Table 1.

Taxonomy derived from the literature on measuring health care social media value.

Taxonomic class	Category Aa	Category Ba	Category Ca	Category Da
Type of article	ISb or ITc Business Medical eHealth	Peer reviewed Non–peer reviewed	—d	—
Type of value	IS value Health value	Utilitarian value Hedonic value	Instrumental value Intrinsic value	Contextual value
Focus of analysis	Value of health care social media and the need for its measurement	Measurement of outcomes resulting from the use of health care social media	Deriving health information from measuring social media data	—
Period of analysis	Pre–social media adoption	Post–social media adoption	—	—
Measurement metric	Monetary value	Non–monetary value	—	—
Measurement level	Micro Aggregate	International National Industry Organizational Individual	—	—
Measurement approach	Quantitativee	Qualitativef	Mixed methodg	—
Measurement scale	Nominalh	Ordinali	Intervalj	Ratiok

^aCategory, as used here, refers to alternatives within a taxonomic class, in no particular order.

^bIS: information systems.

^cIT: information technology.

^dSome taxonomic classes have fewer categories, hence the empty cells.

^eQuantitative measurement involves the use of an interval or a ratio scale.

^fQualitative measurement involves the use of a nominal or an ordinal scale.

^gThe mixed method approach involves the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

^hA nominal scale is used for classification or grouping (eg, = or ≠).

ⁱAn ordinal scale is used for comparison and sorting (eg, > or <).

^jAn interval scale is used to determine difference or affinity (eg, + or −).

^kA ratio scale is used to determine magnitude or amount (eg, x or /).