3. Research and Theory pre-reflection

For this week’s topic I have chosen the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC), which has an impact factor of 1.778. Starting from 1995, JMCM publishes quarterly in the field of computer-mediated communication. Its formats, such as original articles and meta-analyses of prior research cover the areas of communication, information science, media studies, business, education, sociology and other disciplines. The journals focus lies on empirical research using social science methods on computer-based technologies.

The research paper by Humpreys, Pape and Karnowski with the title “Evolving Mobile Media: Uses and Conceptualizations of the Mobile Internet” has particularly aroused my interest. It was published in Volume 18, Issue 4 in July 2013 and gives insight on how students understand and use the mobile Internet with their smartphones or laptop computers. The main motivation for initiating the research were the emerging technological convergence, the increasing usage of mobile devices and the lack of research with the focus on mobile Internet behaviour.

With a sample of 21 undergraduate students, the study was conducted in the US and Germany as a semistructured one-on-one interview with a length of approximately 30 minutes. The goal was to get a better understanding on how students use the mobile Internet by taking the impact of cross-cultural differences into account.

The theoretical framework for this study is based on the Mobile Phone Appropriation Model (MPA

model) by Wirth et al. (2008) which makes use of existing theoretical approaches of quantitative and qualitative research. With its multidimensional approach, the MPA model seems to be highly qualified as a general framework in order to analyze the integration of Internet services into the user’s habits of communicating mobile.

Based on the MPA model, three research question were raised: 1) How do college students conceptualize the mobile Internet? 2) In what temporal, spatial, social and media-related contexts do college students report using the mobile Internet? 3) How do the students understand and use the mobile Internet differently?

The findings state that most students are familiar with the online environment but they don’t actually use the term ‘mobile Internet’ when talking about being ‘online on their mobile’.  However, the study revealed that the Internet usage varies on different devices depending on the context of the usage. With their laptops, most of the students would have an immersive Internet experience (e.g. classical web browsing), whereas with their smartphones they will mostly have an extractive Internet experience (e.g. quickly access information). An interesting point is that smartphones are sometimes used immersively, which occurs when being online on a social network like Facebook. Though, no significant cross-cultural differences were detected.

What is theory?

According to Sutton and Staw (1995), the definition of a theory can be seen as a wish list by stating what a theory should comprise (Sutton and Staw 1995: 378). Therefore it is easier to define what is not on the list: references, data, lists of variables or constructs, diagrams and hypotheses are not considered to be theory. Instead, a theory finds answers to the questions of “why” and tries to understand the systematic reason of an occurrence by dealing with underlying processes (ibid.) It usually builds upon a convincing and logical chain of arguments and “explains, predicts, and delights” (ibid.) According to Gregor all theories contain the same following components: physically representation, well defined constructs, relationships among constructs and significance in scope (Gregor 2006: 620).

Which theory type was used in the research paper?

For Gregor there are 5 types of theories in information systems research which can be defined as: analysis, explanation, prediction, explanation and prediction (EP) and design and action (ibid.). The presented research paper was using the analysis, according to Gregor’s taxonomy of theor types. The main reason for that is that the paper focused on analyzing and describing the mobile Internet usage of the students without asking “why”. It also didn’t make any predictions or gave suggestions on how to do something.

Benefits and limitation?

The great benefit of the analyses is that it generates new answers about something which hasn’t been covered deeply by research so far. As the author’s claim, they filled a gap with their analysis and gave in-depth information about how students use the mobile Internet.

The study is mainly limited by its approach of conducting a qualitative research which means that the sample cannot be generalized to a broader population. In addition, it couldn’t reveal any important details about cross-cultural differences due to the sample chosen as well as quantitative data, such as the usage time or frequency. For further studies, the authors suggest to make use of other research methods like diary studies or the experience sampling method in order to gain more detailed information. My main point of criticism lies within the fact that the study focused only on “how” and not on “why” the mobile Internet is used differently. The analysis only “says what is” without giving further explanations or make predictions how it might change in the future.

References:

Gregor, S. (2006). The Nature of Theory in Information Systems. In: MIS Quarterly, Vol. 30 (3), 611-642.

Humphrey, L.;  von Pape, T.; Karnowski, V. (2013): Evolving Mobile Media: Uses and

Conceptualizations of the Mobile Internet. In: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Vol 18. (4), 491-507.

Sutton, R. I. and Staw, B. M. (1995). What Theory is Not. In: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 40 (3), 371-384.

Wirth, W.; von Pape, T.; Karnowski, V. (2008). An integrative model of mobile phone appropriation. In: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol.13 (1), 593–617.