Abstract
Users in content communities are now empowered by the voting mechanism to determine the popularity of content. However, it is criticized that the social network of the author may bias the voting outcome. On the basis of dual-process theory and literature on the influence of social relationship, this study examines how the attributes of the content and the social relationships of the author jointly influence the popularity of the answer in a social Q&A community. Results reveal that the number of pictures in the answer increases its popularity, while the effect of the number of words is non-linear. As the answer gets longer, the number of votes initially decreases and then increases. Followers can increase answer popularity, whereas friends cannot. Moreover, the influence of content decreases for authors with numerous followers, while the influence of content increases for authors with many friends.
Recommended Citation
Jin, Yue; Huang, Jinghua; and Wang, Xinyao, "What Influences Content Popularity? An Empirical Investigation of Voting in Social Q&A Communities" (2017). PACIS 2017 Proceedings. 161.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2017/161