Help Me Complete My Masters Degree...
To Past and Present Allsportsmarket Clients:
My name is Paul Bleier, but most of you know me as the user “Peebs” from the once bustling and vibrant Allsportsmarket (ASM) virtual community. I joined ASM in March of 2005 and have been an avid and supportive member ever since. I live and work full time for an HR strategy consulting firm in Toronto and am in the final stages of finishing my thesis for a Master’s degree in training and organizational development.
This journey to finishing my Master’s degree began in August of 2005 when I began my studies at College of Technology, Engineering and Management at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. It was during this first fall semester that I began to see a bright and prosperous future for both ASM and my personal research interests. Allsportsmarket’s unique business development and management interactions would serve an excellent foundation to guide me throughout my course studies. Individual projects for courses such as Performance Analysis would benefit from concurrent developmental milestones at ASM.
With Chris Rabalais’ full support, I was permitted to conduct two projects on ASM during the fall of 2005. The first was a job/task analysis of an Allsportsmarket client support staff member, and the second was a full needs assessment on the current customer service, site functionality and forum usage. Many of you may remember this needs assessment survey as it was sent out to all registered newsletter subscribers on November 14th, 2005. I never did get to say thank you to all of you who responded (approx 276 clients) to this survey, so now is my chance – Thank You!
The needs assessment survey resulted in a 60 page document that was to assist management in acquiring some of the more pressing issues that clients were having. I personally analyzed all of the survey data for any statistically significant trends and made numerous recommendations to ASM management in Q4 2005. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality agreement I signed between myself and the company, I was never able to share the positive results of my finding with the ASM community.
Almost two years later, my research and interest in the development of ASM is finally ready to be shared with not only friends and colleagues at school, but with YOU – the real reason that ASM is on the cusp of achieving something that was once thought to be unattainable.
The unfortunate and untimely closure of the Allsportsmarket internal forums on March 9th 2007 in an effort to forge ahead with regulation and governance in the United States was a very dark day for my research as you are about to find out.
Let me first start by setting the context by providing you all with a summary of my approved application for the University of Wisconsin Stout’s Protection of Human Subjects that will allow me to complete my thesis and subsequently the requirements for my degree. A copy of my approval letter is available upon request.
Project Title: Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Communities on the Organizational Effectiveness of E-commerce Startups
1)Describe the proposed research/activity stating the objectives, significance, and detailed methodology
Objectives
This research will focus on evaluating the impact of virtual communities on the organizational effectiveness of e-commerce start-ups. Based on the results of this evaluation, the goal is to develop a conceptual model of organizational effectiveness that is sensitive to the changing demands of today’s global connected economy. The future model of organizational effectiveness will be created based on current trends in management literature and the availability of computer-mediated communication tools.
The formal objectives for this research are:
1. To evaluate the impact of virtual communities to startup businesses that use virtual communities to drive business development
2. To analyze whether management theories such as cybercentrism are beneficial or detrimental to stakeholders
3. To classify and develop a conceptual model of organizational effectiveness called Virtual Stakeholder Organizational Effectiveness (VSOE)
4. To make the compelling argument that those firms who are early adopters in establishing a corporate digital identity with their stakeholders will excel in today’s global environment
Significance:
From voice over internet protocol and e-mail to live chat and wireless text messaging, the variability and anonymity inherent within today’s computer-mediated communication tools have spawned the age of invisible consumers. Unlike traditional face-to-face consumers, invisible consumer are almost always in a hurry, and extremely knowledgeable about service experiences across many industries and competitive companies. Currently, there is no model of organizational effectiveness that formalizes a process to capitalize on the breadth of knowledge today’s invisible consumer brings to the table. This research study will impact business education by attempting to prove that firms who focus on their immediate stakeholders’ concerns and suggestions during business development can and will add significant future value and sustainability to their operations.
Detailed Methodology:
To evaluate the impact of virtual communities on the organizational effectiveness of e-commerce startups, a survey will be administered to current and past stakeholders that have participated in a virtual community with management currently involved in business development. The survey will be anonymous and ask for participant reactions/satisfaction level to questions which evaluate the management effectiveness of using a virtual community to drive such strategic business development issues as mission and vision, empowerment, adaptability, core values, accountabilities, and communication protocols. The survey questions will be created on Likert scales, but will also include some categorical data to acquire demographic content. The survey instrument itself will be distributed electronically through UW-Stout’s online survey website. The target population will be provided with the nature of the research ahead of time. The data will be kept confidential once collected and stored within an excel spreadsheet to commence data analysis.
There will be an opt-out clause that states participation in this research is voluntary; and all participants will be 18 years of age or older as that is the requirement to be a client in good standing with the business. Participants will be asked for their opinions and satisfaction ratings on business related issues. No questions will be designed to modify the thinking, feeling, and behaviors of any participant. The survey will only ask for current thoughts and feelings towards management past use of the virtual community to drive business development. There is very low risk to the participants in this research.
Confidentiality will be ensured because all participants will not be asked for their name or any unique identifier when filling out their survey. As well, all participants are expected to receive the survey link and cover letter from the business’ corporate newsletter that sends out emails privately and only addressed to a single client. If the corporate newsletter cannot be used for whatever reason, an embedded link will be posted to the virtual community to hyperlink participants to the survey protocol.
The only risks associated with participants participating in this research can be attributed to potential mild physical strain that is sometimes associated with using a keyboard, mouse, and computer monitor to complete the on-line survey
The benefit to society is that this research will attempt to prove that senior managers who engage with stakeholders on a one-to-one basis using virtual communities can acquire insightful knowledge and recommendations to increase the organizational effectiveness of any number of businesses.
Where I stand today…July 8th 2007:
Due to unforeseen circumstances involving ASM’s attempt to become regulated in the United States, I was informed last week ASM will be unable to send out the survey on my behalf to fulfill my graduate degree requirements.
What I need from you…
Although dispersed, with the emergence of external forums such as the ASM Traders Forum, Facebook and Sportsession, there is still a medium for me to gather the data I need to complete my research.
I spoke to my advisor last week to confirm my intentions of using external forum participants to acquire my data, and he is 100% behind this action. I should be ready to deploy the survey to this forum and the others listed above by late this evening or early tomorrow (July 9th 2007). The survey will be accessed through a hyperlink in this discussion thread and will take no longer than 10-15 minutes to complete.
I appreciate your time and effort in reading the above information, and hope that you can help me acquire the data I need.
Should any of you have any questions regarding my research or what I am trying to accomplish, please do not hesitate to send me a PM or reply to this thread.
Sincerelely,
Paul Bleier
(Peebs)
__________________
"It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be"
Last edited by Peebs : 07-08-2007 at 07:02 PM.
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