Mutual Disclosures and Content Intimacy in User Engagement: Evidence from an Online Chat Group
研究了在线聊天群中成员间的相互披露如何通过喜欢机制影响用户参与的及时性、积极性和努力程度，并分析了披露内容亲密性一致性的多重作用，为商家通过聊天群管理客户关系提供指导。
This paper investigates the role of self-disclosure in online chat groups (OCGs), which serve as a communication channel situated between public platforms and private live chats. Our investigation delves into the effects of mutual disclosures, originating from other members and focal users, on user engagement in terms of promptness, positivity, and effort. We also explore the disclosure content and the interplay between mutual disclosures regarding consistency in content intimacy. Using data from a retailer utilizing OCGs for customer service, our findings reveal that mutual disclosures are positively associated with user engagement through the mechanism of liking and uncover multifaceted influences from content intimacy consistency between mutual disclosures. The results are further verified by a controlled experiment and various robustness tests. Moreover, our study differentiates and discusses the roles of group hosts and peer users in facilitating OCG engagement. This research broadens our understanding of how self-related information exchange in online group conversations promotes meaningful engagement. Our fine-grained analysis of disclosure interactions provides clear guidance for firms to strategically manage customer relationships through OCGs and sheds new light on conversational commerce.