Purpose

Online health communities (OHCs) have become increasingly popular sources of health information in recent years. However, little is known about the factors that affect the relationship commitment and continuous knowledge sharing intention among OHC members. Thus, this study aims to integrate social exchange and commitment-trust theories to establish a theoretical model to fill the gap.

Design/methodology/approach

A research model that integrates social exchange theory and commitment-trust theory is developed. Quantitative data from 519 valid questionnaires are collected via an offline survey. Statistical product and service solutions 20.0 and analysis of a moment structures 20.0 software are used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Relationship commitment directly influences continuous knowledge sharing intention, partially mediates the relationship between social support and continuous knowledge sharing intention, and fully mediates the relationship between perceived health risks and continuous knowledge sharing intention. Informational and emotional supports are identified as benefit factors that positively affect relationship commitment and perceived health risks are regarded as cost factors that negatively influence relationship commitment. Informational and emotional supports of OHC members produce different effects on relationship commitment when members obtain social support from different sources. Moreover, trust moderates the influences of informational support and perceived health risks on relationship commitment.

Originality/value

The findings provide additional insights that can augment the knowledge management literature by indicating how people are driven to share knowledge continuously in the context of OHCs. This study empirically clarifies the relationships of benefits (i.e. social support) and costs (i.e. perceived health risks) to continuous knowledge sharing intention by demonstrating the significant mediating effect of relationship commitment. In addition, the findings of this study highlight the importance of the social support source in OHCs and provide additional insights into commitment–trust theory by integrating the moderating effect of trust on the relationships between relationship commitment and its antecedents.

中文翻译：

---

了解在线健康社区中的关系承诺和持续知识共享：社会交流视角

目的

近年来，在线健康社区 (OHC) 已成为越来越受欢迎的健康信息来源。然而，关于影响 OHC 成员之间关系承诺和持续知识共享意愿的因素知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在整合社会交换和承诺-信任理论，建立理论模型来填补这一空白。

设计/方法/方法

开发了一种整合社会交换理论和承诺-信任理论的研究模型。通过离线调查收集了 519 份有效问卷的定量数据。统计产品和服务解决方案 20.0 和矩结构分析 20.0 软件用于检验假设。

发现

关系承诺直接影响持续知识分享意愿，部分中介社会支持与持续知识分享意愿的关系，充分中介感知健康风险与持续知识分享意愿的关系。信息和情感支持被认为是对关系承诺产生积极影响的有益因素，而感知健康风险被认为是对关系承诺产生负面影响的成本因素。当成员从不同来源获得社会支持时，OHC成员的信息和情感支持对关系承诺产生不同的影响。此外，信任调节了信息支持和感知健康风险对关系承诺的影响。

原创性/价值

这些发现提供了额外的见解，可以通过表明人们如何在 OHC 的背景下不断分享知识来增强知识管理文献。本研究通过证明关系承诺的显着中介作用，实证地阐明了利益（即社会支持）和成本（即感知的健康风险）与持续知识共享意愿的关系。此外，本研究的结果强调了社会支持来源在 OHC 中的重要性，并通过整合信任对关系承诺与其前因之间关系的调节作用，为承诺-信任理论提供了额外的见解。