Business Commons^™

What Color Is Your Paratext?, Geoffrey Bilder, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Department Faculty Publications

In the final vision session of the 2009 NASIG Annual Conference, Geoffrey Bilder from CrossRef discussed the problem of how to identify trustworthy scholarly information on the Internet. This problem is exacerbated by readers’ growing distrust of intermediaries such as publishers and librarians, by the fact that the Internet lacks the traditions that have developed in scholarly communication to ensure trust, and by the sheer amount of information now readily available. Paratext is understood as anything outside of a text that sets expectations about that text. In the past, paratext, for example a publisher logo, provided important clues as to …

Give The People What They Want, When They Want It, And They Won’T Sit All The Time: Consumer Behavior In The Online Music Market, Maxwell Mathews

Senior Honors Projects

Since the introduction of the first peer-to-peer file sharing programs in the late twentieth century, sales of traditional music media have plummeted. Sales of CDs peaked in 2000 and have since returned to levels reached in the mid 1990s. The future of music marketing is certainly going to move toward complete online sales. However, online music sales will not increase unless more consumers who illegally download music or purchase CDs and other tangible music products move to online purchases. To determine how to draw more consumers to the online music market, this project attempted to gauge current music consumer behavior …

The Epistemic Consumption Object And Postsocial Consumption: Expanding Consumer‐Object Theory In Consumer Research, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

We introduce the concept of the epistemic consumption object. Such consumption objects are characterized by two interrelated features. First, epistemic consumption objects reveal themselves progressively through interaction, observation, use, examination, and evaluation. Such layered revelation is accompanied by an increasing rather than a decline of the object’s complexity. Second, such objects demonstrate a propensity to change their “face‐in‐action” vis‐à‐vis consumers through the continuous addition or subtraction of properties. The epistemic consumption object is materially elusive and this lack of ontological stability turns the object into a continuous knowledge project for consumers. Via this ongoing cycle of revelation and discovery, consumers …

Bringing The Market To Life: Screen Aesthetics And The Epistemic Consumption Object, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

This article argues that the new ‘visuality’ (Schroeder, 2002) of the Internet transforms the stock market into an epistemic consumption object. The aesthetics of the screen turn the market into an interactive and response-present surface representation. On the computer screen, the market becomes an object of constant movement and variation, changing direction and altering appearance at any time. Following Knorr Cetina (1997, 2002b) we argue that the visual logic of the screen ‘opens up’ the market ontologically. The ontological liquidity of the market-on-screen simulates the indefiniteness of other life forms. We suggest that the continuing fascination with online investing is …

Mobility And Markets: Emerging Outlines Of M-Commerce, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

Mobile commerce—or m-commerce—is characterized by the emerging class of location-based commercial services delivered by a variety of handheld terminals such as mobile phones and palmtop devices. At the Conference on Telecommunications and Information Markets (COTIM)-2001, an international conference held in Karlsruhe, Germany, academic researchers and business practitioners shared their experiences and frameworks about m-commerce. Selected papers based on COTIM-2001 presentations are included in this Special Issue. This paper introduces the preconditions that led to the emergence of m-commerce, the main dimensions of m-commerce that distinguish it from e-commerce, and the key arguments from the contributions on m-commerce in this Special …

Consumer Subjectivity In The Age Of Internet: The Radical Concept Of Marketing Control Through Customer Relationship Management, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a poststructuralist analysis of customer database technology. This approach allows us to regard customer databases as configurations of language that produce new and significant discursive effects. In particular, we focus on the role of databases and related technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM) in the discursive construction of both customers and customer relationships. First, we argue that organizations become the authors of customer identities, using the language of the database to configure customer representation. From this perspective, we can see the radical innovation that the customer database brings to the organizational construction of its …

Cultural Contradictions Of The Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

College of Business Faculty Publications

Technology-aided ubiquity and instantaneity have emerged as major goals of most information technology providers and of certain classes of users such as “road warriors”. New mobile technologies promise genie-in-a-bottle type near-magical qualities with anytime, anywhere access to information and services. While the complex science, systems, and economics of such technologies receive considerable attention from industry executives and researchers, the social and cultural aspects of these technologies attract less attention. This paper explores the oft-contradictory promises and pitfalls of anytime, anywhere technologies from a cultural standpoint. It makes suggestions for reinterpreting these technologies for greater human good.

Online Qualitative Research In The Age Of E-Commerce: Data Sources And Approaches, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Dong Zhang

College of Business Faculty Publications

With the boom in E-commerce, practitioners and researchers are increasingly generating marketing and strategic insights by employing the Internet as an effective new tool for conducting well-established forms of qualitative research (TISCHLER 2004). The potential of Internet as a rich data source and an attractive arena for qualitative research in e-commerce settings—in other words cyberspace as a "field," in the ethnographic sense—has not received adequate attention. This paper explores qualitative research prospects in e-commerce arenas.

URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0402299

Finding Quality Business Information On The Internet, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Department Faculty Publications

Article on strategies for finding reliable business information on the Internet. The article appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of the MBA Alumni Newsletter online, published by the University of Rhode Island College of Business Administration.

Privacy And Consumer Agency In The Information Age: Between Prying Profilers And Preening Webcams, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

College of Business Faculty Publications

This article is about the ability of the consumer to control his or her destiny in the new electronic marketspace. Two seemingly opposite phenomena – the need for privacy and the desire for exhibitionism and voyeurism – are vying for attention on the media landscape. We believe the simultaneous occurrence of privacy concerns and ultraexhibitionism is not coincidental. Indeed, exhibitionism and voyeurism seem to offer new tools for consumer resistance against the electronic surveillance systems in networked markets and are inextricably linked to consumers’ desire for control over their intimate personal information.

Web Based Business Information On A Budget, Andrée Rathemacher, Carol West, Alex Caracuzzo

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Notes for a presentation, "Web Based Business Information on a Budget," at the New England Library Association Annual Conference 1999, Traditions: Where We've Been... Where We're Going. The presentation took place in Manchester, New Hampshire on September 27, 1999.

Business Web Page Design, Andrée Rathemacher, Kelli Belmonti

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Flier for ACRL New England Chapter Business Librarians' Interest Group (BLIG) Fall Program, "Business Web Page Design." The program was held on November 12, 1998 at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Finding Business Information On The Internet, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Thank you letter from Carol Surprenant, Director of the University of Rhode Island Research Center in Business and Economics, for presenting a workshop, "Finding Business Information on the Internet," offered as part of the Business Intelligence Expo. The Business Intelligence Expo was held in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 21, 1997.

The one-hour workshop was offered twice during the Expo and covered business information available on the Internet. With a total of 25 attendees, this workshop was the most heavily attended of all workshops at the Expo.

Your Ticket To The Information Highway, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Thank you letter and program evaluations for a workshop, "Your Ticket to the Information Highway," sponsored by the Institute for Labor Studies and Research (ILSR). The workshop was held on November 15, 1996 in Providence, Rhode Island.

The purpose of the three-hour workshop was to “provide a basic understanding of the Internet, demonstrate labor-related sites, and give [participants] hands-on experience ‘surfing the Net.’” The workshop was one of a series of three intended to help participants become more effective union leaders. It received unanimously positive evaluations from the ten participants.