Social capital, social media, and TV ratings Online publication date: Mon, 09-Jan-2017
by Chong Oh; Stephanie Yergeau
International Journal of Business Information Systems (IJBIS), Vol. 24, No. 2, 2017
Abstract: Motivated by the increasing role of social media in relating to economic outcomes, this paper examines the relationship between social networking sites (SNS) and television ratings drawing from the social capital theoretical framework of bonding and bridging. Based on the context of US network television (TV) programs, we collected measures for Facebook likes and Facebook talk for 38 TV programs and their respective Nielsen ratings over a period of five weeks, resulting in a sample size of 165 weekly observations. In testing OLS regression models, we determined that key social media measures, proxy for social capital, are positively associated with performance ratings. In essence, TV programs with a higher number of Facebook likes (bridging) and Facebook talk (bonding) are likely to relate to higher performance ratings. In addition we conclude that weak ties (bridging) are important as a conduit to connect fans to TV shows but in the long run, strong ties (bonding) are needed to reinforce those relationships towards fan loyalty. Contributions to both research and practice are discussed.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business Information Systems (IJBIS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook