1 Department of Computer Information Systems, Baruch College, City University of New York , New York.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014 Jul;17(7):460-5. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2013.0530. Epub 2014 Apr 1.
In recent years, social networking sites have received increased attention because of the potential of this medium to transform business by building virtual communities. However, theoretical and empirical studies investigating how specific features of social networking sites contribute to building a sense of virtual community (SOVC)-an important dimension of a successful virtual community-are rare. Furthermore, SOVC scales have been developed, and research on this issue has been called for, but few studies have heeded this call. On the basis of prior literature, this study proposes that perceptions of the three most salient features of social networking sites-system quality (SQ), information quality (IQ), and social information exchange (SIE)-play a key role in fostering SOVC. In particular, SQ is proposed to increase IQ and SIE, and SIE is proposed to enhance IQ, both of which thereafter build SOVC. The research model was examined in the context of Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. We adopted Blanchard's scales to measure SOVC. Data gathered using a Web-based questionnaire, and analyzed with partial least squares, were utilized to test the model. The results demonstrate that SIE, SQ, and IQ are the factors that form SOVC. The findings also suggest that SQ plays a fundamental role in supporting SIE and IQ in social networking sites. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed.
近年来，由于社交网络媒体具有通过构建虚拟社区来改变商业的潜力，因此受到了越来越多的关注。然而，关于社交网络媒体的哪些特定特征有助于建立虚拟社区意识（SOVC）——成功的虚拟社区的一个重要维度——的理论和实证研究却很少。此外，已经开发出了 SOVC 量表，并且呼吁对此问题进行研究，但很少有研究关注到这一点。本研究基于先前的文献，提出社交网络媒体的三个最突出特征（系统质量（SQ）、信息质量（IQ）和社会信息交换（SIE））的感知在培养 SOVC 方面发挥着关键作用。具体而言，我们提出 SQ 可以提高 IQ 和 SIE，而 SIE 则可以增强 IQ，这两者都有助于建立 SOVC。在世界上最受欢迎的社交网络媒体之一 Facebook 的背景下，我们检验了该研究模型。我们采用了 Blanchard 的量表来衡量 SOVC。利用基于网络的问卷调查收集数据，并采用偏最小二乘法进行分析，以检验模型。结果表明，SIE、SQ 和 IQ 是形成 SOVC 的因素。研究结果还表明，在社交网络媒体中，SQ 在支持 SIE 和 IQ 方面发挥着基础性作用。本文还讨论了对理论、实践和未来研究方向的启示。
