Title: Using Personal Communication Technologies for Commercial Communications: A Cross-Country Investigation of Email and SMS
Speaker: Tan Chuan-Hoo, CityUniversity of Hong Kong
Time: 14:00-15:00, pm., 28, May. (Thur.), 2015.
Venue: Room 1922, Tongji Building A
Abstract:
The widespread use of Personal Communication Technologies (PCTs) for commercial message dissemination necessitates understanding which PCTs might lead to better commercial performance in different situations. Building primarily on Apparatgeist and social construction theories, this research proposes that consumer responses to PCT-disseminated commercial message are jointly influenced by the PCT (i.e., technology) that carries general symbolic meanings about its nature and purpose (its ‘spirit’), and the context culture (i.e., the cultural milieu) in which it is used. We began with focus groups’ assessments of two commonly utilized PCTs – Email and SMS – which revealed their comparative symbolic meanings in terms of intimacy or formality of communication – to be in line with extant literature. Then, in a commercial setting where retailers leverage PCTs to disseminate product discount coupons, we examined the difference between two distinct environments which differed in their context-cultural dimensions (their cultural milieus of social interaction and communication) – i.e., China (an environment of high context-cultural dimension) and Switzerland (an environment of low context-cultural dimension). To do so, we first validated the context-cultural differences through a survey (Study 1), and conducted two matching field experiments in the two countries involving more than one thousand consumers (Study 2). Results support our propositions, demonstrating favorable commercial performance for SMS use in the high context-cultural environment and for Email use in the low context-cultural environment. Follow-up surveys (Study 3) corroborated the results and provided deeper insights into how both PCTs’ general meanings and pertinent values in the cultural milieus we studied led to consumer responses. Besides presenting empirical evidence to inform the selection of appropriate PCTs for commercial communications, this research contributes to the theoretical development of Apparatgeist and social construction theories via its joint examination of technologies and consumers’ environments.
Short bios:
Chuan-Hoo is an associate professor of Information Systems at City University of Hong Kong. His research focus is twofold: (1) consumer-driven IT solution design and behavioral analysis; (2) organizational IT innovation and implementation. Research topics include digital commerce, business analytics, open innovation, and IT design, adoption and usage. He actively collaborates with companies, contributing in research projects on business analytics and mobile application design and deployment. He has more than 90 academic publications. His articles have appeared in leading information systems journals, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Information& Management, Decision Support Systems, and Long Range Planning among others. He is currently serving as editorial review board member for several leading Information Systems journals including IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of the AIS, Journal of Global Information Management, and Journal of Database Management. CH is a recipient of the INFORMS ISS Design Science Award 2013.
