The information sharing among students on social media: the role of social capital and trust

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate how social capital (e.g. cognitive and relational) influences students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective) as mediator variables, affecting students’ information sharing activity on Facebook. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of 398 valid participants obtained through an online survey and using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses. Findings – The empirical results indicate that social capital has significant and positive effects on students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective-based trust), also mediator variables. Furthermore, the mediator variables partially mediate social capital and information sharing based on the concept of cognition-affection-behavior (CAB). Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to Indonesian students. Therefore, future study is needed to analyze across cultures and regions. It can help practitioners, regulators and researchers to observe the dynamic behavior on the impact of social capital on social media users’ activities. Practical implications – Education stakeholders (e.g. lecturers and teachers) can identify the students’ goal and rational concerns to improve their social capital and trust to share information. The government as a regulator needs to support students’ activities on social media to provide updated information regarding economic and social conditions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Role of social capital Received 3 December 2021 Revised 10 March 2022 Accepted 29 March 2022 VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems © Emerald Publishing Limited 2059-5891 DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-12-2021-0285 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2059-5891.htm Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on virtual communities. Specifically, it considers how social capital influences trust, which subsequently affects information sharing based on the CAB context among Indonesian student’ Facebook users