Why do users continually seek knowledge in online Q&A communities? An empirical investigation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-04-2021-0042 |
| Published date | 16 February 2022 |
| Date | 16 February 2022 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
| Author | Jiahua Jin,Tingting Zhang,Xiangbin Yan |
Why do users continually seek knowledge
in online Q&A communities? An empirical
investigation
Jiahua Jin, Tingting Zhang and Xiangbin Yan
School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
Abstract
Purpose –Online Q&A communities have been widely highlighted as an important knowledge exchange market. Although motivations for users’
initial knowledge-seeking behavior have been widely investigated, the factors that affect online Q&A users’continued knowledge-seeking
behavior are still vague. This study aims to investigate the factors that affect users continuously seeking knowledge from online social Q&A
communities.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on social information processing theory, social capital theory, social exchange theory and social cognitive
theory, this study used a negative binomial regression model to explore what would affect people’s continued knowledge-seekin g behavior.
Empirical data was collected from a popular Chinese online social Q&A community.
Findings –The results indicate that while previous knowledge sharing behavior, peer responses for previous seeking behavior, identity-based trust
have a positive impact on knowledge-seeking behaviors, social exposure has a negative impact. In addition, self-presentation negatively moderates
the relationship between social exposure and knowledge-seeking behavior.
Originality/value –This study contributed to the theoretical basis for knowledge-seeking behavior in online Q&A communities. The research
findings can be used to derive guidelines for the development and operation of online social Q&A communities.
Keywords Knowledge-seeking, Knowledge exchange, Identity-based trust, Communication identity
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Information-seekingis a fundamental activity that humans take
to obtain resources for behavior planning,decision-making and
the production of new information products. Retrieval is
sufficient when the need for information is well-defined in a
searcher’s mind; however, when information is sought for
learning, decision-making or other complex mental activities,
retrieval is necessary but insufficient (Haider and Ya, 2021).
Online Q&A communities are designed to support solo
knowledge seekers who access the aggregated knowledge of
other users, as well as a platform to ask and answer questionsas
in our real lives (Gazan, 2010).Registered users in online social
Q&A communities spontaneously create and use shared
conventions, maintain social networks, show commitment to
communal goals, form a sense of belongingand follow norms of
interaction. All information in online Q&A communities is
traceable and along with other members’comments. Such
community affiliation and content not only eliminate
uncertainty but also shape users’opinions and positions on
specific issues and providethe impetus for them to return to the
community in the future (Charband and Navimipour, 2016;
Guo et al., 2020).
Online Q&A communities are likely to break through
barriers of transferring, replicating and storing knowledge.
However, there is no guarantee that knowledge exchange
among users would occur (Jiang et al., 2019). Online Q&A
communities are typically public goods, where the free-rider
problem is very common (Zhang, 2019). Knowledge sharing
and seeking are two main activities that a user involves in
online Q&A communities. Asking questions is an important
way to seek knowledge in online Q&A communities, and to
some extent, is more important than providinganswers because
without questions there would be no answers. Therefore, the
community administrators need to figure out the motivations
of users’information-seeking behavior and encourage users to
seek information from the community. He and Wei (2009)
found that seeking intention and facilitating conditions have
direct impacts on users’continuously knowledge-seeking
behavior. Singh et al. (2018) found that perceived usefulness
has a significant influenceon the knowledge-seeking attitude in
healthcare communities; however, the relationship between
perceived seeking effort and knowledge-seeking was found to
be nonsignificant. Soroya et al. (2021) indicated that social
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-6247.htm
Information Discovery and Delivery
51/1 (2023) 1–12
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-04-2021-0042]
This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China
[grant number 71601100], the Ministry of education of Humanities and
Social Science project [grant number 20YJC630214], and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number
FRF-TP-20-045A2, FRF-TP-20-022A1].
Received 1 April 2021
Revised 24 August 2021
27 November 2021
Accepted 5 January 2022
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