Understanding online health community users' information adoption intention: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

The purpose of this research is to draw on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine users' information adoption intention in online health communities (OHC).

The authors collected 350 valid responses using a survey and conducted the moderated regression analysis to examine the research model.

The results indicated that users' information adoption intention is influenced by both central cues (argument quality) and peripheral cues (source credibility and emotional support). In addition, self-efficacy moderates the effect of both central cues and peripheral cues on information adoption intention.

Previous research has focused on the effect of individual motivations such as reciprocity and benefits on user behavior, and has seldom disclosed the influencing process of external factors on OHC users' behavioral decision. This research tries to fill the gap by adopting ELM to uncover the mechanism underlying OHC users' information adoption.