Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China

This study explores identity signaling used by an emerging class of knowledge celebrities in China – Knowledge Wanghong – who sell knowledge products on online platforms. Because identity signaling may involve constructing unique online identities and controlling over product-related and seller-rela...

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Main Authors: Chen, Xiaoyu, Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan, Pee, Loo Geok
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152621
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1526212023-03-05T15:59:05Z Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China Chen, Xiaoyu Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan Pee, Loo Geok Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Library and information science Social sciences::Communication Digital Influencer Identity Signaling Knowledge Celebrity Knowledge Product Pay-for-Knowledge Sales Performance This study explores identity signaling used by an emerging class of knowledge celebrities in China – Knowledge Wanghong – who sell knowledge products on online platforms. Because identity signaling may involve constructing unique online identities and controlling over product-related and seller-related characteristics, the purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to uncover different online identities of knowledge celebrities; and (2) to examine the extent to which the online identity type is associated with their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and sales performance. A unique data set was collected from a Chinese leading pay-for-knowledge platform – Zhihu – which featured the online profiles of tens of thousands of knowledge celebrities. Online identity types were derived from their self-edited content using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling. Thereafter, their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and respective sales performance were analyzed across different identity types using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple-group linear regression. The results suggest that Knowledge celebrities are clustered into four distinctive online identities: Mentor, Broker, Storyteller and Geek. Product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance varied across four different identities. Additionally, the online identity type moderated the relationships among their product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance. As emerging-phenomenon-based research, this study extends related literature by using the notion of identity signaling to analyze a peculiar group of online celebrities who are setting an important trend in the pay-for-knowledge model in China. Accepted version 2021-12-08T12:14:56Z 2021-12-08T12:14:56Z 2021 Journal Article Chen, X., Chua, A. Y. K. & Pee, L. G. (2021). Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China. Internet Research. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/INTR-07-2020-0378 1066-2243 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152621 10.1108/INTR-07-2020-0378 en Internet Research © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Internet Research and is made available with permission of Emerald Publishing Limited. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Library and information science
Social sciences::Communication
Digital Influencer
Identity Signaling
Knowledge Celebrity
Knowledge Product
Pay-for-Knowledge
Sales Performance
spellingShingle Library and information science
Social sciences::Communication
Digital Influencer
Identity Signaling
Knowledge Celebrity
Knowledge Product
Pay-for-Knowledge
Sales Performance
Chen, Xiaoyu
Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan
Pee, Loo Geok
Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
description This study explores identity signaling used by an emerging class of knowledge celebrities in China – Knowledge Wanghong – who sell knowledge products on online platforms. Because identity signaling may involve constructing unique online identities and controlling over product-related and seller-related characteristics, the purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to uncover different online identities of knowledge celebrities; and (2) to examine the extent to which the online identity type is associated with their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and sales performance. A unique data set was collected from a Chinese leading pay-for-knowledge platform – Zhihu – which featured the online profiles of tens of thousands of knowledge celebrities. Online identity types were derived from their self-edited content using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling. Thereafter, their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and respective sales performance were analyzed across different identity types using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple-group linear regression. The results suggest that Knowledge celebrities are clustered into four distinctive online identities: Mentor, Broker, Storyteller and Geek. Product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance varied across four different identities. Additionally, the online identity type moderated the relationships among their product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance. As emerging-phenomenon-based research, this study extends related literature by using the notion of identity signaling to analyze a peculiar group of online celebrities who are setting an important trend in the pay-for-knowledge model in China.
author2 Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
author_facet Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Chen, Xiaoyu
Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan
Pee, Loo Geok
format Article
author Chen, Xiaoyu
Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan
Pee, Loo Geok
author_sort Chen, Xiaoyu
title Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
title_short Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
title_full Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
title_fullStr Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
title_full_unstemmed Who sells knowledge online? An exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in China
title_sort who sells knowledge online? an exploratory study of knowledge celebrities in china
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152621
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