Research at Webster Vienna

Maria Madlberger, Professor and Head of the Business and Management Department at Webster Vienna Private University collaborated with Dr. Lukas Wolf from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg to investigate how used electronic devices impact characteristics of user-generated content.

With the emergence of social media platforms, e-commerce platforms and web-shops, discussion boards, and online forums, Internet users have an increasing number of opportunities to share their opinions and knowledge online. Research has revealed that user-generated content has a large impact on consumers’ decision-making, hence, understanding what impacts user-generated content is crucial for any digital business activity and highly relevant in scholarly research. Nowadays, Internet users can choose from an increasing number of digital devices to generate and submit user-generated content. In addition to traditional computers, mobile devices, particularly smartphones are a popular device to make contributions independent from time and place. Although the various devices have similar capabilities for content creation and submission, they are very different in their characteristics, such as screen size, user interface, and usage context,

Prof. Madlberger and Dr. Wolf aimed at understanding what role the submission devices are playing in the creation and submission of user-generated content on the Internet. For this purpose, they conducted a systematic literature review to obtain the state of the art of academic research in this relevant area. From an initial set of more than 2,000 scholarly articles obtained by keyword search, 25 articles that published 38 studies have been included for the review. Research in this area is mainly done on the analysis of secondary data (e.g., text analysis, machine learning, and NLP analyses of user-generated content) as well as experimental designs. 

In a weight analysis, several strong impact factors have been identified. Among other insights, the study reveals that user-generated content that is submitted via mobile devices, is shorter, more emotional, and more self-centered. On other attributes, such as valence, ratings, and perceived helpfulness, scholarly insights are contradicting and therefore calling for further research. The systematic literature review also discovered factors that have been addressed in very few studies and thus deserve further attention. 

The results of the systematic literature review and weight analysis will be presented at the upcoming 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) in Cyprus, June 2024. 

 

• Articles
• Books
• Chapters
• Conferences
• News Archives

Faculty — Business and Management

Faculty and Staff

Professor Bátora published his research on “thought communities” in the European Union

How do citizens in European Union (EU) member states think about the EU? And what are the implications of different ‘thinking styles’ for citizens’ preferences regarding formation of policies, politics and polity in the EU? In a new article published in Journal of Common Market Studies, professor Jozef Bátora from IR Department at WVPU and his co-author Pavol Baboš (Comenius University) use relational class analysis (RCA) and analyze perceptions of the EU as a political order by citizens in six selected EU member states.

The article introduces a new approach to analyzing public opinion about the EU: unlike traditional surveys examining attitudes, the current article can identify ways of thinking - intersubjective cognitive constructs - that people use when forming their opinions about the EU. Based on an online survey (N=6000) of respondents in France, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Italy and Slovakia, the analysis identifies two "thought communities" - statists and pragmatists - which are present to varying degrees in individual member states.

People belonging to individual communities think about the Union on the basis of the same construct, but not with the same preferences: for example, statists include nation-state sovereigntists as well as Euro-federalists - all who use the ‘state’ as a frame of reference. The article analyzes the implications of thought communities for public support of different visions of political integration in the EU.

 

• Articles
• Books
• Chapters
• Conferences
• Policy Papers
• News Archives

Faculty — International Relations

Faculty and Staff

Dr. Anthony Löwstedt, Assistant Professor at the Media Communications Department, and Natalia Hatarova, a WVPU strategic communications alumna who is currently pursuing an MA at Central European University, have just published an important article in the Journal of Media Ethics. It is titled ‘Transcultural and Transnational Communication Values: Suggestions for Minimum and Maximum Values as a Common Ground’ (doi: 10.1080/23736992.2024.2333500). 

Löwstedt and Hatarova employ the term “Values” to refer to either principles or single positions, or to certain, defined ranges of positions or principles. The communication ethics issues addressed are incitement, deception, greed, truth, freedom of expression, privacy, and self-regulation. Within each issue, a range of acceptable to good positions  are presented. Incitement, deception, and greed are rejected, but not necessarily completely, the same with affirmation of the other four issues. There are some positions that are excluded from the values, especially prescriptive elitism, sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and heteronormativity. 

Together, the positive values are referred to as a system or code of values, as one that can be found in both the Instruction of Ptahhotep (written 3,890 years ago) and the International Federation of Journalists’ Bordeaux Declaration, one of the world’s most copied and applied media ethics codes, but also in whole or in part in many cultures and general ethical systems. However, these values are largely unconscious as both ethicists and practitioners seem to have stuck to a single normative position on each issue rather than to a range of positions. 

After analyses of samples of communication ethics from a number of major value systems around the world, Confucian, Buddhist, Stoic, Christian, Islamic, Aborigine, Cree, San, Māori, Ubuntu, Kantian, socialist, and liberal, the authors conclude that there is plenty of room for consensus and even more room for agreement. An inclusivist global consensus on ranges of acceptable communication ethics (rather than specific principles) is not an impossibility. It could provide cornerstones for a regulatory system for any kind of communication, including social media, journalism, and AI. 

 

• Articles
• Chapters
• Conferences
• News Archive

Faculty — Strategic Communication

Faculty and Staff

Prof. Dr. Didem Kepir Savoly Joins Webster Vienna

Webster Vienna Private University's Psychology Department warmly welcomes Prof. Dr. Didem Kepir Savoly, the latest addition to its academic faculty. Specializing in Counseling Psychology, Dr. Kepir Savoly's scholarly pursuits have primarily focused on the aspects of career development and emotional well-being. Her work on career adaptability examines the transition from educational environments to professional settings, emphasizing the significance of resilience and flexibility in career choices.

Former studies of Dr. Kepir Savoly explored the relationship between career optimism and the well-being of university students, highlighting how personal relationships impact psychological outcomes. Dr. Kepir Savoly's research also extends to the realm of emotion regulation, investigating therapeutic interventions like art therapy for emotional resilience and self-regulation skills training for international students facing cultural transitions. These studies highlight the therapeutic value of creative expression and the critical need for adaptive coping mechanisms in diverse settings. Moreover, Dr. Kepir Savoly's collaborative projects with former master's supervisees have produced insightful analyses of movie and TV-show characters through Transactional Analysis, demonstrating the practical application of psychological theories in understanding complex character dynamics. 

Prof. Dr. Didem Kepir Savoly's arrival at Webster Vienna Private University's Psychology Department heralds an exciting new chapter in our pursuit of academic and research excellence. Her research background and innovative approaches to understanding the complexities of human psychology promise to significantly enhance our academic and research endeavors. We look forward with great enthusiasm to the contributions she will make to our academic community, confident that her presence will inspire both our faculty and students to reach new heights in their research and studies.

 

Unveiling the Influence of Human and Robotic Actions on Object Preference and Memory

In a groundbreaking study led by Dr Luca Ticini and Dr Alex Kafkas of the University of Manchester, researchers have unveiled fascinating insights into how human and robotic actions influence our preferences and memory. The study, titled "Grasp and Remember: The Impact of Human and Robotic Actions on Object Preference and Memory," delves into the cognitive phenomena of goal contagion and its implications in the rapidly evolving landscape of human-robot interactions.

The research team, including Prof Paolo Gallina from the University ofTrieste, embarked on an exploration to understand how observing different types of actions—human vs. robotic—alters our perception and recollection of objects. Participants were presented with a series of objects that were either grasped by a human, a robot, or not acted upon at all (static objects). They were then asked to indicate their preference for each object. To assess the impact of these actions on memory, participants' recollection of the objects was tested after a short delay, including their ability to recognize previously seen objects and distinguish them from new ones.

The findings are striking. Human actions not only heightened the preference for objects but also significantly enhanced the subsequent memory of them, more so than robotic actions. Interestingly, static objects, when presented in the context of human action, were also perceived as more familiar during the recognition task. This suggests that the mere observation of human actions has a profound effect on our cognitive evaluations and memory engagement, fostering the creation of detailed associative memories.

This study's results underscore the critical role of human interaction in cognitive processes, particularly in the context of goal contagion—a concept that describes the tendency to adopt others' goals. The differential effects observed between human and robotic actions highlight the nuanced complexities of our cognitive systems and their interaction with the world.

According to Luca Ticini and his team, these insights have profound implications for the design and implementation of robotic technologies in everyday life. “Understanding the cognitive effects of human versus robotic actions can guide the development of robots that better align with human cognitive processes, potentially enhancing learning, memory, and the overall human-robot interaction experience.”

 

• Articles
• Chapters
• Conferences
• News Archive

Faculty — Psychology

Faculty and Staff