What drives the sales of paid knowledge products? A two-phase approach

Abstract Knowledge-sharing services in virtual communities have enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years. These communities enable content creators (i.e., speakers) to share knowledge by broadcasting “lives” to which audiences can pay to listen. Our study explores the key antecedents of the sales of paid knowledge products. Data were obtained from the Zhihu Live community to verify the hypotheses. On the Zhihu Live platform, knowledge products are provided in the form of audio broadcasts. A potential listener can choose to purchase a live either before (phase 1) or after (phase 2) it is broadcasted. Accordingly, this study proposes a two-phase approach to investigate the effects of key factors that affect the sales of lives in each phase. Our results suggest that price negatively affects a live’s sales and cumulative prior sales positively affect next-day sales in both phases. Furthermore, review score and speaker–audience interactions have significant effects on sales after a live is broadcasted. The contributions and implications of the results are discussed.

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