The involvement paradox

Abstract

Purpose Can mobile instant messaging (MIM) make people entering into the state of cognitive absorption (CA)? The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether CA can help explain users’ satisfaction during the process of MIM, while interactivity and interest are operated as determinants of CA as well as directly associated with satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a satisfaction model that is adapted from the CA theory to investigate MIMs users’ satisfaction with two determinants, interactivity and interest. Specifically, CA is operated as a second-order formative construct with four reflective dimensions, including curiosity, focused immersion, heightened enjoyment and temporal dissociation. Partial least square structural equation modeling was applied to evaluate the causal links of the model with the data collected from 472 LINE users who all had long using experience. Findings The results showed that CA in MIM, fueled by interactivity and interest, is positively related to satisfaction. Interactivity and interest themselves were also significantly associated with satisfaction. Among them, interactivity has the most influence on satisfaction, followed by interest and CA. Surprised, curiosity and focused immersion did not formative CA in MIM. Research limitations/implications The present study focuses on user satisfaction of a specific MIM (LINE) and collects data from users within a specific region (Taiwan). Other researchers must take these constrains into consideration when referencing this study. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which confirmed that people still enter into the state of CA when using MIM on smartphone, even though the using environment is drastically different from that on desktop. It indicates that prior theories in CA with desktop-based software are still applicable and serve as a basis for more studies in the mobile context to a certain extent, but other factors should also be considered. As interactivity and interest are conducive to CA, leading to user satisfaction, an MIM app can be more popular if the two factors are incorporated.

How to encourage students continue learning English on podcast? The perspectives of stimulus-organism-response and interest driven creator theory

“…We find that possessing high levels of SI and SDL can enhance learners’ experience, which in turn increases their willingness to continue with the podcast English learning. This is closely similar to the findings of Hong et al (2016) and Hou et al (2019), whereby SI is a determinant of CA in an online learning system. In addition, the effectiveness of SDL can help improve students’ language proficiency (Lee et al , 2017).…”

“…They also found that users’ interests affect satisfaction. Hou et al (2019) stated individual interest and SI have positive effects on CA within the LINE chat app. Cheng (2022) showed that SI has positive effects on behavioral attitudes toward online virtual museum navigation.…”

“…3.2 Effects of learner experiences and behavior response 3.2.1 Cognitive absorption. CA represents a psychological state driven by users' intrinsic motivation related to IS/IT usage and exhibits deep attention with highly engaging and engrossing experiences (Reychav and Wu, 2015a;Hou et al, 2019;Cheng, 2022). After the rise of multimedia, CA efficacy has been widely applied in technology media acceptance research and has been found to be a key antecedent for acquiring a deeper understanding of the formation of user beliefs and IS/IT usage intention.…”

“…All of the seven research constructs were measured with items modified from the validated instruments. First, five items of CR were taken from Daft et al (1987), five items of SDL from Lin et al (2016) and three items of SI from Leong (2011) and Hou et al (2019). Second, for the learner experiences' measures, three items of CA were taken from Reychav and Wu (2015a) and Cheng (2022), five items of PL from Cho et al (2019) and five items of AR from Xu et al (2020).…”

“…After the rise of multimedia, CA efficacy has been widely applied in technology media acceptance research and has been found to be a key antecedent for acquiring a deeper understanding of the formation of user beliefs and IS/IT usage intention. Examples include e-learning and mobile learning (Reychav and Wu, 2015a, 2015b; Shah and Soror, 2019; Cheng, 2022), mobile instant messaging (Hou and Shang, 2018; Hou et al , 2019) and social networking site (Hsu et al , 2016; Hsu and Lin, 2017; Guinaliu-Blasco et al , 2019). In the e-learning and social network context, Cheng (2022) found that CA positively influences cloud-based e-learning continuance intention and performance outcomes.…”