Document Type
Journal Article
Department/Unit
Department of Finance and Decision Sciences
Title
Perceived critical mass and collective intention in social media-supported small group communication
Language
English
Abstract
The increasing popularity of Web 2.0 has dramatically changed the way in which people communicate with others in their daily life or work. However, the use of social media is fundamentally different from that of traditional information technologies. Specifically, it requires collective efforts and interdependence between two or more people, and thus the usage behavior is no longer an individual's own decision or plan. Built on critical mass theory and social influence processes, this study tries to make an attempt to understand the determinants of collective intention (we-intention), which represents one's perception of a group of people acting as a unit. Instant messaging, one of the most popular social media platforms, has been chosen for investigation, and findings from a survey showed that perceived critical mass influenced we-intention both directly and indirectly through group norm and social identity. Recognizing the importance and relevance of collective intention will advance current understanding beyond individual intention-based models which are widely adopted in prior IS research. This study may be limited by having not included other alternative social technologies, but we leave this work for future research. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Collective intention, Perceived critical mass, Social influence, Social media, We-intention
Publication Date
2013
Source Publication Title
International Journal of Information Management
Volume
33
Issue
5
Start Page
707
End Page
715
Publisher
Elsevier
DOI
10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.04.005
Link to Publisher's Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.04.005
ISSN (print)
02684012
ISSN (electronic)
01436236
APA Citation
Shen, X., Cheung, C., & Lee, M. (2013). Perceived critical mass and collective intention in social media-supported small group communication. International Journal of Information Management, 33 (5), 707-715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.04.005