DESIGN FOR SOCIAL PRESENCE IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH

In online communities, numerous technical and social design decisions determine the social interaction space and affect the community participation. Social presence has been considered as a major design principle in computer-mediated communication. While most prior IS research adopts a uni-dimensional approach and restricts social presence to be the subjective nature of media, this research adopts a multi-dimensional approach (Shen and Khalifa 2007) to examine the online community design. Compared to uni-dimensional conceptualizations of presence/social presence, multi-dimensional conceptualizations can better capture the sense of social presence induced by both technical and social factors, and therefore entail more valuable implications for community design. The multi-dimensional approach also extends the developers\u27 impacts on online community, from interface design to user experience design. Built upon the work by Shen and Khalifa (2007) and Ma and Agarwal (2007), this study examines the technological antecedents of social presence dimensions. An online survey was conducted with four online forums. The empirical results provide interesting insights regarding the relative importance of three social presence dimensions in driving online community participation as well as the various correspondences between community artifacts and three social presence dimension

Modelling electronic customer relationship management success: functional and temporal considerations

Previous information systems satisfaction research predominantly focused on generic technological attributes, failing to account for the specificity of the artefact. Furthermore, viewing satisfaction as a static evaluation state, the prevalent cross-sectional approach could not account for the dynamic nature of satisfaction. In this study, we address these gaps by following a functional approach and taking a temporal view in developing and testing a model explaining the effects of various types of electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) functions on customer satisfaction in the context of online shopping. A framework based on the transaction cycle is used to classify eCRM functions into pre-, at-, and post-purchase eCRM. Two distinct temporal phases, i.e. attraction and retention, are identified. The results of a longitudinal survey involving 670 customers of hardware retailers demonstrate the appropriateness of the functional approach in investigating eCRM success and the necessity of the temporal conceptualization of customer satisfaction. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed

The Role of Espoused National Cultural Values in Facebook Adoption: A Replication with Arabic Sample

With about 30% increase over three months, Facebook has become a major online venue among Arabic young generation. However the understanding of its adoption as well as the cultural influence remains in its infancy. In recent study, Srite and Karahanna [1] examined the cultural impact at the individual level and, built upon Hofstede’s framework, conceptualize it as espoused national cultural values, which were proposed to moderating the effects of TAM variables, i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and subjective norms, on IT acceptance. Although insightful, the conceptualization of espoused national cultural values and its impacts requires further validation with subjects from different cultural backgrounds and IT artifacts which may be more subject to cultural influences, e.g., social networking sites. Therefore, this study is aimed to validate and extend the work by Srite and Karahanna [1] by examining the role of espoused national cultural values in Facebook adoption among Arabic female college students. Considering the cultural differences, we extended the original cultural dimensions in [1] to incorporate long-term orientation and also explicate the dimension of collectivism/individualism along two directions, e.g., horizontal vs. vertical. Different from the IT artifacts (PC and PDA) examined in [1], the IT artifact examined in this study is Facebook and its usage may be subject to more cultural influences than using PC and/or PDA, since Facebook involves a lot of social interaction and socialization. A survey study with 200 college female students in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE was conducted to validate the research model. 127 students returned the valid responses. At the moment of data collection, all respondents were new users of Facebook. Data collection involved two stages. The first stage was to collect the response for TAM variables and espoused national cultural values; while the second one, after one week, was for Facebook adoption. Smart PLS was used for data analysis. We expect that the results not only provide further empirical validation of Srite & Karahanna’s theory [1] with Arabic sample, but also extend the original research by demonstrating complete range of cultural dimensions. Currently, we are in the stage of finalizing data analysis results. By the time of the conference, we shall be able to provide the complete results

Internet usage among young Arab students: preliminary findings

Internet has profoundly transformed almost all aspects of our society. As a global phenomenon, Internet also bears distinct regional and cultural profiles. Much research has documented the Internet usage in Western world and its impacts on individuals. However evidence in this regards is dearth in Arab world, which represents an important but unique cultural region. In this study, we take an exploratory approach to examine the Internet usage patterns among young Arabic people, and the impact of Internet usage on their identity development. With surveys and structured interviews with 74 students from two universities in the UAE, one public and the other private, our results provide some preliminary results of the first generation of Arab youth exposed to the Internet. We found that Internet usage patterns were diverse however five main activities, searching, emailing, chatting, entertainment, and online discussions, form 75% of Internet usage time. Furthermore, a signification positive impact on self-perception of young Arabic students in the Middle East was observed

System design effects on social presence and telepresence in virtual communities

The influence of presence on users attitudes and behavior is widely reported in the literature. However, we still lack a good understanding of the effects of system design on the formation of a sense of presence in computer-mediated environments in general and virtual communities in particular. In this research, we address this void. More specifically, we examine the relationship between important system design characteristics and perceived presence. We adopt a multidimensional conceptualization of presence, distinguishing between telepresence and social presence. Deviating from the virtual reality literature, we apply new frameworks for the conceptualization of the main determinants of presence (i.e., interactivity and vividness) that are more relevant to the virtual community context. An empirical study involving 149 members of a virtual community specializing in health issues provided strong support for our model. Vividness and interactivity are found to be significant determinants of both telepresence and social presence. While the role of vividness is more important for social presence, that of interactivity is more important for telepresence. All interactivity dimensions (i.e., active control, communication, and synchronicity) are found to be significant for telepresence. For social presence, however, synchronicity does not seem to be as important as the other interactivity dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed

Facebook Usage among Arabic College Students: Preliminary Findings on Gender Differences

With immense popularity and candid participation, Facebook shows a greater potential in developing customer communities, promoting online presence, advertising, and customizing services/products. Despite its popularity, research on Facebook in particular and social networking sites in general is far behind the practice. Particularly, research outside the western countries is very limited. With the young generation of Arabic world embarking on Internet, social networking sites, e.g., Facebook, have been used as a main arena for their identity construction, and relationship development, playing a vital role in shaping future society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide descriptive information about the use of Facebook by Arabic college students with a focus on gender differences in motivations and perceived consequences of Facebook usage

IDENTITY-BASED DETERMINANTS FOR VIRTUAL COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: MODERATING ROLE OF GENDER COMPOSITION

Gender composition of VCs shapes the members’ communication style and content, and has a potential in influencing the anticipated benefits from VC participation. Extending prior research on VC participation and group composition, this study examines the moderating effect of gender composition in influencing the linkage between two important identity-based determinants, i.e., identification and identity confirmation, and VC participation. The research model was validated with an online survey involving 3 male dominant VCs and 1 female dominant VC. The results show that identification is a significant and stable determinant for members’ VC participation regardless of gender composition, but the effect of identity confirmation on VC participation is only significant for those in a female dominant VC. The theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed

THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE RESPONSE STRATEGIES TO NEGATIVE ONLINE WORD OF MOUTH ON COMPLAINERS’ BRAND ATTITUDE

The advent of customer empowering technologies has provided customers with a plethora of online venues to exchange negative experiences with companies and a multitude of other consumers. To mitigate the effect of negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) companies are increasingly reacting to customers’ online complaints. However, little attention has been paid to examine the impact of companies’ responses via various online platforms on complainers’ brand attitude change. In addition, previous research has not examined whether customers’ motives in voicing their complaints online and their choice of the online platform influence the effectiveness of corporate responses. The objectives of this research are threefold. First, the research aims to examine the impact of various corporate response strategies (accommodative, defensive and no reply) on customers’ brand attitude. In addition, it examines the moderating impact of platform type (company social networking sites/ third party platforms) and customers‘ motives to write negative comments (venting, redress seeking and altruism) on the relationship between corporate response strategies and customers’ brand attitude. The proposed conceptual model aims to explain the factors influencing the effectiveness of companies’ responses to online negative WOM

An empirical study on E-Banking acceptance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

While most banks in the UAE have adopted the Internet in providing various services, the understanding of the user acceptance of e-banking services remains limited. Prior studies on e-banking acceptance have been mainly conducted in the western countries. Given the different population and culture in the UAE from the western countries, it is necessary to identify the factors that are more relevant to the context. Built upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study examines e-banking acceptance in the context of the UAE. Specific factors were identified, i.e., security, image, convenience and computer self-efficacy, and incorporated into the TAM. The resulting research model was validated with a survey study involving 183 e-banking users and the results provided support for the extended TAM model. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed