Research On The Mechanism Of The Influence Of Social Capital On The Behavior Of Network Groups

With the development of Internet technology and the emergence of virtual community,human's group behavior extends from the reality to the network,and thus it derives a kind of network group behavior based on the Internet.As network group behavior reflects the interaction of Internet users and it is based on the virtual community as a platform.The survival and development of the virtual community not only depend on the application of the operator's own ability and network technology,but also need to depend on the active participation of virtual community members.On the other hand,with the concentration and expansion of group behavior,it may lead to the positive effect and negative effect in the information transmission,communication and interaction behavior of the group members.One of the important tasks in front of theoretical researchers is to study the influence factors and mechanism of network group behavior in the virtual community.Based on the research of social capital theory,sense of community theory,group behavior theory and social network theory,this paper found that although the study of social science and natural science has been attention to the research of social capital and network group behavior,and achieved some results,but also has certain insufficiency:First,there is only little related research on the relationship between social capital and network group behavior.Although the related research can be found mainly in the knowledge sharing,innovation behavior and citizenship behavior,but there was only little related research on the study about the relationship between social capital and network group behavior and its influence path.Second,there are some difficulties in the data acquisition of the group behavior.At present,there are few researches on the acquisition of the data of group behavior,the main reason is that the group behavior happens suddenly and is difficult to reproduce,which limits the empirical research on it.At the same time,the data of the traditional social science researchers on the group behavior is to summarize the existing literature data which leads to the subjectivity and randomness of data,while natural science researchers mainly use the technology to obtain the Internet data,which can reflect the group behavior but may ignore the social situation and the differences between the individual,therefore,the applicability of the data is still need to be verified,and the results of those researchs are often difficult to be further explained.This paper holds that it is appropriate to use social capital theory to explain the group behavior in the virtual community.The members in the virtual community will formed a network group through interaction,which contains complex social relation networks,and social capital is the intangible resources that are produced in the social relation network,or social capital creates social environment for the exchange and interaction of individual members.Therefore,based on social capital theory,sense of community theory,group behavior theory and social network theory,this paper constructs the reaserch framework of "Social Capital-Sense of Virtual Community-Network Group Behavior",learning from the research framework of the"Environment-Cognition-Behavior" proposed by Bandura(1986),and through empirical research to verify.It will expand the research field of social capital effectiveness,and enrich the research of group behavior theory.This paper focuses on the research framework of "Social Capital-Sense of Virtual Community-Network Group Behavior",which is mainly carried out in three aspects:Firstly,to define the concept of social capital and network group behavior,as well as the choice of the dimensions and the development of the scale,which is helpful to explain and analyze the research questions.Second,to explore the influence factors and mechanism of the network group behavior.This part selects the perspective of social capital to analyze its influence on the network group behavior,and constructs the theoretical framework of "Social Capital-Sense of Virtual Community-Network Group Behavior",and sets up research hypothesis and design questionnaire,then uses SPSS statistical analysis tool and SEM for empirical test,finally gets the influence factors and mechanism of the network group behavior.Third,to explore the intermediate variable between social capital and network group behavior in virtual community members.This paper proposes sense of virtual community as the intermediate variables,and tries to reveal the impact of social capital on the network group behavior.Through theoretical and empirical research,this paper draws the following conclusions:First,the sense of virtual community plays a partial intermediary role in the relationship of social capital and network group behavior.Second,the social capital has a direct impact on the network group behavior,and the degree of influence is different.The social capital relationship dimension has the most significant positive effect on the behavior of the network group.Third,the various dimensions of the social capital have an indirect impact on the network group behavior through the role of virtual community;virtual community has a positive impact on the network group behavior.Fourth,based on the perspective of social capital,the theoretical framework of "social capital,sense of virtual community,network group behavior" is established.It suggests that virtual community operators should foster social capital and virtual community in order to promote the active participation of members of the network community.This paper focuses on the impact of social capital on the network group behavior,and the intermediary role of the virtual community,trying to make innovations from the following three aspects:First,innovation in research perspective.In the past,scholars have studied the network group behavior from the perspective of sociology and psychology.This paper has a relatively new perspective to research on the influencing factors and path of the network group behavior based on social capital theory from the perspective of management discipline,at the same time,it expands the field of research on group behavior,also provides a relatively new perspective for the antecedents of network group behavior.Second,innovation in research logic.Based on the relevant theory and literature,this paper constructs the theoretical framework of "social capital,sense of virtual community,network group behavior",trys to introduce the virtual community to the mediating variable,explores the effect of the virtual community members' social capital on the network group behavior.Compared with the related research of network group behavior,it effectively complements and extends the research in related fields.Third,innovation in research conclusions.According to the particularity of the research situation,this paper provides valuable comments and suggestions about how to cultivate the social capital,how to create the sense of virtual community,and promote the positive network group behavior for virtual community operators.So that the theoretical study of social capital and group behavior can be landed in the network context,and can provide useful reference for the practical application of virtual community.The effect mechanism of social capital on the network group behavior is a very complicated problem.It also relates to other factors' impacts such as the changes of social capital,the actors'psychological activities and the upgrading of the network technology platform and so on.When this system changes,the theoretical analysis and research framework should also make the dynamic adjustment to adapt to the changing reality.The depth study of this research needs to be more and more scholars make efforts.