TY - GEN
T1 - Investigating the reciprocal relationships within health virtual communities
AU - Kordzadeh, Nima
AU - Au, Yoris A.
AU - Liu, Charles Zhechao
AU - Clark, Jan
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Health virtual communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. Because of the collaborative nature of health virtual communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine the impact of reciprocity on user participation within health virtual communities. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation. To do so, we analyzed 1947 messages exchanged between 130 users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age homophily and tenure homophily.
AB - Health virtual communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. Because of the collaborative nature of health virtual communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine the impact of reciprocity on user participation within health virtual communities. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation. To do so, we analyzed 1947 messages exchanged between 130 users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age homophily and tenure homophily.
KW - Health virtual communities
KW - Homophily
KW - Online social networks
KW - Reciprocity
KW - User participation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877895612&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:84877895612
SN - 9781622768271
T3 - 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems 2012, AMCIS 2012
SP - 1073
EP - 1081
BT - 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems 2012, AMCIS 2012
T2 - 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems 2012, AMCIS 2012
Y2 - 9 August 2012 through 12 August 2012
ER -