DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE FOREST AND THE TREES - MEDIA, FEATURES, AND METHODOLOGY IN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION-RESEARCH

Electronic communication media usually differ from nonelectronic commu nication media on a variety of communication features. However, resear ch designs typically do not allow for the most revealing examination o f communication feature effects. This paper proposes a methodological framework for conceptualizing and operationalizing electronic communic ation research, and presents an illustrative study based on the framew ork. The methodological framework distinguishes among communication me dia, channels, and features, and emphasizes the importance for theory and research of understanding the effects of communication features bo th within and across communication media. To demonstrate this framewor k, subjects in the study participated in a sealed-bid negotiation. Com munication of the bids was either paper-and-pencil or computer-mediate d. The results revealed a significant main effect for medium (computer -mediated communication yielded lower individual scores), significant main effects for features (documentation and anonymity both yielded lo wer individual scores), and a significant interaction between a featur e (documentation) and medium. For organizations, these results suggest that the accepted effects of a medium should be reexamined in light o f the medium's component features; design and adoption decisions shoul d be made with an understanding of the existence of interactions betwe en features and media.