Digital Commons Network^™

Snowball Effect Of User Participation In Online Environmental Communities: Elaboration Likelihood Under Social Influence, Yali Zhang, Haixin Zhang, Zhaojun Yang, Jun Sun, Chrissie Diane Tan

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecological preservation and sustainable development depend on active public involvement. The emergence of online environmental communities greatly facilitates people’s participation in green endeavors. The population penetration of such platforms accelerates as existing users persuade people around them and media coverage further attracts public attention. This snowball effect plays an important role in the user base expansion, but the specific mechanism of social influence involved is yet to be examined. Based on the social influence theory, cognitive response theory, and elaboration likelihood model, this study establishes a research model depicting the relationship between persuasion in terms of social influence and outcomes …