A Relational Build-up Model of Consumer Intention to Self-disclose Personal Information in E-commerce B2C Relationships

For business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic-commerce (ecommerce) transactions to work, website users must disclose sensitive information (such as credit card information). To establish a long-term customer relationship, organizations desire further information about current and potential customers (e.g., their name, user preferences, product preferences, physical address, and email address). Both ecommerce literature and interpersonal relationship research indicate that self-disclosure is a key dependent variable in burgeoning long-term relationships. In this study, I use a survey methodology (N = 281) and tests key antecedents that the ecommerce B2C relationship stage theory proposes as they relate to self-disclosure. This research model identifies the following antecedents of self-disclosure: attraction, perceived rewards, switching cost, involvement, and trust. Survey results show that trust and perceived rewards explain significant amounts of variance in self-disclosure intention in an online B2C context. I discuss implications for both practice and theory with the results

The Long And The Short Of eCommerce Intentions: Examining The Distinguishing Effect Of Time Orientation Between Behavioral Intentions And Behavioral Goals

This study analyzes the distinction, both conceptually and operationally, between behavioral intentions and behavioral goals. This paper recognizes the importance of time orientation in the measurement of behavioral intentions, as defined by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975). Literature is reviewed that shows this conceptual definition is often misused in information systems (IS) research because behavioral intention is sometimes operationalized with a long-term time orientation (i.e., continued use). This paper offers an empirical assessment, in the context of online purchases, of the discriminant validity between behavioral intentions and behavioral goals. The results of the survey (N = 458) indicate that time orientation does distinguish these constructs in an eCommerce setting. Theoretical implications are that long-term oriented behavioral intentions actually represent behavioral goals and thus have less conceptual implications for predicting actual behavior. Practical implications indicate that such distinctions may influence eCommerce strategies for online impulse purchases as well as customer relationship management

Deconstructing and Operationalizing Interactivity: An Online Advertising Perspective

In an online advertising context this empirical study examines the influence of the interface characteristic Interactivity on important user perceptions and their intention to use a website. Results indicate that social presence and telepresence are significant predictors of attitude toward online advertisements, satisfaction with online advertisements, and subsequent intentions to use a host website. Also indicated by this study is the significant influence of interactivity, as well as consumer involvement and the interaction between these two variables. The outcomes of this study offer preliminary insight into the conceptualization and affect of interface characteristics, such as interactivity, in online advertising

Designing Interfaces with Social Presence: Using Vividness and Extraversion to Create Social Recommendation Agents

Interfaces now employ a variety of media-rich, social, and advanced decision-making components, including recommendation agents (RA) designed to assist users with their tasks. Social presence has been identified as a key consideration in website design to overcome the lack of warmth, social cues, and face-to-face interaction, but few studies have investigated the interface features that may increase social presence. Recent research on RAs has similarly acknowledged social presence as a key factor in the design of online RAs and in building trust in this technology, but there has been limited empirical work on the topic. In this study an experiment was conducted to explore how social technology cues, media capabilities, and individual differences influence social presence and trust in an RA. RA personality (extraversion), vividness (text, voice, and animation), and computer playfulness were found to influence social presence, with social presence serving in a mediating role and increasing user trust in the RA. Vividness also had a moderating effect on the relationship between RA extraversion and social presence such that increased levels of vividness strengthen this relationship

Understanding the Role of Theory on Instrument Development: An Examination of Strengths and Weaknesses of Discriminant Validity Analysis Techniques

Numerous researchers have called attention to many important issues in instrument development throughout the relatively short history of the information systems (IS) academic research discipline (e.g., Petter, Straub, & Rai 2007; Straub, Boudreau, & Gefen 2004; Straub 1989). With the accumulation of knowledge related to the process of instrument development, it has now become necessary to take a closer look at specific aspects of this process. This paper focuses on construct validity, specifically discriminant validity, and examines some popular methods of supporting this type of validity when using cross-sectional data. We examine strengths and weaknesses of these analysis techniques with a focus on the role of theory and informed interpretation. We highlight the applicability of these techniques by analyzing a sample dataset where we theorize two constructs to be highly correlated. With this paper, we provide both researchers and reviewers a greater understanding of the highlighted discriminant validity analysis techniques

A Look at How Levels of Vividness and Social Presence Affect Trust in a Decision Aid

Building on past research on trust and social presence, this study explores how multimedia vividness and social presence affect trusting beliefs and subsequently trusting intentions of a computer-based decision aid. An experiment involving 550 subjects examines the effect that decision aid personality and increased levels of vividness (text, voice, and animation) have on social presence, and downstream trust-related constructs including trusting beliefs and trusting intentions. The effect of a user’s computer playfulness on social presence is also investigated. Past research on trust and social presence provide the theoretical foundation for the study and suggest that increased vividness may moderate the effect of decision aid personality on perceptions of social presence, with social presence consequently affecting trusting beliefs

Diagnosing and Managing Online Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Relationships: Toward an eCommerce B2C Relationship Stage Theory

The emergence of eCommerce has provided organizations with an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions. Generally speaking, relationships move through various stages, when a customer chooses to establish a relationship with a person or an organization. Likewise, when a customer forms an ongoing relationship with an online organization, it progresses through similar stages. Yet, the IT-mediated nature of B2C eCommerce interactions causes the manifestation of these stages to be different from offline B2C interactions. As such, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for examining stages of online B2C relationships, based on Stage Theory. The proposed eCommerce B2C Relationship Stage Theory (eB2C-RST) highlights three stages of eCommerce B2C relationships from the customer’s perspective: Attraction, Build-Up, and Continuance. This theoretical framework provides a foundation for both research and practice in the areas of interface design and online B2C customer relationship management

Is the Shroud of Turin in Relation to the Old Jerusalem Historical Earthquake?

Phillips and Hedges suggested, in the scientific magazine Nature (1989), that neutron radiation could be liable of a wrong radiocarbon dating, while proton radiation could be responsible of the Shroud body image formation. On the other hand, no plausible physical reason has been proposed so far to explain the radiation source origin, and its effects on the linen fibres. However, some recent studies, carried out by the first author and his Team at the Laboratory of Fracture Mechanics of the Politecnico di Torino, found that it is possible to generate neutron emissions from very brittle rock specimens in compression through piezonuclear fission reactions. Analogously, neutron flux increments, in correspondence to seismic activity, should be a result of the same reactions. A group of Russian scientists measured a neutron flux exceeding the background level by three orders of magnitude in correspondence to rather appreciable earthquakes (4th degree in Richter Scale). The authors consider the possibility that neutron emissions by earthquakes could have induced the image formation on Shroud linen fibres, trough thermal neutron capture by Nitrogen nuclei, and provided a wrong radiocarbon dating due to an increment in C(14,6)content. Let us consider that, although the calculated integral flux of 10^13 neutrons per square centimetre is 10 times greater than the cancer therapy dose, nevertheless it is100 times smaller than the lethal dose.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

Quantitative scintigraphy with deconvolutional analysis for the dynamic measurement of hepatic function

A mathematical technique known as deconvolutional analysis was used to provide a critical and previously missing element in the computations required to quantitate hepatic function scintigraphically. This computer-assisted technique allowed for the determination of the time required, in minutes, of a labeled bilirubin analog (99mTc-disofenin) to enter the liver via blood and exit via bile. This interval was referred to as the mean transit time (MTT). The critical process provided for by deconvolution is the mathematical simulation of a bolus injection of tracer directly into the afferent blood supply of the liver. The raw data required for this simulation are obtained from the intravenous injection of labeled disofenin, a member of the HIDA family of radiopharmaceuticals. In this study, we perform experiments which document that the simulation process itself is accurate. We then calculate the MTT under a variety of experimental conditions involving progressive hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury and correlate these results with the results of simultaneously performed BSP determinations and hepatic histology. The experimental group with the most pronounced histologic findings (necrosis, vacuolization, disorganization of hepatic cords) also have the most prolonged MTT and BSP half-life. However, both quantitative imaging and BSP testing are able to identify milder degrees of hepatic ischemic injury not reflected in the histologic evaluation. Quantitative imaging with deconvolutional analysis is a technique easily adaptable to the standard nuclear medicine minicomputer. It provides rapid results and appears to be a sensitive monitor of hepatic functional disturbances resulting from ischemia and reperfusion.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26699/1/0000247.pd

POPcorn: An Online Resource Providing Access to Distributed and Diverse Maize Project Data

The purpose of the online resource presented here, POPcorn (Project Portal for corn), is to enhance accessibility of maize genetic and genomic resources for plant biologists. Currently, many online locations are difficult to find, some are best searched independently, and individual project websites often degrade over time—sometimes disappearing entirely. The POPcorn site makes available (1) a centralized, web-accessible resource to search and browse descriptions of ongoing maize genomics projects, (2) a single, stand-alone tool that uses web Services and minimal data warehousing to search for sequence matches in online resources of diverse offsite projects, and (3) a set of tools that enables researchers to migrate their data to the long-term model organism database for maize genetic and genomic information: MaizeGDB. Examples demonstrating POPcorn's utility are provided herein