Creating social value : the effects of internet social capability, brand status and social visibility

Abstract

The product’s value is what explains its adoption in a competitive economy. This value is theoretically partition into five smaller values. In information technology adoption study, some of these values have received more attention than others. Social value is one of the lesser ones. However, the invention and the expansion of Internet social capability in products have changed the momentum of the social value. The value has traditionally been studied through the lens of branding. The objective of this study is to propose a theoretical integration between Internet social capability and branding. In doing so, this study proposes a set of hypotheses elucidating sources of social value across various types of IT-oriented artifacts based on the Internet social capability and branding. An online survey with well-designed instrument was conducted to test the hypotheses. A total of 656 students from two leading universities in Thailand participated in the survey. The collected data was fed into three structural models to ascertain the validity and reliability of the hypotheses. The results indicate that Internet social capability and brand are important in explaining the social value, with brand taking the leading position. Furthermore, their importance does not vary across the types of IT-oriented artifacts. This sets a precedence for both academics and practitioners. For academics, this study broadens the study of social value in IT adoption. It provides an integration framework of Internet social capability and branding. For practitioner, these results show that branding of the product is still very much relevant in creating social value. Furthermore, organizations can effectively increase social value by incorporating Internet social capability into their products.