Internet-based social virtual world (SVW) services have aroused extensive interest among academicians and practitioners. The success of SVW services depends heavily on customers' continuance usage, a topic not yet adequately investigated in information systems research. It is unclear to what extent, and how, the existing theories can be extended to explain the continuance usage of such services. In consideration of the distinctive features of these services, this study adapts the dedication-constraint framework of commitment and develops a model of SVW continuance, which is assessed empirically using data collected from 438 experienced users of Second Life, a typical SVW service. Results indicate that SVW customers' continuance intention is jointly determined by two mechanisms: affective commitment (being attracted to) and calculative commitment (being locked in), with the former playing a more central role. Perceived utilitarian value, hedonic value, and relational capital promote affective commitment directly and indirectly through satisfaction, while service-specific investments in personalization and relational capital increase calculative commitment. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are subsequently discussed.
This paper investigates the effects of group support systems (GSS) and content facilitation on individual knowledge acquisition in general, and on changes in an individual's knowledge structures in particular as indicated through concept mapping development. We present a model explaining the enabling effects of GSS and content facilitation on group processes (group participation, quality of feedback, domination, and communication barrier), cooperation in learning, and individual knowledge structures (knowledge complexity, integration, and commonality). An experiment that employed a 2X2 factorial design was used to explore the main and interaction effects of GSS and content facilitation on knowledge acquisition. Experimental subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups; that is, nonfacilitation and non-GSS, nonfacilitation and GSS, facilitation and non-GSS, facilitation and GSS. Results of the experiment indicated that both GSS and content facilitation positively affect certain aspects of individual knowledge acquisition. Content facilitation particularly enhanced learners' knowledge commonality, whereas GSS enhanced the quality of feedback and cooperation in learning, and reduced domination and communication barrier. However, the results also indicated that GSS and content facilitation have crossover interaction effects on group participation and knowledge commonality. The effects of combining GSS and content facilitation were not additive in this study. Explanations are presented.
Strategic planning is typically performed by groups of managers. Group support systems (GSS), an information technology designed to improve group work, may therefore have useful application to strategic planning. In this paper, the application of GSS is examined with respect to four dimensions: process support, process structure, task support, and task structure. A GSS may assist the communication aspects of group meetings by providing process support to improve interaction among participants and process structure to direct the pattern or content of the discussion. GSS may also provide task structure, such as structured analysis and modeling techniques, and task support, such as access to important task information. This paper reports on the use of a GSS in the strategic planning processes of thirty organizations. The ability of the GSS to provide process support was found to be the most important contributor to strategic planning success, with task structure and process structure secondary. Task support contributed little. Those organizations that made greater use of electronic communication, structured problem analysis techniques, and structured meeting processes reported greater success.
Few studies of group support systems (GSS) have considered cultural dimensions in their analysis of GSS applications, and even fewer have used empirical data to test their hypotheses. This cross-cultural field study was an exploratory investigation of the effects of "national culture" (U.S. and Mexican) upon group consensus levels and perceptions of participation equity and satisfaction within GSS environments and non-GSS (manual) environments. Within both the U.S. and Mexican cultures, results indicate no significant differences in consensus levels between GSS and manual treatments. However, both U.S and Mexican groups generated significantly greater relative changes in consensus levels using GSS technology versus manual technology. Comparison between cultures shows that Mexican groups generated higher levels of consensus than U.S. groups with main effects due to culture and experimental treatment (i.e., GSS support). While U.S. group participants reported no differences in satisfaction among experimental treatments, Mexican participants reported higher satisfaction levels using GSS-supported environments. In a similar pattern, U.S. participants reported no differences in perceived participation equity between treatments, while Mexican GSS participants reported higher participation equity than Mexican manual participants. A comparison study between cultures found that Mexican participants across all treatments perceived higher levels of satisfaction and participation equity than U.S. participants with main effects due to culture.
During the past dozen years, researchers at the University of Arizona have built six generations of group support systems software, conducted over 150 research studies, and facilitated over 4,000 projects. This article reports on lessons learned through that experience. It begins by presenting a theoretical foundation for the Groupware Grid, a tool for designing and evaluating GSS. It then reports lessons from nine key domains: (1) GSS in organizations; (2) cross-cultural and multicultural issues; (3) designing GSS software; (4) collaborative writing; (5) electronic polling; (6) GSS facilities and room design; (7) leadership and facilitation; (8) GSS in the classroom; and (9) business process reengineering.
Experience with information technology (IT) implementation in the local administrations of less developed countries (LDCs) has been largely disappointing. Conventional wisdom suggests that such implementation efforts are usually inappropriate to the information-poor environments of many LDCs. This study describes the Governorates Project in Egypt, which seems to have been an encouraging exception to such "wisdom." The project, which was initiated in 1987 by the Egyptian Cabinet's In formation and Decision Support Center (IDSC), represented a significant administrative and technological innovation because it sought to implement an IDSC in each of the 27 governorates of Egypt. The purpose of each governorate IDSC was to provide computer-based information and decision support to the governor and other local administrators. Based on our findings, three stages of the project are identified -- implementation, evaluation, and transformation of the innovation. Three theoretical perspectives derived from past research, i.e., functional, political/symbolic, and social information processing, were used to explain the project outcomes, such as the governors' perceptions and behaviors concerning their IDSCs. Results suggest that the symbolic/political and social information processing perspectives had considerable power in explaining the outcomes during implementation, whereas the functional perspective was particularly effective in explaining the out-comes during evaluation and transformation. The theoretical framework and findings suggest considerable potential for understanding IT implementations in both business and administrative settings.
During business analysis, business activities are modeled and analyzed. Redefined models become the blueprints for improved business activities. The cost to produce models of the organization is high and model accuracy is important. Involvement from knowledgeable participants and stakeholders is desirable during business modeling and analysis. Traditional modeling approaches limit direct participation to a small handful of participants. This paper discusses the development and evaluation of an electronic meeting system (EMS) based activity modeling tool. Modeling efforts supported by this new approach are compared with modeling efforts supported by analysts with a single-user tool. The results of this comparison reveal that the EMS-based modeling tool allows a greater number of individuals to participate efficiently in model development. Models are developed between 175 percent and 251 percent faster with the new approach than with the traditional approach. Specific features are discussed that help relatively novice modelers work with analysts to develop models of reasonable quality. Measures are set forth that can be used to assess modeling efficiency and quality.
Strategic management is often performed by groups of managers. By improving the communication process of such groups, strategic management might be enhanced. This paper investigates the application of electronic meeting systems (EMS) technology to support strategic management. Eight cases involving five organizations using an EMS facility are examined to: (1) determine how organizational groups use EMS for strategic management, (2) assess the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the EMS approach to strategic management, and (3) assess the capability of an EMS to address a variety of group process and communication issues in an organizational context. The findings indicate that EMS technology can address a number of the theoretical and practical concerns associated with strategic management meetings involving large heterogeneous groups of managers. Implications for the design of EMS to support strategic management are discussed, and opportunities for future research are identified.
Research into the use of Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) has rapidly increased over the past few years. However, EMS laboratory experiments have often drawn very different conclusions about the effects of EMS use than have EMS field studies--conclusions that at first appear inconsistent. By examining the differences in the design of prior EMS studies, we attempt to better understand the factors that affect the use of EMS technology. It is our contention that these differences in findings are not inconsistent, but rather they reflect different situations that researchers have studied. We identify 24 potentially important differences in organizational contexts, group characteristics, tasks, and EMS environments. In planning future research, EMS researchers need to make explicit design decisions for each of these aspects, and to consider how those choices may affect research results. An analysis of these differences suggests several approaches to enhance the design of future laboratory experiments and field studies.
As managers spend more of their time in meetings, the study of information technology to support meetings becomes increasingly important. Several unique systems to support meetings electronically have been developed in industry and universities. The PLEXSYS systems at the University of Arizona have been operational since 1985 and are now being implemented in industrial sites. This article proposes and defines a new term for information technology systems that support group meetings: electronic meeting systems (EMS). EMS are more than group decision support systems (GDSS): they support more tasks than just decision making; they focus on communication. They move beyond the GDSS decision room, where groups must meet at the same time in the same place, to meetings that can be conducted across time and space. The article then presents a model of the EMS concept, which has three components: group process and outcomes; methods; and environment. Each of these components is explained in turn, and the implications derived from their study to date are discussed. Finally, the implementation of information technology for meeting support and its use in corporate settings will be addressed, as it has implications for productivity, meeting size, group member participation, and the role of the IS department.