The Impacts of Using SNSs on e-WOM and Knowledge Sharing Through Social Capital: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

Abstract

Nowadays, Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have attracted billions of users all around the world. In Vietnam, SNSs become more and more familiar with Vietnamese people and Facebook is the most popular SNS. Social Capital is an important term in the study and social behavior, an important sector in the major universities of the world. However, Social Capital is still very vague concept, not only for citizens but also for policy makers in Vietnam. There are a few of studies have examined the impact of SNSs to Social Capital and Knowledge Sharing through word of mouth in environment of SNSs (e-WOM) in Vietnam. Based on previous research model, this research examines whether the intensity of using SNSs has a positive impact on users’ Social Capital, Knowledge Sharing and e-WOM. A survey was conducted with Facebook users in Vietnam. The regression analysis was utilized to examine the nine main hypotheses through a questionnaire designed which is based on the Likert five-point scale. The results show that the intensity of using SNSs raise the Trust and Identification dimension of Social Capital, especially the Trust, and these dimensions have positive effects to e-WOM Quality on SNSs. It also finds out that the e-WOM Quality impacts positively on Knowledge Sharing through SNSs environment in the context of Vietnam.