The effect of information sharing behavior on virtual social networks on social capital

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of the students’ information sharing behavior in social network sites on different features of social capital. This research was an applied one for which survey method was employed. The population consisted of all the students studying at the universities in South Khorasan Province affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in the academic year of 1397-1398 (2018-2019). The students were supposed to have a minimum experience of six months in using one of the social network sites such as Telegram, Instagram or WhatsApp. The sample size was 384, which was calculated through the Cochran formula for the unknown population. To test the conceptual model of research and the hypotheses, the Partial Least Squares Approach to Structural Equation Modeling and SmartPLS (version 2) were used. The results of the conceptual model of the study confirmed a positive and significant relationship between the students’ information-sharing behavior in social network sites and their social capital and all its four characteristics (interactional, structural, functional and normative). The results also indicated that the demographic variables of gender, field of study and educational level had no significant effect on the relationship between information-sharing behavior in social network sites and social capital.