Social influence on endorsement in social Q&A community: Moderating effects of temporal and spatial factors

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of social influence, which are manifested by popularity and source credibility, on social endorsement in social Q&A community; and how the relationship is impacted by temporal-spatial factors. By collecting panel data from a large platform, the results of an econometric model demonstrate that popularity and source credibility are positively associated with social endorsement. With respect to the moderation effects, the results further show that time distance strengthens the effect of popularity on the social endorsement, but undermines the effect of source credibility; while crowdedness plays the role that strengthens the impact of popularity on the social endorsement, it has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between source credibility and social endorsement. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.