Granovetter proposed that weak ties connect different sections of social networks, thus function as the channel for individuals to gain access to useful information unavailable at existing social circles. The first motivation of this study is to explore to what extent strength of ties theory explains information exchange behaviour of Taiwanese Facebook users. According to past research, Chinese rely on those with close guanxi, such as family members and close friends to satisfy individual’s needs. This leads us to ask if guanxi would also play an important role in satisfying individual’s needs for information. Thus the second motive of this study is to explore the significance of guanxi for Chinese Facebook users in selecting the counterpart for information exchange. It is hoped that the results of this investigation will contribute to social networks, guanxi, information behaviour research and social network sites users’ study, especially in Taiwan. Based the data collected via online survey, this study found that respondents tend to rely on strong ties as their primary sources of information. If their strong ties were not able to provide the information, respondents would rely on the connections of these strong ties, rather than the weak ties in their network, to find the information they needed. Thus strong ties are the key to information exchange in a social network.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CHENGCHI/G0096461013 |
| Creators | 張翠芬, Chong, Chui Fen |
| Publisher | 國立政治大學 |
| Source Sets | National Chengchi University Libraries |
| Language | 英文 |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Rights | Copyright © nccu library on behalf of the copyright holders |
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