A Study on Communication Media Selection: Comparing the Effectiveness of the Media Richness, Social Influence, and Media Fitness

Rui Gu, Kunihiko Higa, Douglas R. Moodie

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DOI: 10.4236/jssm.2011.43035                

Abstract

Media selection has become a more complex problem because of the fast development of Information and Communication Technology. However, there is little quantified work on the tools for media selection decisions. The three main tools available are Media Richness Theory (MRT) [1], Social Influence Perspectives (SIP) [2], and Media Fitness Framework (MFF) [3,4]. MFF is a combination of the factors from MRT and SIP with additional factors for environmental and resource limitations. In this research, we tested the effectiveness of media selection prediction of these three tools on 72 communication tasks from 18 companies. We then compared the results to real data. This comparison showed MFF to be more effective than either MRT or SIP, particularly in multiple-media situations. MFF also had a faster convergence of media selection prediction.

Keywords

Media Selection, Media Fitness, Media Richness, Social Influence, Effectiveness Comparison

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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