“Does your backyard nurture loyal customers?”: The role of personal reciprocity in the relationship between satisfaction with an e-retailer sponsored virtual community and customer loyalty

An e-retailer sponsored virtual community (ESVC), as the backyard of an e-commerce website, provides consumers with an online platform to play with each other. It also facilitates consumer-to-e-retailer communications. How to drive value from consumer participation in ESVC becomes important in this context. In this research, the role of personal reciprocity as the mediator between a consumer’s satisfaction with ESVC and consumer loyalty toward e-retailers was investigated. Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey. A pilot analysis was performed based on limited data collection. Results, limitations and future directions are discussed. Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey. A pilot analysis was performed based on limited data collection. Results, limitations and future directions are discussed

Adaptivenes in Virtual Teams

Computer supported teams are capturing the attention of academics and practitioners as organisations increasingly put them into practice as virtual teams. The practical relevance of current research into computer supported teams could be increased if greater attention is paid to organisational challenges as they form the context within which virtual teamwork takes place. A model of organisational challenges mapped against processes of adaptation is developed to highlight principle factors affecting virtual teams. A sample of current research groups studying computer-supported teams is plotted onto this map to reveal the extent to which current research addresses these contextual factors. From this map insights are distilled with respect to what is known and is not known about virtual teams. This paper concludes with specific research needs in the study of virtual teams

Introduction to Emerging Issues in Distributed Group Decision-Making: Opportunities and Challenges Minitrack

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THE IMPACT OF GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS ON PERSUASION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Computer generated presentation graphics are increasingly becoming a tool to aid management in communicating information and to cause an audience to accept a point of view or take action. Unfortunately, technological capability significantly exceeds current levels of user understanding and effective application. The research reported here experimentally examines the persuasive impact of characteristics of computer-generated presentation graphics. The underlying model of persuasion is drawn from the communications literature. The study compares use of color versus black and white, and text versus image enhancement. Treatments were presented in association with a videotaped presentation intended to persuade subjects to invest time and money in a set of time management seminars. Pre-measure, post-measure, and post-measure followup questionnaires tracked changes in subject commitment. Subject perceptions of the presenter were also recorded. Overall, presentations supported with overhead transparencies were 46% more persuasive than unaided presentations. Visual aids had a major positive impact on audience perceptions of a presenter. The overall persuasion process model was only partially confirmed