How to Promote the Sustainability of Information Sharing?: A Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparison Analysis for Lurking Behavior in Social Media Communities

Abstract

Social media communities (SMCs) have accelerated the speed and expanded the scope of information generation and dissemination. Increasing the continuity and sustainability of information provision and consumption is the prerequisite for ensuring the ecology and vitality of SMCs. Therefore, how to motivate users to actively participate in information sharing in the SMCs instead of being passive information receivers, silent information readers, or even lurkers has become key. This study aims to interpret the lurking behavior in SMCs by investigating the interplay of six main factors including situated-motivational aspects such as privacy concern, sustainability concern, shared language and rationality, and individual aspects including introversion and social self-efficacy. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparison analysis (fsQCA) is conducted based on survey data collected from 470 Chinese SMC members. The results indicate that the interplay of the aforementioned factors (presented as four different configurations) leads to lurking behavior.