Invitation Messages Research Articles

Does the Message Matter? A Field Experiment on Political Party Recruitment

AbstractDo men and women respond to various party recruitment messages similarly? Working with the Utah County Republican Party, we designed a field experiment in which we invited over 11,600 male and female party activists to attend a free, party-sponsored “Prospective Candidate Information Seminar” by randomizing different invitation messages. We found that women were half as likely as men to respond to recruitment—log on to the seminar website for more information, register for the seminar, and attend the seminar. While we found some suggestive evidence about what recruitment messages may particularly motivate women or men vis-à-vis a control message, our findings are inconclusive because of a low response rate. This first attempt to experimentally test gendered reactions to recruitment in a sample of active party supporters provides a valuable baseline for future research.

Cultivating travellers' revisit intention to e-tourism service: the moderating effect of website interactivity

The research goals of this study were to investigate how the design and service quality of the website of the public sectors affect tourists' satisfaction and continued usage intention. We collected a sample of tourists, using a survey questionnaire, and we tested the model and hypotheses using a structural equation modelling approach. E-tourism websites have unique interactive and multimedia qualities with the potential to create experiences similar to a product trial. In total, invitation messages were mailed to 2000 members of the Taiwanese backpackers' forum, of which 256 were returned completed. The findings of this study indicate that the mission of excellence in travel services will be an important strategy in e-tourism website design; an e-tourism website that allows quick navigation is likely to attract travellers. Moreover, it is important that governments adopt a knowledge-sharing culture in their relationship strategy by developing a competence for building long-term relationships with tourists.

Distributed Fascinating Knowledge Over an Online Travel Community

ABSTRACTThe research goal of this study was to investigate how website design quality and website service quality affect participation behavior in the online travel community by moderating tacit knowledge and commitment.The design of the questionnaire linked it to the invitation message on the three travel communities, of which 235 were returned completed. The finding of the study shows that an online travel community that allows quick manipulation capabilities is likely to attract its members. To succeed, online travel communities have to rethink the way in which they embrace a new art of dialog and collaboration with their members. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recommendations from a virtual community as a catalytic agent of travel decisions

PurposeThe research goal of this study was to determine how flow experience and perceived behavioral control (PBC) affect participation behavior in the backpackers' forum.Design/methodology/approachSubjects were self‐selected by placing messages on over five recommendations members in the backpackers' forum. In total, 2,000 invitation messages were mailed to members of the Taiwanese backpackers' forum, of which 435 were returned completed (a return rate of 21.75 percent).FindingsAs our analysis, flow experience in a virtual community is positively associated with the behavioral intentions to use the virtual community. Perceived enjoyment in a virtual community is positively associated with the behavioral intentions to use the virtual community, and behavioral intentions to visit a virtual community are positively associated with the member's actual participation in a virtual community.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study has produced meaningful data for the development of multidimensional measures of factors that influence participation behavior in the Taiwanese backpackers' forum, the validity of an instrument cannot be firmly established on the basis of a single study. All of the data used for tests were collected only from a single backpackers' forum.Practical implicationsOur study shows that travel agencies must become technologically astute to keep up with its customers, should be viewing the internet as a vital distribution channel for marketing, and should be linked to other well‐known reservation web sites.Social implicationsThe backpacker community served as a reference group that could significantly influence travelers' beliefs, attitudes, and choices.Originality/valueIn the present study we found that a basic understanding of the essence of the backpacker community is a prerequisite for any organization operating a travel‐oriented community if they are to be clear about their mission, purpose, and the right direction to take to achieve their goal. That goal will increase the commitment of the members to a virtual community by increasing their helping behavior and active participation.

Motivating Public Use of Physician-Level Performance Data

Despite widening efforts to publicly report health care quality data, patients appear to make little use of these data. Several studies indicate patients' interest in physician-level information, but actual use of physician-level data remains unestablished. Using a randomized experimental design, this study evaluates the extent to which use of a Web site offering physician-level data is affected by three parameters: invitation mode (mail vs. e-mail), employment status (employed vs. retired), and invitation message tone (risk- vs. gain-focused). The results find significantly higher use among those invited by e-mail (p < .001) and among retired adults (p < .001). Message tone is not significantly associated with use rates, but a borderline significant result suggests that high-risk message recipients behave differently from those receiving gain-focused messages (p = .052). The findings emphasize the importance of convenience and process-simplicity in fostering public use of quality data and call for further study of message-tone effects.

Challenges of Internet Recruitment: A Case Study with Disappointing Results

BackgroundThe Internet provides tremendous opportunities for innovative research, but few publications on the use of the Internet for recruiting study participants exist. This paper summarizes our experiences from 2 studies in which we attempted to recruit teenagers on the Internet for a questionnaire study to evaluate a smoking-cessation website.Objective To evaluate strategies of recruiting teenagers for the evaluation of a smoking-cessation website through the Internet.MethodsIn Study 1 (Defined Community Recruitment), we sent invitation emails to registered members of a youth health website, CyberIsle. A total of 3801 email addresses were randomly divided into 2 groups. In the first group, emails indicated that the first 30 respondents would receive a Can $20 electronic gift certificate for use at an online bookstore if they would go to the Smoking Zine website and respond to a short survey. For the second group, the email also indicated that respondents would receive an additional Can $10 gift certificate if they referred their friends to the study. Reminder emails were sent 10 days after the sending of the initial invitation email. In Study 2 (Open Recruitment), we posted invitation messages on Web discussion boards, Usenet forums, and one specialized recruitment website, and attempted a snowball recruiting strategy. When potential participants arrived at the study site, they were automatically randomized into either the higher incentives group (Can $15 electronic gift certificate) or lower incentive group (Can $5 gift certificate).ResultsIn Study 1 (defined community recruitment), 2109 emails were successfully delivered. Only 5 subjects (0.24%), including 1 referred by a friend, passed the recruitment process and completed the questionnaire; a further 6 individuals visited the information page of the study but did not complete the study. In Study 2 (open recruitment), the number of users seeing the advertisement is unknown. A total of 35 users arrived at the website, of whom 14 participants were recruited (8 from the Can $15 gift certificate group and 6 from the Can $5 gift certificate group). Another 5 were recruited from the general Internet community (3 from discussion boards and 2 from the Research Volunteers website). The remaining 9 participants were recruited through friend referrals with the snowball strategy.ConclusionsOverall, the recruitment rate was disappointingly low. In our case, recruitment using Internet technologies including email, electronic discussion boards, Usenet forums, and websites did not prove to be an effective approach for soliciting young subjects to participate in our research. Possible reasons are discussed, including the participants' perspective. A major challenge is to differentiate trustable and legitimate messages from spam and fraudulent misinformation on the Internet. From the researchers' perspective, approaches are needed to engage larger samples, to verify participants' attributes, and to evaluate and adjust for potential biases associated with Internet recruitment.