Understanding helping intention and its antecedents among instant messaging users

Purpose – Helping intention is an important value that holds the key to the continuous user growth of instant messaging (IM). The purpose of this study is to validate a research model that examines online helping intention from a perspective of online social capital. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical testing of this model, through a survey of employees from seven large companies, confirms some theoretical expectations of this study. Two of the seven companies are from general service industries and the other five companies are from high‐tech industries. Of the 500 questionnaires distributed to participants, 364 usable questionnaires were returned for an effective response rate of 72.8 per cent. Findings – Helping intention is influenced by reciprocity, shared narratives, centrality, and network ties, whereas commitment and shared codes and language are not significantly related to helping intention. Research limitations/implications – Based on the test results of this study, helping intention is affected by different social capital dimensions. In particular, low helping intention is attributed to a lack of online social capital, which can result from weak reciprocity, shared narratives, centrality, and network ties. This study has some limitations that relate to the measurement and interpretation of results. A major limitation is the possibility of a common method bias by using a single questionnaire to measure all constructs, which may inflate the strength of the relationships among these research constructs. Practical implications – This study recommends that those who support the establishment of helping culture among instant messaging users place emphasis on relational, cognitive, and structural capital. Both IM service developers and users should be aware that helping intention can be discouraged if any single dimension of social capital is ignored. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need to study how online helping intention can be strengthened.