微博环境下用户学术信息搜寻行为影响因素研究——信息质量和信源可信度双路径视角

Impacting Factors of Users' Academic Information Seeking Behavior in the Context of M icroblogs: A Dual-Route Perspective of Information Quality and Information Source Credibility

双路径模型最早由社会心理学领域的学者提出,认为个人对某行为的态度改变主要受到中枢路径和边缘路径的影响。本文运用双路径模型研究微博环境下用户的学术信息搜寻行为,认为用户对该行为的态度改变受到信息质量(中枢路径)和信源可信度(边缘路径)的影响。鉴于微博的娱乐性和学术信息的严谨性,本文将用户态度分为认知反应和情感反应两个方面。首先基于已有的文献构建信息质量二阶模型,并构建微博学术信息搜寻行为影响因素研究模型。然后采用问卷调查法,搜集294份有效样本数据。在此基础上,利用偏最小二乘结构方程建模方法对数据进行分析,发现信息质量和信源可信度都显著正向影响用户的认知反应和情感反应,且信息质量的影响均大于信源可信度的影响,认知反应和情感反应进一步显著正向影响学术信息搜寻行为。图2。表4。参考文献58。附录1。

In the eyes of general users, microblogs are mainly used to meet their entertainment needs and the academic value of microblogs seems relatively weak. Users are likely to doubt the academic value of mi- croblogs, which thus restricts the academic use of microbogs. The purpose of this study is to facilitate the healthy development of microblog academic information activities. As an important type of social media, mi- croblogs attract tremendous users. Microblogs could potentially not only promote academic exchange among users but also enhance the visibility and use of academic information through users＇ writing, recommenda- tion, review, forwarding or sharing links, resulting in the effective dissemination and diffusion of scientific and expertise knowledge. However, microblogs encourage users to generate contents. Users can express and publish diversified views, and the generated contents lack traditional review mechanisms. In this situation, the information quality of microblogs becomes the issue with which users are more concerned. The dual-route models were first proposed by the sociopsychology scholar, suggesting that individuals＇ atti- tude change towards a behavior is mainly determined by the central route and the peripheral route. This study focuses on users＇ academic information seeking behavior in the context of microblogs, suggesting that users＇ attitude change towards this behavior is impacted by information quality （ central route） and informa- tion source credibility （ peripheral route）. Given the entertainment nature of microblogs and the rigor of aca- demic information, the attitude examined in this study includes both cognitive response and affective re- sponse. Firstly, according to prior literature, the information quality second-order model and the research model exploring impacting factors of microblog academic information seeking behavior were developed. Then a questionnaire survey was conducted and 294 valid data were collected. The Partial Least Squares （PLS） Structural Equation Modeling （SEM） was used to conduct data analysis. From the results, the information quality second-order model developed in this study is confirmed, where relevance is mostly reflected by information quality, showing that the judgment of information quality mostly lies in the judgment of the relevance of information when users seek academic information in microblogs. Meanwhile, information quality and information source credibility have significant and positive impacts on users＇ cognitive response and affective response, with the impact of information quality being larger than that of information source credibility. Furthermore, cognitive response and affective response positively im- pact microblog academic information seeking behavior, with the impact of cognitive response being larger than that of affective response. The dual-route models suggest that the attitude change formed by the central route is more robust. Conse- quently, the information quality of microblogs should be given top priority by both the institutions holding mieroblogs and microblog developers so as to facilitate the healthy development of microblog academic infor- mation activities. Only in this way, can the user experience be enhanced and the stable academic need stickiness be generated by users, with the results that microblogs would play positive roles in facilitating ac- ademic information exchange and dissemination. Given the weak academic effect of microblogs and the weak consciousness of academic information seeking by users at the current stage, future research is invited to continuously track academic information seeking behavior in the context of microblogs so as to obtain longitudinal research data, which would complement the results presented here. 2 figs. 4 tabs. 58 refs. 1 appendix.