The influence of social Q&A systems on consumers' purchase intention: an empirical study based on Taobao's “Ask Everyone”
基于信息采纳模型，研究淘宝“问大家”系统中信息因素和社会因素如何影响消费者感知信息有用性及购买意愿，发现回答质量和社会存在感有正向影响，而回答者可信度和答案一致性影响不显著。
Purpose Social question and answer (Q&A) systems have been rapidly developed on many e-commerce websites. The purpose of this paper is to explore how social Q&A systems influence consumers' information processing and purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach The authors design this research based on the information adoption model (IAM). First, the auhors consider the impacts of the central route (information factor) and peripheral route (social factor) on consumers' perception of information usefulness in Q&A systems. Then, the authors verify the influence of information and social aspects on purchase intention and empirically test the model with structural equation modelling (SEM) using 428 effective data samples. Findings On the whole, the authors prove that purchase intention is influenced by information and social aspects, which are two paths in Q&A systems. Specifically, both answer quality and social presence positively influence information usefulness. Interestingly, respondent credibility and answer consistency do not significantly impact information usefulness. Moreover, information usefulness positively affects information adoption, which positively affects consumer purchase intention. Practical implications This paper provides insights on social Q&A system mechanism design. Originality/value First, this paper is a useful complement to the research on social Q&A systems on e-commerce websites. Second, the authors provide a new theoretical lens through which the impacts of social Q&A systems on e-commerce websites are understood by extending the IAM. Third, the authors add answer consistency into original information process routes, which obtains a finding that is different from those of prior research.