How does service price influence patients’ decisions? An examination of the free-market pricing mechanism in online health communities

Electronic Markets - In online health communities (OHCs) in China, physicians can provide online diagnostic services and use the free-market pricing mechanism to price their service so as to...     

Liberating or debilitating? An examination of romantic relationships,sexual relationships and friendships on the Net

Ever since the beginnings of the internet researchers have questioned its utility in developing and maintaining psychological healthy romantic and sexual relations. Advocates of the social presence theory and media richness theory purport that in leaner media individuals can be quite aggressive towards one another (e.g., in the form of flaming). In contrast, others believe that the lack of traditional cues in CMC can in fact be overcome and instead lead to more personal, intimate relationships. As this paper will demonstrate, when we consider how beneficial it is to form relationships online we also need to consider individuals’ characteristics (e.g., personality characteristics and physical attractiveness), the amount of time people spend online, the duration of online relationships, and how these relationships effect individuals’ offline activities and relationships. Overall, the view here is that online relationships can be empowering for many people; that is, cyberspace provides a unique environment for people to experience and learn about relationships and sexuality.     

Gift or threat? An examination of voice of the customer: The case of MyStarbucksIdea.com

In Web 2.0 environment, the influence of customers’ voices is increasing. Many companies have built their online brand communities for listening to the diverse voices of the customer (VOC) and promoting customer’s engagement. The information obtained from these brand communities is exploited for organizational innovation. However, the VOC with negative contents could possibly present threats to a firm in an online context. In this study, we develop a research model that includes the types of customer expectations, opinion leader engagement, negative valence of VOC, interaction, and innovation. Subsequently, we empirically validate the effects of customer expectations on the interactions among community members and organizational innovation by using a dataset from MyStarbucksIdea.com. The results show that the effects of VOC on the interaction within a brand community and organizational innovation are different depending on the types of expectation in the VOC. Opinion leaders’ engagement positively affects the interaction among community members. Moreover, the negative valence of VOC affects the relationships between customer expectations and interactions, and results in a possible threat within an online brand community. The research results give some insight into managing the brand community and analyzing the VOCs so as to achieve organizational innovation.     

Which is more important in Internet shopping,perceived price or trust?

Price and trust are considered to be two important factors that influence customer purchasing decisions in Internet shopping. This paper examines the relative influence they have on online purchasing decisions for both potential and repeat customers. The knowledge of their relative impacts and changes in their relative roles over customer transaction experience is useful in developing customized sales strategies to target different groups of customers. The results of this study revealed that perceived trust exerted a stronger effect than perceived price on purchase intentions for both potential and repeat customers of an online store. The results also revealed that perceived price exerted a stronger influence on purchase decisions of repeat customers as compared to that of potential customers. Perceived trust exerted a stronger influence on purchase decisions of potential customers as compared to that of repeat customers.     

Promoting regulation of equal participation in online collaboration by combining a group awareness tool and adaptive prompts. But does it even matter?

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - Unequal participation poses a challenge to collaborative learning because it reduces opportunities for fruitful collaboration...     

Alone or together? Exploring the role of desire for online group gaming in players’ social game addiction

Drawing on dual-system theory, this study examines the role of desire for online group gaming in online social game addiction. By conducting a longitudinal online survey, we show that attitude, anticipated enjoyment, group norm, and social identity contribute to the development of desire for online group gaming. Such desire facilitates habit and self-regulation deficiency, which, in turn, fosters online social game addiction. This study contributes to the literature by theorizing a nomological network of desire for online group gaming on online social game addiction and by offering implications for managing addictive gaming.     

Satisfaction or gratitude? Exploring the disparate effects of physicians' knowledge sharing on patients' service evaluation in online medical consultations

The influence of physicians' knowledge sharing on patient satisfaction in online medical consultations (OMCs) has received extensive attention in recent years. However, patient gratitude in OMCs, another crucial outcome for physicians' knowledge sharing, has largely been overlooked. To address this gap, this study attempts to distinguish patient satisfaction from gratitude in OMCs and elucidate the relationship between the sharing process and outcomes. Drawing on the affect theory of social exchange, this study proposes a model that investigates the relative effects of physicians' informational and emotional support during the knowledge-sharing process on patient satisfaction and gratitude, as well as the contingent roles of physicians' professional seniority and patients' disease severity. The research model is tested by using data from a well-known online health platform in China. The results indicate that patient gratitude is associated with a more favourable service evaluation than satisfaction in OMCs. Physicians' informational support has a greater effect on patient satisfaction than emotional support, while emotional support has a greater effect on patient gratitude than informational support. Moreover, professional seniority and disease severity positively and negatively moderate the relationship between emotional support and patient gratitude, respectively. A survey-based experiment is also adopted to validate the research model with self-reported perceptual measures. This study contributes to the literature on patient gratitude, online healthcare service evaluation, knowledge sharing, and the affect theory of social exchange.     

Can more interactivity improve learning achievement in an online course? Effects of college students' perception and actual use of a course-management system on their learning achievement

This study aims to investigate how interactivity influence learners' use of interactive functions in the course-management system (CMS) and their online learning performance. A two-tier mediation framework is proposed to examine the mediating effects of different actual-use records concerning the CMS's interactive functions. Data are collected from 381 undergraduate students who enrolled in a general-education asynchronous online course from three universities in Taiwan. The results indicate that the relationships among students' self-reported use of interactive functions, students' perceptions of the usefulness of interactive functions, and students' actual-use logs have some direct influences on students' online learning performance (online-discussion scores, exam scores, and group-project scores). In addition, students' actual-use logs (the number of times of log-ins to the online course, the number of times students read learning materials, and the number of postings on the discussion board) have a mediated effect on students' self-reported frequency of logging into the CMS, students' self-reported frequency of using the learner–instructor/learner–learner interactive functions, and online learning performance. The findings and implications could constitute a useful guide for educational practitioners and designers concerned with the effective integration of interactivity into future online courses.     

Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are video games in which players create an avatar that evolves and interacts with other avatars in a persistent virtual world. Motivations to play MMORPGs are heterogeneous (e.g. achievement, socialisation, immersion in virtual worlds). This study investigates in detail the relationships between self-reported motives and actual in-game behaviours. We recruited a sample of 690 World of Warcraft players (the most popular MMORPG) who agreed to have their avatar monitored for 8 months. Participants completed an initial online survey about their motives to play. Their actual in-game behaviours were measured through the game’s official database (the Armory website). Results showed specific associations between motives and in-game behaviours. Moreover, longitudinal analyses revealed that teamwork- and competition-oriented motives are the most accurate predictors of fast progression in the game. In addition, although specific associations exist between problematic use and certain motives (e.g. advancement, escapism), longitudinal analyses showed that high involvement in the game is not necessarily associated with a negative impact upon daily living.     

To twist,roll, stroke or poke? A study of input devices for menu navigation in the cockpit

Modern interfaces within the aircraft cockpit integrate many flight management system (FMS) functions into a single system. The success of a user's interaction with an interface depends upon the optimisation between the input device, tasks and environment within which the system is used. In this study, four input devices were evaluated using a range of Human Factors methods, in order to assess aspects of usability including task interaction times, error rates, workload, subjective usability and physical discomfort. The performance of the four input devices was compared using a holistic approach and the findings showed that no single input device produced consistently high performance scores across all of the variables evaluated. The touch screen produced the highest number of ‘best’ scores; however, discomfort ratings for this device were high, suggesting that it is not an ideal solution as both physical and cognitive aspects of performance must be accounted for in design.

Practitioner summary: This study evaluated four input devices for control of a screen-based flight management system. A holistic approach was used to evaluate both cognitive and physical performance. Performance varied across the dependent variables and between the devices; however, the touch screen produced the largest number of ‘best’ scores.     

More work cooperation or relationship harmony in mass customization? The impacts of personalized design,modular design,and automated processes

Information Technology and Management - Mass customization (MC) is recognized as a new manufacturing paradigm for market competition, and several empirical studies have discussed elements of...     

Do soil-adjusted or standard vegetation indices better predict above ground biomass of semi-arid,saline rangelands in North-East Iran?

ABSTRACT

Satellite remote sensing has greatly facilitated the assessment of aboveground biomass in rangelands. Soil-adjusted vegetation indices have been developed to provide better predictions of aboveground biomass, especially for dryland regions. Semi-arid rangelands often complicate a remote sensing based assessment of aboveground biomass due to bright reflecting soils combined with sparse vegetation cover. We aim at evaluating whether soil-adjusted vegetation indices perform better than standard, i.e. unadjusted, vegetation indices in predicting dry aboveground biomass of a saline and semi-arid rangeland in NE-Iran. 672 biomass plots of 2 × 2 m were gathered and aggregated into 13 sites. Generalized Linear Regression Models (GLM) were compared for six different vegetation indices, three standard and three soil-adjusted vegetation indices. Vegetation indices were calculated from the MODIS MCD43A4 product. Model comparison was done using Akaike Information Criterion (AICc), Akaike weights and pseudo R². Model fits for dry biomass showed that transformed NDVI and NDVI fitted best with R² = 0.47 and R² = 0.33, respectively. The optimized soil-adjusted vegetation index (OSAVI) behaved similar to NDVI but less precise. The soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), the modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI2) and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) performed worse than a null model. Hence, soil-adjusted indices based on the soil-line concept performed worse than a simple square root transformation of the NDVI. However, more studies that compare MODIS based vegetation indices for rangeland biomass estimation are required to support our findings. We suggest applying a similar model comparison approach as performed in this study instead of relying on single vegetation indices in order to find optimal relationships with aboveground biomass estimation in rangelands.     

Is traditional,open-source,or on-demand first choice? Developing an AHP-based framework for the comparison of different software models in office suites selection

Until recently, organizations planning to acquire application software (AS) have had no choice but to adopt proprietary, on-premises software. With the advent of open-source and on-demand solutions, new models for developing and distributing software have entered the stage providing IS managers with more options in AS selection. On the basis of an Analytic Hierarchy Process model, we propose a framework including software package and implementation attributes on different hierarchy levels to examine how IS managers evaluate the relative fulfilment of key selection criteria by traditional, open-source, and on-demand office suites. By testing the framework with a random sample of 254 IS managers of 166 smaller and 88 mid-sized/larger firms, we validate its validity and usefulness in evaluating different software delivery models. Our empirical results show that open-source office suites were consistently perceived to be superior in meeting ease of customization (i.e., extensibility and adaptability) and cost criteria (i.e., acquisition and maintenance cost), whereas traditional software models were superior in fulfilling functionality, ease of use, and support requirements. On-demand office suites excelled in the fulfilment of time-to-value and data recoverability. We discuss further results of the comparison of the three software models, and derive practical and research implications for office suite selection.     

“We Can Rebuild Him!”: The essentialisation of the human/cyborg interface in the twenty-first century, or whatever happened to The Six Million Dollar Man?

This paper aims to show how recent cinematic representations reveal a far more pessimistic and essentialised vision of Human/Cyborg hybridity in comparison with the more enunciative and optimistic ones seen at the end of the twentieth century. Donna Haraway’s still influential 1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” saw the combination of the organic and the technological as offering new and exciting ways beyond the normalised culturally constructed categories of gender and identity formation. However, more recently critics see her later writings as embodying a Faustian deal between the individual and hegemony, where technology does not enhance but merely returns the subject to a level of normalisation. As such cybernetics is only configured as a form of prosthetic rehabilitation, to ‘re’-able the ‘dis’-abled, that ultimately re-establishes earlier essentialised subject positions through that same evolutionary process. The Six Million Dollar Man, which ran from 1974 to 1978, exampled a symbiosis between the organic and the technological where the broken human body is not just re-made via mechanical prosthesis but through a process of Cyborg hybridity which actually makes it better, faster, stronger than before. In contrast, contemporary films such as Avatar (Cameron 2009), Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen (Bay 2009) and Iron Man II (Faveraeu 2010) portray an inherent anxiety toward the cyborg body disavowing of any human/cyborg interaction beyond re-establishing their own discrete and separate subject positions. Although human/cyborg symbiosis constructs the possibility for potentialised bodies beyond those previously imagined, contemporary, popular, film represents them as separated and essentialised. This article looks at what cultural anxieties might produce such an about turn in such representations how this positions human identity in a time of increasing technology and, as a result, asks “whatever happened to The Six Million Dollar Man?”