Gracious space: Library programming strategies towards immigrants as tools in the creation of social capital

Recent research on the generation of social trust and social capital gives public institutions prominent roles as instruments for creating social capital, the trust and connections between community members that yield collective action. Less is known about specific institutions and the mechanisms involved in creating social capital. In this paper, public library programs directed towards immigrants are explored as one possible mechanism for generating social capital. The data are unstructured interviews with U.S. library directors on strategies for immigrant programs and the creation of social trust. The interviews are analyzed and discussed, and they contribute to research on social capital formation. The programming activities in the libraries studied, which included classes in English as a second language (ESL), computers, and civics, attracted target immigrant populations. According to the library directors interviewed, these classes, which were carefully designed for these populations, were successful in generating trust and social capital: People “come back” to the library. Public libraries are promising arenas for generating social trust, and follow-up studies looking at the attitudes of immigrants who participate in these programs are important for increasing our knowledge on the mechanisms creating trust and social capital—that is, for theory development and for library practice.     

Can the internet reduce corruption? A cross-country study based on dynamic panel data models

This study attempts to estimate the effects of internet adoption on reducing corruption by using a panel consisting of 70 countries covering the period from 1998 to 2005. The results of Granger causality tests reveal that, while causality running from internet adoption to corruption reduction can be established, the causality between internet adoption and corruption is bi-directional. To deal with the problem of endogeneity, the dynamic panel data (DPD) models are employed. The estimation results show that the effects of internet adoption on corruption reduction are statistically significant but not too substantial. Our findings suggest that the internet has shown a capacity for reducing corruption, but its potential has yet to be fully realized.     

The mediating role of mental imagery in mobile advertising

The future of communication and advertising is mobile. There is, however, little empirical evidence as to exactly how mobile advertising works. This research examines the role of mental imagery elicited by mobile advertising and its mediating effect on trust in the advertising message (ad trust) and purchase intention. Using a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design, we examined the influence of the type of message – SMS vs. MMS – and type of content – informational vs. transformational – on the three dimensions of mental imagery: vividness, quantity and elaboration. Results show a greater impact of MMS mobile ads and transformational ads on vividness and elaboration, while SMS mobile ads have a greater impact on the quantity dimension. The study also suggests that ad trust can be improved by enhancing the mental imagery elicited by mobile ads. Vivid and elaborate mental imagery mediates the effect of the type of ad on ad trust and exerts a positive influence on purchase intention. These findings have important implications for mobile advertisers since overcoming trust issues remains a major obstacle in the adoption of this medium. In addition, practical aspects of mobile ads’ conception and design are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.     

The relationship of service failure severity, service recovery justice and perceived switching costs with customer loyalty in the context of e-tailing

Given that e-tailing service failure is inevitable, a better understanding of how service failure and recovery affect customer loyalty represents an important topic for academics and practitioners. This study explores the relationship of service failure severity, service recovery justice (i.e., interactional justice, procedural justice, and distributive justice), and perceived switching costs with customer loyalty; as well, the moderating relationship of service recovery justice and perceived switching costs on the link between service failure severity and customer loyalty in the context of e-tailing are investigated. Data collected from 221 useful respondents are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that service failure severity, interactional justice, procedural justice and perceived switching costs have a significant relationship with customer loyalty, and that interactional justice can mitigate the negative relationship between service failure severity and customer loyalty. These findings provide several important theoretical and practical implications in terms of e-tailing service failure and recovery.     

A framework for portal implementation: A case for Saudi organizations

Portals provide an aggregated and personalized view of information through a large application integrating information, people, and processes across organizational boundaries. As such, portals can significantly impact organizations, completely changing how they work and operate. In addition, many critical success factors can affect portals at any stage of implementation. Many organizations lack suitable frameworks for implementing portals to ensure success in the organization, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. To address this gap, we proposed a comprehensive framework to develop and operate portal projects by considering specific critical success factors. We have evaluated and compared this work with previous work in the same field, more accurate and significant results.     

An empirical investigation of mobile banking adoption: The effect of innovation attributes and knowledge-based trust

Rapid advances in mobile technologies and devices have made mobile banking increasingly important in mobile commerce and financial services. Using innovation diffusion theory and knowledge-based trust literature, this study develops a research model to examine the effect of innovation attributes (perceived relative advantage, ease of use and compatibility) and knowledge-based trust (perceived competence, benevolence and integrity) on attitude and behavioral intention about adopting (or continuing to use) mobile banking across potential and repeat customers. Based on a survey of 368 participants (177 for potential customers and 191 for repeat customers), this study uses a structural equation modeling approach to investigate the research model. The results indicate that perceived relative advantage, ease of use, compatibility, competence and integrity significantly influence attitude, which in turn lead to behavioral intention to adopt (or continue-to-use) mobile banking. Additionally, by using multi-group analysis with t-statistics, the results found that the antecedents of attitude toward mobile banking differ between potential and repeat customers. The implications for research and practice and future research directions are discussed.     

Innovations and communication through innovative users: An exploratory mechanism of social networking website

The study focuses on which users to target and why and how to inspire their participation by applying combination of von Hippel's lead user and user innovation toolkits with Rogers’ innovation diffusion theories. After an investigation of a social networking website, this study finds that individuals with large number of hits are highly active users of new functions. Moreover, they are likely to use toolkits to customize their personal uses and respond to others’ problems. Therefore, they garner appreciation from others in return, achieve higher ranks in the top hit parade, and obtain better-expected benefits from the website's incentive compensation. This study also evaluates the toolkits’ efficacy in the Web 2.0 context and finds that they are not equivalents. This research offers insights useful for web service providers to target innovative users and create an environment using web toolkits to induce user-generated innovation and achieve better effect of innovation communication.     

Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a ‘business critical’ tool

The management of email remains a major challenge for organisations. In this article, we explore the extent of the perceptions of email as a business critical tool within an organisation and how the level of such perceptions may moderate the level of email overload experienced by individuals within the organisation. Data from a sample of 1100 employees of a multinational technology firm are analysed using multivariate techniques. The results suggest that without a clearly stated code of email practice within an organisation, there are likely to be large variations in what is perceived as ‘business-critical’ email and, as a result, a substantial amount of email generated within the organisation may not be ‘business-critical’, potentially increasing the level of ‘email-overload’ experienced by individuals within the organisation.     

The effects of relationship quality and switching barriers on customer loyalty

Because the cost of attracting new customers is much higher than the cost of retaining old customers, keeping customers loyal is a crucial issue for service firms. This research explores how relationship quality and switching barriers influence customer loyalty. Relationship quality consists of two aspects: satisfaction and trust. Antecedents of satisfaction and trust are explored. To test the proposed research model, a survey research methodology was used. Paper survey was distributed to mobile phone users in Taiwan. A total of 311 valid questionnaires were returned. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses. Satisfaction, trust, and switching barriers have positive effects on loyalty. In terms of antecedents, it was found that playfulness and service quality impact satisfaction while service quality and intimacy affect trust. From a managerial perspective, this research suggests that practitioner should not only keep improving service quality, but also provide playfulness to ensure customer satisfaction. Service providers should also build relationship quality and switching barriers to reduce the possibility of defection and enhance customer loyalty.