Junjie Zhou1, Meiyun Zuo2, Cheng Ye3. 1. Shantou University Business School, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China. Electronic address: jjzhou@stu.edu.cn. 2. Renmin University of China School of Information Research Institute of Smart Senior Care, Beijing, 100872, China. Electronic address: zuomy@ruc.edu.cn. 3. GuangZhou Bmind Psychological Research and Application Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510001, China. Electronic address: yecheng@cug.edu.cn.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Normal users' voluntary behaviors (e.g., knowledge sharing) in virtual communities (VCs) has been well investigated; however, research on health professionals' voluntary behaviors in online health communities (OHCs) is limited. OBJECTIVE: This paper focuses on OHCs for mental health and aims to explore how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. METHODS: Based on motivation theory and prior studies, we incorporated technical competence as intrinsic motivation and online reputation and economic rewards as extrinsic motivations, and proposed five hypotheses. We crawled objective data from YiXinLi, a Chinese OHC for mental health, and tested the hypotheses based on the Poisson regression model. All hypotheses are supported. RESULTS: 1) Technical competence, online reputation, and economic rewards positively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors; 2) the interaction effect between technical competence and online reputation negatively influences mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors; 3) the interaction effect between technical competence and economic rewards negatively influences mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Both intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations positively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors, and their interaction effects negatively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. This study first contributes to the literature on health professionals' voluntary behaviors in OHCs by verifying the positive effect of economic rewards. It then contributes to motivation theory by incorporating a situation where intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations could negatively interact.
BACKGROUND: Normal users' voluntary behaviors (e.g., knowledge sharing) in virtual communities (VCs) has been well investigated; however, research on health professionals' voluntary behaviors in online health communities (OHCs) is limited. OBJECTIVE: This paper focuses on OHCs for mental health and aims to explore how intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. METHODS: Based on motivation theory and prior studies, we incorporated technical competence as intrinsic motivation and online reputation and economic rewards as extrinsic motivations, and proposed five hypotheses. We crawled objective data from YiXinLi, a Chinese OHC for mental health, and tested the hypotheses based on the Poisson regression model. All hypotheses are supported. RESULTS: 1) Technical competence, online reputation, and economic rewards positively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors; 2) the interaction effect between technical competence and online reputation negatively influences mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors; 3) the interaction effect between technical competence and economic rewards negatively influences mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Both intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations positively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors, and their interaction effects negatively influence mental health service providers' voluntary behaviors. This study first contributes to the literature on health professionals' voluntary behaviors in OHCs by verifying the positive effect of economic rewards. It then contributes to motivation theory by incorporating a situation where intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations could negatively interact.