Contextual constraints in media choice: Beyond information richness

Abstract

In today's dynamic environment, managers and organizations are faced with varied choices in communicating information for enhanced decision making. In business, the selection of the appropriate media needs to be efficient and effective for decision making and can be crucial in certain circumstances. Recent studies have relied on numerous theories to explain media choice. This research work goes beyond the traditional task characteristics of equivocality and uncertainty from the media richness theory. It addresses additional contextual constraints including the needs for urgency, confidentiality, accountability, social interaction, and information integrity from the sender's perspective and how these interact with equivocality and uncertainty in the choice of a medium for communication. Results demonstrate a significant change in media selection under all five contextual constraints, although not always in the direction predicted. Email was consistently the top preference, contrary to theoretical expectations. The study adds empirical support to the growing trend of moving beyond media and information richness in order to explain media choice in organizations.

Technology adoption decisions in the household: A seven‐model comparison

“…Thus, we considered intention to purchase as an inappropriate dependent variable for households that already owned household technologies. Although some technology acceptance research has employed intention as a dependent variable, even in cases where the behavior is well rehearsed (Bhattacherjee, 2001a;Djamasbi et al, 2010;Lee, 2009;Luo et al, 2011;Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006;Thompson, Higgins, & Howell, 1991), much research in psychology (Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2000;Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006;Ouellette & Wood, 1998;Sheeran, 2002) and technology acceptance (Ortiz de Guinea & Markus, 2009;Palvia, Pinjani, Cannoy, & Jacks, 2011) has demonstrated that intentions are typically important only in the context of new behaviors and are not predictive for well-rehearsed, routinized behaviors. Therefore, we employ use behavior as the dependent variable for those that have already adopted a particular household technology.…”

Consumer Decision Making in Multi-channel Retail: the Effects of Online Channel Media Richness and Cross-channel Integration

“…In multi-channel retail, the proliferation of digital channels provide consumers with abundant information from multiple channels to conduct online shopping task. In this case, these channels' information content could influence the relative effects of online channel media richness on decision-making and channel choice [26]. Information content is associated with the degree of information accuracy, consistency, and reliability [27].…”

Education, Educational Services and their Quality

“…As experience attribute is more ambiguous and abstract, consumers will need to reconstruct different pieces of information into an overall product evaluation (Coupey 1994;Johnson 1988;Johnson and Russo 1984). According to the information richness theory, highly ambiguous and uncertain attributes which create more latitude for judgment are important factors in accounting for superior performance of information richness (Daft and Lengel 1986;Lo and Lie 2008;Palvia et al 2011). Besides, information richness will be higher for personal-oriented subjective message than for functional-oriented objective message (Otondo et al 2008).…”

“…In other words, highly uncertain messages are in greater need of rich information for lessening misunderstanding in order to ensure transmitting quality (Lo and Lie 2008;Palvia et al 2011). Given that negative information is generally presented with negative consequences and lack of beneficial results, it tends to arouse stronger feelings of outcome uncertainty (Broemer 2002;Fiske 1980;Kaneouse and Hanson 1971).…”

“…Of all the eWOM characteristics, information richness plays a critical role in trading activities or buying decisions (Senecal and Nantel 2004). It appears that rich information can help firms or stores not only increase customer loyalty but also deliver effective marketing communications (Palvia et al 2011). Since eWOM serve as a powerful marketing medium for companies to reach and influence consumers (Kozinets et al 2010), it is important to understand the role of information richness in the eWOM context.…”