A Meta-Analysis of Social Networking Online and Social Capital

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Liu ◽  
Sarah E. Ainsworth ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister

Social networking sites offer new avenues for interpersonal communication that may enable people to build social capital. The meta-analyses reported in this paper evaluated the relationship between social network site (SNS) use and 2 types of social capital: bridging social capital and bonding social capital. The meta-analyses included data from 58 articles gathered through scholarly databases and a hand search of the early publications of relevant journals. Using a random effects model, the overall effect size of the relationship between SNS use and bridging social capital based on k = 50 studies and N = 22,290 participants was r = .32 (95% CI [.27, .37]), and the overall effect size between SNS use and bonding social capital based on k = 43 studies and N = 19,439 participants was r = .26 (95% CI [.22, .31]). The relationships between SNS use and both types of social capital were stronger in men than in women, and the relationship between SNS use and bridging capital was stronger in Western, individualistic countries than Eastern, collectivistic countries. Additional analyses of specific SNS activities indicated that SNS use promotes social capital by facilitating contact and interaction among people who already know each other offline rather than contact with people who were met online. The implication is that SNSs offer a platform to strengthen existing relationships.


Author(s):  
Azza Abdel-Azim Mohamed Ahmed

This research aimed to explore types of online social capital (bridging and bonding) that the Emiratis perceive in the context of social networking site (SNS) usage. A sample of 230 Emiratis from two Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was used to investigate the hypothesis. The results showed that WhatsApp was the most frequent SNS used by the respondents. Also, a significant correlation of the intensity of social networking usage and bridging social capital was found, while there was no significant association between SNS usage and bonding social capital. The factors determined the SNSs usage motivations among the respondents were exchange of information, sociability, accessibility, and connections with overseas friends and families. Males were more likely than females to connect with Arab (non-Emiratis) and online bonding social capital. Both genders were the same in their SNSs motivations and online bridging social capital.



Author(s):  
Azza Abdel-Azim Mohamed Ahmed

This research aimed to explore types of online social capital (bridging and bonding) that the Emiratis perceive in the context of social networking site (SNS) usage. A snow-ball sample of 230 Emiratis from two Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai was used. The results showed that WhatsApp was the most frequent SNS used by the respondents. Also, a significant correlation of the intensity of social networking usage and bridging social capital was found, while there was no significant association between SNS usage and bonding social capital. The factors determined the SNSs usage motivations among the respondents were: Exchange of information, Sociability, Accessibility, and Connections with overseas friends and families. Males were more likely than females to connect with Arab (non-Emiratis) and online bonding social capital. Both genders were the same in their SNSs motivations and online bridging social capital.



First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Ann Hwang ◽  
Jason Wei Jian Ng ◽  
Santha Vaithilingam

Many studies have examined the separate impacts of social capital (bonding and bridging) and the use of social networking sites (SNSs) on subjective well-being (SWB). However, few studies address the mediating role that SNS use has on the relationship between social capital and SWB. The current study addresses this research gap, examining the extent to which SNS use mediates the relationship between social capital and SWB. Moreover, this study theorizes SNS use to be a behavioural outcome of social capital, as opposed to the widespread view that SNSs are a tool to generate social capital. Using primary data from a sample of 307 undergraduate students, the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was used to analyze the data via a sequential mediating mechanism. The findings highlight the importance of the utilitarian use of SNS in mediating the relationship between bridging social capital and SWB. On the other hand, the direct effect of bonding social capital on SWB was found to be stronger than the indirect effects, indicating that SNS use is not crucial in mediating this particular relationship. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are subsequently discussed.



2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfitra Azliyanti

This research aims to investigate the intention to respond issues of ‘megathrust’ in West Sumatera, through social networking sites. An empirical study conducted to analyse the linkage of social capital, homophily, and e-wom behaviour towards attitude and intention to response. Social capital comprises two factors, bonding social capital and bridging social capital. Quantitative technique analysis was utilized to examine five hypotheses through a survey designed on the Likert five point scale. The sampling technique of this research is purposive sampling. Data was obtained from 157 respondents who were directly having read the news about the earthquake disaster issues of ‘Megathrust’ in West Sumatera through social networking sites. Questionnaire online via link of my3q was used to collect data. The influence among determinant factors were analysed at the level of second-order constructs using SmartPLS 2.0 M3 software. The results showed that homophily not been a concern to determine the intentions of individual response, but more influenced by other antecedents, namely social capital, e-wom and attitude toward issues.  



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8489
Author(s):  
Hua Pang ◽  
Jingying Wang ◽  
Xiang Hu

As the most prevalent social media platform in mainland China, WeChat enables interpersonal communication among users and serves as an innovative marketing platform for enterprises to interact with consumers. Although numerous studies have investigated the antecedents of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), WeChat users’ specific behaviors still receive limited academic attention. Drawing from social capital theory and social exchange theory, this article develops a model to systematically explore three differentiated types of WeChat behaviors and their association with users’ social capital and e-WOM intention. The conceptual model is explicitly evaluated by utilizing web-based data gathered from 271 young people. Obtained results demonstrate the path effects indicating that: (1) WeChat use behaviors such as seeking, sharing, and liking can positively influence bonding social capital, while only the impacts of sharing and liking on bridging social capital are significant; (2) bonding and bridging social capital are both significant predictors of e-WOM intention, and bonding social capital is the more influential of the two; (3) bonding social capital partially mediates the effect of seeking on e-WOM intention. These findings are eloquent for researchers and operators to further grasp the increasing importance of WeChat adoption and social capital on young generations’ e-WOM intention in the evolving digital age.



2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien Wen Yuan ◽  
Yu-Hao Lee

PurposeSocial networking sites (SNSs) offer people the possibility of maintaining larger networks of social ties, which also entails more complex relationship maintenance across multiple platforms. Whom to “friend” and via which platform can involve complex deliberations. This study investigates the relationships between users' perceived friending affordances of five popular SNSs (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn) and their friending behaviors concerning strong ties, weak ties (existing and latent ties) and parasocial ties.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey using Qualtrics was provided to participants (N = 626) through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The survey asked their SNS use and their friending behaviors with different ties on each of the sites.FindingsUsers' friending decisions are dependent on an interplay of socio-technical affordances of each SNS and specific needs for the ties. The authors found that the affordances of bridging social capital and enjoyment are aligned with friending weak and parasocial ties, respectively. The affordances of bonding social capital were not valued to friend strong ties.Originality/valueThe study extends the affordance and social capital literature by assessing users' perceived, contextualized SNS affordances in relation to actual communication behaviors in friending different social ties. This approach provides contextualized insights to friending decisions and practices on SNSs.



2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-46
Author(s):  
Taane La Ola ◽  
Nur Isiyana Wianti ◽  
Muslim Tadjuddah

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the differences in the strength of social capital that is bonding and bridging two community groups, namely land-dwellers and Sama Bajo boat-dwellers in three islands in Wakatobi Marine National Park. This study used a post-positivistic research paradigm, and the primary data were collected by using a questionnaire to 240 respondents who represented the group of land-dwellers and Sama Bajo boat-dwellers on the islands of Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, and Tomia. This research was also supported by qualitative data through in-depth interviews from several informants and desk studies. The results showed that bridging social capital relations tend to be weak in the two forms of interactions between the Sama Bajo and the land-dwellers on Wangi-wangi Island and Kaledupa Island, while bridging social capital tend to be secured in Tomia Island. We found that the social context through the historical links in the past and identity played a role in the relationship of bridging social capital and bonding social capital in the three communities as an analytical unit of this research.  



2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meera Hirani ◽  
Abha Singh

Social networking has become a major mode of communication over the past decade. Professional networks such as Linkedin, Ecademy, Cofoundr have gained popularity among business and entrepreneurs while for personal use Facebook, Whatsapp and MySpace have achieved worldwide acceptability. Families, friends and significant others are using Hike, Instagram, Twitter, Messenger and other applications for regular interaction, providing social support, incite feelings of patriotism, collective identity and social interest. Studies on negative impacts of Social Networking Sites have outnumbered and overshadowed the researches that focus on its positive outcome. It is imperative to study, explore and find novel ways to use SNS for society’s benefit. India is undergoing radical changes and the young adults and adolescents are building new ways of bridging and bonding social capital. The present paper presents a theoretical model that explains the causal relation of use of Social Networking Sites with social capital and psychological wellbeing in purview and highlights the positive outcomes of use Social Networking Sites (from here on SNS) among youth and its utility in maintaining family values and relations in this fast paced environment with Indian population in perspective. Need for empirical research on the positive outcome of SNS in Indian population has been emphasized along with recommendations for development of close bonds with family and caution of use of SNS among adolescents and young adults has been given.



2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Sias ◽  
Kaylin L. Duncan

This study examined links between employee interaction with their organization’s official Facebook page, social capital, and employee identification with the organization. Results indicate employee interaction with their company’s Facebook page was positively related to organizational identification and bridging and bonding social capital. Moreover, the relationship between interaction with the company Facebook page and identification was partially mediated by bridging social capital outcomes. Overall, results suggest the company Facebook page is an important communicative bridge between the employee and the larger organization, enhancing the employee-organization relationship. Results contribute to our understanding of social media and organizational identification, as well as our understanding of social capital associated with social media use in organizational settings.



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