This study aimed to identify social capital's role in shaping an individual's behavior to share information on social media. The study also investigated the mediation role of information sharing intention (ISI) between the relationship of social capital and information sharing behavior (ISB). Based on the social capital theory (SCT), and theory of planned behavior (TPB), a comprehensive research model was created, and corresponding hypotheses were developed. The study population included all Pakistani Facebook (FB) users, who actively use Facebook for various reasons. Structural equation modelling (SEM) with Smart PLS was used to analyze the data, test hypotheses, and research model. The findings showed that both bonding social capital (BOS) and bridging social capital (BRS) increased the amount of information shared on social media. It is established that BOS supports weakly tied people to strengthen their relationships on social media. The study also reveals that social capital (BOS and BRS) has a direct and positive effect on information-sharing behavior. The results of the indirect effects indicate that ISI is the significant mediator in the relationship between social capital and ISB. The study's findings are helpful for a wide variety of Facebook users for the purposeful and result-oriented information sharing on SNSs. The study also provided a deeper understating of the social capital features, sharing intention, and how these together exert a more significant impact on information sharing behavior on social media. Additionally, the findings will also facilitate SNS developers in improving SNS services while keeping in view the unique features of social capital.
AdlerPSKwonSW (2002) Social capital: Prospects for a new concept. Academy of Management Review27(1): 17–40.
2.
AhmadZSoroyaSHMahmoodK (2022) Bridging social capital through the use of social networking sites: A systematic literature review. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment33(4): 473–489.
3.
AhmadZSoroyaSHMahmoodK (2023) Exploring antecedents of information sharing intention and behavior on social media within the context of social capital. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of the Punjab, Lahore,Pakistan.
4.
AjzenI (1985) From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In: KuhlJBeckmanJ (eds) Action Control: From Cognition to Behavior. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 11–39.
5.
AjzenI (1991) The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes50(1): 179–211.
6.
AlabiOAOlonadeZOOmotoyeOO, et al. (2022) Non-Financial rewards and employee performance in money deposit banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. ABUAD Journal of Social and Management Sciences3(1): 58–77.
7.
AlajmiBM (2011) The Intention to Share: Professionals’ Knowledge Sharing Behaviors in Online Communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
8.
AltschulerASomkinCPAdlerNE (2004) Local services and amenities, neighborhood social capital, and health. Social Science & Medicine59(6): 1219–1229.
9.
BockGWZmudRWKimYG, et al. (2005) Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: Examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social–psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly29(1): 87–111.
10.
BourdieuP (1986) The forms of capital. In: RichardsonJ (eds) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood, 241–258.
11.
CaoQLuYDongD, et al. (2013) The roles of bridging and bonding in social media communities. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology64(8): 1671–1681.
12.
ChaiSDasSRaoHR (2011) Factors affecting bloggers’ knowledge sharing: An investigation across gender. Journal of Management Information Systems28(3): 309–342.
13.
ChangHHChuangSS (2011) Social capital and individual motivations on knowledge sharing: Participant involvement as a moderator. Information & Management48(1): 9–18.
14.
ChangYPZhuDH (2012) The role of perceived social capital and flow experience in building users’ continuance intention to social networking sites in China. Computers in Human Behavior28: 995–1001.
15.
ChenXSunMWuD, et al. (2019) Information-sharing behavior on WeChat moments: The role of anonymity, familiarity, and intrinsic motivation. Frontiers in Psychology10: 25–40.
16.
ChengSLamTHsuCH (2006) Negative word-of-mouth communication intention: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research30(1): 95–116.
17.
ChinWW (1998) The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. Modern Methods for Business Research295(2): 295–336.
18.
ChiuCMHsuMHWangET (2006) Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: An integration of social capital and social cognitive theories. Decision Support Systems42(3): 1872–1888.
19.
ChungNNamKKooC (2016) Examining information sharing in social networking communities: Applying theories of social capital and attachment. Telematics and Informatics33(1): 77–91.
20.
ClaridgeT (2018) Functions of social capital–bonding, bridging, linking. Social Capital Research20(1): 1–7.
21.
CohenJ (1988) Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edHillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
22.
ColemanJS (1988) Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology94(Supplement): S95–S120.
23.
CreswellJW (2012) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, Nebraska, 4.
DengSLinYLiuY, et al. (2017) How do personality traits shape information-sharing behaviour on social media? Exploring the mediating effect of generalised trust. Information Research: An International Electronic Journal22(3): 763–797.
26.
EllisonNBSteinfieldCLampeC (2007) The benefits of facebook friends: Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites.. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication12(4): 1143–1168.
27.
El GhorrahMN2016. Individual factors influencing the use of social networking sites and their impact on knowledge sharing: A field study on master students in IUG. Master's thesis. The Islamic University, Gaza.
28.
FornellCLarckerDF (1981) Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable and measurement errors. Journal of Marketing Research18(1): 39–50.
29.
FukuyamaF (2001) Social capital, civil society and development. Third World Quarterly22(1): 7–20.
30.
GhahtaraniASheikhmohammadyMRostamiM (2020) The impact of social capital and social interaction on customers’ purchase intention, considering knowledge sharing in social commerce context. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge5(3): 191–199.
31.
HairJFRisherJJSarstedtM, et al. (2019) When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review31(1): 2–24.
32.
HargittaiE (2007) Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication13(1): 276–297.
33.
HuLTBentlerPM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal6(1): 1–55.
34.
HuysmanMWulfV (2004) Social Capital and Information Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
35.
HwangHKimKO (2015) Social media as a tool for social movements: The effect of social media use and social capital on intention to participate in social movements. International Journal of Consumer Studies39(5): 478–488.
36.
HyunHGunnFParkJ (2019) The influence of social capital through social media: A study of the creation of value in shopping. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research29(2): 160–177.
37.
KangKWShinSK (2008) A model of virtual community knowledge exchange intentions: perceived network structure, self-efficacy and individual motivations. In: Proceedings of the 39th Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD.
38.
KarnikMOakleyIVenkatanathanJ, et al. (2013, February) Uses & gratifications of a Facebook media sharing group. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work: 821–826. DOI: 10.1145/2441776.2441868.
39.
KazienkoPMusiałK (2006) Social capital in online social networks. In: International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 417–424. DOI: 10.1007/11893004_54.
40.
KumarR (2018) Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, 3d ed.New Delhi, India: Sage Publications.
41.
LiYYeFSheuC (2014) Social capital, information sharing and performance: Evidence from China. International Journal of Operations & Production Management34(11): 1440–1462.
42.
LinXFeathermanMSarkerS (2013, December) Information sharing in the context of social media: An application of the theory of reasoned action and social capital theory. In: Proceedings of the 2013 AIS SIGHCI Workshop on HCI Research in MIS, Milan, Italy, 17, 1–5.
43.
LiouDKChihWHHsuLC, et al. (2016) Investigating information sharing behavior: The mediating roles of the desire to share information in virtual communities. Information Systems and e-Business Management14(2): 187–216.
44.
LuHPLinJCCHsiaoKL, et al. (2010) Information sharing behaviour on blogs in Taiwan: Effects of interactivities and gender differences. Journal of Information Science36(3): 401–416.
45.
MalikAMahmoodKIslamT (2021) Understanding the facebook users' behavior towards COVID-19 information sharing by integrating the theory of planned behavior and gratifications. Information Development 1: 02666669211049383.
46.
NewellSTansleyCHuangJ (2004) Social capital and knowledge integration in an ERP project team: The importance of bridging and bonding. British Journal of Management15(1): 43–57.
47.
OregSKatz-GerroT (2006) Predicting proenvironmental behavior cross-nationally: Values, the theory of planned behavior, and value-belief-norm theory. Environment and Behavior38(4): 462–483.
48.
PlotkowiakT, 2014. The influence of social capital on information diffusion in twitter’s interest-based social networks. Unpublished doctoral dissertations. Universität St. Gallen, St. Gallen.
49.
PutnamRD (1993) The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. American. Prospect13: 35–42.
50.
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
51.
RafiqueGM (2017) Personal information sharing behaviour of university students via online social networks. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal): 1454. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1454
52.
RamadanR (2017) Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis. Heliyon3(12): e00483.
53.
RazzaqueA (2020) M-learning improves knowledge sharing over e-learning platforms to build higher education students’ social capital. SAGE Open10(2): 2158244020926575.
54.
ReckerJ (2013) Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner's Guide. Berlin: Springer.
55.
ReychavIWeisbergJ (2010) Bridging intention and behavior of knowledge sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management14(2): 285–300.
56.
RichterNFSchubringSHauffS, et al. (2020) When predictors of outcomes are necessary: Guidelines for the combined use of PLS-SEM and NCA. Industrial Management & Data Systems120(12): 2243–2267.
57.
RoffeyS (2013) Inclusive and exclusive belonging -the impact on individual and community well-being. Educational and Child Psychology30(1): 38–49.
58.
RyanTAllenKAGrayDL, et al. (2017) How social are social media? A review of online social behaviour and connectedness. Journal of Relationship Research8. DOI: 10.1017/jrr.2017.13.
59.
SalehanMKimDJKooC (2018) A study of the effect of social trust, trust in social networking services, and sharing attitude, on two dimensions of personal information sharing behavior. The Journal of Supercomputing74(8): 3596–3619.
60.
SaputraAAriyantoE (2019) The effect of leader member exchange, job satisfaction and motivation on educational Personnels’ organizational commitment of Jakarta Mercu Buana University. International Review of Management and Marketing9(6): 58–66.
61.
SihombingSO (2011) Understanding knowledge sharing behavior: An examination of the extended model of theory of planned behavior. The Winners12(1): 24–39.
62.
SimonsMReijndersJJanssensM, et al. (2022) Positive affect as mediator: The socioemotional selectivity theory applied to the association between bonding social capital and wellbeing in later life. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 40(6): 1854–1874.
63.
SkaikHAOthmanR (2014) Determinants of knowledge sharing behaviour among academics in United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Knowledge and Systems Science5(3): 54–70.
SukhuAZhangTBilgihanA (2015) Factors influencing information-sharing behaviors in social networking sites. Services Marketing Quarterly36(4): 317–334.
66.
TahlyanDStathopoulosAManessM (2022) Disentangling social capital–understanding the effect of bonding and bridging on urban activity participation. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives15(1–15): 100629.
67.
TarkiainenASundqvistS (2005) Subjective norms, attitudes and intentions of finish consumers in buying organic food. British Food Journal107(11): 808–822.
68.
TohidiniaZMosakhaniM (2010) Knowledge sharing behaviour and its predictors. Industrial Management & Data Systems110(4): 611–631.
69.
TongSTWaltherJB (2011) Relational maintenance and computer-mediated communication. In: WrightKBWebbLM (eds) Computer-Mediated Communication in Personal Relationships. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 98–118.
70.
UrbachNAhlemannF (2010) Structural equation modeling in information systems research using Partial Least Square. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application11(2): 5–40.
71.
VukovicKKedmenecIPostolovK, et al. (2017) The role of bonding and bridging cognitive social capital in shaping entrepreneurial intention in transition economies. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues22(1): 1–33.
72.
WeisingerJYSalipantePF (2005) A grounded theory for building ethnically bridging social capital in voluntary organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly34(1): 29–55.
73.
WilliamsD (2006) On and off the'Net: Scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication11(2): 593–628.
YangHLLaiCY (2011) Understanding knowledge-sharing behaviour in Wikipedia. Behaviour & Information Technology30(1): 131–142.
76.
YangSCFarnCK (2009) Social capital, behavioural control, and tacit knowledge sharing—A multi-informant design. International Journal of Information Management29(3): 210–218.
77.
YenYFTsengJFWangHK (2014) Exploring the mediating role of trust on the relationship between guanxi and knowledge sharing: A social network perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources52(2): 173–192.
