Understanding physicians' motivations for community participation and content contribution in online health communities

Purpose - Since the success of online communities depend on physicians' participation, understanding factors that influence community participation and content contribution are critical for online health communities (OHCs). Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT), an empirical model was proposed to explore the effects of social returns and economic returns on physicians' community participation, private content contribution and public content contribution, and the moderating effect of their online seniority. This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach - Empirical data of 4,343 physicians were collected from a Chinese OHC, and ordinary least squares (OLS) and negative binomial regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model. Findings - The authors' results indicate that both social and economic returns have a positive effect on physicians' community participation and private content contribution, and their online seniority strengthens the positive effects of economic returns on community participation and private content contribution. Originality/value - The authors' research extends physicians' community participation by dividing content contribution into private and public, and enhances our understanding of the determinants of physicians' participation in OHCs by exploring the effects of social and economic returns, as well as the moderating effect of online seniority. Their findings contribute to the literature on e-Health and user participation, and provide management implications for OHC managers.