Abstract

This study investigates whether and how answerers’ location information can bias the askers’ knowledge adoption decisions in online Q&A communities. Drawing on the theories underlying in-group favoritism, we propose that home bias can exist due to categorization and the expectation of better reciprocity from in-group members. We leverage the location disclosure in an online Q&A community in China as a natural experiment setting to identify home bias in knowledge adoption. We find that askers are more likely to adopt answers provided by answerers in the same location after the location disclosure. Moreover, the moderation/heterogeneity analysis suggests: (1) location information serves as a cue related to credibility, and askers rely less on it when other factors signal the answerers' credibility, and (2) askers are more favorable toward answerers in the same location when adopting an answer is associated with an expectation of better reciprocation.

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Paper Number 1069; Track Platforms; Complete Paper

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