A multi-method inquiry on online communities

This dissertation studies the behavioral characteristics of participants engaged in information exchange in the context of online communities. Online communities are defined as collectives of individuals that use computer mediated communication to facilitate interaction over a shared purpose and/or objective. It is argued that this interaction creates externalities, for example, in the form of codified information that others can use through web search tools. These externalities assemble a virtual form of social capital, a commonly shared resource. The research objective of this thesis is to examine how the behavioral tendencies of the participants in online communities are affected by the way this common resource is formatted, administered and shared. The dissertation consists of two parts: a theoretical part where the empirical background and the object of research inquiry is highlighted, and an empirical part which consists of four empirical studies carried out in the context of three online communities, namely, Google Answers, Yahoo!Answers and Amazon Online Reviews. The empirical part of this dissertation starts with a controlled experiment emulating a well known social dilemma: the public goods game. It provides substance as to whether and when participants in online communities behave (un) cooperatively. The next two studies focus on a special case of online communities where participants ask questions and other participants post answers conditionally on social and monetary incentives. The results of these two studies confirm that community participants do care about the contributions of others and engage in incentive compatible behavior. Yahoo!Answers participants exercise effort in the community by posting answers to questions conditionally on benefits provided by other participants. The empirical findings show that contributing participants in an online community receive answers faster, while those that do not contribute much effort are sanctioned in the form of longer response-time to their questions. In Google Answers this thesis, interactions can be observed that are based on monetary rewards (rather than social rewards in the form of a reputation index as in Yahoo Answers). Participants make use of voluntarily awarded payoffs (tips) along with stated rewards, in order to motivate those that provide answers (answerers) to provide better quality in their responses. The findings of this study confirm the symmetric effect between monetary rewards and quality. However, this study also identifies cases where social norms have a significant effect on response behavior. When participants seek to get better service with less effort (in terms of total cost), a reputation index which is constructed by the history of their previous interactions supports such an attempt. In other words, reputation history influences information sharing behavior in online communities. The last chapter of the empirical part focuses on another crucial aspect of information as a shared resource: Clarity and understandability. The study examines online product reviews on Amazon.com. The results suggest that participants do care about the clarity of this codified form of experience which increases a helpfulness index accordingly. The thesis overall finds symmetric effects between participation in online communities and output of interaction, but also identifies the ability of the participants to interact strategically as they seek to minimize the effort they provide in order to find the information they seek. The results underline the importance of signaling and quality evaluation mechanisms as counter-balancing control that can enhance activity on online communities

An Ontology Oriented Approach on eLearning: Integrating Semantics for Adaptive eLearning Systems

In the last decade the evolution on educational technologies forced an extraordinary interest in new methods for delivering learning content to learners. The role of technology has often been overestimated causing a myopic consideration of the critical issues in e-learning. This paper provides an initial discussion of the role of ontologies in the context of e-learning. The overall objective is to emphasize the importance of analysing a phenomenon and reveal the descriptive conceptualizations that affect the employment of technology. Ontology as a term has an intrinsic holistic character and from this point of view is quite interesting to investigate ways of understanding the phenomenon of e-learning from several perspectives. An initial clarification of term ontology is presented and the main issues are used for the description of the developmental process of the e-learning ontology entitled Mutli- Dimensional Dynamic Learning (MDL). The final conclusion balances conceptualizations and technological formulations by drilling down abstract concepts to data declarations and thus machine-readable semantics

Mobile shopping apps adoption and perceived risks: A cross-country perspective utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

Consumer adoption of mobile shopping apps is an emerging area in m-commerce which poses an interesting challenge for retailers and app developers. In this study, we adapt the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) to investigate factors predicting consumer behavioral intention (BI) and use behavior (UB) towards mobile shopping apps, considering the impact of two manifestations of consumer’s perceived risk: Privacy Risk and Security Risk. Because cultural characteristics may moderate the impact of these risks on behavioral intention and use behavior, we conduct two studies from two consumer panels from countries with significant difference in technology use as captured by the Computer-Based Media Support Index (CMSI), namely India (high CMSI) and USA (low CMSI). For both countries, the baseline UTAUT 2 constructs predict the Behavioral Intention to use mobile shopping apps (and subsequently use behavior). However, the manifestations of perceived risk are significant only for the country with the highest CMSI score, suggesting that cultural influences play a strong role in the adoption of m-shopping. Our study has practical implications for theory as it poses the use of m-shopping apps in a cross-cultural context, suggesting that privacy and security moderate intention to use differently across cultures as predicted by the CMSI. From that perspective, it also has practical implications for consumer behavior researchers and app developers challenged with app localization as well as retailers designing mobile shopping apps for an intercultural audience

Horizontal collaboration in the last mile distribution: Gauging managerial response to disruption and abnormal demand

Purpose: Last mile distribution is a crucial element of any supply chain network, and its complexity has challenged established practices and frameworks in the management literature. This is particularly evident when demand surges, as with recent lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent demand for home delivery services. Given the importance of this critical component, this study recommends horizontal collaboration as a possible solution for retailers seeking to improve the quality of their services. Design/methodology/approach: This study investigates whether horizontal collaboration should be considered as an option for faster and greener distribution of groceries ordered online. Using the United Kingdom and Greek grocery markets that differ in terms of online grocery penetration, distribution network structure and delivery times, the study discusses how the effectiveness of pooling resources can create positive spillover effects for consumers, businesses and society. Findings: Despite their differences, both markets indicate the need for horizontal collaboration in the highly topical issue of last mile delivery. Originality/value: Taking a theoretical and practical view in cases of disruption and constant pressure in last mile distribution, horizontal collaboration supports retailers to coordinate routes, increase fleet and vehicle utilisation, reduce traffic and carbon emissions while improving customer satisfaction

Mobile shopping cart abandonment: The roles of conflicts, ambivalence, and hesitation

Though several industry reports have suggested that the rate of shopping cart abandonment is high in the mobile channel, the reasons for such abandonment remain relatively unexplored. Drawing on the cognition-affect-behavior (CAB) paradigm, this study aims to provide a conceptual framework explaining why consumers hesitate to use mobile channels for shopping and thus abandon their mobile shopping carts. Results from two studies show that mobile shopping cart abandonment is positively influenced by emotional ambivalence, a result of consumers' conflicting thoughts. More specifically, emotional ambivalence amplifies consumers' hesitation at the checkout stage, leading to cart abandonment. However, if hesitant consumers are satisfied with the choice process during shopping, they are less likely to give up their mobile shopping carts. Based on the findings, this mobile channel study provides practical and theoretical implications for marketers and e-cart abandonment researchers, respectively

Flying to Quality: Cultural Influences on Online Reviews

Customers increasingly consult opinions expressed online before making their final decisions. However, inherent factors such as culture may moderate the criteria and the weights individuals use to form their expectations and evaluations. Therefore, not all opinions expressed online match customers’ personal preferences, neither can firms use this information to deduce general conclusions. Our study explores this issue in the context of airline services using Hofstede’s framework as a theoretical anchor. We gauge the effect of each dimension as well as that of cultural distance between the passenger and the airline on the overall satisfaction with the flight as well as specific service factors. Using topic modeling, we also capture the effect of culture on review text and identify factors that are not captured by conventional rating scales. Our results provide significant insights for airline managers about service factors that affect more passengers from specific cultures leading to higher satisfaction/dissatisfaction

Social and Economic Incentives in Online Social Interactions: A Model and Typology

This paper tackles with the background theory and the typology of incentives that characterize behavior in online social interactions. Online social interactions are the major element of activity in online communities. Social network theory and in particular the strength of weak ties hypothesis can provide an analytical framework for studying them. We contribute by introducing a typology of social, behavioral and economic incentives by formulating related hypothesis. We then combine these hypothesis in a proposed structural model from which we theorize the different classes depending on the model configuration

Ανταλλαγή πληροφοριών και συμπεριφορά: μια πολυ - μέθοδος έρευνα στις διαδικτυακές κοινότητες

This thesis studies behavioural characteristics of participants engaged in information exchange in the context of online communities. Online communities are defined as collectives of individuals that use computer mediated communication to facilitate interaction over a shared purpose and/or objective. It is argued that this interaction creates externalities, e.g., in the form of codified information that others can use through web search tools. These externalities assemble a virtual form of social capital, a commonly shared resource. This thesis examines how participants’ behavioural tendencies are affected by the way this common resource is formatted, administered and shared. It consists of two parts: a theoretical part where the object of research inquiry is highlighted, and an empirical part which consists of four empirical studies in the context of three online communities, namely, Google Answers, Yahoo!Answers and Amazon Reviews.The first study is a controlled experiment emulating a well-known social dilemma: the public goods game. It provides substance as to whether and when participants in online communities behave (un) cooperatively. The next two studies focus on question-answering communities where participants ask questions and other participants post answers conditionally on social and monetary incentives. Results confirm that community participants do care about the contributions of others and engage in incentive compatible behaviour. Yahoo!Answers participants exercise effort by posting answers to questions conditionally on benefits provided by other participants. Findings show that contributing participants receive answers faster, while non-contributors are sanctioned in the form of longer response-time to their questions. In Google Answers, interactions can be observed that are based on monetary rewards (rather than rewards in the form of a reputation index as in Yahoo Answers). Participants use voluntarily awarded payoffs (tips) along with stated rewards, to motivate those that provide answers (answerers) to provide better responses. Findings confirm a symmetric effect between monetary rewards and quality. However, social norms have a significant effect on response behaviour. When participants seek to get better service with less effort (in terms of total cost), a reputation index, constructed by the history of their previous interactions, supports such an attempt. The final study focuses on another crucial aspect of information as a shared resource: Clarity and Understandability; by examining online product reviews on Amazon finding that consumers do care about the clarity of this codified form of experience which affects their helpfulness index.The thesis finds symmetric effects between online community participation and output of interaction, but also identifies participants’ ability to interact strategically as they seek to minimize their effort in finding information. Results underline the importance of signalling and quality evaluation mechanisms as a counter-balancing control to enhance activity on online communitiesΗ διατριβή αυτή μελετά συμπεριφορικά χαρακτηριστικά των συμμετεχόντων που ανταλλάσουν πληροφοριά στο πλαίσιο των διαδικτυακών κοινοτήτων. Οι τελευταίες ορίζονται ως συλλογικότητες που χρησιμοποιούν τη μεσολάβηση υπολογιστή για την διευκόλυνση της αλληλεπίδρασης πάνω από ένα κοινό σκοπό ή /και αντικείμενο. Υποστηρίζεται ότι αυτή η αλληλεπίδραση δημιουργεί εξωτερικότητες, π.χ., με τη μορφή κωδικοποιημένων πληροφοριών που άλλοι χρήστες μπορούν να χρησιμοποιήσουν μέσα από εργαλεία αναζήτησης ιστοσελίδων. Αυτές οι εξωτερικότητες αποτελούν μια εικονική μορφή κοινωνικού κεφαλαίου, ένα κοινόχρηστο πόρο. Η διατριβή εξετάζει πώς οι τάσεις της συμπεριφοράς των συμμετεχόντων επηρεάζονται από τον τρόπο που αυτός ο κοινός πόρος διαμορφώνεται, και χορηγείται δημόσια. Αποτελείται από δύο μέρη: ένα θεωρητικό, όπου επισημαίνεται το αντικείμενο της διατριβής, και ένα εμπειρικό το οποίο αποτελείται από τέσσερις μελέτες στο πλαίσιο τριών διαδικτυακών κοινοτήτων, Google Answers, Yahoo Answers και Amazon.Η πρώτη μελέτη είναι ένα ελεγχόμενο πείραμα πάνω σε ένα γνωστό κοινωνικό δίλημμα: το παίγνιο των δημόσιων αγαθών. Παρέχει βάση ως προς το αν και πότε, οι συμμετέχοντες σε διαδικτυακές κοινότητες συμπεριφέρονται συνεργατικά η μη Τα επόμενα δύο κεφάλαια επικεντρώνονται στις κοινότητες ερωτο-απαντήσεων όπου οι συμμετέχοντες ερωτούν άλλους συμμετέχοντες με τους τελευταίους να υποκινούνται είτε από κοινωνικά ή χρηματικά κίνητρα. Τα αποτελέσματα επιβεβαιώνουν ότι οι συμμετέχοντες επηρεάζονται από των ρυθμό απόκρισης των ερωτώντων και συμμετέχουν με κριτήριο την συμβατή συμπεριφορά. Συμμετέχοντες στο Yahoo! Answers δημιουργούν οφέλη δημοσιεύοντας τις απαντήσεις στις ερωτήσεις με βάση τα οφέλη/απαντήσεις που παρέχονται από άλλους συμμετέχοντες.Τα αποτελέσματα δείχνουν ότι οι συμμετέχοντες που συμβάλλουν, λαμβάνουν απαντήσεις πιο γρήγορα, ενώ οι μη-συνεισφέροντες δέχονται κυρώσεις με τη μορφή μεγαλύτερου χρόνου απόκρισης στις ερωτήσεις τους. Στο Google Answers, οι αλληλεπιδράσεις βασίζονται σε χρηματικά κίνητρα(και όχι ανταμοιβές με τη μορφή ενός δείκτη φήμης όπως το Yahoo Answers). Οι συμμετέχοντες χρησιμοποιούν εθελοντικές πληρωμές (φιλοδωρήματα) μαζί με τις δεδηλωμένες ανταμοιβές, για να παρακινήσουν εκείνους που παρέχουν απαντήσεις στο να παρέχουν απαντήσεις καλύτερης ποιότητας. Τα ευρήματα επιβεβαιώνουν ένα συμμετρικό αποτέλεσμα μεταξύ χρηματικών αμοιβών και ποιότητας της απόκρισης. Ωστόσο, οι κοινωνικές νόρμες έχουν σημαντική επίδραση στη συμπεριφορά απόκρισης. Όταν οι συμμετέχοντες επιδιώκουν να λάβουν καλύτερη απόκριση με λιγότερη προσπάθεια (από την άποψη του συνολικού κόστους), ένα δείκτης φήμης, που περιγράφει από τις προηγούμενων αλληλεπιδράσεων τους, υποστηρίζει μια τέτοια προσπάθεια. Η τελική μελέτη της διατριβής επικεντρώνεται σε μια άλλη κρίσιμη πτυχή των πληροφοριών ως κοινόχρηστο πόρο: Σαφήνεια και Κατανοητότητα, εξετάζοντας κριτικές καταναλωτών για προϊόντα στο Amazon, διαπιστώνοντας ότι οι καταναλωτές νοιάζονται για τη σαφήνεια της πληροφορίας το οποίο επηρεάζει τον δείκτη χρησιμότητας των κριτικών.Η διατριβή βρίσκει συμμετρικές επιδράσεις μεταξύ της της αλληλεπίδρασης στις διαδικτυακές κοινότητες και το παραγόμενο προϊόν, αλλά αναγνωρίζει επίσης την ικανότητα των συμμετεχόντων να αλληλεπιδρούν στρατηγικά, επιδιώκοντας να ελαχιστοποιήσουν τις προσπάθειές τους στην εύρεση πληροφοριών. Τα αποτελέσματα υπογραμμίζουν τη σημασία των μηχανισμών σήμανσης και αξιολόγησης της ποιότητας ως παράγοντας αντι-εξισορρόπησης για την ενίσχυση της δραστηριότητας στις διαδικτυακές κοινότητες