Application of social capital theory to Nigerian university web sites

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to present a report on Nigerian universities' use of their web sites for collaboration.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive research methodology and content analysis technique were adopted in the research. The research was undertaken through an examination of the various university web site contents and web link structures. The study relied on the Google search engine as the source of its electronic data, while manual evaluation was used to carry out content analysis. Only Nigerian universities with 500 or more web pages were considered; 15 of the 92 universities met this criterion and were subsequently sampled.FindingsThe research revealed that Nigerian universities' web sites did not contain appropriate contents. Both non‐academic and academic contents expected to be found in university web sites were not available and, hence, made the expected inter‐university web links, electronic social networking and cooperation non‐existent. Consequently, only commercially‐based web sites had web link with the sampled web sites. The findings show that the required structure needed to support web collaboration among Nigerian universities has not been developed. Hence, further research to understand the existing structure required for electronic collaboration among Nigerian universities is needed.Research limitations/implicationsSince the study was limited to only those university web sites that had 500 or more web pages, this meant that universities with fewer than 500 web pages, which nevertheless may have traces of social network and cooperation in their link structures, were automatically excluded.Practical implicationsThe research provides information on the readiness of Nigerian universities to adopt web site technology for collaboration and solving the problem of resource sharing that they currently face. It has also laid the foundation for understanding Nigerian universities' web site use in relationship with three social capital dimensions: structural, contents, and relational.Originality/valueThe research provides web analysis information on Nigerian universities. Past experience has shown that research available on web analysis and characteristics of Nigerian universities is very limited and that none has been carried out on their web site use for e‐collaboration.