To read this content please select one of the options below:

Nurturing user creative performance in social media networks: An integration of habit of use with social capital and information exchange theories

Ya-Ling Wu (Department of Information Management, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan)
Eldon Y. Li (Department of Management Information Systems, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan)
Wei-Lun Chang (Department of Business Administration, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan)

Internet Research

ISSN: 1066-2243

Article publication date: 1 August 2016

2240

Abstract

Purpose

Creative performance relies on the capability of developing and presenting an original concept or idea, and the collaborative production of creative content which enhances feeling of connection with others and formation of strong community. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of work performance containing four dimensions (capacity, opportunities, willingness, and performance) to investigate how the capabilities of social network sites enhance user creative performance through collective social capital and information capital (opportunities) for and individual habit of use (willingness) of the user to engage in social learning process.

Design/methodology/approach

Many measurement items are adapted from the literature, except those measuring the constructs of social media capabilities (i.e. transmission velocity (TV), parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reprocessability) and user creative performance. The study uses survey method to collect data from social media network (SMN) users in Taiwan. Facebook is chosen as the source because it is the most prevalent and sophisticated social media platform that provides a home for users to interact and communicate. Structural equation modeling with partial least square is used to analyze the usable data collected from 533 Facebook users.

Findings

The results show that the constructs are significantly and positively correlated, meaning that social media capabilities enable social capital, information capital, and habit of use to improve user creative performance in SMNs. Three out of five social media capabilities (i.e. TV, parallelism, and rehearsability) are identified as the key enablers.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the sampled surveyed subjects and the single research method, there are some limitations in this study. The research results may lack generalizability that should be taken into account when they are interpreted. The authors encourage researchers to test the proposed theoretical model further with additional subjects, variables, and linkages.

Practical implications

The findings of this research shed light for managers of SMN platforms on how to manage the platforms more effectively. A healthy SMN platform must implement at least these three media capabilities: the functions of news feed (i.e. TV), chat (i.e. parallelism), edit (i.e. rehearsability), in order to sustain its service.

Social implications

This study confirmed that user creative performance can be increased in various ways through social capital, information capital, and habit of use. Company management should use SMNs (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) to enable employees to interact and exchange ideas and promote “coopetition” among employees across the company. If the organizational culture supports free expression of ideas and sharing of opinions, the development and robustness of group creativity can be enhanced, leading to higher competitive advantage for a company against its competitors.

Originality/value

Past studies related to individual creativity have mostly discussed it as a personality trait or talent; yet, personality trait or talent is implicit until it is shown by one’s behavior. Thus, for the collective performance of user creativity on SMNs, the authors elicit individual creativity through the creative performance manifested by user behavior. Furthermore, the authors confirm that social capital, information capital, and habit of use are the critical antecedents of user creative performance, and that the five social media capabilities are the enablers of social capital, information capital, and habit of use on SMNs.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (ROC) under research grants MOST-102-2410-H-004-197-MY3 and MOST-101-2420-H-004-008-MY3, and by the Center for Service Innovation at National Chengchi University.

Citation

Wu, Y.-L., Li, E.Y. and Chang, W.-L. (2016), "Nurturing user creative performance in social media networks: An integration of habit of use with social capital and information exchange theories", Internet Research, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 869-900. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-10-2014-0239

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles