More than just numbers: how engagement metrics influence user intention to pay for online knowledge products

Abstract

The online knowledge-sharing market in China has been rapidly growing, with increasing user demand for paid knowledge products. Like in other e-commerce contexts, users must make product evaluations under conditions of information asymmetry. In the age of social media, engagement metrics can be a particularly rich source of product information for users. However, there has been little research on how engagement metrics influence user decision making in online knowledge market. As such, mainly drawing on the Social Impact Theory, this study conducted a 2 (engagement metrics: high vs. low) × 2 (source expertise: high vs. low) between-subject factorial design experiment to explore the impact of engagement metrics on user purchase intention for online knowledge products. Participants consisted of 151 college students who completed measures on purchase intention, trust, demographics, and other individual variables. Results revealed that only when source expertise is high do higher engagement metrics lead to higher consumer trust, in turn resulting in higher purchase intention. Differentiating from findings on the impact of engagement metrics in other online contexts, this study highlights the importance of source expertise for influencing user purchase intention in the knowledge-sharing market.