Not what you know, nor who you know, but who you know already: Examining Online Information Sharing Behaviours in a Blogging Environment through the Lens of Social Exchange Theory

Abstract

This paper focuses on the extent to which online information sharing practice is socially motivated. A key interest is how knowledge of the existing social connections between actors may predict their information sharing behaviour when they move into an online environment, and the relative importance of these connections when set against other factors that may motivate online information sharing within a closed group. The examination of online information exchanges between members of a defined community of bloggers reveals that those with established off-line relationships are more likely to interact with one another when they move into an online environment than those who have not enjoyed earlier contact. The findings of the empirical study are evaluated with reference to social exchange theory, with acknowledgement of the importance of shared social capital as a prerequisite for the efficient operation of work-groups, both in face-to-face and online environments. It is concluded that social exchange theory can be deployed as a means of explaining online information sharing behaviours. The study findings have implications for the design of environments for purposes of online information sharing, especially in terms of the provision of substitutes for physical proximity in distributed organisations, the operation of reward systems, and expectations for communities to develop their own information sharing ecologies.

Sharing “happy” information

“…Various studies have found that information sharing is affected by the strength of relationships, either within groups (Haythornthwaite, , pp. 327–328) or between individuals (Hall et al., , p. 14), with factors such as levels of friendship (Allen, , cited in Rioux, , p. 26) or the “socially contagious” nature of tagging (Ames & Naaman, , p. 978) influencing sharing.…”

ICT for Rural Community Development: Implementing the Communicative Ecology Framework in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

“…The concept of information-sharing Information Technology for Development 301 behavior has been investigated in recent studies on online information use (See, e.g. Casaló, Flavián & Guinalíu, 2011;Hall, Widen, & Paterson, 2010;Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). However, the way in which factors such as group identification, trust, and social interaction play a role in information dissemination in real-world contexts has received far less research attention.…”

LIS research on information sharing activities – people, places, or information

“…In several texts the concept of "knowledge sharing" seems to be used as a synonym to "information sharing" (e.g. Widén-Wulff and Davenport, 2005;Widén-Wulff, 2007;Tötterman and Widén-Wulff, 2007;Peel and Rowley, 2010;Hall et al, 2010). The next section of the article will concentrate on theoretical perspectives for information sharing.…”

“…Haythornthwaite, 1996Haythornthwaite, , 2010Hall et al, 2010;Hersberger, 2003;Huotari and Chatman, 2001;Veinot, 2009). However, these approaches come with different flavours; how much the actual network dimension is emphasised varies.…”

“…However, even though the network metaphor is salient, there are alternate ways of depicting the space where information sharing takes place. Hall et al (2010) study student bloggers and describe them as developing an "information sharing ecology" (p. 118). Hersberger (2003) relates to the work of Haythorntwaite and uses network analysis with a qualitative approach "as a complimentary method" (Hersberger, 2003, p. 95) to investigate "information exchange", "information transfer" and "information diffusion" within a group of Research on information sharing homeless parents.…”