Mobile instant messaging use and social capital: Direct and indirect associations with employee outcomes

This study explores how mobile instant messaging use, affordances, and social capital may directly and indirectly influence positive employee outcomes. A field survey of 245 Hong Kong real estate agents showed that their mobile instant messaging (MIM) use and affordances were positively associated with job performance, job satisfaction, and relational satisfaction, and with online bridging and bonding social capital. While bridging capital was not associated with any of the three outcomes, bonding social capital was positively related to the two satisfaction measures. However (with one small exception), neither type of social capital mediated relationships between MIM use and affordances, and employee outcomes.