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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Firm-hosted online community
• continued usage intention
• social capital
• active degree

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ruo-Yu Liang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4901-090X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71171145], the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 program) [grant number 2013AA040605], and the Key Technologies R&D Program of Tianjin, China [grant number 13ZCZDGX01108].