In the digital age, short-video platforms such as TikTok and Douyin have become increasingly embedded in daily work environments, raising concerns about their role in facilitating cyberloafing—employees’ use of the internet for non-work purposes during work hours. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory, this study develops a model examining how technological features (e.g., personalized recommendation, mobile access) and social influences (e.g., coworkers’ norms, informal acceptance) jointly shape cyberloafing. The results of an empirical survey (N = 310) among workplace employees show that system quality and information quality have no significant direct effects, while prescriptive norms and descriptive norms positively influence cyberloafing. Moreover, users’ proactive control and short video addiction serve as important mediators. This study integrates technical and social factors to explain employee cyberloafing on short-video platforms, extending research beyond traditional media. It highlights rational and irrational pathways, offering insights into workplace behavior and practical implications for managing digital distractions.

Existing literature has widely studied the impact of individual differences on ability-based social comparison in the workplace while the role of social media as a technical factor has not been fully understood. Drawing on social comparison theory, this study explored how social media affordances influence ability-based social comparison and the downstream impact on employees’ emotions and behaviors. We adopted the method of questionnaire survey and analyzed data from 239 participants. The results indicated that social media affordances have a positive impact on ability-based social comparison and the relationship is stronger for employees with low self-esteem. Ability-based social comparison facilitates envy and schadenfreude. Employees’ envy further exerts a negative impact by reducing altruistic behavior. This study contributes to the research on human-computer interaction and social comparison in the workplace, and provides guidance on how to maximize the value of social media in organizations.

Although researchers have devoted great effort to explore the antecedents of altruistic behaviours (a type of organisational citizenship behaviours), the important role of technical factors (social media) remains unclear. Drawing on social comparison and organisational support theory, this study explored how social media affordances influence employees’ altruistic behaviours from both positive and negative perspectives. In this study, 302 employees from organisations in China were surveyed. We found that social media affordances could facilitate employees’ perceived organisational support and social comparison of ability. Perceived organisational support positively mediated the relationship between social media affordances and altruistic behaviours. Although the evidence did not support the notion that social comparison of ability could directly dampen altruistic behaviours, a post-hoc analysis found that it could dampen the positive impact of perceived organisational support on developing altruistic behaviours. This study expanded previous research focusing on only positive or negative effects of social media use in the workplace by investigating the dual effects and the interaction effect in between. Here, we discuss the results and provide practical guidance for managers and organisations.

Splash advertisements have been one of the most fastest-growing advertising in mobile apps. Given the intrusiveness of ads, mobile splash advertisements introduced skip control as an interactive design to increase users’ active role in advertising. This study aims to explore how skip control of splash advertisements affects ad effectiveness, given the moderating role of user habit. This research opted for an experimental approach by using a self-developed mobile app. The study conducted three experiments by randomly launching splash advertisement conditions (i.e., skippable ad vs. non-skippable ad, top skip button vs. bottom skip button, and countdown timer vs. non-countdown timer). In total, 505 participants representing the characteristics of Chinese mobile users were recruited in three experiments. The findings show that each design of skip control has different effects on ad effectiveness in terms of ad acceptance and avoidance. Additionally, the type of user habits (i.e., clicking, watching, and skipping habits) has positive moderating effects on the relationship between different designs of skip control and ad effectiveness. This study fulfills the urgent need to investigate the impact of the skipping design on ad effectiveness moderated by different types of user habits.

The prevalence of social media has inspired multiple researchers to investigate the value of information on various platforms. However, most studies focus on integrating individual views (the wisdom of the crowd), and few studies investigate just one person's effect. To close this gap, this article investigates the impact of Trump's tweets on stock markets. Based on intraday stock market data, this study uses an event study to test the immediate reaction of the stock markets in both the Chinese and U.S. markets. Next, with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, this study testes the effect of tweets' content features on the returns and volatility of the Chinese and U.S. indices. The results show that Trump's tweets impacted the financial market, especially the returns of the U.S. stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic. With additional analyses based on industry indices and time frequencies, the researchers found that Trump's sentiment on Twitter affected the Chinese financial industry during the trade war and impacted the Chinese pharmaceutical industry during the pandemic.