Understanding Continuance Intention Determinants to Adopt Online Health Care Community: An Empirical Study of Food Safety

• Main Authors: Jinxin Yang, Din Jong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: online healthcare community; food safety crisis; perceived critical mass; image; para-social interaction; social interaction tie
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6514
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

The purpose of this research is to determine whether users’ social interaction tie and trust have a mediating effect on the willingness to use the online healthcare community (OHC) platform on an ongoing basis to respond to food safety crises and monitor food safety practices. During the three-month survey, we conducted an online investigation of users who had experience sharing on the OHC platform and were concerned about food safety. Thereby, three hundred and fifty-two valid questionnaires were received and partial least squares was adopted in this study to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical results show that perceived critical mass, image, and para-social interaction strengthen the social interaction tie between users and the food safety platform. In addition, this study found that social interaction tie and trust of OHC platform users increased users’ willingness to continue using the OHC platform. This research provides OHC platform managers with an in-depth understanding of online social interactions on food safety pages. Moreover, the results of this study can help food business owners, government regulators, hospitals, and physicians to improve the way they use the Web for opinion-led food safety crises and provide insight into the intent of promoting the ongoing use of OHC platforms.