IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/elmark/v32y2022i4d10.1007_s12525-022-00588-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What factors influence grassroots knowledge supplier performance in online knowledge platforms? Evidence from a paid Q&A service

Author

Listed:
  • Qingfeng Zeng

    (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

  • Wei Zhuang

    (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

  • Qian Guo

    (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

  • Weiguo Fan

    (University of Iowa)

Abstract

The popularity of online paid knowledge platforms offers opportunities for massive grassroots knowledge suppliers to participate in knowledge sharing services and get financial rewards, but little is known about the determinants influencing users’ payment decisions in the particular knowledge transaction such as paid Q&A. This study examines the factors that influence the performance of grassroots knowledge supplier in paid Q&A platforms. We develop a research model integrating reputation, experience, and authority signal to explain the knowledge payment behavior based on signaling theory. Using a panel data analysis of 12,419 records from Zhihu, the largest online Q&A platform in China, our empirical study reveals that user payment behavior is significantly influenced by reputation signal and experience signal of a knowledge supplier. Interestingly, different from previous conclusions on professional knowledge payment platforms, authority signal of grassroots knowledge supplier has no significant impact on the payment behavior of online Q&A platform users.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingfeng Zeng & Wei Zhuang & Qian Guo & Weiguo Fan, 2022. "What factors influence grassroots knowledge supplier performance in online knowledge platforms? Evidence from a paid Q&A service," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(4), pages 2507-2523, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:elmark:v:32:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s12525-022-00588-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s12525-022-00588-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12525-022-00588-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12525-022-00588-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yanli Zhang & Xinmiao Li & Weiguo Fan, 2020. "User adoption of physician's replies in an online health community: An empirical study," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(10), pages 1179-1191, October.
    2. Yongqiang Sun & Nan Wang & Xiao‐Liang Shen & Xi Zhang, 2019. "Bias effects, synergistic effects, and information contingency effects: Developing and testing an extended information adoption model in social Q&A," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 70(12), pages 1368-1382, December.
    3. Saboo, Alok R. & Kumar, V. & Ramani, Girish, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of social media activities on human brand sales," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 524-541.
    4. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    5. Yili (Kevin) Hong & Paul A. Pavlou, 2014. "Product Fit Uncertainty in Online Markets: Nature, Effects, and Antecedents," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 328-344, June.
    6. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    7. Zhang, Mingli & Zhang, Yan & Zhao, Lu & Li, Xiaoyong, 2020. "What drives online course sales? Signaling effects of user-generated information in the paid knowledge market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 389-397.
    8. Tingting Song & Jinghua Huang & Yong Tan & Yifan Yu, 2019. "Using User- and Marketer-Generated Content for Box Office Revenue Prediction: Differences Between Microblogging and Third-Party Platforms," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 191-203, March.
    9. Hailiang Chen & Prabuddha De & Yu Jeffrey Hu, 2015. "IT-Enabled Broadcasting in Social Media: An Empirical Study of Artists’ Activities and Music Sales," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 513-531, September.
    10. Liu, Zhiwei & Park, Sangwon, 2015. "What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 140-151.
    11. Nikolay Archak & Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis, 2011. "Deriving the Pricing Power of Product Features by Mining Consumer Reviews," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(8), pages 1485-1509, August.
    12. Erik Ernesto Vazquez, 2021. "Effect of an e-retailer’s product category and social media platform selection on perceived quality of e-retail products," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(1), pages 139-157, March.
    13. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    14. Pee, L.G. & Jiang, James & Klein, Gary, 2018. "Signaling effect of website usability on repurchase intention," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 228-241.
    15. Hossain, Mokter, 2018. "Grassroots innovation: The state of the art and future perspectives," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 63-69.
    16. Zhang, Yan & Zhang, Mingli & Luo, Nuan & Wang, Yu & Niu, Tao, 2019. "Understanding the formation mechanism of high-quality knowledge in social question and answer communities: A knowledge co-creation perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 72-84.
    17. Xiaomo Liu & G. Alan Wang & Weiguo Fan & Zhongju Zhang, 2020. "Finding Useful Solutions in Online Knowledge Communities: A Theory-Driven Design and Multilevel Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 731-752, September.
    18. Sungjoon Nam & Puneet Manchanda & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2010. "The Effect of Signal Quality and Contiguous Word of Mouth on Customer Acquisition for a Video-on-Demand Service," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 690-700, 07-08.
    19. Angela Aerry Choi & Daegon Cho & Dobin Yim & Jae Yun Moon & Wonseok Oh, 2019. "When Seeing Helps Believing: The Interactive Effects of Previews and Reviews on E-Book Purchases," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1164-1183, December.
    20. Mario Pansera & Soumodip Sarkar, 2016. "Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, January.
    21. Saradindu Bhaduri & Hemant Kumar, 2011. "Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to innovate: tracing the motivation of ‘grassroot’ innovators in India," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(1), pages 27-55, June.
    22. Naveen Kumar & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2018. "Exit, Voice, and Response on Digital Platforms: An Empirical Investigation of Online Management Response Strategies," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 849-870, December.
    23. Xitong Li, 2018. "Impact of Average Rating on Social Media Endorsement: The Moderating Role of Rating Dispersion and Discount Threshold," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 739-754, September.
    24. Paulo B. Goes & Chenhui Guo & Mingfeng Lin, 2016. "Do Incentive Hierarchies Induce User Effort? Evidence from an Online Knowledge Exchange," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 497-516, September.
    25. Kromidha, Endrit & Li, Matthew C., 2019. "Determinants of leadership in online social trading: A signaling theory perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 184-197.
    26. Kostyra, Daniel S. & Reiner, Jochen & Natter, Martin & Klapper, Daniel, 2016. "Decomposing the effects of online customer reviews on brand, price, and product attributes," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 11-26.
    27. Hua (Jonathan) Ye & Cecil Eng Huang Chua & Jun Sun, 2019. "Enhancing mobile data services performance via online reviews," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 441-452, April.
    28. Saif Benjaafar & Guangwen Kong & Xiang Li & Costas Courcoubetis, 2019. "Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage, and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 477-493, February.
    29. Sarah C. Rice, 2012. "Reputation and Uncertainty in Online Markets: An Experimental Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 436-452, June.
    30. Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2017. "Understanding Voluntary Knowledge Provision and Content Contribution Through a Social-Media-Based Prediction Market: A Field Experiment," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 529-546, September.
    31. Raban Daphne Ruth, 2012. "Conversation as a source of satisfaction and continuance in a question-and-answer site," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 427-437, July.
    32. Jingchuan Pu & Yuan Chen & Liangfei Qiu & Hsing Kenneth Cheng, 2020. "Does Identity Disclosure Help or Hurt User Content Generation? Social Presence, Inhibition, and Displacement Effects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 297-322, June.
    33. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhengwei Li & Yadan Zheng & Xin Zhao, 2024. "The impacts of platform owner entry on prospective complementors’ intention to join: Discouraged by deterrent or attracted by good reputation," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 34(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Mingli & Zhang, Yan & Zhao, Lu & Li, Xiaoyong, 2020. "What drives online course sales? Signaling effects of user-generated information in the paid knowledge market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 389-397.
    2. Liangfei Qiu & Arunima Chhikara & Asoo Vakharia, 2021. "Multidimensional Observational Learning in Social Networks: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 876-894, September.
    3. Xiao, Lin & Li, Xiaofeng & Zhang, Yucheng, 2023. "Exploring the factors influencing consumer engagement behavior regarding short-form video advertising: A big data perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    4. Xunyi Wang & Meiling Jiang & Wencui Han & Liangfei Qiu, 2022. "Do Emotions Sell? The Impact of Emotional Expressions on Sales in the Space‐Sharing Economy," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 65-82, January.
    5. Wasike, Ben, 2022. "When the influencer says jump! How influencer signaling affects engagement with COVID-19 misinformation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    6. Wesley Friske & Seth A. Hoelscher & Atanas Nik Nikolov, 2023. "The impact of voluntary sustainability reporting on firm value: Insights from signaling theory," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 372-392, March.
    7. Young Kwark & Gene Moo Lee & Paul A. Pavlou & Liangfei Qiu, 2021. "On the Spillover Effects of Online Product Reviews on Purchases: Evidence from Clickstream Data," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 895-913, September.
    8. Dominik Gutt, 2018. "In the Eye of the Beholder? Empirically Decomposing Different Economic Implications of the Online Rating Variance," Working Papers Dissertations 40, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    9. Karsten Mause, 2009. "Too Much Competition in Higher Education? Some Conceptual Remarks on the Excessive‐Signaling Hypothesis," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(5), pages 1107-1133, November.
    10. Zibo Liu & Zhijie Lin & Ying Zhang & Yong Tan, 2022. "The Signaling Effect of Sampling Size in Physical Goods Sampling Via Online Channels," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 529-546, February.
    11. Kim Oosterlinck & Anne-Sophie Radermecker, 2019. "“The Master of …”: creating names for art history and the art market," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(1), pages 57-95, March.
    12. Dongpu Fu & Yili Hong & Kanliang Wang & Weiguo Fan, 2018. "Effects of membership tier on user content generation behaviors: evidence from online reviews," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 457-483, September.
    13. Warut Khern-am-nuai & Karthik Kannan & Hossein Ghasemkhani, 2018. "Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Rewards for Contributing Reviews in an Online Platform," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 871-892, December.
    14. Ni Huang & Tianshu Sun & Peiyu Chen & Joseph M. Golden, 2019. "Word-of-Mouth System Implementation and Customer Conversion: A Randomized Field Experiment," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 805-818, September.
    15. Sandeep Khurana & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2019. "When a Doctor Knows, It Shows: An Empirical Analysis of Doctors’ Responses in a Q&A Forum of an Online Healthcare Portal," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 872-891, September.
    16. Yaokuang Li & Li Ling & Daru Zhang & Juan Wu, 2021. "Lead investors and information disclosure: A test of signaling theory by fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 836-849, June.
    17. JP Vergne & Georg Wernicke & Steffen Brenner, 2018. "Signal Incongruence and Its Consequences: A Study of Media Disapproval and CEO Overcompensation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 796-817, October.
    18. Mariia Petryk & Michael Rivera & Siddharth Bhattacharya & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "How Network Embeddedness Affects Real-Time Performance Feedback: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1467-1489, December.
    19. Naveen Kumar & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "A Hashtag Is Worth a Thousand Words: An Empirical Investigation of Social Media Strategies in Trademarking Hashtags," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1403-1427, December.
    20. Ramah Al Balawi & Yuheng Hu & Liangfei Qiu, 2023. "Brand Crisis and Customer Relationship Management on Social Media: Evidence from a Natural Experiment from the Airline Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 442-462, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Paid Q&A platform; Grassroots knowledge supplier; Knowledge payment; Signaling theory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:elmark:v:32:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s12525-022-00588-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.