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The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of online reviews on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, with an eye toward extending knowledge exchange and community management.

Online reviews contain rich cognitive and emotional information about community members regarding the provided answers. As feedback information on answers, it is crucial to explore how online reviews affect answer adoption. Based on signaling theory, a research model reflecting the influence of online reviews on answer adoption is established and empirically examined by using secondary data with 69,597 Q&A data and user data collected from Zhihu. Meanwhile, the moderating effects of the informational and emotional consistency of reviews and answers are examined.

The negative binomial regression results show that both answer-related signals (informational support and emotional support) and answerers-related signals (answerers’ reputations and expertise) positively impact answer adoption. The informational consistency of reviews and answers negatively moderates the relationships among information support, emotional support and answer adoption but positively moderates the effect of answerers’ expertise on answer adoption. Furthermore, the emotional consistency of reviews and answers positively moderates the effect of information support and answerers’ reputations on answer adoption.

Although previous studies have investigated the impacts of answer content, answer source credibility and personal characteristics of knowledge seekers on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, few have examined the impact of online reviews on answer adoption. This study explores the impacts of informational and emotional feedback in online reviews on answer adoption from a signaling theory perspective. The results not only provide unique ideas for community managers to optimize community design and operation but also inspire community users to provide or utilize knowledge, thereby reducing knowledge search costs and improving knowledge exchange efficiency.

The current study investigates the impact on perceived review helpfulness of the simultaneous processing of information from multiple cues with various central and peripheral cue combinations based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Thus, the current study develops and tests hypotheses by analyzing real-world review data with a text mining approach in e-commerce to investigate how information consistency (rating inconsistency, review consistency and text similarity) influences perceived helpfulness. Moreover, the role of product type is examined in online consumer reviews of perceived helpfulness.

The current study collected 61,900 online reviews, including 600 products in six categories, from Amazon.com. Additionally, 51,927 reviews were filtered that received helpfulness votes, and then text mining and negative binomial regression were applied.

The current study found that rating inconsistency and text similarity negatively affect perceived helpfulness and that review consistency positively affects perceived helpfulness. Moreover, peripheral cues (rating inconsistency) positively affect perceived helpfulness in reviews of experience goods rather than search goods. However, there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate the hypothesis that product types moderate the effectiveness of central cues (review consistency and text similarity) on perceived helpfulness.

Previous studies have mainly focused on numerical and textual factors to investigate the effect on perceived helpfulness. Additionally, previous studies have independently confirmed the factors that affect perceived helpfulness. The current study investigated how information consistency affects perceived helpfulness and found that various combinations of cues significantly affect perceived helpfulness. This result contributes to the review helpfulness and ELM literature by identifying the impact on perceived helpfulness from a comprehensive perspective of consumer review and information consistency.

The authors expand the connotation of the research on the accounting information quality characteristics, provide empirical evidence for the factors of consistency and also help to deepen further their understanding of the economic consequences of ownership concentration and other ownership structures.

Using financial data of Chinese listed companies as samples, coupled with a method to calculate the consistency of the sample enterprises on the corporate level in the 2007–2019 period, the authors studied its impact of ownership concentration on consistency.

The study finds that after controlling other factors, ownership concentration could significantly reduce accounting information consistency. Further research finds that when the executives' shareholding is higher, the reduction effect of ownership concentration on consistency is weaker. After the robustness test, the conclusion remains basically unchanged.

First, maybe there is a limitation of De Franco et al. (2011) method the authors use in China. As some scholars pointed out, the systematic component of returns variation is large in emerging markets (Morck et al., 2000), so it is hard to determine to what extent market stock returns will capture the net effect of earnings. As is mentioned above, there are multiple methods for measuring comparability and consistency, but it is not easy to judge which way is the best. Maybe the authors will have a perfect process in the future. Second, in addition to the factors mentioned in this study's hypotheses, there should be other factors (these include internal factors and external factors) that play moderating role in the impact of ownership concentration on accounting information consistency. The authors have not thoroughly studied the effect of those factors. These limitations all need to be further explored in the future.

The study finds that after controlling other factors, ownership concentration could significantly reduce accounting information consistency, but the reduction will be affected by some other factors related to corporate governance. The new insights from these advances are that the conclusions provide a technical path for management of companies to improve corporate governance efficiency and the quality of accounting information, and also provide more reference and empirical evidence for information users to identify the company's accounting information quality, which contributes to creating a prerequisite for the usefulness of accounting information.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of multichannel integration quality in enhancing online perceived value and online purchase intention via the online store operated by a land-based retailer.

This paper develops a research model based on the “quality-value-purchase” chain, with four dimensions of multichannel integration quality as antecedents and three dimensions of online perceived value as mediators of online purchase intention. Empirical data were collected from 390 multichannel shoppers and structured equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.

Among the four multichannel integration quality dimensions, transparency of service configuration, process consistency and business ties positively affect online purchase intention through online perceived value, whereas the effects of information consistency are not significant; process consistency exerts a stronger influence on online perceived value than business ties; the effect of online convenience on online purchase intention is weaker than that of online monetary savings and online hedonic value.

The study identifies the theoretical principles of the relationships among multichannel integration quality, online perceived value and online perceived value in multichannel context. Based on these theoretical principles, this study will help researchers to better understand consumers’ online purchase intention and the creation of online perceived value in the integrated multichannel context.

The findings of this study can provide retailers with useful strategies to increase online purchase intention depending on improvement of multichannel integration quality and online perceived value.

This study provides a first study to empirically assess various types of online perceived value attached to multidimensional properties of multichannel integration quality and the corresponding effects on online purchase intention. Overall, the results offer insights of how land-based retailers could manage their online performance by integrating multiple channels and improving online perceived value.

Attracted by tremendous market opportunities of mobile business, many web services providers have started to expand their web services from traditional PC-based environment into the mobile-based environment. However, success in the web services cannot guarantee the success in the mobile services. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that influence consumer evaluation and use of mobile shopping services in a web-mobile service extension context.

Based on categorization theory, this paper focusses on the role of integration and consistency between web and mobile services. A research model was created and empirically tested on data collected from 298 mobile shopping users in China.

The structural equation modeling analysis indicates that evaluation of source (web service quality) positively affect evaluation of target (perceived mobile service quality and flow in mobile services). The study also found that the relationships between source and target (perceived integration and perceived consistency) play an important role in determining evaluation of the target, which in turn shapes intention to use mobile services.

The survey is based on mobile shopping consumers. Caution is required in any effort to generalize the findings to other research contexts. Factors influencing a consumer's extension or adoption decisions in regard to different mobile services may not be the same, or the degree of influence may differ. Continued studies can test and compare our findings in different mobile services contexts.

The results of the findings provide specific methods for managing the process of web-mobile service extension. The results also indicate the importance of perceived consistency in shaping consumers’ evaluation of the extended mobile services in practical environments.

The present study extends the categorization theory to a multi-channel context and examines mobile services adoption from a cross-environment perspective. It considers evaluation of source, evaluation of target, and the relationships between source and target, which enriches the innovation adoption literature by providing a holistic insight into the evaluation and use of mobile services.

This paper aims to explore the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by megacities. Three dimensions were considered. First, what communication channels are used by world megacities to disclose their emissions reduction target (ERT) and emissions reduction actions (ERA)? Second, the consistency of disclosed ERT and ERA across different channels. Third, the quality of the disclosed ERA in different channels.

Ten megacities selected for review were in Australia, Europe, the USA, the UK and South Africa. First, ERT and ERA information was searched in different disclosure media to identify the common communication channels used by the megacities. Second, the documentary analysis was undertaken to assess the consistency of reported ERT and ERA information across the identified channels. Third, a scoring system was developed and applied to evaluate the quality of the disclosed ERA information, based on the extent to which megacities provided descriptions of emission reduction actions and reported the impact of the actions and the cost to implement them.

Megacities primarily used third-party channels and their channels to disclose ERT- and ERA-related information. Social media use to provide climate change information is also growing. The study also finds that ERT information is consistent between third-party channels and megacities’ channels. However, around half of the disclosed ERA between third-party and megacities’ channels are not consistent. Quality assessment for the disclosed ERA in different channels shows that megacities have provided limited information regarding the impacts and the cost of their ERA, which raises a question about the usefulness of disclosure.

The findings are important for policymakers and city officials designing cities’ GHG reporting standards and developing policies for programs to reduce emissions. Also, for stakeholders’ understanding of cities’ commitment and actions to reduce emissions, as well as the impact of their actions, and for managers responsible for measuring, reporting and mitigating emissions from current and future actions.

Prior studies primarily focused on corporate greenhouse emissions disclosure to the carbon disclosure project, whereas this paper examines emissions disclosure at the geographic level. Moreover, prior studies of the public sector focused on the scope of climate change disclosure but did not evaluate the consistency and quality of the disclosure. However, this study explores three different disclosure channels and assesses consistency and quality. A further novel aspect of the study is its focus on the disclosure of emissions reduction targets and actions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social value of information in virtual investment communities and compare its effects with objective information value. A model including information quality, social comparison, and herding orientation, and their effects on decision usefulness and member satisfaction, is proposed and tested.

An online survey with a sample of 215 members of investment communities was conducted to test the proposed model.

The opinion comparison orientation of members and information credibility are positively related to their perceived decision usefulness and satisfaction. Consistency is positively related to decision usefulness, but not to member satisfaction. Members' herding tendency moderates the effect of opinion comparison orientation on decision usefulness and the effect of ability comparison orientation on satisfaction.

The sample is small and not random. The proportion of students in the sample seems to be higher than it should be among virtual investment community members.

Investors should be careful regarding the social influences of their communities; the effects may not always be good for investment decisions.

Virtual communities provide members with social comparison information, which may yield positive effects for members in inspiration, self‐improvement, and self‐enhancement.

The virtual community can be a forum where people gain information regarding others to satisfy their needs for social comparison. Virtual communities provide special social value for their members, even for those who do not interact with others by posting in the communities.

This study aims to facilitate consistency of information in building information modelling (BIM) and address the current BIM gaps through the perspectives of the productization concept and product structure (PS).

The study follows a conceptual research approach in conjunction with a single case study. First, the previous studies on BIM implementation, productization and PS are reviewed. Further, a case study is used to analyse the current state of productization in the construction sector and develop a functional PS for construction.

A Part-Phase-Elements Matrix is proposed as a construction-specific PS to facilitate consistency in information and to enhance BIM. The proposed matrix provides new avenues to facilitate consistent information exchange through the interconnection between conceptual PS and standard building objects library, and encourage collaborative communication between stakeholders.

This study explores the core of the productization concept and PS as means to facilitate consistency of information and thus address the current gaps in BIM. This as building projects progressively move towards systematic modular and prefabricated construction where the flow of reliable information about product and construction offerings becomes increasingly important.

This study aims to analyze the motivations underlying information usefulness, attitude and acceptance of health information related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) avoidance based on the information acceptance model (IAM) and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM).

This study conducted a quantitative approach using survey that generated 364 valid responses. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data and evaluate the hypotheses.

The results of this study showed that the determinants of information usefulness are argument quality (comprising accuracy and timeliness) and peripheral route (comprising credibility and relevance), whereas no significant relationship was found between completeness and information quantity and information usefulness. Further analysis indicated that attitude and information usefulness significantly affect health information acceptance to COVID-19 avoidance.

Using ELM and IAM, an explanation of health information acceptance in the salient pandemic context was given. This study contributed to the current literature by offering insights into attitude and information usefulness for information acceptance. The validation of the model was strengthened by identifying the effects of argument quality and peripheral route attributes on information usefulness, which is stated to make contributions to the earlier literature.

Practitioners should strive to understand the facilitators regarding argument quality and peripheral routes to broaden information usefulness. The findings of this study are helpful for practitioners to implement communication campaigns that foster attitude and health information acceptance in the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in similar disease situations.

This study provides individuals and organizations with necessary information about the importance of mobile applications (m-applications) in distributing online information and about reliable guidelines for the implementation of disease avoidance to improve their health status.

Existing studies investigated users’ health information acceptance in some contexts related to general disease, but less is known about this behavior among young individuals via m-applications at the moment of COVID-19 and in emerging economies. This study identifies the efforts made by the relationship between information and technological diffusion to help individuals surmount difficulties in times of crisis.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of review group’s content-related and environment-associated attributes on information adoption intention of information readers. In addition, this study further investigates the effects of these determinants in different websites with different commercial attributes (i.e. online stores and third party forums).

This study used a structured online survey to collect data from an online store and a third party forum in China; totally 302 responses were collected.

The empirical results confirm that all of the five determinants significantly affect the information adoption intention of information readers. Furthermore, the authors found that four of the determinants have distinct effects in different websites.

The findings of this study validate the significant moderating role of website attributes in readers’ information processing. Information readers use distinct criteria to evaluate the received review information; electronic word-of-mouth determinants have varying effects on different websites with different commercial attributes.