IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jinfst/v74y2023i8p990-1009.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding user‐generated questions in social Q&A: A goal‐framing approach

Author

Listed:
  • Qian Wu
  • Chei Sian Lee
  • Dion Hoe‐Lian Goh

Abstract

In social Q&A, user‐generated questions can be viewed as goal expressions shaping the responses. Several studies have identified askers' goals from questions. However, it remains unclear how questions set goals for responders. To fill this gap, this research applies goal‐framing theory. Goal‐frames influence responses by attracting responders' attention to different goals. Eight question cues are used to identify gain, hedonic and normative goal‐frames. A total of 14,599 posts are collected. To investigate the influence of goal‐frames, response networks are constructed. Results reveal that gain goal‐frames attract interactions with questions, while hedonic, and normative goal‐frames promote interactions among responses. Further, topic types influence the effects of goal‐frames. Gain goal‐frames increase interactions with questions in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) topics while hedonic and normative goal‐frames attract interactions in non‐STEM topics. This research leverages responders' perspectives to explain responses to questions, which are influenced by the goals set up by question cues. Beyond that, our findings enrich the empirical knowledge of social Q&A topics, revealing that the influence of questions varies across STEM and non‐STEM topics because the question cues for specifying goals are different in the two topics. Our research opens new directions to investigate questions from responders' perspectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Qian Wu & Chei Sian Lee & Dion Hoe‐Lian Goh, 2023. "Understanding user‐generated questions in social Q&A: A goal‐framing approach," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 74(8), pages 990-1009, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:74:y:2023:i:8:p:990-1009
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24770
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24770
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.24770?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sanghee Oh, 2012. "The characteristics and motivations of health answerers for sharing information, knowledge, and experiences in online environments," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(3), pages 543-557, March.
    2. Samer Faraj & Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa & Ann Majchrzak, 2011. "Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1224-1239, October.
    3. Steg, Linda & Lindenberg, Siegwart & Keizer, Kees, 2016. "Intrinsic Motivation, Norms and Environmental Behaviour: The Dynamics of Overarching Goals," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 9(1-2), pages 179-207, July.
    4. Roy, Pradeep K. & Singh, Jyoti P. & Baabdullah, Abdullah M. & Kizgin, Hatice & Rana, Nripendra P., 2018. "Identifying reputation collectors in community question answering (CQA) sites: Exploring the dark side of social media," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 25-35.
    5. Kerstin Westin & Annika Nordlund & Johan Jansson & Jonas Nilsson, 2020. "Goal Framing as a Tool for Changing People’s Car Travel Behavior in Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Wei Jeng & Spencer DesAutels & Daqing He & Lei Li, 2017. "Information exchange on an academic social networking site: A multidiscipline comparison on researchgate Q&A," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(3), pages 638-652, March.
    7. Minhyung Kang, 2022. "Motivational affordances and survival of new askers on social Q&A sites: The case of Stack Exchange network," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(1), pages 90-103, January.
    8. Ting Liu & Wei-Nan Zhang & Liujuan Cao & Yu Zhang, 2014. "Question Popularity Analysis and Prediction in Community Question Answering Services," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-12, May.
    9. Robert M. Davison & Carol X.J. Ou & Maris G. Martinsons & Angela Y. Zhao & Rong Du, 2014. "The communicative ecology of Web 2.0 at work: Social networking in the workspace," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(10), pages 2035-2047, October.
    10. Popadiuk, Silvio & Choo, Chun Wei, 2006. "Innovation and knowledge creation: How are these concepts related?," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 302-312.
    11. Mu‐hsuan Huang & Yu‐wei Chang, 2008. "Characteristics of research output in social sciences and humanities: From a research evaluation perspective," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(11), pages 1819-1828, September.
    12. Sanghee Oh, 2012. "The characteristics and motivations of health answerers for sharing information, knowledge, and experiences in online environments," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(3), pages 543-557, March.
    13. Zhe Liu & Bernard J. Jansen, 2017. "ASK: A taxonomy of accuracy, social, and knowledge information seeking posts in social question and answering," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(2), pages 333-347, February.
    14. Cinzia Castiglioni & Edoardo Lozza & Eric Dijk & Wilco W. Dijk, 2019. "Two sides of the same coin? An investigation of the effects of frames on tax compliance and charitable giving," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Gutt, Dominik & von Rechenberg, Tobias & Kundisch, Dennis, 2020. "Goal achievement, subsequent user effort and the moderating role of goal difficulty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 277-287.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Regina Lenart-Gansiniec, 2017. "Virtual Knowledge Sharing in Crowdsourcing: Measurement Dilemmas," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 13(3), pages 95-123.
    2. Tseng, Hsiao-Ting & Ibrahim, Fahad & Hajli, Nick & Nisar, Tahir M. & Shabbir, Haseeb, 2022. "Effect of privacy concerns and engagement on social support behaviour in online health community platforms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Adam Worrall & Alicia Cappello & Rachel Osolen, 2021. "The importance of socio‐emotional considerations in online communities, social informatics, and information science," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(10), pages 1247-1260, October.
    4. Weiwei Yan & Xin Wen & Yin Zhang & Sonali Kudva & Qian Liu, 2023. "The dynamics of Q&A in academic social networking sites: insights from participants, interaction network, response time, and discipline differences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1895-1922, March.
    5. Kordzadeh, Nima & Warren, John & Seifi, Ali, 2016. "Antecedents of privacy calculus components in virtual health communities," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 724-734.
    6. Timmer, Sebastian & Bösehans, Gustav & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Behavioural norms or personal gains? – An empirical analysis of commuters‘ intention to switch to multimodal mobility behaviour," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    7. Arun Kumar & Mrinalini Pandey, 2023. "Social Media and Impact of Altruistic Motivation, Egoistic Motivation, Subjective Norms, and EWOM toward Green Consumption Behavior: An Empirical Investigation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-16, February.
    8. Erik Choi & Chirag Shah, 2016. "User motivations for asking questions in online Q&A services," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(5), pages 1182-1197, May.
    9. Junghwa Bahng & Chang Heon Lee, 2020. "Topic Modeling for Analyzing Patients’ Perceptions and Concerns of Hearing Loss on Social Q&A Sites: Incorporating Patients’ Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Zhizhen Yao & Zhenni Ni & Bin Zhang & Jian Du, 2022. "Do Informational and Emotional Elements Differ between Online Psychological and Physiological Disease Communities in China? A Comparative Study of Depression and Diabetes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-21, February.
    11. Yeganeh Charband & Nima Jafari Navimipour, 2016. "Online knowledge sharing mechanisms: a systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1131-1151, December.
    12. Ni Huang & Zhijun Yan & Haonan Yin, 2021. "Effects of Online–Offline Service Integration on e‐Healthcare Providers: A Quasi‐Natural Experiment," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(8), pages 2359-2378, August.
    13. Luo, Chuan & Lan, Yao & (Robert) Luo, Xin & Li, Han, 2021. "The effect of commitment on knowledge sharing: An empirical study of virtual communities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    14. Jiabei Xia & Tailai Wu & Liqin Zhou, 2021. "Sharing of Verified Information about COVID-19 on Social Network Sites: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-12, January.
    15. Wenlong Liu & Xiucheng Fan & Rongrong Ji & Yi Jiang, 2019. "Perceived Community Support, Users’ Interactions, and Value Co-Creation in Online Health Community: The Moderating Effect of Social Exclusion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, December.
    16. Jiaqi Liu & Zhenping Zhang & Jiayin Qi & Hong Wu & Manyi Chen, 2019. "Understanding the Impact of Opinion Leaders’ Characteristics on Online Group Knowledge-Sharing Engagement from In-Group and Out-Group Perspectives: Evidence from a Chinese Online Knowledge-Sharing Com," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-28, August.
    17. Shaheer, Noman Ahmed & Li, Sali, 2020. "The CAGE around cyberspace? How digital innovations internationalize in a virtual world," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    18. Aron Lindberg & Nicholas Berente & James Gaskin & Kalle Lyytinen, 2016. "Coordinating Interdependencies in Online Communities: A Study of an Open Source Software Project," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 751-772, December.
    19. Verena Brinks, 2016. "Situated affect and collective meaning: A community perspective on processes of value creation and commercialization in enthusiast-driven fields," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1152-1169, June.
    20. Ciaran Heavey & Zeki Simsek & Christina Kyprianou & Marten Risius, 2020. "How do strategic leaders engage with social media? A theoretical framework for research and practice," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(8), pages 1490-1527, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:74:y:2023:i:8:p:990-1009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.