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Consumers search for information about products to make a satisfactory purchase decision and gain knowledge about new features and updates. Consumers also use this knowledge to be vocal about their product experience because several consumers seek interpersonal recommendations. This phenomenon has contributed to the emergence of information search (IS) and information dissemination (ID) as a key research area in the field of consumer behaviour. However, the role of personal factors such as consumer self‐confidence and subjective knowledge has received little attention in the extant IS and ID literature. The major argument of this study is that information acquisition confidence and social outcome confidence enhance subjective knowledge and consequently increase the will of consumers to search and disseminate information in the context of smartphone buyers in India. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed hypotheses using a convenience sample of 259 consumers obtained through a cross‐sectional survey. The study shows that subjective knowledge is crucial in strengthening the association between consumer self‐confidence and consumer intention for IS and ID. Additionally, enhancing consumer’s social outcome confidence contributes towards high subjective knowledge and consequently accelerates information dissemination. Results suggest that firms could focus on enhancing the social outcome confidence and subjective knowledge of consumers to motivate them to disseminate information. The results also show that consumers with high confidence in information acquisition ability have the high subjective knowledge and are more likely to search for information. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature regarding the role of personal factors in IS and dissemination behaviour.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services. AbstractPurpose -In a voluntary consumer market, the consumer's decision-making process is still a magnetic topic although a large number of related studies have been conducted. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determining factors for the future adoption of an innovation service and proposes a new model to better explain consumer's adoption intention. Design/methodology/approach -Social cognitive theory is introduced in the paper to explore consumer behavior in terms of triadic and reciprocal causation among value, self-efficacy, and adoption constructs. Based on the theoretical framework, a self-efficacy-based value adoption model (SVAM) is proposed to study the adoption of mobile auction (m-auction) -one of mobile-internet services in an empirical manner. The analysis of measurement and structural model is conducted via LISREL 8.80. Findings -Research results indicate that the instruments are reliable and valid and the model is well accepted. Perceived functional, social, and emotional values are tested to have a significant influence on perceived value. Perceived cost is negatively related to perceived value and positively to attitude. m-auction self-efficacy (MASE) comes from subjective and objective general self-efficacy, which not only directly impacts attitude but also strongly influences perception of all the antecedents of perceived value. Research limitations/implications -Although SVAM is proved to be successful in this paper, it still needs more experimental research from different research contexts and authors to be supported. Originality/value -Compared with previous research on innovation adoption, results show that the model is more effective in explaining the adoption intention (R 2 ¼ 0.72). Just like perceived value has a significantly impact on attitude, self-efficacy of m-auction has an essential role in perceived values and cost and attitude. The result fully demonstrates that the value adoption model based on self-efficacy is a better technology acceptance model, especially for a voluntary consumer market.The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

Purchasing through online retailers, electronic markets, and virtual communities has its value. Often motivations to buy online differ from those in an offline environment and these motivations may be more incongruent for online shoppers dispersed globally. In this study, motives to purchase in an electronic environment in the context of two countries are studied. Two data sets of 538 respondents (304 in Singapore and 279 in China) were collected. Results show that there is a significant difference in motivations in China and Singapore buyers, and Singapore buyers have higher positive need gratifications. These findings indicate that Singapore buyers are more positively inclined toward online shopping, and they are likely to be more gratified when buying online than respondents from China. In country specific contexts, no motivational differences for male and female respondents are observed. However, gender is significant for the combined sample indicating that overall male and female populations have different motivations for online shopping. Online retailers could benefit from focusing on aspects that address perceptions of positive need-fulfillment on their e-commerce sites for the Singapore and Chinese market segments, while also differentiating websites for online markets by gender.

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Multi-user virtual communities have become an accepted fundamental component of communication whereby community members share information and knowledge for mutual learning or problem solving.Virtual communities in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) have evolved into active social networks, formulating an alternative social existence and this phenomenon warrants further investigations. In these virtual social networks (VSNs), member participation is essential for their success. Therefore, developing knowledge on how to manage and sustain participation of members in VSNs fills a gap in our academic understanding of the dynamics underpinning the processes of virtual community development. This article aims to address these issues by extending the theory of sense of community into a virtual context (SOVC) and by integrating it with other communication theory of U&G.

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