Abstract
Online reading platforms offer an ideal environment for the emergence of information cascades, a phenomenon where user selection is heavily driven by the information inferred from others' behavior. Prior research has mainly focused on the effect of information cascades on free e-books. The purpose of this study is to empirically test and compare the effect of informational cascades on online reading behaviors of free and paid e-books. Two 114-day panel data sets covering 1548 free e-books and 362 paid e-books were collected from Zongheng.com, a well-known online reading platform in China. Results suggest that online users' choice was significantly affected by book ranking after controlling for cumulative clicks and word-of-mouth (WOM) volume, whether they are free e-books or paid e-books, as predicted by information cascades theory. Review volume has no effect on the clicks of free and paid e-books with higher ranking, whereas it does exert a positive effect on the clicks of free and paid e-books with lower ranking. Information cascades are more salient for paid e-books than for free e-books. These findings not only offer important theoretical contributions for library and information science research, but also provide practical implications for online readers, content creators and managers.
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