How Does Health Knowledge Sharing Affect Patient Perceived Value in Online Health Communities? A Social Capital Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between health knowledge sharing and patient perceived value in online health communities (OHCs). It is also aimed at explaining the disparity of patient perceived value among different patients by testing the moderating effect of patient social capital on the above relationship in OHCs. A total of 352 valid samples are collected in mainland China while adopting structural equation model (SEM) approach. The empirical results indicate that both aspects of health knowledge sharing, namely health knowledge seeking and health knowledge contribution, have significantly positive influences on patient perceived value in OHCs. Moreover, the effect of health knowledge seeking on patient perceived value is stronger than the effect of health knowledge contribution. Besides this, the moderating effects of patient social capital on the relationship between health knowledge sharing and patient perceived value are significant. Specifically, patient social capital strengthens the relationship between health knowledge contribution and patient perceived value, while it weakens the relationship between health knowledge seeking and patient perceived value in OHCs.