Coping with Envy on Professional Social Networking Sites

Authors

Michal Chmielinski, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityFollow
Christy M.K Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityFollow
Helena Wenninger, Lancaster UniversityFollow

Abstract

With the growing popularity of professional social networking sites (PSNS), many users rely on PSNS, such as LinkedIn, to develop and maintain professional relationships with other individuals and companies. Most users create dedicated personal profiles and share their achievements and professional experiences on PSNS. With the frequent exposure to social information on PSNS, we expect that users who use LinkedIn may experience envy. Surprisingly, there is very little understanding of how PSNS use induces the feeling of envy and how users cope with it. Building on prior envy literature, we propose a research model to explain this phenomenon. We will test our model with data from 500 LinkedIn users. We expect that the findings of this study will contribute to our theoretical understanding of PSNS envy coping mechanisms and offer users some guidance to deal with PSNS envy.

Recommended Citation

Chmielinski, Michal; Cheung, Christy M.K; and Wenninger, Helena, "Coping with Envy on Professional Social Networking Sites" (2020). PACIS 2020 Proceedings. 85.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/85