty who teach professional postgraduate
courses, primarily because they have increased responsibilities and longer working hours.
Second, being in a knowledge-intensivefield, they need continuous skill upgrade and round
the clock access to information,for both of which SM is a good source (Baym, 2015;Di Micco
et al.,2008). Further, the social media studied in this work focus on general, primarily social
discursive sites such as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat and excludes the
professional social networking sites in use by academia like ResearchGate or LinkedIn. In
this two-part study, first, a topology for SM use by faculty at the workplace would be
developed, through the application of U&G theory and its conformance to the three basic
motives would be testedthrough Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) (Staffordet al., 2004). In
the second part, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1992) would be
applied to identifythe predominant SM use motive (Gu and Widen-Wulff, 2011).
The study has important and unique implications.First, to the best of the knowledge of
the authors, this is a pioneering work to develop a topology for SM use by faculty. Prior
research has only focused on thecontribution of SM towards academics and SM specifically
designed for academics (Daly et al.,2010;DeLima, 2004). Second, understanding the
dominant motive for SM use by facultywould aid in effective policy design and internal SM
platform design.
2. Literature review
Motivation in mostbasic terms implies to be enthused to perform something or get involved
(Ryan and Deci, 2000),to satiate unmet needs (Kanfer, 1990).Motives for a product use have
been categorised as hedonic or utilitarian (Voss et al.,2003); also mapped to intrinsic and
extrinsic motives, respectively (Ryan and Deci, 2000;Van Der Heijden, 2004). “SM”is
inclusive of collaborative projects, blogs, social networking sites (SNS), virtual gaming and
virtualsocialworlds(Boyd and Ellison, 2008). These provide a significant advantage in
academics (Scardamalia and Bereiter,2008), by encouraging socio-emotional communication
(Dascalua et al.,2014)“scholarly communi cations”(Gu and Widen-Wulff, 2011), intrinsic
utility (Toubia and Stephen, 2013) and supporting professional growth (Francis, 2013).
Heightenedcompetition in academia (Duffy and Pooley,2017), the merging of the knowledge
industry with academy and rising part-time/contractual faculty (Carrigan, 2015)has
reinforced the need for self-promotion (Pooley, 2010)and247 availabi lity (Baym, 2015),
effectively facilitated by SM (Van Zyl, 2009). Several other use motives have also been
explored by otherresearchers (Davidson and Poor,2015;van Dijck , 2013), allof which can be
categorizedas hedonic, utilitarianor social, aiding in topologydevelopment.
3. Study I –topology development theory and research framework faculty
3.1 Uses and gratifications theory
U&G theory has found widespread application in the developmentof topology for different
media uses (Sundar and Limperos, 2013;Rubin, 1981;Brecht et al., 2012). This theory,
conceived in the 1940s, has its roots in mass communications studies and media effects
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