Gaining Access to Social Capital: The Effects of Gratifications-Sought, Personality, and Self-Efficacy on LinkedIn Use and Social Capital

• In Event: Political Effects of Social Media

Abstract

This study explored the gratifications-sought and patterns of LinkedIn use and how they are influenced by personalities. The relationship between LinkedIn use and the perceived social capital on LinkedIn was also examined. Data were gathered from a sample of 459 Linkedln users in mainland China. The results show that users are usually motivated to use LinkedIn for the purposes of gathering information related to their jobs, seeking the feeling of belongingness, developing and enlarging their professional network, and expanding their career. Career expansion and information learning may lead them to use LinkedIn more intensively. Extraversion was found to be a significant predictor of all four factors of gratification; people who were more agreeable tended to seek the feeling of belongingness and expand their career; conscientiousness was found to be a significant predictor of those seeking belongingness; more neurotic people were found to use LinkedIn for information learning, the feeling of belongingness, and career expansion; openness to experience was negatively related to the gratification of information learning. Furthermore, self-efficacy was found to be positively related to information learning. As expected, LinkedIn use was found to be a good method to increase both the bonding and bridging aspects of social capital. The implications of the study are also discussed.

Authors

• Shyron Qianyun MA, The Chinese U of Hong Kong

• Louis W. Leung