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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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information |
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Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Chen, Xiaoyu Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan Pee, Loo Geok |
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Article |
author |
Chen, Xiaoyu Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan Pee, Loo Geok |
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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 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152621 |
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1759857820076867584 |