Ackoff Center Weblog

Australia New Zealand Systems Conference 2007

“Systemic development: local solutions in a global environment”

2 – 5 December 2007, Auckland, New Zealand.

Call for Reviewers

The quality of the ANZSYS experience is underpinned by the reviews provided to authors. Both conference attendees and others are invited to work with track chairs to review papers for that track (conference theme). Paper reviews should be of a developmental nature. Guidelines will be provided.

 

Those willing to offer their services as reviewers should email the Conference Chairs at [email protected]  by 15^th July. This is the date papers are due. The email should have “Offer to review papers in the … Track” in the subject line.

 

Call for Workshop Presenters

 

As in previous years, ANZSYS 2007 will provide workshops. Workshops will be related to conference themes, and will be either 90 minutes or 120 minutes in length.

Proposals for workshops should be emailed to the Conference Chairs at [email protected]  by 31^st August.

Each proposal should be structured and be one page in length. The email should have “Proposal for … Workshop” in the subject line.

Confirmation of acceptance will be provided by 30^th September.

 

The following is extracted from the conference website: http://anzsys07.unitec.ac.nz

Conference themes

The themes for the ANZSYS'07 conference are:

A globally-connected virtual world

Applications of creativity to systemic problem-solving

Conceptual modelling

Critical systems

Information systems

Managing systemic development

Organisational systems

Regional and environmental systems

Social systems

System dynamics

Systems theory/systems thinking

And any other related issue. 

The conference chairs welcome any paper on one or more of these themes. If you would like to confirm that your paper falls within these themes then please email the Conference Chairs at [email protected]

Author information

Papers of up to 4000 words all up (including title, abstract, conference theme, keywords, body, footnotes, references, diagrams, and bios) on one or more of the conference themes will be considered for the conference. In all other respects, papers need to conform to the format and order of material requirements for the Emergence: Complexity and Organization journal at: http://emergence.org/ECO_site/web-content/sub_info.html

All papers will be double blind refereed for inclusion in the refereed conference proceedings.

Important dates

Sunday 15 July 2007 Papers due

Wednesday 15 August 2007 Reviewers feedback sent to Authors

Friday 31 August 2007  Final copy of accepted papers and lists of changes due

Wednesday 31 October 2007 Last day for early-bird registration

Sunday 2^nd -Wed 5^th Dec 2007 The conference

Email submissions to, and contact organisers at: [email protected]

Conference chairs:
The conference is chaired by Kay Fielden (Unitec New Zealand) and Jim Sheffield (University of Auckland).

Individual Consumer Differences and Design Implications for Web-Based Decision Support

Barry G. Silverman, Gnana Bharathy, John Pourdehnad, Dave Lowe, Davin Riley, Melanie C. Green (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ) and Joyce Ann-Lindbloom Salisbury (General Motors)
Ackoff Center for the Advancement of Systems Approaches (ACASA), University of Pennsylvania,
Towne 251, Towne Bldg, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
[email protected] V:(215) 573-8368 F: (215) 898-5020

Abstract

This paper summarizes a study as to whether individual differences are significant factors that should affect the design of consumer decision support over the web. Our study postulates two orthogonal dimensions – Need for Cognition and Purchase Preference (lifestyle vs. utilitarian). The Need for Cognition is a well-researched dimension with its own instrument for measuring it, while we had to develop and validate an instrument for measuring the Purchase Preference. Applying these instruments to two study groups totaling 175 users forced us to reject the null hypothesis that individual differences are unimportant (90% confidence), and accept that 3 groupings are distinct. The study concludes with design implications that might best support the decision support needs of each of the categories of consumers in terms of features such as linear vs. non-linear processes, more vs. less analytical information, and when to deploy stylized photos, videos, and product placements.

Keywords: consumer websites, decision support, individual differences

To read the rest of this article, please download the the pdf file: Individual Consumer Differences and Design Implications for Web-Based Decision Support