Social Influence on Digital Content Contribution and Consumption Theories, Empirical Analyses, and Practices

This book examines users’ digital content contribution and consumption behavior from a social perspective. Digital content is everywhere—from search results on search engines to posts on social media. Incentivizing users to contribute abundant content and motivating users to engage in and pay for digital content are vital for online platforms, especially those relying on digital content generated by users. This book develops a theoretical framework to incorporate social influence, including social presence, social interaction, social comparison, social loafing, and social relationships, in users’ digital content contribution and consumption decisions. Further, using a large volume of data from online platforms, the author empirically studies the role of social interaction in digital content provision and monetization from the supply side. Also, regarding the digital content demand side, this book explores how to boost content consumption via social motives and social norms. The bookenriches the understanding of social influence in digital content contribution and consumption and provides practical suggestions for digital platforms’ mechanism design.

Digital Content, PWYW Pricing, and Social Influence.- Introduction to Digital Content.- Incentives for Digital Content Contribution.- Motives for Digital Content Consumption.- Digital Content Contribution and Consumption in Live Streaming.- Social Influence in Digital Content Contribution.- Social Incentives and Digital Content Contribution.- Dynamics of Digital Content Contribution, Monetary Incentive, and Social Interaction.- Social Influence in Digital Content Consumption.- Social Interaction and Digital Content Consumption.- Dynamics of Digital Content Consumption and Social Norm.- Discussion and Conclusion.- Conclusion Summary.- Future Research Agenda.

Xuejing Ma is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Asia Europe Business School, East China Normal University. She received her Ph.D. degree from Peking University and her B.A. and B.S. degrees from Renmin University of China. Her research interests include quantitative marketing, social media, and new technologies in marketing. Her research has been published in Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Applied Economics Letters.