TY - JOUR
T1 - Turn Your Online Weight Management from Zero to Hero
T2 - A Multidimensional, Continuous-Time Evaluation
AU - Zhou, Tongxin
AU - Yan, Lu
AU - Wang, Yingfei
AU - Tan, Yong
N1 - Funding Information:
History: Accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems. Funding: This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71729001]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4046.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2021 INFORMS
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Online weight-loss communities (OWCs) provide individuals with various tools to support their weight management, such as weight recorders and weight-loss journals. These tools enable individuals to focus on different aspects of their self-regulation, including weight-loss outcomes and behavioral routines. Prior research, however, has not fully incorporated individuals’ self-regulation focuses; thus, there is limited understanding of individuals’ online weight-management dynamics as well as the operating mechanisms of OWCs. This gap in the literature motivates us to develop a framework that is able to account for individuals’ multiple self-regulation focuses, termed self-regulatory dimensions in this study. We propose a multidimensional, continuous-time hidden Markov model, which can not only capture individuals’ self-regulatory dimensions jointly as a multidimensional vector, but also can incorporate a hidden layer of dynamics that depicts individuals’ cognitive states in producing weight-management behaviors. By investigating a leading noncommercial OWC in the United States, we find that individuals tend to increase their journal-recording behaviors while decreasing self-weighing behaviors after they have participated in online social activities. Given that individuals usually expend limited effort toward weight management, this result suggests that individuals may shift their focus from weight-loss outcomes (i.e., changes in weight) to weight-management behavioral routines. Therefore, neglecting either self-regulatory dimension would result in an underestimation of individuals’ engagement in conducting self-management in OWCs. Our results also provide insight into social influence on individuals’ weight-management behaviors. This study contributes to the extant literature on individuals’ engagement in online healthcare communities and the functionality of OWCs.
AB - Online weight-loss communities (OWCs) provide individuals with various tools to support their weight management, such as weight recorders and weight-loss journals. These tools enable individuals to focus on different aspects of their self-regulation, including weight-loss outcomes and behavioral routines. Prior research, however, has not fully incorporated individuals’ self-regulation focuses; thus, there is limited understanding of individuals’ online weight-management dynamics as well as the operating mechanisms of OWCs. This gap in the literature motivates us to develop a framework that is able to account for individuals’ multiple self-regulation focuses, termed self-regulatory dimensions in this study. We propose a multidimensional, continuous-time hidden Markov model, which can not only capture individuals’ self-regulatory dimensions jointly as a multidimensional vector, but also can incorporate a hidden layer of dynamics that depicts individuals’ cognitive states in producing weight-management behaviors. By investigating a leading noncommercial OWC in the United States, we find that individuals tend to increase their journal-recording behaviors while decreasing self-weighing behaviors after they have participated in online social activities. Given that individuals usually expend limited effort toward weight management, this result suggests that individuals may shift their focus from weight-loss outcomes (i.e., changes in weight) to weight-management behavioral routines. Therefore, neglecting either self-regulatory dimension would result in an underestimation of individuals’ engagement in conducting self-management in OWCs. Our results also provide insight into social influence on individuals’ weight-management behaviors. This study contributes to the extant literature on individuals’ engagement in online healthcare communities and the functionality of OWCs.
KW - multidimensional, continuous-time hidden Markov model (MCTHMM)
KW - online weight-loss communities (OWCs)
KW - self-regulation
KW - self-regulatory dimensions
KW - weight management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132945214&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85132945214&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4046
DO - 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4046
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132945214
SN - 0025-1909
VL - 68
SP - 3507
EP - 3527
JO - Management Science
JF - Management Science
IS - 5
ER -