- Title
- Examining the holistic experience of virtual gift-giving in social network games
- Creator
- Alkhawwari, Abdullah
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This study examines the dynamics of gift-giving within Social Network Games (SNGs)and aims to balance the research narrative by integrating the perspectives of both gift-givers and receivers. The study will apply social capital and social exchange theories to analyse how these forms of social capital affect users’ intentions to gift and their willingness to reciprocate within the digital milieu of SNGs. Furthermore, it will scrutinise the moderating effects of symbolic representation, affective commitment, and privacy concerns on these social exchanges, focusing on bonding and bridging social capital. The research also considers the impact of gratitude and indebtedness on gift intentions and the willingness to reciprocate, as well as evaluating psychological well-being as a consequential outcome. By amalgamating the viewpoints of all participants in the gift exchange process, this research endeavours to offer a comprehensive understanding of the social constructs that govern digital gift-giving practices, thus contributing to the broader discourse on virtual communities, interactive social behaviours, and individual well-being. This study took a quantitative approach, using a survey and an online research panel to collect data. The research design used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM), which was chosen as the most suitable method for testing gift-giving relationships due to its high statistical power and capabilities for modelling reflective measurement constructs. The key findings suggest that relationship support and gifting norms significantly enhance bonding and bridging social capital. Helping behaviour also positively impacts both types of social capital. Bonding social capital negatively affects willingness to reciprocate and gifting intention, while bridging social capital positively influences both. Mediation analysis shows that bridging social capital partially mediates the effects of relationship support and gifting norms on willingness to reciprocate and gifting intention. Affective commitment significantly moderates the link between relationship support and gifting behaviours and between gifting norms and intention. The study leads to several important implications for the developers and marketers of SNG, one of which is the emphasis on product features that add to increased social capital and social exchange. Gifting and direct features enhance the perception of worth in giving, which results in higher engagement. Given this, this study provides theoretical development and practical implications on how to make user experiences better and boost platform success in general. Together with this, the results add to a more extensive discussion on virtual communities and interactive social behaviours.
- Subject
- virtual gift-giving; social network games; social capital; social exchange theory
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1520251
- Identifier
- uon:57452
- Rights
- Copyright 2025 Abdullah Alkhawwari
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 246 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |