Influence of Gift-Giving in Social Network Games on Social Capital: Relationship Types, Gift-Giving Types, and the Big Five Factors of Personality

ABSTRACT

Recently, Social network games (SNGs) are gaining popularity. As various types of SNGs are expected to spread, empirical research on the usability of SNGs is necessary. This study investigates whether the influences of gift-giving types on social capital are significant depending on the relation types between users. In addition, the influences of social capital on the continuous usage intention were observed. The relationships are divided into “friends” and “neighbors.” The types of gift-giving are divided into “in-game gift-giving,” in which gifts are exchanged within the game, and “out-of-game gift-giving,” in which gifts are delivered outside the game, for example, through SNS personal messages. We conducted a survey targeting SNG users and found out that most of the social capital was significantly influenced by the gift-giving attitude. To supplement the results from the quantitative research, we conducted interviews to observe whether the results of the survey agreed with respondents’ actual perceptions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moon Kyeong Kim

Kim, Moon Kyeong Kim studied applied psychology at Yonsei University for Master’s degree. After graduating from the school, she just started her career as UX researcher in one SW company. Her research interest fields are human- computer interaction, user experience design and user's online social networking behavior.

Hee Youn Kim

Kim, Hee Youn Kim studied ICT contents at Yonsei University and earned he Master's degree in the Information Systems field.  Her research interests are ICT contents, social network services and e-commerce.

Youn Ah Kang

Kang, Youn Ah Kang is an assistant professor in the Techno-Art Division at Underwood International College at Yonsei University. Prior to joining Yonsei, she worked as a user experience researcher at Google Mountain View. She earned her PhD in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech. Her research interests lie in the areas of human–computer interaction, user experience design, and information visualization.