TY - JOUR
T1 - Working with tweets vs. working with chats: An experiment on collaborative problem solving
AU - Isari, Daniela Caterina
AU - Pontiggia, Andrea
AU - Virili, Francesco
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This papers aims to explore how “working with tweets” differs from “working with chats”. With eight
experimental sessions involving 120 Italian students, we investigate how the well known 140-characters
limit and other subtle differences between Twitter and a typical instant messenger affect group problem
solving performances. In our laboratory experiment, teams of the same size carry out a problem solving
task communicating via Twitter or Skype instant messaging. Comparative group performance is
measured in terms of successful task completion time. Our results show that the lower number and
volume of text messages exchanged via Twitter does not negatively affect group performance: Twitter
teams are just as effective as Skype instant messaging teams. These results can be interpreted in
accordance with the latest developments in multiple media choice and virtual team effectiveness theories,
disclosing interesting windows of opportunities for “working with tweets” in the forthcoming
organizational settings.
AB - This papers aims to explore how “working with tweets” differs from “working with chats”. With eight
experimental sessions involving 120 Italian students, we investigate how the well known 140-characters
limit and other subtle differences between Twitter and a typical instant messenger affect group problem
solving performances. In our laboratory experiment, teams of the same size carry out a problem solving
task communicating via Twitter or Skype instant messaging. Comparative group performance is
measured in terms of successful task completion time. Our results show that the lower number and
volume of text messages exchanged via Twitter does not negatively affect group performance: Twitter
teams are just as effective as Skype instant messaging teams. These results can be interpreted in
accordance with the latest developments in multiple media choice and virtual team effectiveness theories,
disclosing interesting windows of opportunities for “working with tweets” in the forthcoming
organizational settings.
KW - collaborative problem solving
KW - laboratory experiment
KW - twitter, skype
KW - collaborative problem solving
KW - laboratory experiment
KW - twitter, skype
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/77974
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2015.12.052
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2015.12.052
M3 - Article
SN - 0747-5632
SP - 130
EP - 140
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
ER -