What Does Universal Access Mean?

Universal access (UA) to the Internet and the associated information infrastructure has become an important economic and societal goal. Yet, a comprehensive and systematicunderstanding of the UA concept is still lacking. In this paper, we apply naturalistic techniques of inquiry to analyze the Philadelphia Wireless initiative, and develop a series of propositions that constitute a proposed new model of UA. The analysis reveals that UA is a multi-dimensional construct that is influenced by different stakeholders with varied and conflicting interests. UA, in the modern era, represents a human-technology alliance that exhibits great diversity across individuals, technologies, and associated social contexts. This departs from the traditional top-down notion of universal access that focused mainly on physical connectivity. The human and technological elements aredeeply embedded within institutional dependencies that are essential, yet also alternatively enable or constrain meaningful underlying use of the information infrastructure. The implications of this complexity for achieving universal access and policy making are discussed

Cultural and review characteristics in the formation of trust in online product reviews: A multinational investigation

Recent changes in web technologies have given a voice to consumers in online discussion of products and services. While the web has long been a source of information about products and services, web content was controlled by those who knew how to develop for the web, or those who could hire web developers. The trend toward web software that permits novice users to contribute to conversations about products has been embraced by online retailers, who facilitate and encourage online user reviews of products. Researchers are just starting to understand the relationship between online user reviews and purchase intention, however have determined that trust is central to the development of purchase intention. In this study, we report the results of a simulation based web purchase experiment that included subjects in Colombia, the People’s Republic of China and the United States. The experiment included manipulations for both information quality and a social component of the review, and espoused culture scores of subjects where measured. We find that information quality, the social component and espoused uncertainty avoidance influence trust in the review. We were not able to support an interaction effect between information quality and uncertainty avoidance and trust, nor an interaction effect between the social component and collectivism

Unscrambling the Puzzling Matter of Online Consumer Ratings: An Exploratory Analysis

This study explores the patterns of online reviews of vacation homes from a community-based travel advisory website with a goal of understanding the biases inherent in online word of mouth (WOM) related to tourism and hospitality services. An analysis of nearly 3,200 reviews from “Reviewsite.com,” (a pseudonym) which posts reviews of vacation rental properties across the USA, finds an overwhelming preponderance of favorable reviews. More to the point, relatively few “moderate” reviews are posted, and the second-highest category is extremely negative comments. Using semantic processing techniques on the aggregate review text, the study identifies the nuanced opinions and concerns of the travelers who write reviews. Negative reviews tend to be lengthy and argumentative, often detailing disappointment over expectations not met. Positive reviews, on the other hand, tend to be relatively brief and confirm the overall rating. Consumers who wrote “high” reviews placed greater importance on value for money, cleanliness, and comfort than did those who wrote negative reviews. Those who wrote “low” reviews placed their emphasis on the service provided by the property staff and management. Negative reviews were more likely to involve a higher price accommodation. This analysis indicates that the overall numerical ratings typically used in review systems may not be the ideal indicator of perceived service quality. The results suggest that review sites should develop better methods to aggregate, synthesize, and publish the review contents, particularly the numerical ratings. This and other review sites show the average of all the point-scale ratings, but such simple means do not take into account the biases that are inherent in the rating systems. Instead, the sites should provide more information and heuristics to help the consumers navigate through the clutter and get the information they desire.Racherla_202011_20Unscrambling.pdf: 264 downloads, before Aug. 1, 2020