Start Date

12-17-2013

Description

Social commerce contributors share their experiences of products and services, which is appreciated by consumers and online retailers. Since such user generated content is especially valuable for online retailers, they incentivize the most active contributors to provide further product reviews. Our paper aims to explore the question of which user characteristics can be used to identify contributors of valuable contents. This is especially relevant for newly registered users who have not extensively contributed yet. Drawing upon the literature on social information processing, signaling and communication theory, we explore how individual user characteristics published in the personal user profiles are associated with the actual contribution activity. Therefore, we analyze more than 30,000 user profiles from amazon.com. We find that information disclosure, emotiveness and problem-orientation are related to the contribution activity. Consequently, our results advance the understanding of who are the most active contributors and provide new implications for theory and practice.

Share

COinS
 
Dec 17th, 12:00 AM

How to Identify Tomorrow's Most Active Social Commerce Contributors? Inviting Starlets to the Reviewer Hall of Fame

Social commerce contributors share their experiences of products and services, which is appreciated by consumers and online retailers. Since such user generated content is especially valuable for online retailers, they incentivize the most active contributors to provide further product reviews. Our paper aims to explore the question of which user characteristics can be used to identify contributors of valuable contents. This is especially relevant for newly registered users who have not extensively contributed yet. Drawing upon the literature on social information processing, signaling and communication theory, we explore how individual user characteristics published in the personal user profiles are associated with the actual contribution activity. Therefore, we analyze more than 30,000 user profiles from amazon.com. We find that information disclosure, emotiveness and problem-orientation are related to the contribution activity. Consequently, our results advance the understanding of who are the most active contributors and provide new implications for theory and practice.