A Family of Invisible Friends

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Ramon Visaiz ◽  
Andrea M Skinner ◽  
Spencer Wolfe ◽  
Megan Jones ◽  
Ashley Van Ostrand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Work ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Mobile Accessibility ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Modern Workplace

E-communities (i.e., virtual communities that are established and interact primarily via the internet) are more significant than ever in today's modern workplace. Despite the potential advantages offered by e-communities, however, their formation and maintenance are often hindered by feelings of mistrust, unclear group processes, and limited technical expertise. This study analyzed nearly 2,500 survey responses from 600 students spanning 25 colleges/universities in order to develop practical implications for cultivating a sense of e-community among virtual work teams. Thematic results of our study revealed the significance of brand awareness, interpersonal facilitation, user-friendly design, fiscal barriers, and mobile accessibility. Based on these results, this study concludes with five corresponding implications for cultivating a sense of e-community in the modern workplace: increased integration, expanded physicality, supplemental training, financial entrée, and utilized flexibility.

Creating Virtual Communities That Work

2021 ◽  
pp. 302-324
Author(s):  
Ashley Van Ostrand ◽  
Spencer Wolfe ◽  
Antonio Arredondo ◽  
Andrea M. Skinner ◽  
Ramon Visaiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Exponential Rate ◽  
Cost Consideration ◽  
Virtual Collaboration ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Mobile Accessibility ◽  
Google Drive ◽  
Survey Responses

The use and import of virtual collaboration (VC) has increased at an exponential rate. Despite its potential advantages, however, VC continues to be hindered by feelings of distrust, detachment, and even isolation among virtual team members. For each of these reasons, the present study analyzed more than 1,500 survey responses to develop best practices for current users and developers of e-collaboration software. More specifically, this study used an expanded variation of Vorvoreanu's (2008) Website Experience Analysis (WEA) to explore participants' views of the seven most popular VC programs in use today: Basecamp, Dropbox, Google Drive, iDoneThis, Join.me, Skitch, and Skype. Qualitative results of this study revealed the significance of (1) name recognition, (2) interpersonal facilitation, (3) clarity/simplicity, (4) cost consideration, and (5) mobile accessibility. The study's results were then used to develop five corresponding implications for both users and developers: (1) increased integration, (2) expanded physicality, (3) supplemental training, (4) financial entrée, and (5) utilized flexibility.

Creating Virtual Communities That Work

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Van Ostrand ◽  
Spencer Wolfe ◽  
Antonio Arredondo ◽  
Andrea M. Skinner ◽  
Ramon Visaiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Exponential Rate ◽  
Cost Consideration ◽  
Virtual Collaboration ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Mobile Accessibility ◽  
Google Drive ◽  
Survey Responses

The use and import of virtual collaboration (VC) has increased at an exponential rate. Despite its potential advantages, however, VC continues to be hindered by feelings of distrust, detachment, and even isolation among virtual team members. For each of these reasons, the present study analyzed more than 1,500 survey responses to develop best practices for current users and developers of e-collaboration software. More specifically, this study used an expanded variation of Vorvoreanu's (2008) Website Experience Analysis (WEA) to explore participants' views of the seven most popular VC programs in use today: Basecamp, Dropbox, Google Drive, iDoneThis, Join.me, Skitch, and Skype. Qualitative results of this study revealed the significance of (1) name recognition, (2) interpersonal facilitation, (3) clarity/simplicity, (4) cost consideration, and (5) mobile accessibility. The study's results were then used to develop five corresponding implications for both users and developers: (1) increased integration, (2) expanded physicality, (3) supplemental training, (4) financial entrée, and (5) utilized flexibility.

Ask Dr Google: what STI do I have?

2020 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054619
Author(s):  
Pin Ming Lee ◽  
Rosalind Foster ◽  
Anna McNulty ◽  
Ruthy McIver ◽  
Prital Patel
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Health Centre ◽  
Medical Practitioner ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
User Friendly

ObjectivesBetween 2013 and 2014, a third of Australian adults reported using the internet to investigate medical symptoms before consulting a medical practitioner. However, there is limited evidence regarding internet health information seeking behaviour (HISB) in sexual health. This study aims to determine the frequency, predictors and accuracy of internet HISB for sexual health self-diagnosis.MethodsA cross-sectional paper-based survey, available in English, Chinese and Thai, was conducted during April to August 2019 at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre (SSHC). Symptomatic patients were recruited to answer an 18-item survey on their HISB, self-assessed diagnosis, anxiety and health literacy. Survey responses were correlated with SSHC electronic medical record data including participant demographics and clinician diagnosis. Data analyses were performed using Stata V.14.ResultsThe majority of participants searched the internet (355; 79.1%) before attending clinic, and of these only 16.9% made a correct self-diagnosis. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that relative to Australian-born participants, people born in Asia were twice as likely to undertake internet HISB (adjusted OR (AOR) 2.41, 95% CI 1.25 to 4.64, p<0.01), and those born in Latin America were more likely to self-diagnose correctly (AOR 3.35, 95% CI 1.20 to 9.37, p<0.01). On average, participants who searched the internet scored higher relative to those who did not search, on measures of feeling generally tense (2.26, 95% CI 2.16 to 2.7 and 1.86, 95% CI 1.67 to 2.05, p<0.001), upset (1.96, 95% CI 1.85 to 2.08 and 1.53, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.72, p<0.001) and worried (2.55, 95% CI 2.44 to 2.65, and 2.16, 95% CI 1.95 to 2.38, p=0.001).ConclusionsThis study has filled important gaps in the literature and highlighted the high prevalence of adults engaging in HISB for sexual health information. Of concern are the increased levels of anxiety and low accuracy of self-diagnoses associated with HISB. Strategies to direct patients to reputable and user-friendly health websites that mitigate anxiety and misinterpretation of online health information should be explored.

India Goes Digital..Smartphone is the New Shopping Destination

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Shankar Chaudhary
Keyword(s):  
Online Shopping ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Mobile Commerce ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Smart Phones ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The World ◽  
Shopping Experience ◽  
User Friendly

Despite being in nascent stage m-commerce is gaining momentum in India. The explosive growth of smart-phone users has made India much loved business destination for whole world. Indian internet user is becoming the second largest in the world next to China surpassing US, which throws open plenty of e-commerce opportunities, not only for Indian players, offshore players as well. Mobile commerce is likely to overtake e-commerce in the next few years, spurred by the continued uptrend in online shopping and increasing use of mobile apps.The optimism comes from the fact that people accessing the Internet through their mobiles had jumped 33 per cent in 2014 to 173 million and is expected to grow 21 per cent year-on-year till 2019 to touch 457 million. e-Commerce brands are eyeing on the mobile app segment by developing user-friendly and secure mobile apps offering a risk-free and easy shopping experience to its users. Budget 4G smart phones coupled with affordable plans, can very well drive 4G growth in India.

scholarly journals ALVIC versus the Internet: Redesigning a Networked Virtual Environment Architecture

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Quax ◽  
Jeroen Dierckx ◽  
Bart Cornelissen ◽  
Wim Lamotte
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Generic Framework ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Networked Virtual Environment ◽  
Near Future

The explosive growth of the number of applications based on networked virtual environment technology, both games and virtual communities, shows that these types of applications have become commonplace in a short period of time. However, from a research point of view, the inherent weaknesses in their architectures are quickly exposed. The Architecture for Large-Scale Virtual Interactive Communities (ALVICs) was originally developed to serve as a generic framework to deploy networked virtual environment applications on the Internet. While it has been shown to effectively scale to the numbers originally put forward, our findings have shown that, on a real-life network, such as the Internet, several drawbacks will not be overcome in the near future. It is, therefore, that we have recently started with the development of ALVIC-NG, which, while incorporating the findings from our previous research, makes several improvements on the original version, making it suitable for deployment on the Internet as it exists today.

A four-step blueprint for digital reinvention

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul J. Berman ◽  
Peter J. Korsten ◽  
Anthony Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Partner Relationships ◽  
Strategic Focus ◽  
The Internet Of Things ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Customer Need

Purpose Digital reinvention helps organizations create unique, compelling experiences for their customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach Digital reinvention combines the capabilities of multiple technologies, including cloud, cognitive, mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) to rethink customer and partner relationships from a perspective of fundamental customer need, use or aspiration. Findings The most successful digitally reinvented businesses establish a platform of engagement for their customers, with the business acting as enabler, conduit and partner Practical implications For successful digital reinvention, organizations need to pursue a new strategic focus, build new expertise and establish new ways of working. Originality/value The article offers a blueprint for digital reinvention that involves rethinking customer and partner relationships from a perspective of fundamental customer need, use or aspiration.

Understanding a shifting methodology

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 3423-3441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Whalen
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Tourism Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Hospitality And Tourism ◽  
Qualitative Methodologies ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeWhile netnography was established to study virtual communities from the traditional ethnography methodology, over time it has evolved and moved away from standard ethnographic practices. The modifications are especially prevalent in hospitality and tourism research because of the nature of experiential and service-based goods. This gap has created exciting new opportunities for researchers. As netnography has matured into its own methodology, it has provided the opportunity for researchers to use netnography techniques or more traditional techniques by following ethnography methodologies. This paper aims to analyze the differences between these two methodologies within hospitality and tourism literature enabling researchers to choose the methodology that is most suited for their project.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews netnographic research in hospitality and tourism and compares current uses of netnography against traditional ethnographic methodologies.FindingsThere are four major differentiating points between netnography and ethnography: online community definitions, data collection methodologies, ethics in research and data analysis techniques.Practical implicationsIn comparing ethnography and netnography in hospitality and tourism research, this analysis provides a foundation to evaluate the best use and best practices for these two distinct qualitative methodologies in the field. The study also provides references to how other hospitality and tourism researchers have used netnography.Originality/valueEthnographic principles grounded in the foundation of anthropological doctrines are important and distinct from netnography. The ability to use the diverse tools in the qualitative methods toolbox will help hospitality and tourism researchers understand the transforming marketplace.

Start-up motives and challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Tanzania

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nsubili Isaga
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Research on women-owned business is more extensive in developed countries than in developing countries and such one cannot compare the results. This paper aims to examine the motives of women in Tanzania (a less developed country) to start their own businesses and the challenges they faced in running their businesses. Design/methodology/approach Based on 400 response to a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interview with 20 female entrepreneurs. Subsequently, descriptive and factors analysis were performed to analyze the data Findings Based on survey responses, the primary reason for starting a business was to create employment for the woman herself. Other motives include supplementing income and enabling women to be able to do the kind of work they wanted to do. According to the factor analysis, female entrepreneurs are driven more by push factors than pull factors. The most serious problems faced by female entrepreneurs are lack of access to finance, gender-related problems and social and cultural commitments. Research limitations/implications The sample was selected from urban areas of only three regions, out of 26 regions in Tanzania. Researchers may extend the study to other regions; also, the non-probability sampling method used in this study essentially means that there is a limitation to the extent to which the research findings can be generalized to the rest of the population of female entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Practical implications Policy makers, financial institutions and all organization that have a stake on development on female entrepreneurs in Tanzania should design policies and programs that encourage and promote the creation and growth of businesses. Collective efforts from the government, public and private institutions and NGOs are needed to eliminate the challenges, especially gender-related problems. Practical implications By studying female owner-managers’ motivations and constraints, the author suggests that to a greater extent, gender-related problems, social and cultural commitments and access to finance and networks are the constraints faced by female entrepreneurs. Originality/value The research on female entrepreneurs in the context of Tanzania is scarce, this study responds to a need of better understanding women motivations and constraints. By studying these factors, this study shows that startup motives and constraints faced by female entrepreneurs are unique to different contexts.

Doing the strategy hard yards

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-21
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Successful Strategy ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
High Level ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings If you search images of the word “strategy” on the internet, three of the first seven images to appear on Google (other search engines are available) include chess pieces, while two of the top ten hits involve light bulbs. Aside from the obvious conclusions that any strategic discussion should either involve chess grand masters or well-lit rooms, it is clear that most people assume winning games with lots of moves are possible is the key to a successful strategy. But is this a valid analogy, even at a high level? Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

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