Abstract
The emotion is an essential psychological factor in purchase behavior of consumers, but it is not known how anxiety affects consumers’ cognitive coping and their performance on knowledge payment. This study combined feelings-as-information theory to construct an explanatory model of consumer perceived anxiety on knowledge purchase, which summarized the relationship between perceived anxiety positivity, perceived anxiety negativity, problem-oriented coping strategy, emotion-oriented coping strategy, knowledge purchase likelihood and knowledge producer reputation. We surveyed 470 knowledge payment platforms consumers through scenario experiments and questionnaires, and analyzed data from 403 valid samples. The empirical results showed that both perceived anxiety positivity and perceived anxiety negativity had a significant positive effect on knowledge purchase likelihood. The results also revealed partial mediating effects of problem-oriented coping strategy and emotion-oriented coping strategy between perceived anxiety positivity, perceived anxiety negativity, and knowledge purchase likelihood. Furthermore, we focused on the moderating effect of knowledge producer reputation, which was not significant. This study’s findings can help knowledge payment platforms managers gain insight into user behavior and develop appropriate strategies to promote sustainable industry development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data and material that support the findings of this study are available from ML (mlliu@guet.edu.cn), upon reasonable request.
References
Alraimi, K. M., Zo, H., & Ciganek, A. P. (2015). Understanding the MOOCs continuance: The role of openness and reputation. Computers & Education, 80, 28–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.006
Arbol, J. R., Ruiz-Osta, A., & Aguilar, C. I. M. (2022). Personality traits, cognitive styles, coping strategies, and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on healthy youngsters. Behavioral Sciences, 12(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12010005
Barlette, Y., Jaouen, A., & Baillette, P. (2021). Bring your own device (BYOD) as reversed IT adoption: Insights into managers’ coping strategies. International Journal of Information Management, 56, 102212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102212
Beaudry, A., & Pinsonneault, A. (2005). Understanding user responses to information technology: A coping model of user adaptation. MIS Quarterly, 29(3), 493–524. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148693
Bhattacherjee, A., Davis, C. J., Connolly, A. J., & Hikmet, N. (2018). User response to mandatory IT use: A coping theory perspective. European Journal of Information Systems, 27(4), 395–414. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41303-017-0047-0
Cai, S., Shi, H., Fu, X., & Chen, X. (2019). A study on the factors influencing the sales of knowledge payment products: Zhihu live as an example. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, 33(03), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.13587/j.cnki.jieem.2019.03.009
Cao, D., Zheng, Y., Liu, C., Yao, X., & Chen, S. (2022). Consumption values, anxiety and organic food purchasing behaviour considering the moderating role of sustainable consumption attitude. British Food Journal, 124(11), 3540–3562. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2021-0647
Chen, R., & Yan, H. (2023). Effects of knowledge anxiety and cognitive processing bias on brand avoidance during COVID-19: The mediating role of attachment anxiety and herd mentality. Sustainability, 15(8), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086978
Deng, S., & Jiang, Y. (2020). A study on the contribution of user interaction features to the prediction of knowledge payment behavior. Library and Information Service, 64(08), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2020.08.011
Deng, & Kim, H. (2020). A study on the effects of Chinese consumers’ anxiety and boredom due to COVID 19 on live streaming commerce. Social Science Research, 27(4), 196–218.
Du, Z., & Xu, J. (2018). From need to experience:factors influencing users’ online knowledge payment behavior. Journalism & Communication, 25(10), 18–39+126.
Duhachek, A. (2005). Coping: A multidimensional, hierarchical framework of responses to stressful consumption episodes. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1086/426612
Fernandes, T., & Guerra, J. (2019). Drivers and deterrents of music streaming services purchase intention. International Journal of Electronic Business, 15(1), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEB.2019.099061
Frijda, N. H. (1996). The laws of emotions. Zeitschrift Fur Psychosomatische Medizin Und Psychoanalyse, 42(3), 205–221.
Hong, S. (2021). The effect of anxiety caused by COVID-19 on purchasing behavior of beauty services. Journal of Korea Design Forum, 27(6), 1334–1342. https://doi.org/10.52660/JKSC.2021.27.6.1334
Hu, W., & Sun, M. (2023). COVID-19 stressors and aggression among Chinese college students: The mediation role of coping strategies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3171. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043171
Huang, X., Zhang, X., & Zhang, H. (2022). The impact of mixed emotions on consumer improvisation behavior in the environment of COVID-19: The moderating effect of tightness-looseness culture. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(24), Article 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192417076
Kim, H. R., Kim, S. M., Han, D. H., & Lee, Y. S. (2020). Protective and risk factors for depressive mood and anxiety against occupational stress: Examining temperament character and coping strategy among civil servants. Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 75(6), 346–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/19338244.2019.1666789
Leung, X. Y., & Wen, H. (2021). How emotions affect restaurant digital ordering experiences: A comparison of three ordering methods. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 12(3), 439–453. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-05-2020-0117
Li, C., & Shen, C. (2022). The influence of perceived value of knowledge payment platform membership services on consumption intention—An empirical analysis based on college students’ group. China Publishing Journal., 12, 22–25.
Li, Y., Kim, W., & Cho, Y.-S. (2020). Consumer anxiety and consumer behavior in China: Nostalgic emotion as a mediator. The Journal of Modern China Studies, 22(3), 301–367. https://doi.org/10.35820/JMCS.22.3.8
Li, J., Zheng, R., Sun, H., Lu, J., & Ma, W. (2022). Broadcasters’ expertise and consumers’ purchase intention: The roles of consumer trust and platform reputation. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1019050. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1019050
Liao, M., Fang, J., Yang, J., & Hossin, M. A. (2022). The effect of recommendation content similarity on sustained app use from the perspective of user coping[J/OL]. Nankai Business Review. https://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail/12.1288.F.20220507.1645.002.html
Lin, S., Cheng, K., & Chuang, S.-H. (2021). Three needs and information anxiety on knowledge purchase intentions across online knowledge platforms. Behavioral Sciences, 11(10), 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11100127
Liu, Y., Shen, Y., Luo, C., & Chan, H. C. (2021). Reach out and touch: Eliciting the sense of touch through gesture-based interaction. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(6), 1686–1714. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00704
Liu, Y., Zu, Y., Zhang, Z., Liu, X., & He, Q. (2022). Research on the influence of anxiety on consumers’ purchase intention. Psychiatria Danubina, 34, S56–S57.
Luo, J. M., & Lam, C. F. (2020). Travel anxiety, risk attitude and travel intentions towards “Travel bubble” destinations in Hong Kong: Effect of the fear of COVID-19. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217859
Mize, J. L. (2023). Depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms and coping strategies in the context of the sudden course modality shift in the spring 2020 semester. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04566-5
Mulligan, K., & Scherer, K. R. (2012). Toward a working definition of emotion. Emotion Review, 4(4), 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912445818
Peng, L. (2018). Platform mechanism and user willingness: An analysis of two key elements of knowledge payment. Chinese Editors Journal, 11, 11–17.
Punj, G. (2015). The relationship between consumer characteristics and willingness to pay for general online content: Implications for content providers considering subscription-based business models. Marketing Letters, 26(2), 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-013-9273-y
Riggs, E. E., Shulman, H. C., & Lopez, R. (2022). Using infographics to reduce the negative effects of jargon on intentions to vaccinate against COVID-19. Public Understanding of Science, 31(6), 751–765. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625221077385
Spekman, M. L. C., Konijn, E. A., & Hoorn, J. F. (2018). Perceptions of healthcare robots as a function of emotion-based coping: The importance of coping appraisals and coping strategies. Computers in Human Behavior, 85, 308–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.03.043
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092
Steenkamp, J. B. E., Batra, R., & Alden, D. L. (2003). How perceived brand globalness creates brand value. Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), 53–65. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400002
Stein, M.-K., Newell, S., Wagner, E. L., & Galliers, R. D. (2015). Coping with information technology: mixed emotions, vacillation, and nonconforming use patterns. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), 367-U434. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2015/39.2.05
Su, R., & Liang, D. (2020). The study on the influence of online interactivity on purchase intention on B2C websites: The interference moderating role of website reputation. In J. Xu, S. E. Ahmed, F. L. Cooke, & G. Duca (Eds.), Proceedings of the thirteenth international conference on management science and engineering management (Vol. 1002, pp. 628–640). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21255-1_48
Su, L., Li, Y., & Li, W. (2019). A study on the factors influencing users to pay for online knowledge: Based on trust and identity perspective. Journal of Management Science, 32(04), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1672-0334.2019.04.007
Suh, H., & Kwon, Y.-K. (2018). The study on the factors in death anxiety affecting on-line purchase intention of consumers. Electronic Trade Research, 16(4), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.17255/etr.16.4.201811.95
Sun, J., He, M., & Hu, J. (2021). The impact of knowledge anxiety on platform users’ willingness to pay for knowledge from the perspective of perceived value. Journal of Modern Information, 41(06), 129–138. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1008-0821.2021.06.012
Wang, J., Li, Y., & Rao, H. R. (2017a). Coping responses in phishing detection: An investigation of antecedents and consequences. Information Systems Research, 28(2), 378–396. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2016.0680
Wang, D., Zhang, L., & Zhang, Z. (2017b). A longitudinal study of the relationship between problematic internet use and well-being, social anxiety, and depression. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 15(04), 569–576.
Williams, K. J., & Alliger, G. M. (1994). Role stressors, mood spillover, and perceptions of work-family conflict in employed parents. The Academy of Management Journal, 37(4), 837–868. https://doi.org/10.2307/256602
Wu, T., & Lin, C. A. (2017). Predicting the effects of eWOM and online brand messaging: Source trust, bandwagon effect and innovation adoption factors. Telematics and Informatics, 34(2), 470–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.08.001
Wu, Y., Choi, B., Guo, X., & Chang, K. T.-T. (2017). Understanding user adaptation toward a new IT system in organizations: A social network perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18(11), 787–813. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00473
Xing, X., & Zhou, P. (2019). Research on the business model of internet knowledge payment. Management Review, 31(07), 75–85. https://doi.org/10.14120/j.cnki.cn11-5057/f.2019.07.013
Xue, J., Huang, L., & Liang, X. (2019). How should online stores implement coping strategies to fight against deceptive promotions? Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 36, 100860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2019.100860
Xue, Y., Dong, Y., & Pu, X. (2021). Model construction and empirical study on users’ willingness to consistently use knowledge paid app. Economy and Management, 35(04), 17–23.
Yi, S., & Baumgartner, H. (2004). Coping with negative emotions in purchase-related situations. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(3), 303–317. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp1403_11
Yu, X., Lai, L., & Ren, Z. (2018). A meta-analysis of the magnitude of negative versus positive attentional bias in social anxiety and its correlates. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 32(06), 455–461. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1000-6729.2018.06.002
Zhao, Y., Yuan, X., Li, L., & Zhao, Y. (2018). The impact factors of users’ paying behavior for knowledge on social Q &a platform based on social capital theory. Documentation,Information & Knowledge, 04, 15–23. https://doi.org/10.13366/j.dik.2018.04.015
Zhao, F., Qu, X., & Zhou, Q. (2019). An empirical study of factors influencing users’ willingness to pay for knowledge in online Q&A communities. Information and Documentation Services, 40(01), 89–97.
Zhao, Y., Peng, X., Liu, Z., Song, S., & Hansen, P. (2020). Factors that affect asker’s pay intention in trilateral payment-based social Q&A platforms: From a benefit and cost perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 71(5), 516–528. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24262
Funding
This study was supported by “the Innovation Project of GUET Graduate Education (Grant No. 2021YCXS085)”, “the Guangxi Higher Education Innovation Team and Excellence Scholar Project (E-Commerce and Logistics Management)”, “the Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education (Grant No. JGY2019079) and “the Project of Guangxi Education Department (Grant No. 2022KY0186)”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Meilian Liu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-review and editing, Funding acquisition, supervision. Xiaoyang Kan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing-original draft preparation, Writing-review and editing, Visualization, Project administration. Ming Zhao: Resources, Data curation, Visualization. Qinfei Li: Resources, Data curation, Visualization.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical statement
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict of interests
This research has no conflict of interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, M., Kan, X., Zhao, M. et al. Linking perceived anxiety to knowledge purchase likelihood: the mediating role of coping strategies. Curr Psychol 43, 13630–13641 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05392-5
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05392-5