Thomas P Novak
Biographic Data
| ID | 198254 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas P Novak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas P |
| FAMILY NAME | Novak |
| SIGNATURE | NOVAK T P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vanderbilt University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 83 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness
Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping solution to widescale societal loneliness. Behavioral research provides little insight into whether these applications are effective at alleviating loneliness. We address this question by focusing on 'AI companions': applications designed to provide consumers with synthetic interaction partners. Study 1 examin…
Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change
We examine consumers’ interactions with smart objects using a novel mixed-method approach, guided by assemblage theory, to discover the emergence of automation practices. We use a unique text data set from the web service IFTTT, (“If This Then That”), representing hundreds of thousands of applets that represent “if–then” connections between pairs of Internet services. Consumers use these applets to automate events in their daily lives. We quantit…
A Generalized Framework for Moral Dilemmas Involving Autonomous Vehicles: A Commentary on Gill
By using scenarios based on moral dilemmas, Gill (2020) found that when consumers are riding in an autonomous vehicle (AV), they are more willing to harm a pedestrian than when they, themselves, are driving a regular car. By taking a first-person perspective, in contrast to most prior research that has taken a third-person perspective, the problem is framed in a personal way that allows identification of a mechanism of responsibility attribution.…
Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach
The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to revolutionize consumer experience. Because consumers can actively interact with smart objects, the traditional, human-centric conceptualization of consumer experience as consumers' internal subjective responses to branded objects may not be sufficient to conceptualize consumer experience in the IoT. Smart objects possess their own unique capacities and their own kinds of experiences in in…
ELab City: A Platform for Academic Research on Virtual Worlds
The eLab City project in Second Life is a laboratory environment for the study of user behavior in virtual worlds. This paper describes the origin and development of the eLab City project, which includes virtual infrastructure constructed in Second Life, a panel of Second Life users who have agreed to participate in research studies, tools for observational data collection, and procedures for fielding research projects. The eLab City panel is des…
The Fit of Thinking Style and Situation: New Measures of Situation-Specific Experiential and Rational Cognition
Decades of research provide strong evidence that consumers process information in two distinct and qualitatively different ways, rational and experiential. However, little research has addressed situational influences on thinking style, and there have been no attempts to simultaneously measure and validate two-dimensional situation-specific thinking: We develop and validate a new instrument for measuring situation-specific thinking style using pe…
Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges
The potential of the World Wide Web on the Internet as a commercial medium and market has been widely documented in a variety of media. However, a critical examination of its commercial development has received little attention. Therefore, in this paper we propose a structural framework for examining the explosion in commercial activity on the Web. First, we explore the role of the Web as a distribution channel and a medium for marketing communic…
The Evolution of the Digital Divide: How Gaps in Internet Access May Impact Electronic Commerce
Enthusiasm for the anticipated social dividends of the Internet appears boundless. Indeed, the Internet is expected to do no less than virtually transform society. Yet even as the Internet races ambitiously toward critical mass, some social scientists are beginning to examine carefully the policy implications of current demographic patterns of Internet access and usage. Key demographic variables like income and education drive the policy question…
Measuring the Customer Experience in Online Environments: A Structural Modeling Approach
Intuition and previous research suggest that creating a compelling online environment for Web consumers will have numerous positive consequences for commercial Web providers. Online executives note that creating a compelling online experience for cyber customers is critical to creating competitive advantage on the Internet. Yet, very little is known about the factors that make using the Web a compelling experience for its users, and of the key co…
Building consumer trust online
The reason more people have yet to shop online or even provide information to Web providers in exchange for access to information, is the fundamental lack of faith between most businesses and consumers on the Web today. In essence, consumers simply do not trust most Web providers enough to engage in "relationship exchanges" involving money and personal information with them. Research reveals that this lack of trust arises from the fact that cyber…
Bridging the Racial Divide on the Internet
We investigated differences in Internet use between whites and African Americans in the United States. Although African Americans are online in impressive numbers, significant disparities in access indicate the presence of a racial divide on the Internet. Our findings have important implications for public policy seeking to ensure Internet access for all members of our society.
Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations
The authors address the role of marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments (CMEs). Their approach considers hypermedia CMEs to be large-scale (i.e., national or global) networked environments, of which the World Wide Web on the Internet is the first and current global implementation. They introduce marketers to this revolutionary new medium, propose a structural model of consumer navigation behavior in a CME that incorporates the noti…
Residual Scaling: An Alternative to Correspondence Analysis for the Graphical Representation of Residuals from Log-Linear Models
The method of correspondence analysis, applied to a contingency table, provides a graphical representation of departures from the independence model. Generalized correspondence analysis has been proposed as a way of graphically representing departures from models other than independence. However, generalized correspondence analysis does not necessarily decompose a chi-square statistic for departures from non-independence models. We propose a meth…
On Comparing Alternative Segmentation Schemes: The List of Values (LOV) and Values and Life Styles (Vals)
This article begins with a partial replication of previous work—a comparison of the Values and Life Styles (VALS) system and the List of Values (LOV). The analysis is then extended to evaluate the role of a set of standard demographic variables with respect to both psychographic segmentation systems
Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach
The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to revolutionize consumer experience. Because consumers can actively interact with smart objects, the traditional, human-centric conceptualization of consumer experience as consumers' internal subjective responses to branded objects may not be sufficient to conceptualize consumer experience in the IoT. Smart objects possess their own unique capacities and their own kinds of experiences in in…
The Fit of Thinking Style and Situation: New Measures of Situation-Specific Experiential and Rational Cognition
Decades of research provide strong evidence that consumers process information in two distinct and qualitatively different ways, rational and experiential. However, little research has addressed situational influences on thinking style, and there have been no attempts to simultaneously measure and validate two-dimensional situation-specific thinking: We develop and validate a new instrument for measuring situation-specific thinking style using pe…
The Evolution of the Digital Divide: How Gaps in Internet Access May Impact Electronic Commerce
Enthusiasm for the anticipated social dividends of the Internet appears boundless. Indeed, the Internet is expected to do no less than virtually transform society. Yet even as the Internet races ambitiously toward critical mass, some social scientists are beginning to examine carefully the policy implications of current demographic patterns of Internet access and usage. Key demographic variables like income and education drive the policy question…
Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges
The potential of the World Wide Web on the Internet as a commercial medium and market has been widely documented in a variety of media. However, a critical examination of its commercial development has received little attention. Therefore, in this paper we propose a structural framework for examining the explosion in commercial activity on the Web. First, we explore the role of the Web as a distribution channel and a medium for marketing communic…
Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change
We examine consumers’ interactions with smart objects using a novel mixed-method approach, guided by assemblage theory, to discover the emergence of automation practices. We use a unique text data set from the web service IFTTT, (“If This Then That”), representing hundreds of thousands of applets that represent “if–then” connections between pairs of Internet services. Consumers use these applets to automate events in their daily lives. We quantit…
On Comparing Alternative Segmentation Schemes: The List of Values (LOV) and Values and Life Styles (Vals)
This article begins with a partial replication of previous work—a comparison of the Values and Life Styles (VALS) system and the List of Values (LOV). The analysis is then extended to evaluate the role of a set of standard demographic variables with respect to both psychographic segmentation systems
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness
Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping solution to widescale societal loneliness. Behavioral research provides little insight into whether these applications are effective at alleviating loneliness. We address this question by focusing on 'AI companions': applications designed to provide consumers with synthetic interaction partners. Study 1 examin…
Residual Scaling: An Alternative to Correspondence Analysis for the Graphical Representation of Residuals from Log-Linear Models
The method of correspondence analysis, applied to a contingency table, provides a graphical representation of departures from the independence model. Generalized correspondence analysis has been proposed as a way of graphically representing departures from models other than independence. However, generalized correspondence analysis does not necessarily decompose a chi-square statistic for departures from non-independence models. We propose a meth…
On Comparing Alternative Segmentation Schemes: The List of Values (LOV) and Values and Life Styles (Vals)
This article begins with a partial replication of previous work—a comparison of the Values and Life Styles (VALS) system and the List of Values (LOV). The analysis is then extended to evaluate the role of a set of standard demographic variables with respect to both psychographic segmentation systems
Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations
The authors address the role of marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments (CMEs). Their approach considers hypermedia CMEs to be large-scale (i.e., national or global) networked environments, of which the World Wide Web on the Internet is the first and current global implementation. They introduce marketers to this revolutionary new medium, propose a structural model of consumer navigation behavior in a CME that incorporates the noti…
Bridging the Racial Divide on the Internet
We investigated differences in Internet use between whites and African Americans in the United States. Although African Americans are online in impressive numbers, significant disparities in access indicate the presence of a racial divide on the Internet. Our findings have important implications for public policy seeking to ensure Internet access for all members of our society.
Building consumer trust online
The reason more people have yet to shop online or even provide information to Web providers in exchange for access to information, is the fundamental lack of faith between most businesses and consumers on the Web today. In essence, consumers simply do not trust most Web providers enough to engage in "relationship exchanges" involving money and personal information with them. Research reveals that this lack of trust arises from the fact that cyber…
Measuring the Customer Experience in Online Environments: A Structural Modeling Approach
Intuition and previous research suggest that creating a compelling online environment for Web consumers will have numerous positive consequences for commercial Web providers. Online executives note that creating a compelling online experience for cyber customers is critical to creating competitive advantage on the Internet. Yet, very little is known about the factors that make using the Web a compelling experience for its users, and of the key co…
Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges
The potential of the World Wide Web on the Internet as a commercial medium and market has been widely documented in a variety of media. However, a critical examination of its commercial development has received little attention. Therefore, in this paper we propose a structural framework for examining the explosion in commercial activity on the Web. First, we explore the role of the Web as a distribution channel and a medium for marketing communic…
The Evolution of the Digital Divide: How Gaps in Internet Access May Impact Electronic Commerce
Enthusiasm for the anticipated social dividends of the Internet appears boundless. Indeed, the Internet is expected to do no less than virtually transform society. Yet even as the Internet races ambitiously toward critical mass, some social scientists are beginning to examine carefully the policy implications of current demographic patterns of Internet access and usage. Key demographic variables like income and education drive the policy question…
The Fit of Thinking Style and Situation: New Measures of Situation-Specific Experiential and Rational Cognition
Decades of research provide strong evidence that consumers process information in two distinct and qualitatively different ways, rational and experiential. However, little research has addressed situational influences on thinking style, and there have been no attempts to simultaneously measure and validate two-dimensional situation-specific thinking: We develop and validate a new instrument for measuring situation-specific thinking style using pe…
ELab City: A Platform for Academic Research on Virtual Worlds
The eLab City project in Second Life is a laboratory environment for the study of user behavior in virtual worlds. This paper describes the origin and development of the eLab City project, which includes virtual infrastructure constructed in Second Life, a panel of Second Life users who have agreed to participate in research studies, tools for observational data collection, and procedures for fielding research projects. The eLab City panel is des…
Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach
The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to revolutionize consumer experience. Because consumers can actively interact with smart objects, the traditional, human-centric conceptualization of consumer experience as consumers' internal subjective responses to branded objects may not be sufficient to conceptualize consumer experience in the IoT. Smart objects possess their own unique capacities and their own kinds of experiences in in…
A Generalized Framework for Moral Dilemmas Involving Autonomous Vehicles: A Commentary on Gill
By using scenarios based on moral dilemmas, Gill (2020) found that when consumers are riding in an autonomous vehicle (AV), they are more willing to harm a pedestrian than when they, themselves, are driving a regular car. By taking a first-person perspective, in contrast to most prior research that has taken a third-person perspective, the problem is framed in a personal way that allows identification of a mechanism of responsibility attribution.…
Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change
We examine consumers’ interactions with smart objects using a novel mixed-method approach, guided by assemblage theory, to discover the emergence of automation practices. We use a unique text data set from the web service IFTTT, (“If This Then That”), representing hundreds of thousands of applets that represent “if–then” connections between pairs of Internet services. Consumers use these applets to automate events in their daily lives. We quantit…
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness
Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping solution to widescale societal loneliness. Behavioral research provides little insight into whether these applications are effective at alleviating loneliness. We address this question by focusing on 'AI companions': applications designed to provide consumers with synthetic interaction partners. Study 1 examin…
Computer Science (11 works) · World Wide Web (8 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · The Internet (6 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Technology Adoption and User Behaviour (4 works) · Data science (3 works) · Digital Marketing and Social Media (3 works) · Internet privacy (3 works)