Gerrit Rooks

Styles of moderation in online health and support communities

Scenario experiments with random sample of members of online health communities.Indirect control more accepted and effective than direct control.Rewarding moderation styles more effective than punishing styles.No difference between active versus passive members in acceptance and effectiveness. Medical and social support communities depend very much on the active participation of their members. An active nurturing and moderation of online community activities is often necessary to overcome typical problems of community interaction, such as a lack of trust and active engagement. However, it is unclear what types of moderation and social control members do accept and which are effective. We study the acceptance and effectiveness of different moderation styles in two experimental scenario studies. Our results demonstrate that direct forms of control that provide members with incentives are not accepted and are regarded as ineffective, whereas more indirect forms that rely on relational interests and normative obligations are regarded to be more acceptable and effective. Furthermore, positive (rewarding) moderation styles are more effective than negative (punishing) styles. Members regard negative moderation styles as more effective for the avoidance of unacceptable (rule-breaking) behavior than for the stimulation of desirable (e.g., engaging) behavior. Acceptance and effectiveness of different moderation styles do not differ between active versus passive members.

The Context of Social Capital: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Entrepreneurs in Uganda

Classical network theory states that social networks are a form of capital because they provide access to resources. In this article, we propose that network effects differ between collectivistic and individualistic contexts. In a collectivistic context, resource sharing will be “value based.” It is expected that members of a group support each other and share resources. In contrast, in an individualistic context, resource sharing will be more often based on reciprocity and trust. Hence, we hypothesized that networks will be more beneficial in individual contexts compared with collectivistic context. We found partial support for our hypotheses.

Perceived Project Value, Opportunistic Behavior, Interorganizational Cooperation, and Contractor Performance

Predictors of contractor performance have attracted the attention of researchers in the developed world. However, research from sub-Saharan Africa to corroborate these findings has remained sparse. What exists is speculative and at best anecdotal. Using data from construction firms in Uganda, this study finds that commitment to the project, perceived value of the project, interorganizational cooperation, and opportunistic behavior are significant predictors of contractor performance. This has both policy and managerial implications, which we present in this paper.

South Africa: a rising star? Assessing the X-effectiveness of South Africa’s national system of innovation

Abstract This paper assesses the X-effectiveness of South Africas national system of innovation. It focuses on problems that occur in innovation projects, assuming that those problems are indicators of the effectiveness of flows of different institutions into South African innovators. An analysis of some macro-economic trends shows that the South African economy is a “two-world economy”, a characterization that sets the stage for the performance of the countrys innovation system. Our findings on a whole suggest that relatively inefficient functioning institutions hamper South African innovators. As a result, compared to some European countries, some vital ingredients of innovation are not adequately provided.

Ties that tear apart: The social embeddedness of strategic alliance termination

Abstract Strategic alliances between firms are inherently unstable, and many alliances fail before the planned termination date. Most studies of the instability of strategic alliances focus on internal factors, such as tensions between alliance partners. In the present study social networks, in particular the centrality of firms in an alliance network, are considered as factors explaining alliance instability. The study examines 1061 ICT-alliances that were formed in the period 1975–1989. As expected, it was found that differences in centrality increase alliance instability. Contrary to the expectation, the sum of centralities of firms in an alliance does not affect alliance instability.

Cross-national differences in effects of social embeddedness on trust : a comparative study of German and Dutch business transactions

Abstract Embeddedness theory stresses the importance of concrete personal relations and networks of relations in economic life. Recent sociological research shows that effects of embeddedness may differ between social settings, and recent experimental anthropological findings reveal that levels of cooperation and norm-enforcement differ between cultural settings. We extent these lines of research by examining whether effects of embeddedness on trust differ between two social settings, namely Germany and The Netherlands. To examine our research question we use a comprehensive database consisting of 925 Dutch and 929 German purchase transactions. We find evidence that some aspects of social embeddedness indeed have different effects in the two countries. In Germany sharing a history of previous transaction and the existence of alternative partners had a larger effect on trust than in the Netherlands. We offer a potential explanation and discuss its implications for future research on embeddedness.

An empirical test of stage models of e-government development: evidence from Dutch municipalities

ABSTRACT In this article we empirically test stage models of e-government development. We use Lees classification to make a distinction between four stages of e-government: informational, requests, personal, and e-democracy. We draw on a comprehensive data set on the adoption and development of e-government activities in 510 Dutch municipalities over the period 2004–2009. Our results show that progression through stages of e-government is mostly linear. However, it seems that a single dimension is insufficient to explain e-government development at the level of more specific features of e-government. Our analysis demonstrates that municipalities sometimes adopt certain e-government features at a later stage even if features of an earlier stage are not adopted at all. These findings suggest that municipalities can—at the level of e-government features—immediately proceed to later stages without having to pass through earlier stages. We conclude that stage models may have some value for benchmarking municipalities at the level of stages, but are inadequate in explaining or predicting the development of features at the different e-government stages.

Cognitive consequences of business shut down. The case of Ugandan repeat entrepreneurs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cognitive and motivational consequences of a business failure, and their relation with subsequent start up success. The paper hypothesizes that if previous business failure was attributed to an internal and stable cause, subsequent business would be less successful compared to where an entrepreneur attributed business failure to an internal and unstable cause. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed the literature on attribution theory in an achievement context and derived a hypothesis about the relation between causal thinking and subsequent business success. A survey amongst entrepreneurs in Uganda was carried out to yield insights on how attributions to past performance influence subsequent business performance. Findings – Entrepreneurs who attributed previous business failure to an internal, stable cause were found to be less successful in subsequent business start up. When repeat entrepreneurs attribute previous shut down to a lack of ...

Human and Social Capital in Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

This paper discusses the characteristics and determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour in Uganda. It is based on a recent survey of urban and rural entrepreneurs, executed in May 2008. The main dependent variables are business success, gestation activities and innovative performance. The paper focuses in particular on the interplay of human and social capital in determining entrepreneurial performance. A prominent question in the literature is whether human capital and social capital act as complements or substitutes in furthering entrepreneurial dynamism.We find that Ugandan enterprises are predominantly very small and not very dynamic. Most enterprises are young, with little or no growth of employment since start-up. Only a very small subset of sample entrepreneurs could be classified as entrepreneur in the dynamicEntrepreneurship scholars have recently started to pay attention to the interplay of human and social capital (Anderson and Miller 2003; Bosma et al. 2004; Bruderl and Preisendorfer 1998; Davidson and Honig 2003; Mosey and Wright 2007; Renzulli et al. 2000). Human capital refers to the knowledge and skills that economic actors have acquired, which can be employed for productive purposes, thereby generating income. Social capital can be understood as the immaterial and material resources that accrue to a group or individual by virtue of having a durable network of relationships.

Social capital of entrepreneurs in a developing country : the effect of gender on access to and requests for resources

Abstract This paper addresses gender differences in the social capital of entrepreneurs in a developing country. Social networks are often an important asset for accessing resources; however, they may also be a liability in developing countries, since entrepreneurs are often expected to support their contacts. Using a recent survey among urban and rural Ugandan entrepreneurs, we focus on the financial resources that entrepreneurs can obtain from their contacts on the one hand, and requests for financial support made to the entrepreneurs from these contacts on the other hand. Our results show that there are gender differences associated with access to, and requests for, financial resources.