Investigating The Antecedents Of Purchase Intention For Online Paid Knowledge:A Customer Value Perspective

Online knowledge platforms have been undergoing a tremendous transformation from providing free knowledge to online-paid-knowledge(OPK)in the last few years.As an emerging business that creates a new revenue stream for platforms and knowledge contributors,we focus on the antecedents that drive consumers' purchase intention for OPK.Drawing on cognitiveaffective-conative framework and customer value theory,we propose that consumers will rationally evaluate customer value of OPK in cognitive stage,consumers' subjective feelings such as trust in OKP,trust in the platform and identification with the knowledge provider are vital in affective stage and they influence purchase intention.We examine six value relevant antecedents extracted from three dimensions of customer value: functional(knowledge quality and price utility),emotional(perceived enjoyment and anxiety relief),and social value(social knowledge-image expression and social relationship support).Consumers' subjective feelings are vital because consumers pay before consuming the knowledge provider's subjective knowledge and these requiring consumers to further invest time and effort in learning.Our model also integrates feelings factors such as,trust and identification.Survey data collected from 504 respondents was analyzed and hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling(SEM).The results indicate that functional value(knowledge quality and price utility),emotional value(perceived enjoyment and anxiety relief),social value(social knowledge-image expression)and identification with the knowledge provider have significant influences on trust in OPK.Trust in OPK and identification with the knowledge provider both have significant influences on purchase intention,while trust in the platform neither influences consumers' trust in OPK nor purchase intention.The findings of this study provide important theoretical and practical implications for consumer OPK purchase behaviors.