The information sharing among students on social media: the role of social capital and trust

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate how social capital (e.g. cognitive and relational) influences students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective) as mediator variables, affecting students’ information sharing activity on Facebook. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of 398 valid participants obtained through an online survey and using structural equationmodeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses. Findings – The empirical results indicate that social capital has significant and positive effects on students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective-based trust), also mediator variables. Furthermore, the mediator variables partially mediate social capital and information sharing based on the concept of cognition-affection-behavior (CAB). Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to Indonesian students. Therefore, future study is needed to analyze across cultures and regions. It can help practitioners, regulators and researchers to observe the dynamic behavior on the impact of social capital on social media users’ activities. Practical implications – Education stakeholders (e.g. lecturers and teachers) can identify the students’ goal and rational concerns to improve their social capital and trust to share information. The government as a regulator needs to support students’ activities on social media to provide updated information regarding economic and social conditions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on virtual communities. Specifically, it considers how social capital influences trust, which subsequently affects information sharing based on the CAB context among Indonesian student’ Facebook users.