Effects of Social Capital and Community Support on Online Community Members’ Intention to Create User-generated Content

Understanding online community members’ intention to create user-generated content (UGC) can help in determining how to better manage online communities. Drawing on social capital theory and adopting the management perspective, this study investigated how online community members’ social capital dimensions (structural, relational, and cognitive) and community support dynamically influence their intention to create UGC based on two waves of data collection in 2008 and 2014. The results demonstrated that cognitive social capital has a positive influence on members’ intention to create UGC in the early stages of online communities and that community support for member communication is an important factor in encouraging members’ UGC creation when online communities mature. In addition, the structural and relational dimensions of social capital were found to be non-significant in determining members’ intention to create UGC. This finding suggests that members’ intention to create UGC may not be dependent on the overall social interaction pattern or on their reciprocity with and trust in other specific individuals. The study provided an in-depth understanding of the roles of social capital and community support in the context of online communities.