This dissertation explores an unintended consequence of using personalized recommendations, that is, recommendations that are targeted to an individual consumer (e.g., personalized music playlists). I conceptualize that using personalized recommender systems can impede consumers’ learning of their own preferences and tastes from product experiences. Therefore, using these systems can decrease preference clarity, which is defined as certainty about individuals’ own preferences. For example, people may feel less certain about their own music preferences after listening to auto-generated personalized playlists. This reduced preference clarity, in turn, reduces consumer willingness to generate word-of-mouth (WOM) about their consumption experiences, such as their intent to talk about music they listened to with others, or to post social media content on their favorite musicians. Eight studies, using correlational and experimental designs and conducted with consumers who actively use personalization services (in the fashion and music domains), support this theorization. I end with a discussion of the potential theoretical extensions of this novel finding, as well as its practical implications.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary purpose of this study is to explore the social media habits of South African previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs and the way in which the activity of online social networking through social networking sites (SNS) results in the outcome of building social capital for a business venture. At the heart of addressing the research topic is the concept of selfefficacy, which is explored as a key component of human motivation and behaviour. The study explores how self-efficacy beliefs are developed with regard to social media usage and their potential to influence positive outcomes for a business. Based on the research topic, the study which is empirical in nature, has applied a qualitative research design in order to interpret rather than measure self-efficacy behaviours related to social media usage. A purposive non-probability sampling procedure has been adopted to select twelve previously disadvantaged South African entrepreneurs for the study. Semi-structured interviews provide for an interactive and insightful data collection process. As a qualitative study, attention is given to guidelines which establish reliability and validity. Key findings from the study support and refine established Internet selfefficacy research (Eastin & LaRose, 2000) based on Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986). Based on the established relationships between various constructs and self-efficacy beliefs, the results of the study have been interpreted positively. The findings of the study contribute to the current digital divide debate, and point to a narrowing of the access and participation gap. According to the sample, social media has become embedded in their daily lives for both social and business purposes, and is contributing towards building social capital. This study provides scope to further explore social media as a new opportunity for previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs in South Africa.

Social media is fast becoming an ever-increasingly significant part of the world of business and a phenomenon which cannot be evaded. The advent of social media in the workplace compels organisations to acclimatise to the transformation emanating from employees‟ adoption of these technologies (Hanaki & Casella, 2008). Approximately seventy percent of organisations do not have a social media governance framework in place (Fink et al., 2011). Social media governance in organisations is very disjointed; companies have varying stances as to social media strategy, the risks, benefits and business use of social media (Thompson et al., 2011). The growth of social media and its use in the business environment will see a more standardised approach to social media governance (Thompson et al., 2011). Being at the forefront of technology development in Africa, and in certain areas, globally (Government of the Republic of South Africa, 2012), places added emphasis on IT organisations in South Africa to set the standard as it relates to social media governance. The diversity and depth of the human and technology resources within these organisations, creates an environment conducive to establishing and pioneering sound social media governance structures. The treatise consists of a study on the governance of social media and the successive development of two frameworks; an integrated framework for the governance of social media in the workplace, as well as integrated framework for a social media policy within an IT organisation. These frameworks are empirically evaluated amongst employees, within the context of Information Technology (IT) organisations, in South Africa. Several recommendations are proposed by the author in relation to the adoption of the proposed frameworks.

Social media is playing an increasingly important role in people’s lives and is becoming a part of most organisations’ business models. Businesses cannot ignore this phenomenon due to the increasing influx of Generation Y employees in their businesses and the Generation Y consumers who are going to buy their products and services in the future. Social media is changing the way that marketing is being conducted, in a positive way. It is changing from businesses focusing on selling products or services to customers, to businesses building relationships with customers and adding value to their lives through their products and services. This phenomenon was the base for this study. The research problem was identified as follows: SMME business owners do not understand the importance and impact of social media on their businesses. Sub-problems were identified as: defining social media and networking, describing the importance of this, which strategies are currently being used in business, how it compares to traditional networking, how this is used in recruitment strategies and what are the disadvantages of social media and networking. The research problem and sub-problems were addressed in a literature study and an empirical study. The literature study included information on SMME businesses, their importance in our economy and how social media can help them. The empirical study was done using SMME’s registered with the George Business Chamber. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to the owners of the businesses by email. The answers were analysed and collated on a spreadsheet which were presented in graph and diagram format. Social media and networking are becoming an integral part of businesses especially small businesses. They specifically have an important role to play in creating economic wealth and creating employment. SMME’s are faced with a lot of challenges which make it difficult for them to become successful and sustainable. Social media can play a role in overcoming a lot of these challenges by helping SMME’s with marketing, customer engagement, relationship building, recruitment, and finding valuable information, experience and partners. Social media also has disadvantages which include: virus attacks, risk of confidential information leaking and so forth, but these can easily be managed by social media polices and rules. A bigger risk lies in the fact that if a business owner ignores the existence of social media, this can lead to conversations by consumers about this business being ignored and not responded to. Another big risk for SMME’s is the fact they are at a competitive disadvantage by ignoring this new technology. This was clear from the empirical results in this study which stated that 53 percent of the businesses surveyed, were aware their competitors are using social media. The empirical results indicated a very low use of social media activities among the SMME’s surveyed but showed potential as the SMME’s understood the importance of social media and were eager to implement strategies in their businesses. The reasons offered for not using social media included the fact that it was difficult to measure its worth in time and money, advice is needed from experts and so forth. Social media and networking are not quick or cheap methods for businesses to advertise and sell their products or services. They are tools to be used over time, in order to engage with customers and build relationships. Consumers and customers expect value for their money and if they find this from a business, they will gladly share it with others. On the other hand, if they do not find value for money it could have a negative impact on the business. SMME’s must not try to replace their current marketing strategy with social networking activities. They should integrate it slowly into their current business models and search for unique ways in which it could improve the relationship with their current customers and find new customers. It should help them to either showcase their existing value added products or services, or improve it if it is not worth selling. Small businesses now have the platform to compete.

Restaurateurs often assume that customers' online reviews of their dining experiences are a reflection of their dining preferences. This study finds this assumption not to be true. Online written reviews do not explain diners’ preferred dining experiences. In this study post-experience reactions captured in reviews are shown to be contextually different to established dining preferences. Results show online reviews to be most important in facilitating customer dining expectations, but not influencing customers’ preferences in dining experiences. Evidence gathered during the secondary research shows that in general, social media has become the great marketing equaliser in commerce. In the dining industry, restaurants cannot solely rely on traditional media in the initial attraction and retention of dining customers. Continuous interaction between the business and customers is increasingly necessary for restaurateurs to remain competitive and in-touch with customers’ needs. This study concentrates its research area on the post-experience evaluation phase as found on review websites, like TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor has especially become a popular means to perpetuate word-of-mouth opinions of dining experiences among prospective customers. Research shows clear evidence of the importance of other's online opinions in the consumer decision-making process. The main variables of the study, namely customer experiences, restaurant dining and social media, are theoretically explored within the disciplines of service management and customer behaviour. These theories have laid a sound foundation for the subsequent research methods followed. The main purpose of the study was using social media reviews from TripAdvisor to investigate dining experiences in the restaurant industry. The outcomes desired were: firstly to advise the restaurant industry about superior customer practices, secondly emphasising the importance for industry of social media use in the dining experience, and thirdly rendering clarification on the experience perceptions of customers about factors that might lead to ‘delight’ and ‘frustration’. This research centralises the constructs of delight and frustration factors, which are typically extremely emotional dining experiences for the customer, that have the common element of surprise. Methodologically, the research required two phases: firstly, the qualitative analysis of online user-generated content by content analysis. The global sample consisted of seven international cities, which included the best, worst and average-rated TripAdvisor restaurant reviews. The content analysis produced the theoretical base for the dining perception variables used in the empirical survey. In the second phase of the study, the global surveys administered resulted in measuring the general public’s perceptions of the delight and frustration factors of dining experiences. Subsequently, the research process required various quantitative data analyses to reach substantial results with inferences. The results and interpreted findings achieved were twofold: Firstly, from the content analysis: customers regard service quality as relatively unimportant in relation to the holistic dining experience. Customers regarded food and beverage quality as crucial in the dining experience. Value for money increasingly becomes an issue as customers become more frustrated, more so than when the dining was generally experienced as pleasant. Secondly, from the empirical data: mood and aesthetics are essential, especially when diners chose between their favourite restaurants. Further results show managing the service basics for restaurants is essential; this included welcoming, professional, attentive and friendly service. Service consistency has also proven to be imperative in customers’ perceptions. Results further show that different nationalities could perceive food quality and service reliability differently. In addition, men and women could perceive food quality, mood and aesthetics, and value for money differently. This study recommends various findings to the restaurant industry: most importantly that the post-experience reviews are contextually different to customers’ dining preferences. The factor determining the reputation of a restaurant is food quality and not so much service quality. Value for money should be associated with a specific service or product feature for it to be of meaningful consequence to the restaurateur.

This dissertation studies three models of sequential social learning, each of which has implications for the impact of the internet and social media on political discourse. I take three features of online political discussion, and consider in what ways they interfere with or assist learning.In Chapter 1, I consider agents who engage in motivated reasoning, which is a belief-formation procedure in which agents trade-off a desire to form accurate beliefs against a desire to hold ideologically congenial beliefs. Taking a model of motivated reasoning in which agents can reject social signals that provide too strong evidence against their preferred state, I analyse under which conditions we can expect asymptotic consensus, where all agents choose the same action, and learning, in which Bayesian agents choose the correct state with probability 1. I find that learning requires much more connected observation networks than is the case with Bayesian agents. Furthermore, I find that increasing the precision of agents’ private signals can actually break consensus, providing an explanation for the advance of factual polarisation despite the greater access to information that the internet provides. In Chapter 2, I evalute the importance of timidity. In the presence of agents who prefer not to be caught in error publicly, and can choose to keep their views to themselves given this, insufficiently confident individuals may choose not to participate in online debate. Studying social learning in this setting, I discover an unravelling mechanism by which non-partisan agents drop out of online political discourse. This leads to an exaggerated online presence for partisans, which can cause even more Bayesian agents to drop out. I consider the possibility of introducing partially anonymous commenting, how this could prevent such unravelling, and what restrictions on such commenting would be desirable. In Chapter 3, my focus moves on to considering rational inattention, and how this interacts with the glut of information the internet has produced. I set out a model that incorporates the costly observation of private and social information, and derive conditions under which we should expect learning to obtain despite these costs. I find that expanding access to cheap information can actually damage learning: giving all agents Blackwell-preferred signals or cheaper observations of all their neighbors can reduce the asymptotic probability with which they match the state. Furthermore, the highly connected networks social media produces can generate a public good problem in investigate journalism, damaging the ‘information ecosystem’ further still.

In light of the cyber-activist simulated incidences dubbed Occupy Wall Street in New York City, New York, USA and the mirrored Occupy JSE movement in Johannesburg, South Africa, the internet and its social media networking sites have been instrumental in facilitating both the dissemination of information as well as facilitating a mediated environment for activists to coordinate online and offline protest action. This research examines the extent to which activists for social change have used social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, web blogs and other online forums to garner support for their cause as well as generate social mobilization by creating awareness of the economic disparities in their respective societies. Established theories of social presence have been used to explain the relevance and role of social media tools in instigating social mobilization whether online or offline. This discussion focuses on the Occupation Movements staged in various countries globally and to what extent social media played in facilitating social change. It is important to note that the video footage and other social media data under analysis is specifically that which was uploaded onto YouTube and the subsequent URL links posted on Facebook. By scrutinizing these videos and calls for action as well as the comments posted by the international online community, this research elucidates the ‘trickling down effect’ of this type of cyber-activism on the behavioural patterns of contemporary South African society, and further argues that this process is indicative in the resultant Occupy JSE movement.

In light of the cyber-activist simulated incidences dubbed Occupy Wall Street in New York City, New York, USA and the mirrored Occupy JSE movement in Johannesburg, South Africa, the internet and its social media networking sites have been instrumental in facilitating both the dissemination of information as well as facilitating a mediated environment for activists to coordinate online and offline protest action. This research examines the extent to which activists for social change have used social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, web blogs and other online forums to garner support for their cause as well as generate social mobilization by creating awareness of the economic disparities in their respective societies. Established theories of social presence have been used to explain the relevance and role of social media tools in instigating social mobilization whether online or offline. This discussion focuses on the Occupation Movements staged in various countries globally and to what extent social media played in facilitating social change. It is important to note that the video footage and other social media data under analysis is specifically that which was uploaded onto YouTube and the subsequent URL links posted on Facebook. By scrutinizing these videos and calls for action as well as the comments posted by the international online community, this research elucidates the ‘trickling down effect’ of this type of cyber-activism on the behavioural patterns of contemporary South African society, and further argues that this process is indicative in the resultant Occupy JSE movement

In recent years, social media has experienced tremendous growth in the number of users. Facebook alone has more than 1.3 billion active users and Twitter has attracted over 600 million active users. Social media has significantly changed the way humans communicate. Many people use social media to keep in touch with family and friends and receive up-to-date information about what happens around the world. Politicians are using social media to support their campaigns. Use of social media is not restricted to individuals and politicians. Businesses are now using social media to promote their products and services. Many companies maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep in touch with their customers. Consumers also use social media to receive information about products/services. Online product reviews are now an important source of information for consumers. This dissertation aims to address one fundamental research question: how do individual differences among users lead to different levels of performance on social media? More specifically, this dissertation investigates the motivations of use and the predictors of performance in the context of social media. We utilize sentiment mining to predict performance in different types of social media including information diffusion in Twitter and helpfulness and readership of online consumer reviews. The results show how different motivations lead to different levels of participation in social media and level of participation consequently influences performance. We also find that sentiment of the messages posted on social media significantly influence their performance.

Social media has become one of the defining features of the technological advances known as Web 2.0. As social media has increased in popularity, so businesses are expected to participate. Social media platforms enable businesses to widely broadcast a message as well as interact directly with individual customers. Customers are also able to interact directly with one another and share information and reviews about products and services offered. This suits the tourism industry particularly well. Internationally, research has shown that individuals use social media and other online tools to research potential holiday destinations. In addition social media is used during travel to share snapshots and commentary as well as after travel, through reviews and recommendations on platforms such as TripAdvisor. However, few studies have investigated how tourism destinations use social media to attract new clients and retain existing clients. Very little research has been done on tourism and social media in South Africa despite the importance of this industry to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This study focused on four-star establishments within the photographic wildlife tourism industry in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. An initial survey of social media participation was carried out within the framework set out by Chan and Guillet (2011); this was then followed up with interviews with selected managers. Results showed that, in general, Private Game Reserves (PGRs) had embraced social media as a communication and marketing platform; despite concerns raised about the lack of control over content as well as poor understanding of the influence social media might have on the bottom line. TripAdvisor, Facebook and Twitter were the most commonly used platforms due to management familiarity with the platform and their ease of use. Few lodges utilised blogs or content sites such as YouTube and management cited time commitments associated with this type of platform as a reason for non-participation. However, although most PGRs or lodges had a profile on social media, this did not always mean active participation. Frequently, lodges began updating but gradually stopped after a few months. It was noted however that only one of the lodges interviewed retained an individual whose sole responsibility was social media; generally lodges did not feel that a dedicated person was necessary. This may result in a lack of time available on the part of the individual responsible or simply be a case of not understanding the platform or how to use it effectively. However, none of the PGRs with poor social media participation responded to interview requests and therefore it was not possible to determine the reasons for their poor participation. Among those lodges that actively participated, most succeed in retaining fans and followers through consistent posting of relevant and interesting content as well as customised responses that encouraged fans or followers’ interaction. However, there did not appear to be any evidence of using social media to learn about fans and followers in order to better customise the lodge offerings. This may not be necessary in this type of industry as PGRs sell a specific product and have a limited ability to customise offerings. In addition, there may be other sources of market information which lodges prefer to use. Special offers, competitions and promotions had limited success on social media. Generally, lodges used social media to promote links to a dedicated competition or promotions page. In conclusion, the managers interviewed felt strongly that social media had made a measureable impact on the tourism industry and was a channel that was here to stay. Further research around the best practice and most effective use will enable PGRs to develop and maintain effective strategies for social media participation.