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The purpose of this paper is to identify sexual health information needs and the cognitive and affective factors correlated with the best answer chosen by social Q&A users.

The study collected questions and answers regarding sexual health information on a social Q&A site, and analyzed the questions and a paired sample composed of best and non-best answers (n=480).

The main information needs of consumers are human development, sexual behavior, and sexual health. Best answers are more likely to include both cognitive (higher level of readability, risky information, social norms) and affective factors (empathy, positive/negative feelings, and optimistic information) than non-best answers.

The study illuminates the roles of social Q&A as a unique platform to discuss sensitive health topics due to the fact that consumers use such social media sites as critical complementary health information sources.

If health information providers develop information with the factors that the study suggests, not only will it be more adopted by consumers, but it will also ameliorate the quality concerns about online health information.

Previous studies only investigated the most prevalent factors, rather than the most effective ones, which have a greater influence on best answer selection. This study compares the best answers and the non-best answers to overcome the limitations of the previous studies. Above all, the study applied the persuasion concepts to address the cognitive and affective perspectives to the answer evaluations of social Q&A.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence college students’ smartphone use for academic purposes by identifying the task-technology fit (TTF) of smartphones. A research model is proposed to explain how TTF of smartphones affects college students’ perceived academic performance and smartphone use.

Online surveys were administered to college students at a South Korean university that has offered online academic services for more than five years, and 1,923 valid responses were analyzed. The study used partial least squares path modeling to evaluate the measurement model, and the bootstrapping technique to test the significance of the hypotheses.

The findings highlight that the TTF of smartphones has a direct influence on students’ perceptions of performance impact and an indirect influence on smartphone use through a precursor of utilization, such as attitude toward smartphone use, social norms and facilitating conditions.

Despite a reasonably large sample, a single cross-sectional survey has a likelihood of selection bias in the sample.

This study applies the TTF model to smartphone use among college students and suggests an effective way to motivate them to use mobile technologies for their academic activities.

The present study develops an empirical model to assess the adoption of smartphones and its effect on college students’ academic performance. Above all, the study identifies a causal relationship among TTF, precursor of utilization, smartphone use and a perceived impact on academic performance based on the development and validation of the TTF constructs of smartphones.

To better respond to user needs for personalized information services in the context of academic libraries, this study aims at developing a prototype to provide mobile curation services by using the concept of content curation.

This study used a mobile application software development process, which consisted of five phases: user and organizational requirements, architecture design, navigation design, page design and implementation and usability testing. Usability testing was conducted with a total of 20 college students by online surveys at a university.

Meta-analysis identified key user needs: diversification of services, more personalized services, active communication with librarians, quality improvement of information and interface improvement. User and organizational requirements derived four main service modules – namely, Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log. Usability testing regarding ease of use, perceived usefulness and satisfaction indicated that participants were satisfied with the prototype.

The study extends the discussion of quality academic library services by introducing the concept of content curation that uses the advantages of mobile technologies to overcome existing limitations in library services insufficient for meeting individual user needs.

Although many studies have discussed mobile library services, few studies have focused on developing a system for such services. The model developed in the study fills the research gap. Above all, the key modules specified by the prototype – Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log services – are expected to improve existing research and learning support services currently offered by academic libraries.

The primary objective was to develop a user-centered mobile health application (app) tailored to the specific health information needs of among immigrant women from diverse backgrounds in Korea.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 immigrant women to gain insights into their health information-seeking behavior. Based on the findings, a mobile app was designed and developed. A beta version of the app underwent validation by an MD and seven expert reviewers who assessed the app for content accuracy and conformance to mobile heuristics. Last, immigrant women (n = 12) evaluated the usability of the app.

The study revealed that the interviewed immigrant women had strong health information needs related to pregnancy and parenting. Most of them used multiple sources to find and verify health information. Language barriers were identified as a major obstacle to accessing and evaluating health information. The results of the user test indicated that the app effectively facilitated study participants' search for reliable health information, meeting their specific needs.

This research extended the literature by addressing the limited availability of mobile apps tailored to the health information needs of immigrant women in Korea.

By incorporating multilingual support and focusing on pregnancy and parenting information, the health app serves as a valuable tool to bridge the gap in health information access and to facilitate the well-being of immigrant women in the country.

The purpose of this paper is to understand consumers’ preferences for answers about sexually transmitted diseases on social question and answer (Q&A) sites by employing message features and information sources as conceptual frameworks.

The study compared best answers selected by questioners with their randomly drawn counterpart non-best answers on Yahoo! Answers as a paired sample (n=180).

The findings indicate that questioners on social Q&A sites were more likely to prefer answers including message features such as numeric information, social norms, optimistic information, and loss-framing, as well as information sources that featured expertise, references, and links to other websites. Pessimistic information was negatively associated with questioners’ preference for answers.

The study extended the discussion of consumers’ selection of best answers to message features and information sources as additional criteria.

The findings suggest that answerers on social Q&A sites communicate more effectively with their audiences by utilizing persuasive communication.

There is a quality issue on social Q&A sites. The findings will be helpful for health professionals to develop answers that are more likely to be selected as best answers, which will enhance overall quality of health information on social Q&A sites.

Consumers’ preference criteria for health information have been investigated using many different approaches. However, no study has used a persuasion framework to examine how consumers appraise answer quality. The present study confirmed consumers’ preference criteria as found in previous social Q&A studies and extended the discussion of consumers’ perceptions of answer quality by applying the frameworks of message features and information sources.

Drawing upon the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, the purpose of this study is to examine how perceptions of young customers towards the green image of trendy coffee cafés affect their environmental and product attitudes, and subsequently their citizenship behaviour as well as intention to re-patronage. The mediating effect of customer citizenship behaviour (CCB) is also assessed.

The instrument was developed by adapting measurement from the past studies. Using the purposive sampling technique, data were collected online from 207 young customers in Malaysia who frequented the cafés. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to perform path modelling and mediation analyses.

The findings show that green image stimulates both customers’ environmental attitude and product attitude. Although product attitude is found to have a dominant effect on CCB, the impact of environmental attitude on CCB and re-patronage intention is worth noting. Moreover, advocacy and tolerance significantly mediate the relationship between product attitude and re-patronage intention.

This study advances the consumer behaviour literature by determining the influence of green image on two forms of attitudes as well as the mediating role of the multi-dimensional CCB between attitudes and intention to re-patronage trendy coffee cafés among young customers. While the findings confirm the importance of product attitude and the relevance of advocacy and tolerance in relation to re-patronage, the study also highlights the growing awareness of green image among young customers and its implications on knowledge and practice.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

The maritime freight transportation industry has played an important role in the Korean economy. The Korean maritime freight transportation industry is faced with a period of transforming it competitively and efficiently in this global age. This paper, therefore, aims to identify the impact of the maritime freight transportation industry in the Korean national economy. Hence, this paper provides policy-makers with accessible and reliable information regarding the role of the Korean maritime freight transportation industry. This study employs input-output (I-O) analysis to examine the role of the maritime freight transportation industry in the national economy for the period 1995-2003, with specific application to Korea. This study pays particular attention to the maritime freight transportation industry by taking the industry as exogenous variable and then investigates its economic impacts. We identify inter-industry linkage effects in 20 sectors, production-inducing effects, added value-inducing effects, and supply-shortage effects of the maritime freight transportation industry.