The influence of social media usage and student citizenship behaviour on academic performance

Abstract

Studies on social media generally fail to capture the concurrent influence of social media usage and altruistic behaviour (helping others) on academic performance of students. Based on the organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and the interconnectedness of the attention capacity, conservation of resources, and resource allocation theories, we examine and explain how student citizenship behaviour (SCB) and the use of social media influence the academic performance of university students. Data were collected from 231 university students enrolled in business degree programmes at the National University of Lesotho. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Smart PLS 3 were used to analyse data. The findings revealed an insignificant relationship between the usage of social media and academic performance. The results also showed that helping others using social media (SCB) had positive and significant impact on students’ academic learning and performance. The study builds on and extends our understanding of social media usage in learning by introducing SCB as a desirable behaviour by which students can improve their academic performance through helping others. Managerial and theoretical implications are also discussed.