Research On Users' Adaptive Information Sharing Behavior In Mobile Healthcare Social Media

Mobile Healthcare Social Media(MHSM)is an innovative combination of mobile devices and mobile communication technologies,for it can provide necessary health information,routine care improvements,potential infectious disease prevention,health interventions,etc.Meanwhile,people tend to share and disseminate the healthcare information via MHSM,since social media is an extension of the healthcare professional and patient relationship.Consequently,mobile healthcare social media are created for connecting patients so that they could share healthcare information using their mobile devices and connecting doctors and specialists for better healthcare.The emergency and development of mobile healthcare social media have provided channels for the public,patients and health care workers to communicate health information.However,the rapid changing of technology and cluttered information environment raises higher requirement and bigger challenge on users' technology use abilities.In this context,users need to actively explore the potential of information system and adapt to the functions of MHSM,in order to improve the efficiency and effect of users' information behaviors.Taking information sharing as goal orientation of users' adaptive use of information system,this study explores how and why users change from automatic cognition mode to active cognition mode,breaking the inertia of daily use,to adapt to the social structures within mobile healthcare social media.Adaptive information sharing behavior is defined that individuals actively choose to appropriate the social structures of an information technology in different ways(e.g.,to confirm,retain,combine,substitute,magnify,contrast,limit or negate their usefulness)for information sharing,and its essence is adaptive use of IT oriented to information sharing.Adaptive information sharing behavior is generated and constantly changing with the interaction between users and the information system,and it has the characteristics of complexity and dynamic.Under a specific technical environment,users' adaptive use behavior of the system varies to different degrees.Taking adaptive structural theory as research framework,based on cognitive switching theory and social exchange theory this study tries to find the triggers and the different types of users' adaptive information sharing in mobile healthcare social media,which is of theoretical and practical significance.In theory,it promotes the innovation and development of information sharing behavior research,and further promote the application of adaptive structural theory to the level of information.In practice,it helps to promote the optimization of mobile healthcare social media and social structures within it,and effectively optimize users' adaptive information sharing behaviors,as well as the bridging of digital gap and the maximization of the value of health information resources.The whole paper consists of eight chapters,including introduction and seven-part main text.The introduction part introduces and expounds the research background and significance,related work,research plans,methods,ideas,and major innovation points.Chapter 1 is the relevant theoretical basis of the current study.It mainly elaborates the core contents of adaptive structuration theory,cognitive switching theory,social exchange theory,control belief and positive emotion,which provides solid theoretical support for the construction of the research model in this study.Chapter 2 analyzes the social structures related to information of mobile healthcare social media.Based on the adaptive structuration theory,this study takes “Dingxiang Doctor” wechat official account and “Dingxiang Doctor” sina weblog as examples and use case study with user diaries to analyze the social structures in terms of information sharing services and information sharing practices.Chapter 3 explores the antecedents and related influencing factors of users' adaptive information sharing in the context of mobile healthcare social media by using the method of grounded theory.First,semi-structured interviews have been made to collect qualitative data.Then,seven main categories have been created through open coding,axial coding and selective coding.Moreover,the logical relationships between the seven main categories are combed.As a result,a grounded theory model of the impacting factors of MHSM users' adaptive information sharing has been built.Chapter 4 is the establishment of impacting factor model for users' adaptive information sharing behavior in mobile healthcare social media.Firstly,the second-order model of adaptive information sharing is formed by two reflective latent variables: exploitative use for sharing information and explorative use for sharing information.Exploitative use for sharing information means using more features of MHSM to improve the efficiency of information sharing,while explorative use for sharing information means try to change the way of feature use and use the features in an innovative way for information sharing.Then,the research model and research hypotheses are developed based on the cognitive switching theory,social exchange theory,the related research of control belief and positive emotion,and the grounded theory model which is constructed in Chapter 3.Chapter 5 is the verification of impacting factor for users' adaptive information sharing behavior in mobile healthcare social media.A survey scale is designed in combination with the extant research and the context of MHSM.The measurement model is tested based on the survey results,which mainly includes the reliability and validity test and the common method bias test.Then the partial least squares structural equation model is employed to validate the research model.Finally,test the moderating effect of IT creative self-efficacy and facilitating conditions on research model.In addition,qualitative comparative analysis of fuzzy set(fs QCA)method is adopted to explain the multiple interactions of antecedent variables with questionnaire data.Chapter 6 compares users' perceived difference in two types of adaptive information sharing behavior(exploitative use for sharing information and explorative use for sharing information)and its influencing factors in mobile healthcare social media.Results show that there is significant difference of users' perceptions in two types of adaptive information sharing behavior,and there are significant differences of users' perceptions in adaptive information sharing behavior and its influencing factors because of users' differences in gender,age,position,education and experience with MHSM.Chapter 7 is the conclusion and prospect.implication and limitation of this study and puts forward the future research prospects.