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In this study, we drew on the theories of social exchange and social learning and hypothesized that the online social capital (SC) and offline SC of social networking affect the online self-disclosure (OSD) of individuals through social self-efficacy (SSE).

After retrieving 514 valid questionnaires, we used structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

The results indicated that the users’ SSE affected their OSD, and that both online and offline bridging and bonding SC increased their SSE. However, online bonding SC directly affected their OSD, whereas online bridging SC did not considerably affect their OSD. Given these findings, we presented both theoretical and practical implications to elucidate SSE and OSD behavior from the perspective of online and offline bridging and bonding SC.

In this study, we drew on theories of social exchange and social learning to examine the effects of online and offline bridging and bonding SC on users’ SSE and OSD on SNSs. Given the importance of SC and SSE in social relationships and the effects of OSD on SNSs, our goal was to provide SNS marketers with a thorough understanding of how to facilitate SSE and OSD from the perspective of online and offline bridging and bonding SC.

Motivating users to self-disclose online is significant to the long-term development of social media. Therefore, research on emotional disclosure, a significant form of self-disclosure, is required. By developing a stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms by which the social media environment affects users' online emotional disclosure.

This paper proposes two dimensions of social media environments, the online interpersonal environment (tie strength and network size) and the online information environment (self-reference). They are hypothesized to stimulate users' internal psychological needs (image management and emotional expression) which in turn will influence their emotional disclosure intentions. Using data from 489 users of WeChat Moments, the authors conduct partial least squares analysis to validate the research model.

The findings show that users' intrinsic psychological needs are stimulated by social media environments, but network size is not correlated with the need for emotional expression. The user's need for emotional expression promotes both positive and negative emotional disclosure intentions. The need for image management has a positive impact on positive emotion disclosure intentions but has a negative impact on negative emotion disclosure intentions.

This study contributes to the understanding of online emotional disclosure. It can also help social media managers create efficient plans to encourage users to create content.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0245.

Many believe that any social media harms kids because of frequent use. This study aims to examine these assumptions. It proposes and tests a model that considers two alternative pathways – one negative and one positive – through which social media affects teens’ self-reported subjective well-being.

This research used Preacher and Hayes process modeling to conduct path analysis on data collected on 585 teenagers from across the USA.

Results showed that along a negative pathway, frequent social media use leads to greater risky social media engagement that ultimately diminishes adolescent’s sense of well-being. Also, and perhaps simultaneously, frequent social media use leads to socially-connected social media use that enhances adolescent’s sense of well-being.

The research recommends ways parents, policymakers and platforms can encourage teens to use social media to connect with friends while guiding them away from pathways exposing them to risky behaviors.

Findings show more social media use is not necessarily harmful, but more of some types is bad, while more of others is good.

The unstoppable and exponential growth of social media use has given rise to concerns about the consequent effects on users. Among the major concerns are the psychological consequences, which have received considerable academic attention. The current mixed-methods research aims to examine women's social media use and its effects on their psychological well-being in a patriarchal culture, namely Pakistan.

This study employs a mixed-method research methodology. The quantitative section collected data from 240 women and used structural equation modelling to test the proposed hypotheses. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the in-depth interviews with ten women.

The integration of the findings revealed increased use of social media by women and its beneficial effects (communication and socialisation, escapism and self-presentation), though qualitative findings revealed the cultural implications and obstacles that women face (online anonymity and digital asylum). The study calls attention to women's social media usage patterns and the resulting effects on women's psychological well-being in a low-income country with a patriarchal social structure.

Most research remains limited to Western societies and young populations. The situation is somewhat different in developing economies with traditionally preserved cultures compared to Western societies. This study uniquely examines the influence of social media on psychological well-being in a developing country with a special cultural context.

There is a growing trend among online merchants to conduct help-request marketing campaigns (HMCs), which refers to a kind of marketing campaign that leverages participants' help-request to encourage the subsequent engagement of participants' online friends. The paper aims to investigate how individuals respond to online HMCs in social networking groups (SNGs). Integrating the norm activation model and regulatory focus theory, this paper examines the mediation effects of the two facets of responsibility perception, i.e. perceived causality and perceived answerability.

A field experiment was conducted by organizing a real HMC on WeChat. To manipulate request individuation, experimental confederates were engaged to serve as requesters in the HMC. The actual responses provided by the recipients (subjects) were captured via the HMC pages. The multiple-group analysis was used for data analysis.

Empirical results reveal that request individuation strengthens the effect of relationship closeness on perceived causality but reverses the effect of relationship closeness on perceived answerability from being positive to negative. Except for the negligible impact of perceived answerability on inaction, both perceived causality and perceived answerability affect recipients' reactions to HMCs as expected.

First, social media platforms should promote other-oriented prosocial values when designing features or launching campaigns. Second, the designers of HMCs should introduce a “tagging” feature in HMCs and provide additional bonuses for requesters who perform tagging. Third, HMC requesters should prudently select tagging targets when making a request.

First, this paper contributes to the literature on social media engagement by identifying responsibility as an other-oriented motivation for individuals' social media engagement. Second, this paper also extends our understanding of responsibility by dividing it into perceived causality and answerability as well as measuring them with self-developed instruments. Third, this study contributes to the research on WOM by demonstrating that individuals' response behaviors toward help-requests embedded in HMCs can take the form of proactive helping, reactive helping or inaction.

Given the limited literature on depression as a contributing factor to compulsive social media use, the present research examines the role of perceived depressive mood (PDM) in developing compulsive social media use behavior. The authors also identify and hypothesize channels such as contingent self-esteem (CSE), social interaction anxiety (SIA) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE), which may explain how PDM affects compulsive social media use.

The research model was empirically tested with a survey of 367 Chinese university students using structural equation modeling by drawing on the escape and self-presentation lenses.

The findings indicate that PDM contributes to compulsive social media use behavior both directly and indirectly through CSE. Furthermore, the impact of CSE on compulsive social media use is mediated by the FNE, whereas SIA fails to mediate this effect.

The results can advance the authors’ knowledge of the role and process by which depressive mood impacts compulsive social media use. These findings may add insights into psychological treatment and help in, for example, developing counseling programs or coping strategies for depressed people to protect them from using social media excessively.

This research identifies the pathway mechanism between PDM and compulsive use of social media. It also increases the understanding of how CSE and social interaction deficiencies contribute to compulsive social media usage (CSMU).

Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study examined the environmental stimuli driving tourists' internal, or organismic, states. In addition, the authors investigated the association of the identified organismic variables with the response variables during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the study examined how the associations between tourists' anticipation of recovery and the national government's smart governance, on one hand, and tourists' desire to travel domestically, their attitude toward domestic travel and their willingness to exhibit prosocial behaviors, on the other, further drive the satisfaction they derive from domestic travel.

The authors used an online questionnaire to collect self-report, single-wave data from individuals residing in India, an emerging market (N = 421).

The findings demonstrate (1) the association of anticipated recovery on the desire to travel and prosocial behavior; (2) the association of smart governance on attitude (although negative); (3) the association of desire, attitude and prosocial behavior on satisfaction; and (4) the lack of any moderation effect for perceived severity.

This study is the first empirical study to investigate the impact of tourists' perceptions and dispositions and the efficacy of the national government on tourists' desire to travel domestically and on their satisfaction with domestic travel. The findings can help emerging market multinationals and global brands engage better with domestic consumers in emerging markets within the context of the current pandemic. In addition, the findings can help to prepare these players to handle future disruptions caused by global health contingencies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate the impact of the adoption of such practices on the initial formation of trust toward these individuals when they are presented as new virtual work partners.

A theoretical model was developed and an experiment with 233 participants was utilized to assess the model using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that individuals can build their online reputations in public profiles of social networking sites via a series of practices of self-disclosure of information and that the adoption of these practices has significant effects on the initial formation of trust toward the profile owner in virtual work contexts. Categorization mechanisms such as stereotyping, unit grouping and reputation categorization have been found to contribute to the initial formation of trust, both from an affect and cognition-based perspectives.

Little is known about the information disclosure practices in public profiles of social networking sites that new work partners can adopt to facilitate the formation of trust between them before they start working together. This study has contributed to the existing body of literature by clarifying these practices and the relative importance of online reputation to the initial formation of trust during the outset of a new virtual work relationship.

This study was conducted to achieve the following objectives: (1) determine the differences and reasons for using outgroup OSNs by gender, age and student groups (Mainland and Hong Kong [HK] students); (2) uncover the impact of online social networks (OSNs) on the development of Mainland–HK friendships and (3) determine the roles of different OSNs (social networking sites [SNSs] and instant messaging platforms [IMPs]) in the development of intercultural friendships in the real world.

To explore how OSNs facilitate (or inhibit) intercultural interactions, 198 students completed a questionnaire and 24 students participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews examining the role of OSNs in intercultural friendship development.

Results revealed that demographic and motivational preferences for using outgroup-OSNs differed among students. Both IMPs and SNSs helped students maintain friendships using little effort, whereas it tended to strengthen their existing social networks, rather than helping to start new friendships. IMPs helped develop a sense of “presence awareness”, strengthening pre-existing friendships and solidifying offline connections. SNSs also assisted students in exploring their shared interests while revealing their values and cultural differences.

The authors’ findings offered empirical evidence on social exchange theory and anxiety-uncertainty management theory regarding the perceived benefit of OSNs on students' friendship development.

The study sheds light on the differences between Mainland Chinese and HK students, including participants' perceptions of different friendship stages.

This study is interested in the roles of different SNSs and IMPs in intercultural friendship development, especially their strengths and weaknesses as perceived by students. Also, the authors are curious about how students select and use IMPs and SNSs differently according to their individual preferences and needs. To the authors’ knowledge, the dynamic link between online communication and intercultural friendship development has not been thoroughly examined in the field of intercultural communication.

This research aims to explore generation (Gen) Z's personal branding on social media when job seeking.

Gen Z students, in their final year of university, were interviewed about personal branding, as well as recruiters and career advisors to gain insights into the recruitment process and expectations of online personal brands. Before interviewing, Gen Z students' LinkedIn profiles were examined, and then fed into the interview process.

Using impression management theory, the findings show that Gen Z perceive online personal brands as a crucial tool to gain more advantage in job markets. A gap was found between desired and perceived selves in Gen Z's online personal brands. Strategies such as effective self-reflection, authentic communication, self-promotion processes, awareness of risks and constantly controlling digital footprints were suggested to build stronger and more coherent personal brands. Gen Z are in favour of a more dynamic, interactive, work-in-process of authentic personal brands.

This research demonstrates the importance of authentically building online personal branding strategies and tactics to bridge the divide between Gen Z's desired and perceived images in personal branding on social media when job seeking.