IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tbitxx/v36y2017i3p223-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring sustained participation in firm-hosted communities in China: the effects of social capital and active degree

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Guo
  • Ruo-Yu Liang
  • Lei Wang
  • Wei Peng

Abstract

Firm-hosted online communities are user-centred, and their efficacy depends on the users’ sustained participation. This study investigated the impact of social capital on users’ continued usage intention. Specifically, since very little work has been done to explore the antecedents of social capital, we tested the role of operator-related and individual-related factors in cultivating social capital by proposing an integrated research model to fill this gap. Furthermore, to gain deeper insights into continuance intention, we postulate that active degree moderates the relationship between social capital and users’ continued usage intention. Our model is empirically examined using survey data collected from 373 members of a well-known firm-hosted online community in China. The results reveal that the firm’s reaction, offline activities, interaction support, seeking reputation and perceived enjoyment are the significant antecedents of social capital. Additionally, social tie and shared vision exert a stronger effect on continued usage intention for active users, whereas identification has a higher influence on continued usage intention for inactive users. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and provides possible directions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Guo & Ruo-Yu Liang & Lei Wang & Wei Peng, 2017. "Exploring sustained participation in firm-hosted communities in China: the effects of social capital and active degree," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 223-242, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:36:y:2017:i:3:p:223-242
    DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1212402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2016.1212402
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0144929X.2016.1212402?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiali Chen & Yiying Li & Mengzhen Feng & Xinru Zhang, 2023. "User Interaction Within Online Innovation Communities: A Social Network Analysis," International Journal of Web Services Research (IJWSR), IGI Global, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:36:y:2017:i:3:p:223-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tbit .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.