Networked Individualism of Urban Residents: Discovering the Communicative Ecology in Inner-City Apartment Buildings

Certain patterns of interaction between people point to networks as an adequate conceptual model to characterise some aspects of social relationships mediated or facilitated by information and communication technology. Wellman proposes a shift from groups to networks and describes the ambivalent nature inherent in an ego-centric yet still well-connected portfolio of sociability with the term ‘networked individualism’. In this paper we use qualitative data from an action research study of social networks of residents in three inner-city apartment buildings in Australia to provide empirical grounding for the theoretical concept of networked individualism. However, this model focuses on network interaction rather than collective interaction. We propose ‘communicative ecology’ as a concept which integrates the three dimensions of "online and offline", "global and local" as well as "collective and networked". We present our research on three layers of interpretation (technical, social and discursive) to deliver a rich description of the communicative ecology we found, that is, the way residents negotiate membership, trust, privacy, reciprocity, permeability and social roles in person-to-person mediated and direct relationships. We find that residents seamlessly traverse between online and offline communication; local communication and interaction maintains a more prominent position than global or geographically dispersed communication; and residents follow a dual approach which allows them to switch between collective and networked interaction depending on purpose and context

The Process and Barriers in Computer-Mediated Communication (A Case Study of Indonesian and Australian Students' Collaboration Project)

This paper describes how university students from diverse cultural background and separated by geographical distance conduct communication process using computer-mediated communication (CMC). The purpose of our research is to examine the communication process and identify potential barriers that can disturb the collaboration. We also aim to find which cultural dimensions influence the communication process. The population is 15 Journalism students from UPH, Indonesia and 15 Journalism students from QUT, Australia who joined a collaboration project from October – November 2018. We use a qualitative case-study, with analytical descriptive method. We analyze multiple sources of evidence such as: logbook and recorded correspondence, Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and depth interview for data collection. Results show the students use mostly asynchronous communication such as chat text and Google Docs for their communication medium. The main barriers are language proficiency and slow internet connections. This study analyzes one case study involving students from two different nations. We find that Individualism, Masculinity and Power Distance cultural dimensions influence how they communicate to each other

The Sharing Millennials: How differences in sharing behaviors affect mobile app usage among Western and Eastern consumers

Technology enhancements in the retail environment are constantly evolving, and the way consumers engage with retailers through these technological channels are becoming more seamless, most notably through the mobile channel. This study focuses on identifying how consumers currently utilize their mobile phone in retail environments across global markets. The global comparison aspect will allow for the discovery of how different top mobile-friendly societies and retail environments around the world integrate mobile capabilities as part of their retail experience. There is another challenge of understanding the desired mobile capabilities expected or demanded by consumers in local cultures in global markets. The methodology for this study is to design and distribute a survey that focuses on the consumption of mobile apps. The survey contains questions that will identify individualistic and collectivist behaviors, perceived usefulness, ease of use, and security of mobile apps, current social factors influencing mobile usage, and demographic information. The well-established and widely used Technology Readiness & Acceptance (TRA) model is used to help describe the differences in consumer behaviors. Constructs are under development to understand how western culture behaviors and eastern culture behaviors may influence the way in which consumers engage with these channels. The study is still in progress but based on previous academic research and a test survey that was distributed to both Ohio State campus domestic and Asian students, it is hypothesized that eastern culture behaviors will differ from western culture behaviors ultimately affecting their respective mobile app usage in retail settings. The results of this study will help retailers understand the importance of integrating a sound mobile strategy through mobile apps that will continuously engage and satisfy their consumers on a global scale. It will also allow retailers to understand their consumer’s needs in mobile apps and to further enhance brand engagement and loyalty.No embargoAcademic Major: Logistics ManagementAcademic Major: Marketin

The Function of Cultural Dimensions in For-Profit Higher Education Marketing

Despite allocating budgets to attract and grow worldwide student market share, increasing enrollments from targeted market international student pools remains a concern for private for-profit schools. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the country-specific and culture-specific marketing strategies that for-profit university business marketing leaders use to increase the enrollment of online Brazilian students. The first group with three participants was based in the United States and the second group, in Brazil, contained two participants. Cultural dimensions theory was the conceptual framework of this study. Data were collected in the form of interviews, website presence, social media, and e-mail message campaigns used to increase online Brazilian student enrollments. The data were analyzed for emerging themes via Yin’s five-step process of analysis. The themes that arose from the findings included consumer intelligence, demographic profiles, the use of certain marketing channels, and call-to-action types of marketing campaigns. The implications for positive social change are reaching more prospective students with a marketing message that aligns better with cultural dimensions, which will lead to more enrollments

On the need for cultural sensitivity in digital wellbeing tools and messages: A UK-China comparison

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. The excessive and obsessive use of the internet and digital technologies, known as Digital Addiction (DA), is becoming a social issue. Given that it inherently involves the use of technological devices this provides the opportunity to deliver interactive, intelligent prevention and intervention strategies in real-time. However, for any large-scale, multi-national prevention campaign to be optimised cultural differences within the target population must be considered. This study aimed to contribute towards this literature by exploring cultural differences in the acceptance of DA prevention messages in the UK vs China. An initial series of exploratory interviews were conducted with a sample within the UK to determine what strategies may be used to address the overuse of digital devices. These interviews were subjected to content analysis, which was then used as the basis for an online survey that was disseminated throughout the UK and China. A total of 373 useable surveys were returned. There were several statistically significant differences in preferences over how an intervention system should operate. UK participants wished for the system to be easily under their control, whilst behaving largely autonomously when needed, and to also be transparent as to why a message had been triggered. Chinese participants, on the other hand, were less likely to state a preference for such a high degree of control over any such system. Overall, the preferred implementation of such systems does appear to vary between the UK and China, suggesting that any future prevention and intervention strategies take cultural dimensions into consideration

Emotional Contagion through the Skincare Advertisements: The Influence of Culture on the Eastern Women Consumption Behaviors

This study maps the influence of cultural constructs on the emotional contagion and consumption behaviors, among the eastern women towards the advertised skincare products. It is a 2 x 2 between subjects’ design empirical study, with emotions (hope versus fear) and actors (one actor versus many actors) independent variables. The university master level students participated in the designated psychological experiments. The distilled results underpin that the interweaving of hope emotions and the one performing actor, due to the changing mindsets from the collectivism to the individualism, in the skincare advertisements may substantiate the best epochal emotion-actor construct, to influence the eastern women’s contagion and consumption behaviors. This study attempts to enrich the professionals of the industry with deep insights to fortify their large swaths of skincare business volumes through the delicate understanding of the eastern women’s changing cultural values. Keywords: Emotions, Skincare advertisement, Culture, Emotional Contagion, Consumer Behavio