Effects of social capital on online knowledge sharing: positive and negative perspectives

Effects of social capital of social networking site on social identity and continuous participant behavior

Purpose

The paper focuses on social capital as the characteristic of social groups that promote coordination; moreover, social identity plays a key role in the construction of group relationships. However, few research studies have looked at how the social capital of social networking sites (SNSs) is related to the social identity of its members. Drawing on social capital and social identity theory, this study investigated the effects of SNS social capital (shared language, social trust and network density) on social identity and continuous participation. The mediating role of social identity was also investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 444 SNS members volunteered to participate in this study. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze a conceptual model.

Findings

The results revealed that SNS social trust and network density directly and significantly affected the social identity and continuous participation behavior of members. SNSs using a shared language positively affected social identity, but this was not directly associated with continuous participation behavior.

Originality/value

Because the network externalities of SNSs exert critical effects on user benefits, attracting continuous user participation remains one of the critical challenges for SNS administrators. Both the theoretical and practical implications of this study can aid SNS administrators in developing effective continuous participation strategies.

Peer review

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2021-0369

The relationship between social interactions, trust, business network, external knowledge access and performance: a study of SMEs in Ghana

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social interaction ties, trust and business networks in the acquisition of foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge. It also assesses the effect of these types of knowledge on small and medium enterprises’ (SME) export performance. Furthermore, this study determines the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign business knowledge, foreign institutional knowledge and export performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a survey research design using data from nontraditional SME exporters in Ghana. There were 257 respondents who were employees (managers/owners) of SMEs in Ghana. The model was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

Social interaction ties, trust and business networks have a significant effect on the acquisition of foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge. Furthermore, foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge have a significant positive effect on export performance. The path between foreign business knowledge and export performance is also moderated by absorptive capacity. However, the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign institutional knowledge and export performance is not significant.

Originality

This study uses social capital to explain how SMEs acquire foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge, and how both affect SMEs’ export performance. Furthermore, it tests the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign business knowledge, foreign institutional knowledge and export performance.

Understanding why people share in the sharing economy

Purpose

The sharing economy is an emerging trend that takes advantage of underused assets and generates enormous amount of economic value. However, little research has been done to understand the factors that drive people to share assets.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops two models, one based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and another based on social capital theory (SCT), to explain why individuals want to share their assets with others. An Internet survey is conducted to collect data and test the proposed models. Most of respondents were members of Airbnb or Uber – accommodation sharing and taxi services.

Findings

The results show that the TPB model has greater explanatory power than the SCT model. The individual's motivations, attitude, perceived behavioral control, facilitating technological conditions and identification with the community increase their intention to share assets.

Originality/value

This study distinguishes asset suppliers from consumers to clearly understand the factors that influence the intention to provide underused assets. The research findings can help companies participating in the sharing economy to induce people to share.

Consumer acceptance of social recommender systems in India

Purpose

Collaborative filtering based recommender systems (CF–RS) are widely used to recommend products based on consumers' preference similarity. Recommendations by CF–RS merely provide suggestions as “people who bought this also bought this” while, consumers are unaware about the source of these recommendations. By amalgamating CF–RS with consumers' social network information, e-commerce sites can offer recommendation from social networks of consumers. These social network embedded systems are known as social recommender systems (SRS). The extant literature has researched on the algorithms and implementation of these systems; however, SRS have not been understood from consumers' psychological perspective. This study aims to qualitatively explore consumers' motives to accept SRS in e-commerce websites.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews of frequent online shoppers. SRS are currently not very widespread in the Indian e-commerce space; hence, a vignette was shown to respondents before they responded to the questions. Inductive qualitative content analysis method was used to analyse these interviews.

Findings

Three main themes (social-gratification, self-gratification and information-gratification) emerged from the analysis. Out of these, social-gratification acts as an enabler, while self-gratification along with some elements of information-gratification act as inhibitors towards acceptance of social recommendations. Based on these gratifications, we present a conceptual model on consumer's acceptance of social recommendations.

Originality/value

This study is an initial attempt to qualitatively understand consumers' attitudes and acceptance of social recommendations on e-commerce websites, which in itself is a fairly new phenomenon.

Understanding social media users’ unfollow intentions: take WeChat subscriptions as an example

Purpose

An increasing number of users join and become immersed in WeChat official accounts, but many users quit using these services as well. Nevertheless, most of the previous studies mainly focussed on the usage behavior. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by examining factors affecting users’ unfollow intentions for WeChat subscriptions in a Chinese context.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modeling is used in our study. A field survey with 260 WeChat users is conducted to test the research model and hypotheses.

Findings

The results show the following interesting key findings: first, the effect of actual cost on users’ unfollow intentions is larger than the effect of opportunity cost; second, users’ unfollow intentions will decrease with the increase of users’ perceptions of information usefulness; third, the results of the control variables showed that only landing frequency has a negative effect on users’ unfollow intentions; and fourth, users’ demographic differences are also examined in regard to how they may affect users’ unfollow intentions.

Originality/value

First, this paper studies factors influencing users’ unfollow intentions for WeChat subscriptions from a social exchange theory perspective; the authors considered both extraneous factors and users’ internal perception factors potentially affecting users’ unfollow intentions, which has rarely been researched. Furthermore, the authors examined significant differences among users’ demographic characteristics in affecting users’ unfollow intentions. The results of the study provide a more comprehensive understanding of the influencing factors of users’ unfollow intentions.

The impacts of knowledge sharing-based value co-creation on user continuance in online communities

Purpose

Though online communities offer unprecedented opportunities to involve people in knowledge sharing, the reasons why users would like to participate in those activities in online communities have still been under-explored. In this research, the authors aim to use the value co-creation theory to build and test a continuance usage model, which focuses more on experiential values resulted from the knowledge sharing behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

An integrative research model is built to investigate how knowledge sharing behavior affects users’ co-creation value and then drives their continuance usage in online communities. Online survey data collected from 239 Sina Microblog users in China are utilized to validate the proposed model and hypotheses.

Findings

Empirical results indicate that the knowledge sharing behavior helps improve users’ co-creation value, including customer learning value, social integrative value and hedonic value. This co-creation value can subsequently affect users’ future participation intention in online communities.

Originality/value

This paper seeks to fill the research gap by examining customers’ motivations or perceptions underlying their knowledge sharing behavior at the usage-stage, instead of the pre-usage stage mainly concentrated on by previous studies. The managerial implications can be utilized for policy making to encourage customers’ participation and operate a better online community.

Sharing co-creation experiences contributes to consumer satisfaction

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of sharing co-creation experiences on consumers’ behavioral intentions. Increasingly often, companies interact with consumers and involve them in value co-creation, especially in the virtual environment, while more and more consumers tend to share their experiences and their related emotions socially. However, no research has addressed how the interplay of these two variables influences consumer behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a preliminary study and a 2×2 between-subjects experiment where co-creation and sharing of emotions were orthogonally manipulated. A total of 120 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four scenarios.

Findings

The results show that not only do individuals participate in co-creation activities, but they also tend to share such experiences socially. But more important from a literature contribution perspective, the results confirm a joint effect of co-creation and sharing on satisfaction and repurchase intention. Thus, the effect of co-creation can be bolstered by encouraging participants to share the experience with other people.

Originality/value

While we can better understand the effects of co-creation in particular contexts effects such as that of sharing, the findings also contribute to the theoretical literature on social sharing of emotions as it has not been related to co-creation activities before. The results are of special relevance for those companies implementing co-creation activities, as they provide clues to increase the outcome of such initiatives in terms of consumers’ responses toward the firm.

Knowledge sharing among innovative customers in a virtual innovation community

Purpose

Based upon social cognition and social exchange theories, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model, suggesting that customer psychological capitals (CPCs) affect their knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) within a virtual innovation community (VIC) under the influence of material reward (MR) and reciprocal relationship (RR).

Design/methodology/approach

The sample comprises of valid responses collected from 516 customers in five virtual innovation communities via an online survey. The authors adopted the hierarchical regression method to mitigate any concerns relating to endogeneity within the models, and also to test the relationships among the variables.

Findings

CPC, MR and RR are found to have a profound impact on their enthusiasm to share knowledge. Environmental factors play an important role in shaping the effects of CPC on KSB. MR tends to weaken the positive effect of CPC on KSB, whilst RR tends to strengthen the positive effect.

Practical implications

To effectively manage a VIC, firms should make full use of the positive impact of CPC on KSB, set up appropriate incentive mechanisms and create a virtuous community atmosphere to encourage knowledge sharing.

Originality/value

This study integrates two theoretical perspectives to examine which types of psychological and environmental factors, and which combinations of these factors, affect innovative customers to share knowledge. It offers useful guidelines for firms to engage in effective customer-driven products, services and/or processes innovation.

Influence of knowledge transfer on SNS community cohesiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether social networking site (SNS) communities benefit from collective knowledge and collaboration, which represent a portfolio of knowledge transfer on SNSs.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted on a large scale through an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data collected from 674 experienced SNS users.

Findings

The results indicate that all three exogenous variables, presented as user characteristics and integrated into SNS user characteristics, were positively related to the knowledge transfer portfolio, namely, to collective knowledge and collaboration, and these variables had significant moderating effects on SNS users’ community cohesiveness. Early SNS adoption was more likely than late SNS adoption to moderate the relationship between collective knowledge and community cohesiveness and that between collective collaboration and community cohesiveness.

Practical implications

The findings provide useful insights for SNS operators to enhance the process of collaborative knowledge transfer. They may also be used to obtain better insights into important factors that require closer attention during SNS use.

Originality/value

The present study provides a systematic analysis of SNS use by considering a new research model and investigating the effects of SNS-based knowledge transfer on user outcomes based on three major characteristics of SNS users. The results are expected to provide a major foundation for further SNS research and a better understanding of the relationships between SNS user characteristics, knowledge transfer, and community cohesiveness.

Sense of belonging based on novel posting

Purpose

– Although novel posting is a universal phenomenon in virtual communities (VCs), few studies have addressed the benefits of novel posting for group members. The purpose of this paper is to identify the social and psychological outcomes of novel posting, particularly whether and how sense of belonging can be produced by it. Sense of belonging implies an individual’s integration or assimilation into virtual groups.

Design/methodology/approach

– To assess the theoretical model, a survey was administered in an internet discussion community (Baidu Post Bar in China), and structural equation modeling was then used to test the model.

Findings

– Novel posting can produce social and psychological outcomes, such as social interaction ties, group-based self-esteem and sense of belonging. Novel posting is an individualized behavior, which some studies consider to conflict with sense of belonging; however, via the mediating effects of social interaction ties and group-based self-esteem, sense of belonging can also arise based on novel posting.

Practical implications

– VC operators should focus on differentiating between irrational posts and novel posts and encourage the latter. Additionally, to satisfy members’ needs, VC operators should strengthen the degree of social interaction ties and members’ self-esteem by providing attractive topics and virtual rankings.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the social and psychological outcomes of novel posting and, more importantly, whether and how sense of belonging arises on the basis of individualized behavior.