The Influences of Online Cultural Capital on Social Tagging Behavior

This study examines the influences of online cultural capital on social tagging behavior in Delicious.com. The researchers identified three online cultural capital-related variables (understanding of social tagging, understanding of Delicious' social functionalities, and quantity of tags and bookmarks) via factor analysis of a survey dataset and analyzed their influences on tagging motivations (information organization-oriented vs. social-oriented) and tagging strategies (object-based tagging vs. situation-based tagging). An existing dataset from a previous survey of Delicious users was used for the analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the influences of the three variables on tagging motivations and strategies. The study found that understanding of social tagging has a significant positive influence on information organization-oriented tagging; understanding of Delicious' social functionalities has a significant positive influence on social-oriented tagging. In tagging strategies, understanding of Delicious' functionalities significantly influenced how strategic respondents are in situation-based tagging. Quantity of tags and bookmarks influenced both types of tagging strategies.