Showing papers on "Credibility published in 2008"

The Role of Friends’ Appearance and Behavior on Evaluations of Individuals on Facebook: Are We Known by the Company We Keep?

Abstract: This research explores how cues deposited by social partners onto one’s online networking profile affect observers’ impressions of the profile owner. An experiment tested the relationships between both (a) what one’s associates say about a person on a social network site via ‘‘wall postings,’’ where friends leave public messages, and (b) the physical attractiveness of one’s associates reflected in the photos that accompany their wall postings on the attractiveness and credibility observers attribute to the target profile owner. Results indicated that profile owners’ friends’ attractiveness affected their own in an assimilative pattern. Favorable or unfavorable statements about the targets interacted with target gender: Negatively valenced messages about certain moral behaviors increased male profile owners’ perceived physical attractiveness, although they caused females to be viewed as less attractive.

The credibility of volunteered geographic information

Abstract: The proliferation of information sources as a result of networked computers and other interconnected devices has prompted significant changes in the amount, availability, and nature of geographic information. Among the more significant changes is the increasing amount of readily available volunteered geographic information. Although volunteered information has fundamentally enhanced geographic data, it has also prompted concerns with regard to its quality, reliability, and overall value. This essay situates these concerns as issues of information and source credibility by (a) examining the information environment fostering collective information contribution, (b) exploring the environment of information abundance, examining credibility and related notions within this environment, and leveraging extant research findings to understand user-generated geographic information, (c) articulating strategies to discern the credibility of volunteered geographic information (VGI), including relevant tools useful in this endeavor, and (d) outlining specific research questions germane to VGI and credibility.

Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research in International Business

Abstract: Reliability, validity, generalisability and objectivity are fundamental concerns for quantitative researchers. For qualitative research, however, the role of these dimensions is blurred. Some researchers argue that these dimensions are not applicable to qualitative research and a qualitative researcher’s tool chest should be geared towards trustworthiness and encompass issues such as credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability. This paper advocates the use of formalised and software-based procedures for the analysis and interpretation of qualitative interview data. It is argued that International Business research, with a focus on international datasets, equivalence issues, multiple research environments and multiple researchers, will benefit from formalisation. The use of software programmes is deemed to help to substantiate the analysis and interpretation of textual interview data.

Developing a unifying framework of credibility assessment: Construct, heuristics, and interaction in context

Abstract: This article presents a unifying framework of credibility assessment in which credibility is characterized across a variety of media and resources with respect to diverse information seeking goals and tasks. The initial data were collected through information-activity diaries over a 10-day period from 24 undergraduate students at three different colleges. Based on 245 information seeking activities from the diaries, the authors conducted individual interviews with participants and analyzed the transcripts using a grounded theory analysis. Three distinct levels of credibility judgments emerged: construct, heuristics, and interaction. The construct level pertains to how a person constructs, conceptualizes, or defines credibility. The heuristics level involves general rules of thumb used to make judgments of credibility applicable to a variety of situations. Finally, the interaction level refers to credibility judgments based on content, peripheral source cues, and peripheral information object cues. In addition, context emerged as the social, relational and dynamic frames surrounding the information seeker and providing boundaries of credibility judgments. The implications of the framework in terms of its theoretical contribution to credibility research and practices are discussed.

Effectiveness of feedback: the students’ perspective

Abstract: While effective feedback has frequently been identified as a key strategy in learning and teaching, little known research has focused on students’ perceptions of feedback and the contribution feedback makes to students’ learning and teaching. This reported qualitative study aims to enrich our understanding of these perceptions and importantly to provide insight into the meaning of ‘effective’ when related to feedback. The study involved four focus groups of undergraduate students of varying levels and from a range of Schools completing degrees in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. Students’ perceptions relating to a definition of feedback, how they use it and preferences for delivery were prompted by the facilitators. Thematic analysis resulted in three key dimensions: perceptions of feedback, impact of feedback and credibility of feedback. The analysis demonstrated that effectiveness of feedback extends beyond mode of delivery and timeliness to include the credibility of the lecturer g...

The impact of desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions: A structural equation model

Abstract: There is general agreement that attitudes towards entrepreneurship are determinant factors to decide to be an entrepreneur. In this context, this research is focused on analyzing the relationship between desirability and feasibility on university student’s intentions to create a new firm in Catalonia. A structural equation model supported by Krueger & Brazeal’s Model was tested with different groups of students. The main results reveal most of university students consider desirable to create a new firm, although the perception of feasibility is not positive. Also, there is a statistical significant and positively relationship between credibility and the intention to create a new firm.

Give the Emperor a Mirror: Toward Developing a Stakeholder Measurement of Organizational Transparency

Abstract: The concept of organizational transparency has vaulted to prominence in recent years. While the virtues of transparency have been tied to trust and credibility, there have been no efforts to measure this abstract concept. Guidelines exist to help organizations be more transparent, but the real test is how stakeholders perceive an organization's transparency. This paper focuses on developing a stakeholder measurement of organizational transparency. Factor analyses, structural equation models, and reliability alphas on the measurement items indicate the instrument measures three transparency reputation traits (integrity, respect for others, openness) and four transparency efforts (participation, substantial information, accountability, and secrecy).

Linking science with environmental decision making: Experiences from an integrated modeling approach to supporting sustainable water resources management

Abstract: The call for more effective integration of science and decision making is ubiquitous in environmental management. While scientists often complain that their input is ignored by decision makers, the latter have also expressed dissatisfaction that critical information for their decision making is often not readily available or accessible to them, or not presented in a usable form. It has been suggested that scientists need to produce more ''usable'' information with enhanced credibility, legitimacy, and saliency to ensure the adoption of research results. In basin-scale management of coupled human-water systems, water resources managers, like other decision makers, are frequently confronted with the need to make major decisions in the face of high system complexity and uncertainty. The integration of useful and relevant scientific information is necessary and critical to enable informed decision-making. This paper describes the main aspects of what has been learned in the process of supporting sustainable water resources planning and management in the semi-arid southwestern United States by means of integrated modeling. Our experience indicates that particular attention must be paid to the proper definition of focus questions, explicit conceptual modeling, a suitable modeling strategy, and a formal scenario analysis approach in order to facilitate the development of ''usable'' scientific information. We believe that these lessons and insights can be useful to other scientific efforts in the broader area of linking environmental science with decision making.

Aesthetics and credibility in web site design

Abstract: Web sites often provide the first impression of an organization. For many organizations, web sites are crucial to ensure sales or to procure services within. When a person opens a web site, the first impression is probably made in a few seconds, and the user will either stay or move on to the next site on the basis of many factors. One of the factors that may influence users to stay or go is the page aesthetics. Another reason may involve a user's judgment about the site's credibility. This study explores the possible link between page aesthetics and a user's judgment of the site's credibility. Our findings indicate that when the same content is presented using different levels of aesthetic treatment, the content with a higher aesthetic treatment was judged as having higher credibility. We call this the amelioration effect of visual design and aesthetics on content credibility. Our study suggests that this effect is operational within the first few seconds in which a user views a web page. Given the same content, a higher aesthetic treatment will increase perceived credibility.

Stubborn reliance on intuition and subjectivity in employee selection.

Abstract: The focus of this article is on implicit beliefs that inhibit adoption of selection decision aids (e.g., paper-and-pencil tests, structured interviews, mechanical combination of predictors). Understanding these beliefs is just as important as understanding organizational constraints to the adoption of selection technologies and may be more useful for informing the design of successful interventions. One of these is the implicit belief that it is theoretically possible to achieve near-perfect precision in predicting performance on the job. That is, people have an inherent resistance to analytical approaches to selection because they fail to view selection as probabilistic and subject to error. Another is the implicit belief that prediction of human behavior is improved through experience. This myth of expertise results in an overreliance on intuition and a reluctance to undermine one’s own credibility by using a selection decision aid.

Health Information, Credibility, Homophily, and Influence via the Internet: Web Sites Versus Discussion Groups

Abstract: Despite concerns about online health information and efforts to improve its credibility, how users evaluate and utilize such information presented in Web sites and online discussion groups may involve different evaluative mechanisms This study examined credibility and homophily as two underlying mechanisms for social influence with regard to online health information An original experiment detected that homophily grounded credibility perceptions and drove the persuasive process in both Web sites and online discussion groups The more homophilous an online health information stimulus was perceived as being, the more likely people were to adopt the advice offered in that particular piece of information

The Effect of Perceived Blogger Credibility and Argument Quality on Message Elaboration and Brand Attitudes

Abstract: To understand information processing on blogs, this study investigates how perceived blogger trustworthiness affects blog readers’ elaboration of brand-related messages and its interaction effects with argument quality. The results reveal that the degree of perceived blogger trustworthiness affects the extent of message elaboration, and findings from a 2 × 2 (perceived blogger trustworthiness × argument quality) factorial experiment suggest a significant interaction effect on brand attitudes. This interaction reveals that when perceived blogger trustworthiness is high, argument quality has a greater impact on brand attitudes than when perceived blogger trustworthiness is low. The authors discuss some implications and suggestions for further research.

Believe it or not: Credibility of blogs in tourism

Abstract: This study examines the use of blogs as a means of tourism marketing communication. Using a scenario-based approach, an online experiment was conducted to test whether consumers perceive corporate and personal blogs to be credible sources of information and to compare the perceived credibility of blogs to that of traditional word-of-mouth. The findings suggest that while consumers do not generally equate the overall credibility of blogs with that of traditional word-of-mouth, some consumers do appear to attribute similar levels of authoritativeness, a dimension of credibility, to them.

Treatment expectancy and credibility are associated with the outcome of both physical and cognitive-behavioral treatment in chronic low back pain.

Abstract: IntroductionPatients' initial beliefs about the success of a given pain treatment are shown to affect final treatment outcome. The Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ) has recently been developed as measure of treatment credibility and expectancy.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were (1)

Scientific Uncertainty in News Coverage of Cancer Research: Effects of Hedging on Scientists' and Journalists' Credibility

Abstract: News reports of scientific research are rarely hedged; in other words, the reports do not contain caveats, limitations, or other indicators of scientific uncertainty. Some have suggested that hedging may influence news consumers’ perceptions of scientists’ and journalists’ credibility (perceptions that may be related to support for scientific research and/or adoption of scientific recommendations). But whether hedging does affect audience perceptions is unknown. A multiple-message experiment (N = 601) found that across five messages, both scientists and journalists were viewed as more trustworthy (a) when news coverage of cancer research was hedged (e.g., study limitations were reported) and (b) when the hedging was attributed to the scientists responsible for the research (as opposed to scientists unaffiliated with the research).

Do Networks Solve Collective Action Problems? Credibility, Search, and Collaboration

Abstract: Two competing theories suggest different ways in which networks resolve collective action problems: small, dense networks enhance credible commitments supportive of cooperative solutions, while large boundary-spanning networks enhance search and information exchange supportive of coordinated solutions. Our empirical study develops and tests the competing credibility and search hypotheses in 22 estuary policy arenas, where fragmentation of authority creates collective problems and opportunities for joint gains through collaboration. The results indicate that search rather than credibility appears to pose the greater obstacle to collaboration; well-connected centrally located organizations engage in more collaborative activities than those embedded in small, dense networks.

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty

Abstract: How do we explain the shocking existence of hunger in a country of staggering abundance? What is being done to end hunger? What more do we need to do? These are the urgent questions Mark Winne addresses in Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. A veteran of the long struggle to overcome disparities in the American food system, Winne weaves stories that tug at our hearts with hard-hitting pronouncements about poverty and policy and hopeful examples of people working together against hunger. In a way that is both accessible and compelling, Winne tells the disturbing tale of the gap between the haves and have-nots in America, focusing on that most basic of human needs—food. He is neither naive nor sanguine in this effort, shining the light on hopeful projects and policies where he can but never losing sight of the bigger problem of inequality. He implores us to stop tinkering around the edges and focus directly on the root cause of hunger: poverty. Winne points out that without directly addressing the income gap, the food gap will shrink only intermittently and idiosyncratically; worse, it may grow. The food gap is the inequality in the American food system that has been addressed by anti-hunger advocates for decades. Winne explains that while many public and private efforts to reduce this gap have been altruistic and useful, others have been self-serving or irrelevant. In discussing contemporary trends in the food system, such as the interest in organic and local foods, along with new market mechanisms such as community-supported agriculture, he worries that the food gap might be growing rather than shrinking. He wants to make sure that the efforts we put into changing the food system will take us in the direction of greater rather than less social justice. The book is organized chronologically, beginning with the early days of Winne’s involvement in changing the food system. He lays out the basic problematic of hunger in a land of plenty and describes early anti-hunger efforts. The second section, “The Reactions,” chronicles the evolution of farmers’ markets, community gardens, and food banks. Winne celebrates these kinds of projects for the effects they have had on community engagement and for providing food to hungry people, but he cautions that these types of efforts are insufficient to close the food gap. The final section of the book discusses contemporary issues and projects, such as food deserts, movements for organic and local food, community-supported agriculture, and changes in government food-assistance programs. Unforgettable are the stories of impoverished and beleaguered women making arduous journeys on multiple buses to get to places that offer them so little once they arrive. A major strength of the book is Winne’s street creds. He has been working on nearly every type of effort to create a just food system for thirty years. In that time, he has traveled the halls of government, organized projects in inner-city communities, and dug in the dirt to coax food from abandoned land. His book is much more than a collection of stories, though, as his argument that we need to focus on eliminating poverty never retreats too far into the background. Descriptions of food projects and people’s experiences are vivid, interspersed with enough statistics to keep us focused on the problem at hand. While Winne’s personal experience with food-security policies and programs adds to the credibility of the book, it goes a bit too far in the direction of autobiography. More detail on the life stories of the food-insecure people with whom Winne has worked, and less on his own, would have increased the book’s ability to influence those new to the terrain of food justice. And, while the emphasis on story is a strength of the book, there is so much emphasis on stories and events that it is difficult at times to hold on to the thread of what is being discussed in a given section. It would have been helpful if the book had included an index, so that readers could hone in on specific topics. And, while Closing the Food Gap is not intended as an academic text, it still would have been helpful to provide citations for facts and figures. Closing the Food Gap is an extremely powerful and readable book that will bring people to the table and the food justice movement. Winne never sacrifices argumentation and facts in the interest of readability. He strikes an almost perfect balance in this important book. Winne makes us care, and he gives us hope that we can, indeed, close the food gap.

College Students' Credibility Judgments in the Information-Seeking Process

Abstract: Information seeking is an important part of people's everyday lives. To obtain information, people use Web search engines, consult authorities, ask questions of friends, go to libraries, read newspapers, and watch television, among other methods. Through such activities, people continually make judgments about how useful information is to their particular needs, actively construct meaning, and form judgments about the relevance of the information to their goal based on various attributes or criteria. 1 When people assess information, however, they may notice that the characteristics and value of some information are not always consistent. 2 That is, people may find texts that seem to be clearly written but are inaccurate, that are easy to obtain but out-of-date, that are current but not sufficiently comprehensive, and so on. In such cases, how do they make judgments about information? According to Wilson, people tend to ask whether they can believe what the text says or, if not, whether they can at least take it seriously. 3 Wilson thus notes that credibility is a chief aspect of information quality and states that what and who people believe to be credible constitutes the potential pool of " cognitive authorities, " or those that influence people's thoughts because they are perceived as " worthy of belief. " 4 Selecting credible information from among the various available resources is a challenge for anyone. The kinds of challenges may, however, differ for adults and for young people. For instance, adult information seekers are likely to select information when they think it is 5 Young people, on the other hand, often mainly consider whether information is related to the topic and whether it is new, interesting, and convenient, while showing less interest in authority, the readability of the language, and recency. 6 Moreover, most adults possessed knowledge of how to evaluate information in traditional print media before newer digital media, especially the Internet, were introduced. Consequently , they had to learn how to apply the old rules and criteria for evaluating information to the relatively newer digital media. 7 Their experiences differ from those of today's youth, who have used digital media since a very young age. Indeed, survey reports show that 20 percent of college students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8, and by the time they reached 16–18 years, virtually all of today's college students were using computers. 8 Thus, today's college students …

Significance of model credibility in estimating climate projection distributions for regional hydroclimatological risk assessments

Abstract: Ensembles of historical climate simulations and climate projections from the World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP's) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) multi-model dataset were investigated to determine how model credibility affects apparent relative scenario likelihoods in regional risk assessments. Methods were developed and applied in a Northern California case study. An ensemble of 59 twentieth century climate simulations from 17 WCRP CMIP3 models was analyzed to evaluate relative model credibility associated with a 75-member projection ensemble from the same 17 models. Credibility was assessed based on how models realistically reproduced selected statistics of historical climate relevant to California climatology. Metrics of this credibility were used to derive relative model weights leading to weight-threshold culling of models contributing to the projection ensemble. Density functions were then estimated for two projected quantities (temperature and precipitation), with and without considering credibility-based ensemble reductions. An analysis for Northern California showed that, while some models seem more capable at recreating limited aspects twentieth century climate, the overall tendency is for comparable model performance when several credibility measures are combined. Use of these metrics to decide which models to include in density function development led to local adjustments to function shapes, but led to limited affect

Credibility issues in research from within organisations

Abstract: Research from within (insider research) that is done by members of the organisation under study is, and feels very different from, research that is conducted by and provided to organisations by outsiders. On the one hand, taking up the research role as an ‘insider’ confronts the researcher with many dilemmas, questions and decisions to weigh up, not the least of which is that it is in addition to their usual organisational role. On the other hand, these dual roles open up enormous opportunities to do work that can have a valuable and significant impact on organisations and individuals involved, as well as contributing to the growth of shared knowledge.

Gaining Trust Through Online Privacy Protection: Self-Regulation, Mandatory Standards, or Caveat Emptor

Abstract: Trust is particularly important in online markets to facilitate the transfer of sensitive consumer information to online retailers. In electronic markets, various proposals have been made to facilitate these information transfers. We develop analytic models of hidden information to analyze the effectiveness of these regimes to build trust and their efficiency in terms of social welfare. We find that firms' ability to influence consumer beliefs about trust depends on whether firms can send unambiguous signals to consumers regarding their intention of protecting privacy. Ambiguous signals can lead to a breakdown of consumer trust, while the clarity and credibility of the signal under industry self-regulation can lead to enhanced trust and improved social welfare. Our results also indicate that although overarching government regulations can enhance consumer trust, regulation may not be socially optimal in all environments because of lower profit margins for firms and higher prices for consumers.

Results-Model Reform Leadership: Questions of Credible Commitment

Abstract: Few problems common in management reform are more prominent or more vaguely conceived than is leadership. Advocates and observers broadly agree that leadership is a critical factor where reform takes hold. Yet, in scholarship assessing the results-model management reforms proliferating in public organizations during the last decade and a half, leadership remains an elusive concept, rarely subject to empirical scrutiny. Applying the logic of credible commitment drawn from the study of institutional political economy, this article models leadership commitment as a factor shaping organizational responses to reform. Quantitative analysis of data drawn from two Government Accountability Office surveys of agency managers administered during the implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act provides evidence regarding the impact of leadership commitment on perceived credibility results-based reform and reported use of performance measures. The article concludes with a brief discussion of reputation-based credibility and the skepticism many government managers hold toward reform.

Liquidation Values and the Credibility of Financial Contract Renegotiation: Evidence from U.S. Airlines

Abstract: How do liquidation values affect financial contract renegotiation? While the "incomplete-contracting" theory of financial contracting predicts that liquidation values determine the allocation of bargaining power between creditors and debtors, there is little empirical evidence on financial contract renegotiations and the role asset values play in such bargaining. This paper attempts to fill this gap. We develop an incomplete-contracting model of financial contract renegotiation and estimate it using data on the airline industry in the United States. We find that airlines successfully renegotiate their lease obligations downward when their financial position is sufficiently poor and when the liquidation value of their fieet is low. Our results show that strategic renegotiation is common in the airline industry. Moreover, the results emphasize the importance of the incomplete contracting perspective to real-world financial contract renegotiation.

Does Membership in International Organizations Increase Governments' Credibility? Testing the Effects of Delegating Powers

Abstract: This paper analyzes whether nation-state governments can increase their credibility by becoming members of international organizations Credibility is an important asset because it determines the real interest rate and is expected to have an important impact on investment and growth It is hypothesized that the degree of delegation to international organizations can improve the credibility of nation-state governments This hypothesis is tested by introducing three new indicators for international delegation On the basis of panel data for up to 136 countries and the time period from 1984 to 2004, membership in international organizations is significantly and robustly linked with better credibility, here proxied for by country risk ratings Two more results stand out: the longer a country has had a high level of membership, the higher its credibility, ceteris paribus; and: the credibility-enhancing effect is strongest in countries whose domestic institutions are weak

Credibility on the internet: shifting from authority to reliability

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to understand how users determine credibility in the internet environment from a conceptual level and the implications of these new methods of credibility determination on internet tools (primarily software) and services.Design/methodology/approach – The author first examines the underlying reasons for increased dependence on the internet for information, using electronic commerce as a starting point. The central concept of “information self‐sufficiency” is introduced and then examined through the lens of the internet and conversation theory.Findings – The author finds that users are shifting from more traditional “authority” methods of credibility determination, where users cede determinations to trusted third parties, to a “reliability” approach where users seek commonalities and coherence among multiple information sources. This has led to an increased pressure for participation and openness at all levels of the internet.Research limitations/implications – Studies on users an...

The necessary art of persuasion

Abstract: Business today is largely run by teams and populated by authority-averse baby boomers and Generation Xers. That makes persuasion more important than ever as a managerial tool. But contrary to popular belief, the author asserts, persuasion is not the same as selling an idea or convincing opponents to see things your way. It is instead a process of learning from others and negotiating a shared solution. To that end, persuasion consists of four essential elements: establishing credibility, framing to find common ground, providing vivid evidence, and connecting emotionally. Credibility grows, the author says, out of two sources: expertise and relationships. The former is a function of product or process knowledge and the latter a history of listening to and working in the best interest of others. But even if a persuader's credibility is high, his position must make sense--even more, it must appeal--to the audience. Therefore, a persuader must frame his position to illuminate its benefits to everyone who will feel its impact. Persuasion then becomes a matter of presenting evidence--but not just ordinary charts and spreadsheets. The author says the most effective persuaders use vivid--even over-the-top--stories, metaphors, and examples to make their positions come alive. Finally, good persuaders have the ability to accurately sense and respond to their audience's emotional state. Sometimes, that means they have to suppress their own emotions; at other times, they must intensify them. Persuasion can be a force for enormous good in an organization, but people must understand it for what it is: an often painstaking process that requires insight, planning, and compromise.