The Optimal Experience: Social Identity and IT Identity as Antecedents of Group Flow in Social Media Use

Abstract

Social media is a popular platform for daily communication and collaboration which supports interaction with online groups and communities. Prior research has investigated flow experiences in social media but only from an individual perspective. In this article, we examine group flow in the context of social media use. The key role played by the IT artifact, as well as the social nature of such use, require the addition of two new antecedents to group flow: IT identity and social identity. We propose that in conjunction with traditional flow experiences, group members' IT identity and social identification with the group will be strong predictors of group flow experiences. We further propose that group flow will lead to increased group exploration of the focal technology. Our research thus contributes to the growing literature on group flow by further developing its nomological network in social media usage contexts.

Identity in the Digital Age: A Review of Information Technology Identity (ITID) Research in Information Systems

“…Carter and Grover [4] believe that considering ITID is crucial for various IS topics in relation to human behavior. ITID has already provided a theoretical foundation for behavioral research in various IT contexts, including online consumer behavior [18], [19], dark side of IT use [20], [21], healthcare [22]- [24], organization [25]- [28], social media [29]- [33], personal IT [34]- [36], green IT [37], information security [38], information system development [39], and more.…”

“…The consequences of ITID have also been a topic of interest among IS researchers. As shown in table 2, varied theories have been incorporated to study the consequences of ITID, including but not limited to theory of planned behavior 4 [37], cognitive appraisal theory [22], flow theory [29], IS infusion behavior [25], media dependency theory, and uses and gratifications theory [32]. Our review of the literature shows that consequences of ITID can be categorized into cognitive, affective, behavioral intention, actual behavior, and individual performance.…”

“…Savoli and Bhatt [22] direct future research to test this proposition. Another study also proposes that in conjunction with traditional flow experiences, group members' ITID and social identification with the group will be key predictors of group flow experiences [29].…”

“…Furthermore, stronger self-identification with smartwatch increases deep use of it. It also mediates the [20], [22], [25], [26], [29], [ [35]. Two more studies aim to validate the original ITID conceptual model in the context of personal health devices: the study by Esmaeilzadeh [36] reveals that if individuals self-identify with a personal health device (PHD), they are more likely to search for previously unused feature sets of the PHDs (enhanced use), apply smart devices in additional situations, and use components of extension capabilities (extended features).…”

“…However, a recent study by You and Robert [50] shows that robotic teams perform better and are more viable when they were emotionally attached to their robots. Curley and Polites [29] also hypothesized that group members' ITID and social identification with the group will be key predictors of group flow experiences, which was left to be further tested empirically. Such examples highlight the key role of collective ITID where team performance is given more attention than individual performance (e.g., agile software development and project teams, to mention a few).…”