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Blurring the Boundaries Through Digital Innovation pp 307–318Cite as

Encouraging Vaccination Behavior Through Online Social Media

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 19))

Abstract

We explore the suitability of online social media (OSM) for influencing the public’s decision-making process regarding a vaccination to protect girls against HPV, a virus associated with cervical cancer. Parents of girls in the target cohort were invited to online discussion forums where they could discuss their opinions on the vaccination. They were exposed to promotion of the vaccination in one of four different ways, and coming from one of two different sources, i.e., peers or government health representatives. Following the health belief model (HBM), these messages served as cues to action. Using a novel network analysis approach, we find that the HBM does not adequately account for influence via OSM. Specifically we show that vaccination decisions are not taken in social isolation, a fact thus far ignored by various forms of the HBM. Implications for studies assessing the use of online channels for health communication are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Literal texts have been translated from Dutch.

  2. 2.

    The research ethics committee of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research was consulted during the design of this study.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Groningen, The Netherlands

    David J. Langley & Remco Wijn

  2. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    David J. Langley

  3. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sacha Epskamp & Riet van Bork

Authors
  1. David J. Langley
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  2. Remco Wijn
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  3. Sacha Epskamp
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  4. Riet van Bork
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David J. Langley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Sapienza Universitá di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Fabrizio D'Ascenzo

  2. Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, Milano, Italy

    Massimo Magni

  3. Department of Human Sciences "R. Massa", University of Milan Bicocca, Milano, Italy

    Alessandra Lazazzara

  4. Faculty of Law, eCampus University, Novedrate, Italy

    Stefano Za

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Langley, D.J., Wijn, R., Epskamp, S., van Bork, R. (2016). Encouraging Vaccination Behavior Through Online Social Media. In: D'Ascenzo, F., Magni, M., Lazazzara, A., Za, S. (eds) Blurring the Boundaries Through Digital Innovation. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38974-5_24

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