Lose your weight with online buddies: behavioral contagion in an online weight-loss community

Xiaolong Song received the PhD Degree from the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in July 2015. He is currently Lecturer at the School of Management Science and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China. He has been Visiting Scholar in the Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, USA, in 2012. His research interests are mainly focused on health IT, social media, E-commerce and social networks.

Jiahua Jin received the PhD Degree from the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in January 2016. He is currently Lecturer at the School of Economics and Management, University of Science & Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. His research interests are mainly focused on social media, user behavior and business data analytics.

Yi-Hung Liu received the PhD Degree in Information Management from National Central University, Taiwan, in December 2014. Since 2018, he has been with the Department of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang, China, where he is currently Associate Professor. He has been Visiting Scholar in the Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, USA, in 2013. His research interests are mainly focused on text mining, web mining, E-commerce and healthcare.

Xiangbin Yan received the PhD Degree from the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in March 2005. Currently, he is Professor at the School of Economics and Management, University of Science & Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. His research interests include business intelligence, E-commerce, business data analytics and social networks.