The Creation of Social Value: Can an Online Health Community Reduce Rural-Urban Health Disparities?

Author List: Goh, Jie Mein; Gao, Guodong (Gordon); Agarwal, Ritu;
MIS Quarterly, 2016, Volume 40, Issue 1, Page 247-263.
The striking growth of online communities in recent years has sparked significant interest in understanding and quantifying benefits of participation. While research has begun to document the economic outcomes associated with online communities, quantifying the social value created in these collectives has been largely overlooked. This study proposes that online health communities create social value by addressing ruralÐurban health disparities via improved health capabilities. Using a unique data set from a rare disease community, we provide one of the first empirical studies of social value creation. Our quantitative analysis using exponential random graph models reveals patterns of social support exchanged between users and the variations in these patterns based on users' location. We find that, overall, urban users are net suppliers of social support while rural participants are net recipients, suggesting that technology-mediated online health communities are able to alleviate ruralÐurban health disparities. This study advances extant understanding of value production in online collectives, and yields implications for policy.
Keywords: Healthcare; online communities; social value; disparities; social network
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#143 0.186 value business benefits technology based economic creation related intangible cocreation assessing financial improved key economics assess question created create understanding
#196 0.134 health healthcare medical care patient patients hospital hospitals hit health-care telemedicine systems records clinical practices physician electronic physicians longitudinal outcomes
#130 0.133 online users active paper using increasingly informational user data internet overall little various understanding empirical despite lead cascades help availability
#45 0.118 community communities online members participants wikipedia social member knowledge content discussion collaboration attachment communication law virtual membership structures forms activities
#158 0.111 capital social ict communication rural icts cognitive society information well-being relational india societal empirically create develop disadvantaged technologies explore china
#116 0.098 research study influence effects literature theoretical use understanding theory using impact behavior insights examine influences mechanisms specifically context perspective findings
#57 0.059 decision support systems making design models group makers integrated article delivery representation portfolio include selection effective claims decisions rationale various