Knowledge Sharing Platforms: An Empirical Study of the Factors Affecting Continued Use Intention

Abstract

Under the background of the constant development of sharing economy and constant upgrade of Internet technologies, various knowledge sharing platforms have emerged in recent years. As a new form for sharing economy, knowledge sharing platforms have made great strides, thus, providing new channels of knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and individual knowledge storage for users. Nevertheless, knowledge sharing platforms are still faced with problems, such as uneven product quality (Content quality) and poor user experience. Therefore, how to maintain consumers’ continued use intention without impairing consumer satisfaction has obviously become an issue of great concern on the development path of knowledge sharing platforms. Based on the expectation confirmation theory (ECT) and information system (IS) success model, and integrating major characteristics of knowledge sharing platforms, the conceptual models and hypotheses influencing consumers’ continued use intention of knowledge sharing platforms are built to study primary factors affecting consumers’ continued use intention. Through online and offline questionnaires, 428 copies were collected online, and 150 copies were collected offline, with a total of 578 copies recovered. We deleted some questionnaires with untrue and contradictory answers, because these interviewees might not have carefully read. A questionnaire is conducted with 512 valid copies collected from respondents. At the same time, the structural equation model (SEM) is used to verify and analyze hypotheses. Results show that various variables have a direct or indirect influence on consumers’ continued our intention. Meanwhile, it is observed that perceived usefulness and satisfaction degree have a significant influence on continued use intention of knowledge sharing platforms. The higher the satisfaction degree is, the more likely the consumers will continue using knowledge sharing platforms. The expectation confirmation degree exerts an indirect influence on consumers’ continued use intention of knowledge sharing platforms via perceived usefulness. The IS success model can also significantly influence consumers’ satisfaction degree of knowledge sharing platforms. Additionally, perceived usefulness is observed to have the strongest influence on consumers’ continued use intention of knowledge sharing platforms. According to the above research findings, knowledge sharing platforms should strengthen their content quality control, ensure the consistency between service quality and payment, and improve the platform quality. To sum up, this research can provide theoretical bases for sustainable development and follow-up research of the knowledge sharing platform industry.