Effects of Professional Virtual Community Attributes and Flow Experience on Information Sharing Among Chinese Young Netizens: A Fuzzy-Set QCA

Figures & data

Figure 1 Research model.

Table 1 Sample Characteristics (the Number of Subjects = 407)

Demographic Characteristics		Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Male	205	50.4%
	Female	202	49.6%
Age	14–20	59	14.5%
	21–25	178	43.7%
	26–30	144	35.4%
	31–35	26	6.4%
Education	Primary school or below	16	4%
	High school	51	12.5%
	College (3 years)	100	24.6%
	University	202	49.6%
	Graduate school	31	7.6%
	PhD	7	1.7%
Average time of internet use (per day)	<1	17	4.2%
	1–3	122	30%
	3–5	141	34.6%
	>5	127	31.2%
Prefer online or offline communication	Online	162	39.8%
	Offline	42	10.3%
	Both	203	49.9%

Table 2 The Cases Used in Study

Case	Respondents	Case	Respondents	Case	Respondents
Mother and Baby	17	Popular Science	28	Comics and animation	30
Business	22	Competitive sports	29	Electronic Sports	28
Literature and Art	24	Entertainment	31	Photography	18
Video clip	37	Automotive Technology	28	Fashion and shopping	21
Sports and Fitness	38	Food and cooking	32	Film and Music	24

Table 3 Analysis of Necessary Conditions

	High Effectiveness		Non-High Effectiveness
	Consistency	Coverage	Consistency	Coverage
Exclusivity	0.864233	0.805442	0.430675	0.477551
~ Exclusivity	0.439416	0.393464	0.824540	0.878431
Expertise	0.891971	0.806069	0.402454	0.432718
~ Expertise	0.372263	0.343666	0.819632	0.900269
Virtuality	0.878832	0.767857	0.409816	0.426020
~ Virtuality	0.343066	0.328212	0.776687	0.884078
Clear goals	0.716788	0.717836	0.462577	0.551170
~ Clear goals	0.551825	0.463235	0.763190	0.762255
Challenge-skill balance	0.890511	0.801577	0.422086	0.452037
~ Challenge-skill balance	0.391241	0.362652	0.814724	0.898512
Positive experience	0.890511	0.839065	0.407362	0.456671
~ Positive experience	0.423358	0.375162	0.856442	0.902975

Table 4 Configurations for Achieving High Effectiveness of Information Sharing (fsQCA)

	Configurations (High Effectiveness)
	1	2	3
Exclusivity		●	○
Expertise	●	●	●
Virtuality	○	○	○
Clear goals	○		●
Challenge-skill Balance	●	●	●
Positive experience	●	●	○
Consistency	1	0.933071	1
Raw Coverage	0.39562	0.691971	0.214599
Unique Coverage	0.0204379	0.315329	0.0642337
Overall Solution Consistency	0.940141
Overall Solution Coverage	0.779562

Note: ●= core causal condition present; ○= core causal condition absent; ●= peripheral condition present; ○= peripheral condition absent.

Table 5 Configurations for Achieving Non-High Effectiveness of Information Sharing (fsQCA)

	Configurations (Non-High Effectiveness)
	4	5	6	7
Exclusivity		○	○	●
Expertise	○	●	○	○
Virtuality	●	○	●	○
Clear goals	○	○	●	●
Challenge-skill Balance	○	○	●	○
Positive experience	○	○	○	○
Consistency	0.95992	1	1	1
Raw Coverage	0.58773	0.164417	0.171779	0.176687
Unique Coverage	0.41227	0.0245398	0.0650307	0.0466258
Overall Solution Consistency	0.967532
Overall Solution Coverage	0.731288

Note: ●= core causal condition present; ○= core causal condition absent; ●= peripheral condition present; ○= peripheral condition absent.