Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104289
Mingwei Li , Loo Geok Pee , Shan-Ling Pan , Xiang Xie
As digital platforms evolve, more vendors are participating in multi-vendor loyalty programs (MVLPs), which offer a wide variety of point redemption rewards to enhance customer engagement. However, an increase in redemption options can lead to greater confusion because of the choice overload effect. In this study, we explore how to design customer redemption analytics (CRA) for marketing professionals to effectively manage customer redemption choice overload in MVLPs. Using the design science research approach, we identify three CRA design requirements, which inform the formulation of design principles. We then instantiate these design principles into an operational CRA by embedding analytical algorithms and design features across three development iterations. To test the effectiveness of the artifacts, two summative evaluations are conducted in a real MVLP context. The results of our evaluation suggest the effectiveness of our designed CRA in reducing customer redemption choice overload from the perspectives of customers, vendors, and program managers. Our research contributes to design knowledge concerning CRA development in both the problem space and the solution space.
{"title":"Customer redemption analytics in multi-vendor loyalty programs: a design science research approach","authors":"Mingwei Li , Loo Geok Pee , Shan-Ling Pan , Xiang Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104289","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104289","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As digital platforms evolve, more vendors are participating in multi-vendor loyalty programs (MVLPs), which offer a wide variety of point redemption rewards to enhance customer engagement. However, an increase in redemption options can lead to greater confusion because of the choice overload effect. In this study, we explore how to design customer redemption analytics (CRA) for marketing professionals to effectively manage customer redemption choice overload in MVLPs. Using the design science research approach, we identify three CRA design requirements, which inform the formulation of design principles. We then instantiate these design principles into an operational CRA by embedding analytical algorithms and design features across three development iterations. To test the effectiveness of the artifacts, two summative evaluations are conducted in a real MVLP context. The results of our evaluation suggest the effectiveness of our designed CRA in reducing customer redemption choice overload from the perspectives of customers, vendors, and program managers. Our research contributes to design knowledge concerning CRA development in both the problem space and the solution space.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104289"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-03DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104288
Jianping Zheng , Youwei Wang , Yifan Dou , Hong Ling
With the development of live-streaming e-commerce, brands are experimenting with live streaming as a new sales channel. However, the real-time nature of live streaming, coupled with promotional content and a large volume of products, may overwhelm viewers and diminish the brand’s benefits. From the dual perspectives of information overload theory and trust theory, this paper utilizes the sales data of beauty and skincare products during the “Double 11″ shopping festival of Taobao in the year 2020 and examines the effects of the duration of product introduction and the number of listed products on sales performance for different live-streaming modes. The empirical results reveal that the duration of product introduction affects brand online stores’ sales performance positively, while the number of listed products affects sales performance negatively. In addition, compared with Internet celebrity live streaming, the positive effect of the duration of product introduction on sales performance is stronger in the brand shop live-streaming mode. Compared with brand shop live streaming, the negative effect of the number of listed products on sales performance is stronger in the Internet celebrity live-streaming mode.
{"title":"The marketing effects of live streaming in online marketplaces","authors":"Jianping Zheng , Youwei Wang , Yifan Dou , Hong Ling","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the development of live-streaming e-commerce, brands are experimenting with live streaming as a new sales channel. However, the real-time nature of live streaming, coupled with promotional content and a large volume of products, may overwhelm viewers and diminish the brand’s benefits. From the dual perspectives of information overload theory and trust theory, this paper utilizes the sales data of beauty and skincare products during the “Double 11″ shopping festival of Taobao in the year 2020 and examines the effects of the duration of product introduction and the number of listed products on sales performance for different live-streaming modes. The empirical results reveal that the duration of product introduction affects brand online stores’ sales performance positively, while the number of listed products affects sales performance negatively. In addition, compared with Internet celebrity live streaming, the positive effect of the duration of product introduction on sales performance is stronger in the brand shop live-streaming mode. Compared with brand shop live streaming, the negative effect of the number of listed products on sales performance is stronger in the Internet celebrity live-streaming mode.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104288"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104276
Yayuan Liu , Haofeng Jin , Yu Tong
Low user payments have long been a challenge for experts who monetize knowledge on paid question-and-answer (Q&A) platforms. To address this issue, many platforms have introduced a “shared Q&A” service, in which users can pay a nominal fee to access previously generated answers. However, its economic implications for experts remain underexplored. This study proposes that shared Q&As play a dual role in both stimulating and substituting for the demand for paid Q&A services, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between an expert’s shared Q&A volume and paid Q&A demand. Drawing on the theoretical lens of knowledge transfer, we further propose that this relationship is moderated by knowledge complexity, knowledge context dependence, and knowledge tacitness of shared Q&As. Empirical analyses based on a leading paid Q&A platform support most of the hypotheses. Our findings add prominent contribution to the knowledge payment literature and offer valuable insights into how shared Q&As can be used to increase expert revenue.
{"title":"Pay to view or pay to ask? The effect of shared questions-and-answers on paid question-and-answer demand","authors":"Yayuan Liu , Haofeng Jin , Yu Tong","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104276","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104276","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Low user payments have long been a challenge for experts who monetize knowledge on paid question-and-answer (Q&A) platforms. To address this issue, many platforms have introduced a “shared Q&A” service, in which users can pay a nominal fee to access previously generated answers. However, its economic implications for experts remain underexplored. This study proposes that shared Q&As play a dual role in both stimulating and substituting for the demand for paid Q&A services, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between an expert’s shared Q&A volume and paid Q&A demand. Drawing on the theoretical lens of knowledge transfer, we further propose that this relationship is moderated by knowledge complexity, knowledge context dependence, and knowledge tacitness of shared Q&As. Empirical analyses based on a leading paid Q&A platform support most of the hypotheses. Our findings add prominent contribution to the knowledge payment literature and offer valuable insights into how shared Q&As can be used to increase expert revenue.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104276"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104280
Xuequn Wang , Xiaolin Lin , Bin Shao
Social commerce continues to grow as a channel for firms to engage with consumers. However, few studies have attempted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of customer engagement in generating business outcomes. We utilize a sequential mixed methods design and develop a model illustrating the mechanism through which social commerce generates business outcomes via customer engagement based on the structure–conduct–outcome (SCO) framework from the consumer perspective. We use a qualitative study to conceptualize and develop a contextualized structure, consumer conduct, and outcomes in the context of social commerce. We collected data from American consumers using three rounds of surveys and used quantitative analysis to validate our research. The results show that social ties and social media commitment increase brand community commitment, which is positively related to both social media brand recommendation and brand community interaction (two important types of customer engagement). Accordingly, consumers’ double adoption of social commerce leads to brand commitment, in turn affecting brand loyalty and word of mouth. Our study provides an enhanced understanding of customer engagement in social commerce by validating the SCO framework and integrating the dual model of environmental perception and double adoption. It delivers practical insights into how social commerce can be used as a strategic tool for gaining business benefits.
{"title":"Social commerce model for business outcomes: Validated structure–conduct–outcome framework using mixed methods design","authors":"Xuequn Wang , Xiaolin Lin , Bin Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104280","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104280","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social commerce continues to grow as a channel for firms to engage with consumers. However, few studies have attempted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of customer engagement in generating business outcomes. We utilize a sequential mixed methods design and develop a model illustrating the mechanism through which social commerce generates business outcomes via customer engagement based on the structure–conduct–outcome (SCO) framework from the consumer perspective. We use a qualitative study to conceptualize and develop a contextualized structure, consumer conduct, and outcomes in the context of social commerce. We collected data from American consumers using three rounds of surveys and used quantitative analysis to validate our research. The results show that social ties and social media commitment increase brand community commitment, which is positively related to both social media brand recommendation and brand community interaction (two important types of customer engagement). Accordingly, consumers’ double adoption of social commerce leads to brand commitment, in turn affecting brand loyalty and word of mouth. Our study provides an enhanced understanding of customer engagement in social commerce by validating the SCO framework and integrating the dual model of environmental perception and double adoption. It delivers practical insights into how social commerce can be used as a strategic tool for gaining business benefits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104280"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104277
Florian Wintmölle, Marco Meier, Christian Maier
Practice shows that many users stop disclosing personal health information (PHI) in mobile health applications due to privacy concerns about potential misuse, thereby foregoing potential health benefits. We draw on privacy calculus theory to explain the reasons for this deliberate behavioral shift, which we label discontinuous disclosure. Privacy calculus theory states that users weigh the benefits of disclosure against the associated costs. We suggest that discontinuous disclosure arises from a discrepancy in users’ perceptions regarding these benefits and costs. Initially, they expect benefits from their PHI disclosure (e.g., health benefits) but subsequently do not experience these benefits or encounter unexpected costs (e.g., privacy concerns), which eventually lead them to discontinue disclosing. To account for such changing perceptions over time, we suggest that a combination of initial expectations and subsequent experiences regarding disclosure benefits and costs leads to discontinuous disclosure. We conducted a two-step fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on survey data from 322 mobile health application users and reveal four configurations that explain discontinuous disclosure. We contribute to privacy research by introducing discontinuous disclosure as a novel disclosure behavior characterized by the discrepancy between expectations and experiences. We also extend privacy calculus theory by shifting from a static, one-time tradeoff to a dynamic view where (1) initial expectations form a baseline for assessing subsequent experiences and (2) experienced and expected benefits and costs work together to explain disclosure behavior. Additionally, we contribute to IS research on mobile health applications by explaining users’ disclosure behavior in this context.
{"title":"Privacy over health? Understanding discontinuous disclosure in mobile health applications","authors":"Florian Wintmölle, Marco Meier, Christian Maier","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104277","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104277","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Practice shows that many users stop disclosing personal health information (PHI) in mobile health applications due to privacy concerns about potential misuse, thereby foregoing potential health benefits. We draw on privacy calculus theory to explain the reasons for this deliberate behavioral shift, which we label discontinuous disclosure. Privacy calculus theory states that users weigh the benefits of disclosure against the associated costs. We suggest that discontinuous disclosure arises from a discrepancy in users’ perceptions regarding these benefits and costs. Initially, they expect benefits from their PHI disclosure (e.g., health benefits) but subsequently do not experience these benefits or encounter unexpected costs (e.g., privacy concerns), which eventually lead them to discontinue disclosing. To account for such changing perceptions over time, we suggest that a combination of initial expectations and subsequent experiences regarding disclosure benefits and costs leads to discontinuous disclosure. We conducted a two-step fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on survey data from 322 mobile health application users and reveal four configurations that explain discontinuous disclosure. We contribute to privacy research by introducing discontinuous disclosure as a novel disclosure behavior characterized by the discrepancy between expectations and experiences. We also extend privacy calculus theory by shifting from a static, one-time tradeoff to a dynamic view where (1) initial expectations form a baseline for assessing subsequent experiences and (2) experienced and expected benefits and costs work together to explain disclosure behavior. Additionally, we contribute to IS research on mobile health applications by explaining users’ disclosure behavior in this context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104277"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104279
Jingkun Bai , Yifan Zha , Haoxiang Zhang , Chengqi Wang , Eva Mavroudi
Organizational agility is vital for the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in turbulent environments. While several studies have examined the role of digital platforms in shaping organizational agility, the impact of digital platform synergy on organizational agility in the context of SMEs remains underresearched. To address this gap, we examine the impact of SMEs’ digital platform synergy on their organizational agility and identify the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Using a sample of 421 Chinese manufacturing SMEs, the analysis demonstrates that digital platform synergy inhibits organizational agility. Furthermore, organizational inertia mediates this relationship, while organizational modularity negatively moderates the positive effect of digital platform synergy on organizational inertia, thereby reducing the mediating effect of organizational inertia. The study advances the growing literature on the factors influencing the agility of SMEs in digital contexts by illuminating the nuanced roles of digital platform synergy, organizational inertia, and modularity.
{"title":"Relating digital platform synergy and SME agility: The roles of organizational inertia and modularity","authors":"Jingkun Bai , Yifan Zha , Haoxiang Zhang , Chengqi Wang , Eva Mavroudi","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104279","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104279","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Organizational agility is vital for the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in turbulent environments. While several studies have examined the role of digital platforms in shaping organizational agility, the impact of digital platform synergy on organizational agility in the context of SMEs remains underresearched. To address this gap, we examine the impact of SMEs’ digital platform synergy on their organizational agility and identify the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Using a sample of 421 Chinese manufacturing SMEs, the analysis demonstrates that digital platform synergy inhibits organizational agility. Furthermore, organizational inertia mediates this relationship, while organizational modularity negatively moderates the positive effect of digital platform synergy on organizational inertia, thereby reducing the mediating effect of organizational inertia. The study advances the growing literature on the factors influencing the agility of SMEs in digital contexts by illuminating the nuanced roles of digital platform synergy, organizational inertia, and modularity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104279"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104278
Raras Kirana Wandira , Gwo-Ji Sheen , Aida Loussaief , Julian Ming Sung Cheng , Chris Zeng Wei Luo
The virtual world-based metaverse could revolutionize how individuals experience reality by extending to the physical world and creating a seamless bridge for interaction between digital and tangible realms. Virtualizing live concerts to digital format in a virtual-physical integrated metaverse environment, compared to traditional virtual settings, provides a new paradigm for participating in a more immersive and interactive digital concert. Mainly drawing upon the Cognitive Absorption Theory and complemented by the Process Virtualization Theory, this research proposes a multi-stage framework to investigate the mechanism and underlying processes related to metaverse concert participation under contingent situations. This research applies a multi-survey approach, with two sequential quantitative studies—one distributed in Indonesia using Poplite and a subsequent survey in the United States through MTurk. The consistent findings from the two studies provide robust evidence for the roles of participants’ intrinsic motivations and the characteristics of the virtualization mechanism as vital determinants to influence the virtualizability of the metaverse concert process, leading to higher concert participation intention. Furthermore, concert performance risk is proven to act as a moderator in the relationship between process virtualizability and intention.
{"title":"Concertscapes: An investigation of the mediating and moderating mechanism driving attendance intention through the metaverse platform","authors":"Raras Kirana Wandira , Gwo-Ji Sheen , Aida Loussaief , Julian Ming Sung Cheng , Chris Zeng Wei Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104278","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104278","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The virtual world-based metaverse could revolutionize how individuals experience reality by extending to the physical world and creating a seamless bridge for interaction between digital and tangible realms. Virtualizing live concerts to digital format in a virtual-physical integrated metaverse environment, compared to traditional virtual settings, provides a new paradigm for participating in a more immersive and interactive digital concert. Mainly drawing upon the Cognitive Absorption Theory and complemented by the Process Virtualization Theory, this research proposes a multi-stage framework to investigate the mechanism and underlying processes related to metaverse concert participation under contingent situations. This research applies a multi-survey approach, with two sequential quantitative studies—one distributed in Indonesia using Poplite and a subsequent survey in the United States through MTurk. The consistent findings from the two studies provide robust evidence for the roles of participants’ intrinsic motivations and the characteristics of the virtualization mechanism as vital determinants to influence the virtualizability of the metaverse concert process, leading to higher concert participation intention. Furthermore, concert performance risk is proven to act as a moderator in the relationship between process virtualizability and intention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104278"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-23DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104275
Ziqiong Zhang , Yang Yang , Xueyan Wang , Chuxin Wang , Zili Zhang
A product’s overall rating serves as a quality indicator for prospective consumers, with the online rating system’s design playing a critical role. Yet it remains unclear how the number of attribute ratings that consumers assign informs overall ratings. To address this issue, we examined secondary data collected from online hotel reviews and conducted a randomized experiment. Results showed that consumers who provide more attribute ratings tend to give higher and less extreme overall ratings. More precisely, the presence of multiple attribute rating channels discourages consumers from transferring their evaluations of specific attributes to a product’s or service’s overall rating. Temporal distance and review photo number were found to moderate these relationships. Our research contributes to the literature by clarifying how the number of attribute ratings shapes consumers’ overall rating behavior. We offer corresponding suggestions for online sellers to develop more effective rating management strategies.
{"title":"How does the number of attribute ratings affect a product’s overall rating? Evidence from Tripadvisor","authors":"Ziqiong Zhang , Yang Yang , Xueyan Wang , Chuxin Wang , Zili Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104275","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104275","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A product’s overall rating serves as a quality indicator for prospective consumers, with the online rating system’s design playing a critical role. Yet it remains unclear how the number of attribute ratings that consumers assign informs overall ratings. To address this issue, we examined secondary data collected from online hotel reviews and conducted a randomized experiment. Results showed that consumers who provide more attribute ratings tend to give higher and less extreme overall ratings. More precisely, the presence of multiple attribute rating channels discourages consumers from transferring their evaluations of specific attributes to a product’s or service’s overall rating. Temporal distance and review photo number were found to moderate these relationships. Our research contributes to the literature by clarifying how the number of attribute ratings shapes consumers’ overall rating behavior. We offer corresponding suggestions for online sellers to develop more effective rating management strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104275"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145583879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-16DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104274
Wei Liu , Xueying Sun , Weiguo Fan , Zhengfa Yang
Online knowledge-sharing platforms (OKSPs) play an important role in enabling the participants to generate and transfer novel knowledge and obtain social support from their peers. To foster knowledge exchange between knowledge contributors and knowledge seekers, OKSPs implement various governance mechanisms, such as platform recommendations. We are interested in whether cross-side network effects (CNEs) exist on OKSPs, and how the OKSPs’ governance mechanisms affect these CNEs. In this study, we theorize knowledge-sharing processes between the contributor-side and the seeker-side, drawing on the dynamic theory of knowledge conversion. Using fine-grained longitudinal data from the Zhihu platform, we propose a vector autoregressive model (VAR) to examine the temporal dynamics of CNEs on OKSPs and the role of platform recommendations in the CNEs empirically. Our findings indicate that there are symmetrical short-run contributor-to-seeker CNEs and seeker-to-contributor CNEs. However, a temporal asymmetry is present between contributor-to-seeker CNEs and seeker-to-contributor CNEs in the long run. Specifically, we find the answers’ quantity and answers’ quality have short-run and long-run impacts on the growth of questions’ quantity, meaning that the contributor side plays a predominant role in driving the growth and evolution of OKSPs. Our findings also reveal that platform recommendations strengthen immediate and persistent growth in the number of questions and answers through the direct contributor-to-seeker and seeker-to-contributor CNEs rather than the indirect CNEs. Our study provides important theoretical implications to enrich knowledge management research from CNEs’ perspective, as well as practical insights for OKSPs in their operations to incorporate network analytics to promote participants’ engagement and knowledge exchange.
{"title":"Asymmetric cross-side network effects on online knowledge-sharing platforms and the role of platform recommendations","authors":"Wei Liu , Xueying Sun , Weiguo Fan , Zhengfa Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104274","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104274","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online knowledge-sharing platforms (OKSPs) play an important role in enabling the participants to generate and transfer novel knowledge and obtain social support from their peers. To foster knowledge exchange between knowledge contributors and knowledge seekers, OKSPs implement various governance mechanisms, such as platform recommendations. We are interested in whether cross-side network effects (CNEs) exist on OKSPs, and how the OKSPs’ governance mechanisms affect these CNEs. In this study, we theorize knowledge-sharing processes between the contributor-side and the seeker-side, drawing on the dynamic theory of knowledge conversion. Using fine-grained longitudinal data from the Zhihu platform, we propose a vector autoregressive model (VAR) to examine the temporal dynamics of CNEs on OKSPs and the role of platform recommendations in the CNEs empirically. Our findings indicate that there are symmetrical short-run contributor-to-seeker CNEs and seeker-to-contributor CNEs. However, a temporal asymmetry is present between contributor-to-seeker CNEs and seeker-to-contributor CNEs in the long run. Specifically, we find the answers’ quantity and answers’ quality have short-run and long-run impacts on the growth of questions’ quantity, meaning that the contributor side plays a predominant role in driving the growth and evolution of OKSPs. Our findings also reveal that platform recommendations strengthen immediate and persistent growth in the number of questions and answers through the direct contributor-to-seeker and seeker-to-contributor CNEs rather than the indirect CNEs. Our study provides important theoretical implications to enrich knowledge management research from CNEs’ perspective, as well as practical insights for OKSPs in their operations to incorporate network analytics to promote participants’ engagement and knowledge exchange.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 2","pages":"Article 104274"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145536027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104273
Yifan Li , Christy M.K. Cheung , Yang Chen
Cyberslacking, or the non–work-related use of information technology during work hours, has emerged as an important concern for organizations and individuals, prompting the need to understand why, how, and when employees engage in this deviant workplace behavior. We develop a research model based on the transactional perspective of stress and neutralization theory and examine whether techno-invasion (i.e., the perception of being “always exposed” due to constant connectivity that blurs the desired work–life boundary) triggers a coping response (i.e., cyberslacking) through the psychological mechanism of neutralization, and whether this response affects performance outcomes (i.e., job performance). We then explore whether a team-level shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks (i.e., a psychological safety climate [PSC]) serves as a cross-level boundary condition that reinforces the effect of techno-invasion. Our analysis of the data collected from a three-wave time-lagged survey of 219 employees and their team leaders across 60 work teams provides substantial support for our model. Our findings indicate that employees in teams with a strong PSC are more likely than their counterparts to adopt neutralization techniques and thus engage in cyberslacking when faced with techno-invasion, and that this can negatively affect job performance. This study calls attention to the potential psychological safety risks associated with integrating technology into the workplace. The implications for both research and practice are discussed.
{"title":"How and when does techno-invasion lead to cyberslacking and decreased performance? The roles of neutralization and a psychological safety climate","authors":"Yifan Li , Christy M.K. Cheung , Yang Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104273","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.im.2025.104273","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cyberslacking, or the non–work-related use of information technology during work hours, has emerged as an important concern for organizations and individuals, prompting the need to understand why, how, and when employees engage in this deviant workplace behavior. We develop a research model based on the transactional perspective of stress and neutralization theory and examine whether techno-invasion (i.e., the perception of being “always exposed” due to constant connectivity that blurs the desired work–life boundary) triggers a coping response (i.e., cyberslacking) through the psychological mechanism of neutralization, and whether this response affects performance outcomes (i.e., job performance). We then explore whether a team-level shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks (i.e., a psychological safety climate [PSC]) serves as a cross-level boundary condition that reinforces the effect of techno-invasion. Our analysis of the data collected from a three-wave time-lagged survey of 219 employees and their team leaders across 60 work teams provides substantial support for our model. Our findings indicate that employees in teams with a strong PSC are more likely than their counterparts to adopt neutralization techniques and thus engage in cyberslacking when faced with techno-invasion, and that this can negatively affect job performance. This study calls attention to the potential psychological safety risks associated with integrating technology into the workplace. The implications for both research and practice are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56291,"journal":{"name":"Information & Management","volume":"63 1","pages":"Article 104273"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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