Conservation of resources theory perspective of social media ostracism influence on lurking intentions

ABSTRACT

This study develops and tests a model based on the conservation of resources theory and presents an underlying mechanism linking social media ostracism with the lurking intentions of social media users. The proposed model suggests that emotional exhaustion is a mediating mechanism linking social media ostracism to lurking intentions. In addition, we examine whether or not the psychological resilience of social media users serves as a boundary condition that weakens the effects of social media ostracism on emotional exhaustion. Results of a moderated mediation analysis based on a sample of 363 employees in China support the conceptual model. Empirical findings likewise reveal that social media ostracism positively predicts emotional exhaustion among social media users. In addition, results indicate that emotional exhaustion is a mediating mechanism that links social media ostracism with lurking intentions. Furthermore, we find that psychological resilience plays a moderating role and weakens the positive effect of social media ostracism on emotional exhaustion. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study are also presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media ostracism
• emotional exhaustion
• psychological resilience
• lurking intentions
• conservation of resources theory

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Discipline Construction Fund of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (11212231282202-01 and 11212331282201-01). This paper was presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2021.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 At the end of the survey, we conducted a non-response bias test following the recommendations of Armstrong and Overton (1977). We compared the chi-square difference between the first 25% and final 25% of the demographic variables of the study. The results did not reveal any significant difference, suggesting that non-response bias does not significantly affect the results of this study.