Online communities can have positive effects onsocial capital and ultimately on organisational performance. Theformer is of great importance to non-profit organisations in thethird sector, for which it is a key component of their success.This paper starts by defining a community. It then discusses theimportance and potential of virtual communities of practice forthe thir...

Participation in social organizations such as team sports, volunteer and religious organizations has been diminishing over the past few decades (Putnam, 2001). One reason for this decline is television (Putnam, 1995). Instead of going to bars or bowling alleys after work – places where people can form new relationships and expand their social networks – people instead go home to watch the lates...

The present study employs social cognitive theory (SCT) and social capital as the guiding frameworks to explain online interaction quality among learners in a blended learning program (N=179). Capturing performance expectancy by perceived learning benefits and online interaction quality with nuanced cognitive measures, the study aims to validate how the SCT and social capital, which are mostly ...

Social media technologies have made it feasible for organizations to tap “wisdom of the crowd” beyond their own workforce. Many organizations use online crowdsourcing contests to find solutions for their business problems. In these contests, self-organized virtual teams compete for monetary reward. Motivated by this phenomenon, this research investigates how the social network structure of a vi...

This study proposes a structural approach to examining online bridging and bonding social capital in a large virtual world. It tests the effects of individual players’ network brokerage and closure on their task performance and trust of other players. Bridging social capital is operationalized as brokerage, the extent to which one is tied to disconnected others, and bonding social capital as cl...

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of social media marketing on online shopping of customers based on mediating role of value capital, relational capital and brand capital by path analysis method. 169 students of Tehran University were included in this study. They filled out the questionnaires of social media marketing, value capital, relational capital, brand capital and eshopping ...

Drawing on attachment theory, the present study examine s the attachment styles of individuals relative to two ways of building social capital – bonding social capital and bridging social capital. In trying to relate attachment theory to the use of SNS, the present study argues that bonding social capital is reflected in the use of SNS for forming attachment bonds from trust-based strong ties, ...

In order to build and maintain social capital in their Online Social Networks, users need to disclose personal information, a behavior that at the same time leads to a lower level of privacy. In this conceptual paper, we offer a new theoretical perspective on the question of why people might regulate their privacy boundaries inadequately when communicating in Online Social Networks. We argue th...