From free to fee: Exploring the factors that influence the askers' switching behavior on online Q&A platforms

Abstract

More and more social Q&A platforms are launching new business models to monetize online knowledge. Many users of the traditional free Q&A are gradually adopting the payment‐based Q&A services. Previous studies have focused more on askers' participation behaviors in the free Q&A context, while few of them explored the switching behavior of askers from free‐ to payment‐based Q&A platforms. Based on the push‐pull‐mooring (PPM) model, this paper aims at exploring the influencing factors of askers' switching behavior using the critical incident technique. The classification scheme of the factors that influence the askers' switching behaviors includes 5 categories and 16 subcategories. We also use the entropy‐weight method to calculate the weight of each factor. The findings suggest that the psychological characteristics, cognitive needs, and financial incentives have great impacts on askers' switching behavior in the Q&A context.

Impacts of information asymmetry on users' payment rates: evidence from trading data of Chinese knowledge payment platform

“…This evidence agrees with Bauer et al (2020), who stated that information asymmetry between buyers and sellers leads to uncertainty and distrust and PU undermines users' willingness to buy (Chen et al, 2022a). Meanwhile, we decompose the PU into QPU and SPU to further validate the mediating role of PU, which echoes that the PU of knowledge products and services stems from information asymmetry (Zhao et al, 2020).…”

“…, 2022a). Meanwhile, we decompose the PU into QPU and SPU to further validate the mediating role of PU, which echoes that the PU of knowledge products and services stems from information asymmetry (Zhao et al. , 2020).…”

Exploring the Perceived Attractiveness of Online Celebrities Who Sell Knowledge: A Self‐Branding Perspective

“…For Knowledge Wanghong, they initially attracted users on online platforms by creating knowledge‐intensive content for free (Wang, Hui, & Li, 2018). As the demand for high‐quality online content grows, these platforms evolved into pay‐for‐knowledge outfits where payment functions are incorporated to empower these “knowledge celebrities” to monetize their efforts (e.g., Kuang, Huang, Hong, & Yan, 2019; Zhao, Liu, Chen, & Zhu, 2019). Unsurprisingly, the more attractive a Knowledge Wanghong is, the more alluring their knowledge products appear to users (Chen & Fu, 2019).…”