Location
260-092, Owen G. Glenn Building
Start Date
12-15-2014
Description
The phenomenon of online social support has been studied for years. However, little is known about the factors that drive individual online helping behavior. While the Information systems literature provides rich insights into the determinants of online social support, the emphasis has been exclusively on the provision of informational help. By contending the need to expand our investigation to different types of support, this paper studies individual provisions of both informational and emotional social support in healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs). Drawing on social capital theory, the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital are conceptualized as the social support determinants. The results show that the social capital dimensions can be both facilitators and inhibitors of the two types of social support. This study can contribute not only to the literature on HVSCs, but also to studies of other types of virtual communities such as electronic networks of practice.
Recommended Citation
Huang, Kuang-Yuan; Chengalur-Smith, Shobha; and Pinsonneault, Alain, "Why Should I Provide Social Support? A Social Capital Perspective of Individual Helping Behavior in Healthcare Virtual Support Communities" (2014). ICIS 2014 Proceedings. 60.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2014/proceedings/HumanBehavior/60
Why Should I Provide Social Support? A Social Capital Perspective of Individual Helping Behavior in Healthcare Virtual Support Communities
260-092, Owen G. Glenn Building
The phenomenon of online social support has been studied for years. However, little is known about the factors that drive individual online helping behavior. While the Information systems literature provides rich insights into the determinants of online social support, the emphasis has been exclusively on the provision of informational help. By contending the need to expand our investigation to different types of support, this paper studies individual provisions of both informational and emotional social support in healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs). Drawing on social capital theory, the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital are conceptualized as the social support determinants. The results show that the social capital dimensions can be both facilitators and inhibitors of the two types of social support. This study can contribute not only to the literature on HVSCs, but also to studies of other types of virtual communities such as electronic networks of practice.