Essays on Content Management on Digital Platforms: Design and Provision Implications of Online Reviews, Multimedia, and AI-Generated Content

Abstract

Digital platforms host vast amounts of content in different formats, such as text, image, and video, generated from diverse sources including human and artificial intelligence (AI). The sheer volume and heterogeneity of content in formats and sources introduce opportunities, as well as complexities and challenges for platforms to manage the experience of users, who may act as content consumers or content creators. This dissertation consists of three essays that examine current practices and strategies for content design and provision, and their implications on user behavior across multiple empirical settings. Essay 1 focuses on a common type of content: online reviews. I investigate the impact of a unique review display strategy on the decision-making of potential consumers in a consumer review platform. The findings show that simply adjusting the review display structure to highlight a reviewer’s consumption history helps identify repeat buyers, which serves as a signal of quality and boosts business performance. Essay 2 studies knowledge communication through two distinct communication media, specifically text and video, and compares their impact on the psychological processes underlying knowledge transfer in a social Q&A platform. I find that videos, compared to text, stimulate affective, social, and perceptual processes to a greater extent, while both communication media are comparably effective in triggering cognitive processes. Interpretable video analytics further provides granular insights into the content design of knowledge-intensive videos. Essay 3 focuses on an online mental health forum that connects support seekers with counselors and explores how human counselors respond to the integration of a chatbot that delivers AI-generated support. The findings indicate a noticeable decline in the baseline level of services provided by human counselors, marked by their reduced engagement and less frequent use of psychotherapeutic strategies. The three essays collectively provide theoretical insights and practical guidance for managing complex and heterogeneous content on digital platforms.