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Consequences of Information Feed Integration on User Engagement and Contribution: A Natural Experiment in an Online Knowledge-Sharing Community

Author

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  • Zike Cao

    (Department of Data Science and Engineering Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Yingpeng Zhu

    (Department of Accounting and Information Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China)

  • Gen Li

    (Department of Information Management and Business Intelligence, School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)

  • Liangfei Qiu

    (Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611)

Abstract

Many online communities that rely on effortful, voluntary content contributions offer additional content curation tools to facilitate social interactions and encourage user contributions. Any platform that offers two or more heterogeneous content types (e.g., expert knowledge and social posts) faces a choice about the presentation format: whether to display the content types separately or in an integrated information feed. We leverage a natural experiment on Zhihu, a Q&A platform that offers a social-interaction-oriented functionality called Ideas . Zhihu initially presented answers (expert knowledge content) and ideas (social posts) in two different information feeds, but the platform integrated ideas into the same information feed as answers in June 2019. We find that information feed integration significantly decreased user engagement with and contribution of both ideas and answers . We hypothesize that users decreased their engagement because the juxtaposition of incongruous types of content increased mindset switching and cognitive strain. This hypothesis is supported by an additional laboratory experiment. We also present evidence showing that contributions decreased both because of the decrease in engagement (weaker social recognition incentives) and because integration heightened concerns that posting ideas would dilute the contributor’s professional image. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications for any platform that hosts heterogeneous content.

Suggested Citation

  • Zike Cao & Yingpeng Zhu & Gen Li & Liangfei Qiu, 2024. "Consequences of Information Feed Integration on User Engagement and Contribution: A Natural Experiment in an Online Knowledge-Sharing Community," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 1114-1136, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:35:y:2024:i:3:p:1114-1136
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.0043
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