Do online social networks support decision-making?

The rapid adoption of online social networks (OSN) across different stakeholders raises several interesting questions on different facets of its dynamics. Properly governed and designed OSN can play an important role in supporting different types of decision making (DM), as they provide their participants/stakeholders various forms of support, ranging from the instrumental to the emotional and informational. The synergy of these themes provides an innovative and unique perspective on the actual process of DM within OSN. We use online survey method to address the potential utilization of OSN as a support tool for the DM process. Our results indicate that OSN support and empower users in their decision making process specifically in three key phases that include Intelligence, Design and Choice. Our results also reveal that different types of users (observers, seekers and advisers) have significantly different participation styles, which in turn have an impact on the efficacy of the DM process. We discuss policy implications for OSN designers based on results from this study.