Psychology

The Internet explosion and broad interest in collaborative technology have driven increased interest in the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Historically, behavioral research on CSCW applications has reflected a strong influence from ethnomethodology. This article argues that the CSCW community should adopt a stronger orientation to other social science disciplines, particularly psychology. Greater attention to the psychological literature provides three benefits. First, psychologists offer well-validated principles about human behavior in group and organizational contexts that are relevant to CSCW research. Second, psychologists offer reliable and proven measures of human behavior that, if adopted by CSCW researchers, can provide a uniform basis for comparison across studies. Finally, psychologists offer data collection and analysis methods that identify salient and generalizable features of human behavior, which may lead to the development of universal principles of CSCW design.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68835/2/10.1177_089443939801600106.pd

On Online Collaboration and Construction of Shared Knowledge: Assessing Mediation Capability in Computer Supported Argument Visualization Tools

Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualization (CCSAV) has often been proposed as an alternative over more conventional, mainstream platforms for online discussion (e.g., online forums and wikis). CCSAV tools require users to contribute to the creation of a joint artifact (argument map) instead of contributing to a conversation. In this paper we assess empirically the effects of this fundamental design choice and show that the absence of conversational affordances and socially salient information in representation-centric tools is detrimental to the users' collaboration experience. We report empirical findings from a study in which subjects using different collaborative platforms (a forum, an argumentation platform, and a socially augmented argumentation tool) were asked to discuss and predict the price of a commodity. By comparing users' experience across several metrics we found evidence that the collaborative performance decreases gradually when we remove conversational interaction and other types of socially salient information. We interpret these findings through theories developed in conversational analysis (common ground theory) and communities of practice and discuss design implications. In particular, we propose balancing the trade-off between knowledge reification and participation in representation-centric tools with the provision of social feedback and functionalities supporting meaning negotiation

Trust across borders: Buyer-supplier trust in global B2B e-commerce

Trust is important in all business, but especially in global B2B e-commerce, where trust is more difficult to develop due to the virtual and physical distances between buyers and suppliers. This study, using information signaling theory, examines two antecedents of trust in global B2B e-commerce: (1) buyers' perceptions of the national integrity and legal structure of the suppliers' country of origin, and (2) third-party verifications of suppliers. We surveyed buyers on a B2B exchange and found that buyers trust suppliers more if the suppliers' countries have higher national integrity, a better legal structure, and if the suppliers have been verified by a third party. Furthermore, as the number of transactions between buyers and suppliers increases, legal structure of the suppliers' countries has lesser effects on buyers' trust but national integrity remains influential. This study emphasizes the importance of adopting a global perspective in ecommerce research, and provides insights on trust formation and development in B2B relationships

Increasing commitment to online communities by disigning for social presence

The existence and survival of online communities depends upon the commitment and retention of their members. This paper compares alternative ways of designing online sites to increase member commitment. We report the results of two experiments conducted within a Facebook game application. The results show that designs can increase commitment and retention of players either by visually highlighting individual members, or by emphasizing the community as a whole. These designs influence commitment through different routes