Abstract: Similar to face-to-face interactions, online instant messaging session has advantages of high efficiency, convenience and low additional cost. To explore the social support exchange mechanism of academic communication in the instant messaging context is conducive to giving full play to its complementary role in online academic communication. Taking WeChat group as the sample and using methods including content analysis and econometrics, we construct and calculate variables from users’ session data, to explore the social support exchange mechanism of academic communication. It is found that in the instant messaging context, information support and emotional support provided by academic users has a positive effect on his activeness. Users’ information support receipt is positively related to his activeness and structural social capital. Users’ activeness is positively related to the emotional support receipt, but structural social capital is not. Emotional support is first introduced into the research related to academic communication, and we explore antecedent variables of social support receipt, in which the role of users’ activeness and social capital are compared. Suggestions are provided for platform construction and group management to help academic users make best of instant messaging system to conduct online academic communication efficiently.

Key words: Instant messaging, Academic communication, Social support, Social exchange, Wechat group