IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v11y2021i3p21582440211029927.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Instructors’ Cognitive Structure Toward the Academic Use of Social Network Sites: The Means–End Chain Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Ahlam Mohammed Al-Abdullatif
  • Hibah Khalid Aladsani

Abstract

Employing social network sites (SNSs) for academic purposes has been investigated in the literature; however, there is not enough scientific knowledge about university instructors’ behavioral perceptions and values that drive their academic use of SNSs. Therefore, a systematic cognitive framework, regarding SNSs academic usage, is beneficial to understand these behavioral perceptions. This research utilizes the means–end chain (MEC) analysis approach to investigate university instructors’ cognitive structure toward the academic use of SNSs. It identifies important requirements for the effective academic use of SNSs by recognizing the relationship between the critical features of SNSs and instructors’ perceived values derived from these features. The findings show that seven significant features of SNSs form 45 MECs that appear to be the most useful features used by university instructors for academic purposes. These seven features were found to be cognitively associated with 10 positive benefits, which are crucial to the fulfillment of nine of the instructors’ personal values. Of the seven features, following others and being a group member were used most frequently by instructors in their academic practices. These two features were of significant value for the instructors to achieve a sense of accomplishment. The findings have practical implications for instructors and educational institution policy makers to enhance the effectiveness of SNSs use in academic settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahlam Mohammed Al-Abdullatif & Hibah Khalid Aladsani, 2021. "Understanding Instructors’ Cognitive Structure Toward the Academic Use of Social Network Sites: The Means–End Chain Theory," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:21582440211029927
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211029927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440211029927
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440211029927?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katy Jordan, 2019. "Separating and Merging Professional and Personal Selves Online: The Structure and Processes That Shape Academics' Ego‐Networks on Academic Social Networking Sites and Twitter," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 70(8), pages 830-842, August.
    2. Walker, Beth A. & Olson, Jerry C., 1991. "Means-end chains: Connecting products with self," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 111-118, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ramo Barrena & Mercedes Sánchez, 2010. "The link between household structure and the level of abstraction in the purchase decision process: an analysis using a functional food," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 243-264.
    2. Aebli, Annika, 2019. "Tourists' motives for gamified technology use," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Yousaf, Anish & Mishra, Abhishek & Gupta, Anil, 2021. "‘From technology adoption to consumption’: Effect of pre-adoption expectations from fitness applications on usage satisfaction, continual usage, and health satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Brendan Markey-Towler, 2018. "A formal psychological theory for evolutionary economics," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 691-725, September.
    5. Pieters, R. & Baumgartner, H. & Allen, D., 1995. "A means-end chain approach to consumers' goal structures," Other publications TiSEM 7d190b0e-3495-4c5f-8de3-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Zanoli, Raffaele & Naspetti, Simona, 2002. "Consumer motivations in the purchase of organic food. A means-end approach," MPRA Paper 32712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Charles E. Gengler & Michael S. Mulvey, 2017. "Planning pre-launch positioning: Segmentation via willingness-to-pay and means-end brand differentiators," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 230-249, May.
    8. Frishammar, Johan & Essén, Anna & Bergström, Frida & Ekman, Tilda, 2023. "Digital health platforms for the elderly? Key adoption and usage barriers and ways to address them," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Pradip H. Sadarangani & Anup Krishnamurthy & Richard P. Bagozzi, 2017. "Shared Consumer Needs Across India and China: A Path to Global Advertising of Services?," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 473-500, June.
    10. Barrenar, Ramo & García, Teresa & Camarena, María, 2015. "An Analysis of the Decision Structure for Food Innovation on the Basis of Consumer Age," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1-22, September.
    11. Natalia Sánchez-Arrieta & Rafael A. González & Antonio Cañabate & Ferran Sabate, 2021. "Social Capital on Social Networking Sites: A Social Network Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-35, May.
    12. Pham Ngoc Thuy & Le Nguyen Hau & Felicitas Evangelista, 2016. "Service value and switching barriers: a personal values perspective," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3-4), pages 142-162, February.
    13. Preeti Mehra & Raghbir Singh, 2016. "Consumer Preferences and Purchase Decision-making for Micro-packs— An Empirical Study," Vision, , vol. 20(3), pages 224-236, September.
    14. Grunert, Klaus G. & Lähteenmäki, Liisa & Nielsen, Niels A. & Poulsen, Jacob B. & Ueland, Oydis & Åström, Annika, 2000. "Consumer perception of food products involving genetic modification: Results from a qualitative study in four Nordic countries," MAPP Working Papers 72, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, The MAPP Centre.
    15. Ya-Cing Jhan & Pin Luarn & Hong-Wen Lin, 2022. "Individual Differences in Digital Game-Based Supply Chains Management Learning: Evidence from Higher Vocational Education in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-22, April.
    16. Cheng-Shih Lin & Mei-Yuan Jeng & Tsu-Ming Yeh, 2018. "The Elderly Perceived Meanings and Values of Virtual Reality Leisure Activities: A Means-End Chain Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, April.
    17. Heungsik Park & Wim Vandekerckhove & Jaeil Lee & Joowon Jeong, 2020. "Laddered Motivations of External Whistleblowers: The Truth About Attributes, Consequences, and Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(4), pages 565-578, September.
    18. Barrena, Ramo & García, Teresa & Sánchez, Mercedes, 2017. "The effect of emotions on purchase behaviour towards novel foods. An application of Means–End chain methodology," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 56(2), March.
    19. Oliver L. Haimson & Albert J. Carter & Shanley Corvite & Brookelyn Wheeler & Lingbo Wang & Tianxiao Liu & Alexxus Lige, 2021. "The major life events taxonomy: Social readjustment, social media information sharing, and online network separation during times of life transition," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(7), pages 933-947, July.
    20. Rewerts, Astrid Lucie, 2009. "Motive beim Weinkonsum: Unterschiede zwischen deutschen und ukrainischen Konsumenten," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 50, number 92314.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:21582440211029927. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.