Journal article
How learning effects influence knowledge contribution in online Q&A community? A social cognitive perspective
Decision Support Systems, Vol.149, p.113610
10/2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2021.113610
Abstract
Informative contributions are critical for the healthy development of online Q&A communities, which have gained increasing popularity in solving personalized open-ended problems. However, little is known about whether past contribution behaviors and corresponding community feedbacks received affect the characteristics of subsequent contributions. Drawing upon the social cognitive theory, we examine the learning effects on users' knowledge contribution behaviors. Specifically, we focus on two types of learning effects: enactive learning from one's past contribution experience and vicarious learning from observation of others' performances in a question thread. Using a dataset collected from one of the largest online Q&A communities in China, we find that the length feature of past user contributions that garner highly positive feedback, no matter through enactive or vicarious learning, would influence the informativeness of subsequent contributions in the community. These learning effects are more effective for users with higher social status. The enactive learning effect is stronger for contributors with higher social status. For the vicarious learning on higher-status contributors, the influence of high-vote long answers is stronger, but the high-vote short answers show a weaker effect. Our research provides a deeper understanding of knowledge contribution behaviors in online knowledge communities and guides for establishing a healthy knowledge contribution environment.
•Drawing upon the social cognitive theory, we examine the learning effects on users' knowledge contribution behaviors.•We focus on two types of learning effects: enactive learning and vicarious learning.•We find that the two learning effects exist in the informativeness of users' online knowledge contributions.•Both the enactive and vicarious learning effects are stronger for contributors with higher social status.•The enactive learning effect is generally stronger than the vicarious learning effect in online knowledge contributions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- How learning effects influence knowledge contribution in online Q&A community? A social cognitive perspective
- Creators
- Chencheng Shi - Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityPing Hu - Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityWeiguo Fan - University of IowaLiangfei Qiu - University of Florida
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Decision Support Systems, Vol.149, p.113610
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.dss.2021.113610
- ISSN
- 0167-9236
- eISSN
- 1873-5797
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/501100004543, name: China Scholarship Council, award: 201806280325; DOI: 10.13039/501100012325, name: National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences, award: 17GBL035
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2021
- Academic Unit
- Business Analytics
- Record Identifier
- 9984380510102771
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