Workers’ isolation may occur in gig employment in the sharing economy, which generates a weak perception of the organization and unpredictable work performance. Drawing on social exchange theory, this paper proposes a framework to explore the effect of psychological contract fulfillment on gig workers’ task performance from the perspective of the mediation of organizational identification and the moderation of the length of service. A total of 223 samples were recruited from Didi (a ride-hailing company in China) drivers. The results show that both transactional and relational psychological contract fulfillment can directly affect gig workers’ task performance and also indirectly affect it via organizational identification. When the length of service for the current company is taken into consideration, transactional contract fulfillment, as the representation of a company’s recognition of gig workers’ effort, has a stronger effect on the organizational identification of gig workers who have been working for the company for less than a year compared with those who have been working for a longer period. The results show no difference in the relationship between relational psychological contract and organizational identification between the two groups. Transactional psychological contract fulfillment exhibits the same significant effect on gig workers’ task performance in both groups. By contrast, relational psychological contract fulfillment has a stronger effect on long-serving Didi drivers than on those who joined the company within the year. These findings generate certain theoretical and practical implications for gig employment management in the sharing economy.

Online health communities (OHCs) face the same problem as other social media platforms in terms of decreasing activity and user attrition. Drawing upon organizational support theory, this study explores how perceived community support affects user interactions and value co-creation which in turn influence their continuous participation. OHCs act as both health knowledge-sharing platforms and important social media for patients, and thus, interpersonal interactions in OHCs are categorized into health-related and general topic interactions. Considering the identity of patients, this study also examines the moderating effect of user-perceived social exclusion on the relationship between community support and user interaction. A total of 292 valid samples from a diabetic patient community in China were used to examine the proposed hypotheses through structural equation modeling. The results show that: (1) Community support has a positive effect on health topic and general topic interactions; (2) both types of interactions have significant positive effects on users’ perceived functional and social values, while general topic interaction is also related positively to users’ perceived affective value; (3) perceived functional value can result directly in continuous participation, while perceived social value contributes indirectly to continuous participation intention through perceived affective value; and (4) users perceived higher social exclusion are more influenced by community support to participate in health topic interactions than those who perceived lower social exclusion, while no significant difference in general topic interactions between two groups. The results of this study can provide implications for both researchers and practitioners.

Given the rapid growth of online group buying (OGB) market in China, this study was designed to examine the influencing mechanism of online reviews on Chinese consumers’ purchase intention in OGB context. A comprehensive model was developed based on technology acceptance model (TAM) and information adoption model (IAM). The construct named overall reviews was included in the research framework along with the variables from TAM and IAM. Promotional marketing (PM) was expected to play a moderating role between online reviews and consumers’ purchase intention. A quantitative study was conducted, and data were collected using a survey. To test the conceptual model’s hypotheses, Amos 18.0 was applied to estimate the structural equation model (SEM). The results indicate that review quality and reviewer characteristics have significant relationships with consumers’ perceived credibility and usefulness of an online review, which in turn to influence their purchase intention. Overall reviews proposed in this study also have significant effects on purchase intention. Furthermore, low-interest promotional marketing group act more rational purchase behavior than high group. Specific practical and theoretical implications and study limitations are discussed based on the results.

The knowledge contribution of members is essential and beneficial to both the business and users of online health communities (OHCs). This study explores and tests the effects of OHC users' psychological contracts on their community identification and knowledge-sharing behavior. A total of 362 valid responses from several well-known OHCs in China are used in the data analysis. The results of the path analysis with structural equation modeling show that users' transactional psychological contracts have a negative effect on their knowledge contribution both directly and indirectly by weakening their community identification. In contrast, users' relational psychological contracts can lead to increased active knowledge contributions both directly and indirectly by enhancing their community identification. Knowledge sharing self-efficacy can strengthen the relationship between relational psychological contracts and knowledge contributions, and the relationship between community identification and knowledge contributions. However, it has no significant impact on the path from transactional psychological contracts to knowledge contribution. The implications and direction of future works are presented on the basis of the results of the empirical analysis.

Purpose: This study explores whether and how Internet usage improves the subjective health of middle-aged and older adults by analyzing the mediating role of social engagement and heterogeneity of different living arrangements.Design/methodology/approach: Based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the ordinary least squares (OLS) method is adopted to explore the relationship between Internet usage and the subjective health of middle-aged and older adults. Propensity score matching method (PSM) is used to alleviate self-selection bias in the samples. The bootstrap method is adopted to test the mediating role of social engagement, and generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) is employed to resolve endogeneity. A permutation test is adopted to examine the heterogeneous effects of Internet usage on different living arrangements.Findings: Internet access can help relieve depression among middle-aged and older adults and enhance their self-rated health, leading to perceived changes in health status. However, Internet usage is not directly associated with health satisfaction among middle-aged and older adults. Nevertheless, Internet usage can enhance middle-aged and older adults' subjective health by facilitating social engagement and significantly influences middle-aged and older adults living with their children.Originality/value: This study reveals the underlying role of Internet usage among older adults and provides insights for governments and families to help middle-aged and older adults actively adapt to a digital society and improve their health.