Forming Impressions on Computer-Mediated Healthcare Peer-Support Systems for Informal Caregivers

The rapid evolution of Information technology (IT) has seen its adoption during many aspects of our lives, including healthcare. Healthcare IT provides the public with access to governmental records, electronic health records, healthcare websites, internet-based medical consultation, and more recently, online peer-support portals. These peer-support portals, which are directed not only towards patients but also caregivers, have been found to be a source of informational and emotional support. In addition, for caregivers who cannot leave their loved ones to access in-person support groups, these online support portals are an important substitute. In these online peer-support portals, informal caregivers interact with one another, providing emotional and personal support, leading to a sense of camaraderie and thereby a social relationship. The contributions on these portals are voluntary, with some members contributing more often than others. The first study in this dissertation focuses on understanding the patterns of interaction between these top contributors, referred to here as peer patrons, and other informal caregivers in terms of the information they provide, and the unique characteristics of the top contributors based on these interactions. Several unique interaction patterns related to peer patrons were found along with information about how peer patrons contribute towards the coping mechanism of informal caregivers. Interface design implications based on these outcomes were discussed. With informal caregivers exchanging not only information and emotional content on online peer-support portals but also forming social relations, it is important to understand how these users form impressions of others based on the information they access. The possible consequences of following healthcare and medical advice posted on these portals further emphasize the need to understand how users form impressions of one another on these portals. The second study in this dissertation focuses on impression formation using profiles based on those of the peer patrons who were the focus of the previous study. This exploratory study brought to light the prominence of the comment content and the profile picture in forming impressions on these portals, thereby supporting literature regarding context effects on impression formation. The final chapter is an intervention-based study investigating factors leading to positive impression formation on online healthcare peer-support portals. It supported the findings from the previous study regarding the importance of comment and profile picture and suggested the use of other peer ratings to solidify impressions formed using the former two cues. Additionally, the contribution of this dissertation to the literature and the improvement of online healthcare peer-support portals is discussed

Exploring the Impact of Inclusive PCA Design on Perceived Competence, Trust and Diversity

Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs) conquer academia as learning facilitators. Due to user heterogeneity and need for more inclusion in education, inclusive PCA design becomes relevant, but still remains understudied. Our contribution thus investigates the effects of inclusive PCA design on competence, trust, and diversity awareness in a between-subjects experiment with two contrastingly designed prototypes (inclusive and non-inclusive PCA) tested among 106 German university students. As expected by social desirability, the results show that 81.5% of the probands consider an inclusive design important. However, at the same time, the inclusive chatbot is highly significantly rated as less competent. In contrast, we did not measure a significant effect regarding trust, but a highly significant, strongly positive effect on diversity awareness. We interpret these results with the help of the qualitative information provided by the respondents and discuss arising implications for inclusive HCI design

An Extended Model Of Review Helpfulness: Exploring The Role Of Tie Strength, Perceived Similarity, And Normative Susceptibility

Previous studies on review information evaluation focus on the important roles of two key factors namely argument strength and source credibility but pay less attention to how social influence and social relationship exert impact on this information evaluation behavior. To fill this research gap, based on the similarity – attraction theory and social capital theory, we articulate how source credibility is determined by two social relationship factors: tie strength and perceived similarity. Further, drawing upon the social influence model, we propose that the susceptibility to normative influence intensifies the impact exerted on source credibility by tie strength and perceived similarity. Also, relationships between argument strength and review helpfulness and between source credibility and review helpfulness are both moderated by normative susceptibility. A survey is conducted to test the proposed research model and the results suggest that hypotheses are supported. The results offer important and interesting insights to information systems research and practice

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

A Recommender System for Online Consumer Reviews

Online consumer reviews have helped consumers to increase their knowledge about different products/services. While most previous studies try to provide general models that predict performance of online reviews, this study notes that different people look for different types of reviews. Hence, there is a need for developing a system that that is able to sort reviews differently for each user based on the ratings they previously assigned to other reviews. Using a design science approach, we address the above need by developing a recommender system that is able to predict the perceptions of each user regarding helpfulness of a specific review. In addition to addressing the sorting problem, this study also develops models that extract objective information from the text of online reviews including utilitarian cues, hedonic cues, product quality, service quality, price, and product comparison. Each of these characteristics may also be used for sorting and filtering online reviews

The Role Of The Nurse Practitioner In A Perioperative Setting

This paper explored whether or not a nurse practitioner possessed the perception of utilizing intuition in a clinical setting. Further, the purpose is to determine if there is a correlation between intuition and years of experience as a registered nurse and if this correlation exists, does it impact advanced practice nurse intuition

What drives the helpfulness of online reviews? A deep learning study of sentiment analysis, pictorial content and reviewer expertise for mature destinations.

User-generated content (UGC) is a growing driver of destination choice. Drawing on dual-process theories on how individuals process information, this study focuses on the role of central and peripheral information processing routes in the formation of consumers’ perceptions of the helpfulness of online reviews. We carried out a two-step process to address the perceived helpfulness of user-generated content, a sentiment analysis using advanced machine-learning techniques (deep learning), and a regression analysis. We used a database of 2,023 comments posted on TripAdvisor about two iconic Venetian cultural attractions, St. Mark’s Square (an open, free attraction) and the Doge’s Palace (a museum which charges an entry fee). Following the application of deep-learning techniques, we first identified which factors influenced whether a review received a “helpful” vote by means of logistic regression. Second, we selected those reviews which received at least one helpful vote to identify, through linear regression, the significant determinants of TripAdvisor users’ voting behaviour. The results showed that reviewer expertise is an influential factor in both free and paid-for attractions, although the impact of central cues (sentiment polarity, subjectivity and pictorial content) is different in both attractions. Our study suggests that managers should look beyond individual ratings and focus on the sentiment analysis of online reviews, which are shown to be based on the nature of the attraction (free vs. paid-for)

Corporate impression formation in online communities: a qualitative study

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate elements of corporate communication in online communities (OCs) and their influence on corporate impression formation. Interactive online platforms such as OCs are growing. Companies are discovering their importance and increasingly include OCs in their communication activities. The present study identifies the underlying components relevant to successful corporate communication in OCs, and further explore if and how online community members (OCMs) expect companies to communicate with them, explaining how corporate impressions are formed. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research method was chosen, consisting of two stages. In stage one, seventeen expert interviews with academics and practitioners were conducted, and in stage two, twelve OCMs were interviewed to clarify the concepts and gain new insights. Findings: The study gains new knowledge relating to corporate communication in OCs and image formation. Specifically, the authors identify and confirm important key constructs in corporate impression formation in OCs, namely, relevance of messages, communication style, social context cues, affiliation, perceived similarity, source credibility and interpersonal communication. Furthermore, a conceptual model is proposed on the relationship between communication elements relevant in online communities and their influence on corporate impression. Theoretical and practical implications: The study helps to refine existing concepts of corporate impression formation in OCs. It is suggested that understanding how corporate impression is formed in OCs helps companies to participate in virtual networks, improving their corporate impression

Corporate impression formation in online communities: a qualitative study

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate elements of corporate communication in online communities (OCs) and their influence on corporate impression formation. Interactive online platforms such as OCs are growing. Companies are discovering their importance and increasingly include OCs in their communication activities. The present study identifies the underlying components relevant to successful corporate communication in OCs, and further explore if and how online community members (OCMs) expect companies to communicate with them, explaining how corporate impressions are formed. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research method was chosen, consisting of two stages. In stage one, seventeen expert interviews with academics and practitioners were conducted, and in stage two, twelve OCMs were interviewed to clarify the concepts and gain new insights. Findings: The study gains new knowledge relating to corporate communication in OCs and image formation. Specifically, the authors identify and confirm important key constructs in corporate impression formation in OCs, namely, relevance of messages, communication style, social context cues, affiliation, perceived similarity, source credibility and interpersonal communication. Furthermore, a conceptual model is proposed on the relationship between communication elements relevant in online communities and their influence on corporate impression. Theoretical and practical implications: The study helps to refine existing concepts of corporate impression formation in OCs. It is suggested that understanding how corporate impression is formed in OCs helps companies to participate in virtual networks, improving their corporate impression

WOM Or eWOM, Is There A Difference?: An Extension of the Social Communication Theory to Consumer Purchase Related Attitudes

While traditional word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have both been shown to highly impact consumer behavior, there is a deficit in our knowledge of how they compare to one another. My dissertation research addresses the lack of empirical studies that compare WOM promotion in the form of face-to-face interaction to eWOM promotion in the form of computer-mediated communication, especially using Web 2.0 technologies. This research tests the assumption that WOM is superior to eWOM and, if so, how to extend eWOM to improve its performance against WOM. Essay One introduces a proposed conceptual framework to differentiate WOM and eWOM based on Social Communication Theory. The overall conceptual model was derived from a qualitative research study that was used to explore and define the concepts, media types, and application of WOM and eWOM using a diverse panel of consumers. Essay Two describes an experiment that was conducted to empirically test whether WOM impacts important marketing outcomes differently than eWOM using an ecologically valid research procedure. Essay Two further explores mediation using social communication elements as the underlying explanatory mechanism for the relative impact of WOM and eWOM on consumers’ attitude toward a message, attitude toward a product, and purchase intention. The results revealed that WOM has a significantly higher impact than eWOM on consumer purchase-related attitudes. The posited social communication framework did mediate or explain the relative difference between WOM and eWOM on the outcomes variables. Essay Three investigates the robustness of the findings through a set of replication studies that test the effects across small and large sample sizes and across different methods of analysis. The results indicated that WOM showed a significant and consistently higher impact than eWOM across both replication studies. The third essay also examines factors that were influential in closing the relative gap between WOM and eWOM by introducing a third concept based on the Hyperpersonal Model of Communication Theory. This research is important as it seeks to understand how consumers communicate in this digital age and why there is an evolution of the sharing of product information that leads to key managerial, theoretical, and methodological implications