Understanding Reciprocity in Chinese Social Media: Examining the Influence of Social Capital and Emotion on Reciprocal Behaviour

Abstract

The functioning of social networking sites (SNSs) depends on reciprocal behaviours. This research begins from the premise that in SNSs reciprocity is a key element facilitating the establishment and development of interpersonal relationships between strangers. Specifically, the proposed Social Capital – Emotion – Reciprocity conceptual model and hypotheses concerning the effects of social capital and emotion on reciprocity were derived from the literature and from exploratory research. The conceptual model particularly utilised the Cognition – Emotion school of thought, which conceptualises the act of reciprocity as an outcome of an iterative process of cognitive evaluation of social capital and emotion. The cognitive evaluation of social capital was tested in two experiments. In the experiments, the concepts of bridging social capital and bonding social capital were operationalised and manipulated, and consistent effects were found. In both experiments, discrepancies in relative levels of combined capital, bridging capital and bonding capital affected the likelihood of reciprocity (i.e., more social capital generates more reciprocation). Specifically, discrepancies in bridging capital strongly affected reciprocal behaviour. Discrepancies in bonding capital are significant, but less important. There was no interaction effect between bridging social capital and (indirect) bonding social capital, however an interaction effect did exist when bridging social capital and (direct) bonding social capital were tested. Findings from hypothesis tests provided strong evidence to support the conceptual model, with emotion acting as a mediator between social capital and reciprocal action. Specifically, bridging social capital had a larger impact on reciprocity through the mediation of emotion, and in practical terms, this finding is consistent with the significance of the concept of “who you know” in Chinese business practice. Overall, reciprocity in Chinese social media can be considered as a process of mutual recognition between user-benefactors and user-recipients, each of these actors cognitively evaluates the embedded value of the other’s social capital, which is mediated through emotions triggered in social networking practice. The research findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of reciprocity and practice relevance in virtual environments. The mixed methods design focused on the practical relevance to the research context and provided consistent findings through a sequential development of experiments and modelling, which enhanced the validity of the research outcome. Finally, limitations and directions for future research are described with respect to the broader conceptualisation of reciprocity and the specific operationalisation of potential constructs.