Predicting intention to participate in socially responsible collective action in social networking website groups

The present study uses the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model to predict group members’ intentions (“we-intention”) to participate in using a social networking site (SNS) for collective action. Participants reported their beliefs about social influence processes, including their beliefs about subjective norms, group norms, and social identity; they also reported their beliefs about using an SNS for a charitable collective action, which was perceived as corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study applied an integrated research framework in the context of the Facebook group “KolorujeMY,” a group with an interest in supporting social causes in Poland. Our structural equation modeling results indicate that social identity has a positive and direct effect on we-intention to use SNS for collective action and that perceived CSR also had a positive and significant impact on we-intention. Similarly, we found that desire has a positive and significant effect on we-intention to use SNS for collective action. Our results also indicate that desire partially mediates the relationship between social influence beliefs and we-intention. Overall, this study provides insight into the understanding of the impact of social influence processes, the role of desire, and perceived CSR beliefs in terms of predicting we-intentions in a social networking environment.