Christopher P. Furner

Cultural determinants of media choice for deception

In todays business environment, deception is commonplace (Blumberg, 1989; Ruane, Cerulo, et al., 1994). Historically, individuals were limited in their media options, however recent technological advances have given individuals more ways in which to communicate and deceive. The use of these new media change the communication dynamic substantially. Previous studies have found that deception detection differs across media, as media vary in their ability to transmit cues, convey emotion and reversibility, among others. Researchers are beginning to understand the dynamics between media characteristics, individual characteristics and media choice in a deceptive communication context. Not only is deception commonplace in todays multicultural business environment, communication participants can come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Taking this into account, the current study seeks to use media synchrony theory to derive a model of media choice based on an individuals espoused national culture. In this study a scenario-based media choice task was given to subjects in the United States and China, and the results indicate that espoused national culture does influence media choice for deception. Specifically, individuals who scored highly on collectivism preferred to lie using text-based media, individuals who scored high on power distance preferred to lie using audio media and individuals who scored high on masculinity preferred to lie using visual media. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.

Making it Personal: How Personalization Affects Trust Over Time

The over-arching purpose of this research is to broaden the study of trust as it applies to developing stable relationships in electronic environments. In contrast, previous research on trust has not progressed to looking at trust through its incremental development. This may be because methods are difficult to develop that study process models and concepts are difficult to operationalize that influence the incremental progression of variables. Exploring previous empirical research, antecedents emerge that enhance initial perceptions of trust, which possibly influence the progression of trust to deeper levels. More conceptual work identifies antecedents that swiftly cultivate trust, allowing for stable relationships to develop more quickly. One antecedent, personalization, has emerged as a popular technique to identify with consumers and is utilized and many popular electronic commerce websites. This research looks the effects of personalization on consumer’s trusting beliefs.

Cultural Determinants of Leaning Effectiveness from Knowledge Management Systems: A Multinational Investigation

Abstract Knowledge is a vital component of organizational success embedded within the human resources of a firm (Grant, 1996). Knowledge is lost by organizations when it is not used or when knowledgeable individuals turnover. Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are designed to help organizations capture, store, distill, and distribute knowledge embedded within their employees. The effectiveness of KMS is dependent on individual learning and individual-specific learning preferences. Furthermore, as the world becomes more globalized and the job candidate pool from which organizations hire becomes more culturally diverse, the extent to which western models of organizational behavior hold becomes less clear. Using a multi-national survey, this study aims to determine to what extent learning preferences are dependent on culture. If learning preferences are dependent on culture, KMS designs that ignore culture may result in incomplete or ineffective knowledge transfer and learning outcomes. Our findings contribute to the KMS literature by suggesting that KMS design should be conducted with the goal of effectively facilitating learning across cultures. Specific KMS design recommendations include incorporating group activities and providing more flexibility, depending on the culturally derived learning preferences of specific users.

The influence of information overload on the development of trust and purchase intention based on online product reviews in a mobile vs. web environment: an empirical investigation

Information overload has been studied extensively by decision science researchers, particularly in the context of task-based optimization decisions. Media selection research has similarly investigated the extent to which task characteristics influence media choice and use. This paper outlines a study which compares the effectiveness of web-based online product review systems for facilitation of trust and purchase intention to those of mobile product review systems in an experiential service setting (hotel services). Findings indicate that the extensiveness of information in the review increases trust and purchase intention until that information load becomes excessive, at which point trust and purchase intention begin to decrease. The magnitude of this decline is smaller in web-environments than in mobile environments, suggesting that web-based systems are more effective in fostering focus and are less prone to navigation frustration, thus reducing information overload.

Making it Hard to Lie: Cultural Determinants of Media Choice for Deception

In today’s business environment, deception is commonplace. In hiring situations, successful deception by job candidates can lead to a poor fit between the candidate’s abilities and the requirements of the job, and this can lead to poor performance. This study seeks to inhibit successful deception by job candidates by suggesting that managers limit communication with job applicants to the media that the applicant is least comfortable using for deception. In today’s multicultural business environment, job applicants can come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Taking this into account, the current study seeks to predict media choice for deception based on a subject’s espoused national culture. A scenario-based media choice task was given to subjects in the United States and China, and the results indicate that espoused collectivism, power distance and masculinity influence media choice. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.

A multinational study of espoused national cultural and review characteristics in the formation of trust in online product reviews

Recent changes in web technologies have given a voice to consumers in online discussions 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 could develop for the web. 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 reviews and purchase intention. In this study, we report the results of a simulation-based web purchase experiment that included subjects in three countries. We find that information quality, a 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, nor an interaction effect between the social component and collectivism.

Cultural Determinants of Information Processing Shortcuts in Computer Supported Groups: A Review, Research Agenda and Instrument Validation

Organizations are constantly engaged in actions. If an organization does not take actions, it cannot remain solvent, and if the organization consistently exercises poor judgment in the actions that it takes, it is destined to fail. Organizations do not have minds, and they do not make decisions, they are institutions that empower individual agents to make decisions on their behalf, and empower other individuals to carry out the actions associated with these decisions. These decision making agents can be individuals or groups. The complex nature of organizational decisions creates information overload for individual agents, causing them to engage in a number of information processing shortcuts, which threaten the quality of their decisions. While groups can overcome some of the problems associated with information overload, they are prone to their own shortcomings related to communication and coordination. Decision Support Systems DSS and Group Support Systems GSS respectively have been employed in an attempt to overcome some of these shortcuts and shortcomings and studies have had mixed results but generally indicate that these technologies are effective Chan & Limsuwan, 2012. However information processing researchers have not explored the potential moderators between a information overload and information processing shortcuts or b communication and coordination problems and group shortcomings. The study proposed in this paper is a first attempt at those ends: a first we build hypotheses linking cultural factors to information processing shortcuts, both individual and group; b then we outline a study to test these relationships; c finally, we validate an instrument to test these hypotheses.

Electronic word-of-mouth and information overload in an experiential service industry

Purpose Trust and purchase intent are established, dependent variables in electronic commerce research. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of online product reviews in the development of purchase intention, which has led to the development of a substantial research effort in the realm of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). The purpose of this paper is to incorporate e-WOM, information processing and decision-making theories to propose a model of the development of trust and purchase intention based on online product reviews, and incorporate information overload as a moderating factor. Design/methodology/approach This study tests the hypotheses using a scenario-based experiment. In total, 157 working adults were asked to read three hotel reviews of different information load. Upon completion, they were then asked to respond to Likert-based questions regarding their trust in the review and purchase intention. Findings An inverted U-shaped relationship exists between information load and both trust and purchase intention, where low-information load is ineffective at fostering trust and purchase intention, moderate information load is effective at fostering trust and purchase intention, and high-information load is less effective than moderate information load at fostering trust and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications Although the authors supported the inverted U-shaped relationship between information load and two outcomes, the authors only tested three different review lengths, resulting in limited precision, it is not clear where the inflection point is (i.e. exactly how many words results in information overload). Future studies might both seek more precision, and also consider more consumer characteristics, such as risk propensity. Practical implications Review platform operators with a stake in encouraging a sale should prioritize and highlight reviews of moderate length (which can be assessed automatically via word count), and consider restricting new reviews of products to minimum and maximum word counts. Originality/value This study enhances the relevant and growing body of online review research by: bringing uncertainty reduction theory to bear on the consumer’s information search efforts; using information overload, an important construct from classic information processing and decision-making literature to explain consumer behavior; and identifying a review characteristics (information load) which influences consumer attitudes about a review (trust) and the product (purchase intention). Finally, this study enhances research understanding of a specific experiential service: hospitality.

Willingness to Pay and Disposition Toward Paying for Apps: The Influence of Application Reviews

This article describes how mobile application adoption is growing dramatically. However, only a small proportion of mobile apps are paid for. This leads to the question: which factors dispose an individual to be willing to pay for an app? Using uncertainty reduction theory as a framework, along with transaction cost economics, this study considers several individual level, app and app review characteristics which may influence willingness to pay. An experiment is conducted using a mobile application marketplace simulator and 4 application reviews are developed which vary in terms of information quality and app utility. Also measured are several individual characteristics. Findings suggest that individuals who have a disposition toward paying for apps and those who score low in terms of mobile computing self-efficacy are willing to pay more for apps. Also, individuals are willing to pay more for hedonic apps than utilitarian apps. Finally, there is a positive relationship between both history of paying for apps and trusting disposition on disposition toward paying for apps.

A Study of Negative Reputation in the Workplace

In an attempt to better understand how a negative reputation may affect one’s career, a series of hypotheses which offer an overview of negative personal reputation are tested, utilizing both a lab and a field study. Based upon the existing theory, these hypotheses explore negative reputation in the context of employees in organizations, suggesting that although often negative reputations are undesirable, at times individuals may be motivated to develop such reputations because they may confer benefits to one’s career.