Network Overlap and Network Blurring in Online Social Networks

Online communities and the online social networks embedded become a prominent medium for social interactions. The success of social media depends on users’ willingness to continue investing their time and efforts in the absence of economic rewards, making psychological attachment critical to online communities. While prior studies identify that members do develop psychological commitment to online communities, why and how the commitment arises remain underexplored. This study focuses on the relationship between network overlap, a common feature of online social networks, and affective commitment to an online community. Drawing on the commitment theory and social network boundary theory, we argue that the effect of online/offline network overlap is partially mediated by network boundary blurring. Meanwhile, contrary to industrial wisdom, the direct impact of network overlap on commitment is negative. Our empirical study supports our proposal. It indicates that it is critical to help users integrate online and offline social networks. Without success social network boundary blurring, high level of network overlap may backfire.

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