Factors affecting the intensity of emotional expressions in mobile communications

Purpose – The use of text‐based communications such as instant messaging or social media such as Twitter has been growing significantly as the use of mobile devices increases. Not only do people share information via mobile communication, there are significant implications for advertising and marketing. Due to display limitations, however, the message senders use various conventions in addition to the text‐based message to more clearly and richly express emotions. Since users use a range of expressions to convey these emotions, it would be very useful to verify the relationships between users' emotional expressions and receivers' perceptions of the expressions. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated model to examine the relationship between emotional expressions and the emotional intensity of the receivers. Design/methodology/approach – The authors formulated a series of research hypotheses and tested them using empirical survey data. The research model used is based on regression analysis with dummy variables for statistical analyses. Findings – First, emotional intensity had a closer relationship to user acceptance than was expected. Second, the use of exclamation marks and emotional messages are far less acceptable in negative messages. Third, the high formalisation group has a more positive emotional intensity in their basic expression. Originality/value – The authors successfully determined that emotional expressions significantly affect the message receivers' emotional intensity and hence acceptance of the message.