Shawn F. Clouse

Predicting Internet-based Online Community Size and Time to Peak Membership Using the Bass Model of New Product Growth

The objective of this paper is to use a well-established theory of new product diffusion and show how it can be applied to cyber communities to forecast how many people will join the community, and how long it will take to attain peak membership. We use three online communities to illustrate the application of the theory, and show how the theory can be used to measure community size and time to peak membership for these communities. We show that the model can be used to delineate the two different types of influence (internal and external) that impact joining the communities. The paper is appropriate for researchers wishing to better understand the mechanics underlying online community growth, and for administrators of such communities who want to forecast the important aspects of size and peak adoption time.

Reducing Ethnocentrism in International Business Students with an Online Multicultural Supplement

Abstract This study addresses the question of whether multicultural online supplements can reduce ethnocentricity in students. The results based on data collected through an established “global-mindedness” questionnaire in both a traditional International Business course and one with an online addition, suggest that online supplements are a valuable tool to reduce levels of ethnocentricity and increase international competence. The students in the class with an online supplement showed reduced ethnocentric attitudes, and increase in multicultural awareness and globalmindedness compared with those in the class without the online supplement. Based on these findings, multicultural hybrid course structures can aid in educating the next generation of graduates to perform successfully in a global setting.

Receiving, Recording, and Responding to Customer Complaints: The Effects of Formalizing Customer Complaint Handling Policies in Retail Firms

ABSTRACT Given the critical need for retail firms to provide high quality customer service and satisfaction, this article investigates the importance of formalizing customer complaint handling policies and procedures with regard to its relationship to the ways in which retail companies receive, record, and respond to customer complaints. A survey of 184 firms from the retail environment of a midsized community reveals that the existence of such formalized procedures is significantly associated with firm size, better channels of communication with customers, mechanisms of recording customer feedback, and better-trained employees, which have been shown to relate to higher firm performance.