公益连接何以有效?——项目转发方式对用户点击意愿的影响OA

Forwarding links of public welfare projects through social platforms(e.g.,WeChat and QQ)can attract attentions and push information to users;therefore,it has become increasingly important in attracting traffic and connecting to potential donors for charity.This has promoted a substantial increase in the generation and transmission of project links on social platforms.However,social platform users selectively click on some links for details rather than overwhelming themselves by clicking all of them.Moreover,it seems much easier to hide fraudulent information under the benevolence of others when forwarding links of public welfare projects is so popular on social platforms.The willingness to click project links has weakened as links have increased,negatively affecting the fundraising and sustainable development of charity.Actually,clicking the links forwarded on the social platform can serve as a measure of the effectiveness of the forwarding because it is only by clicking the links that users can obtain a complete picture of the public welfare project.Consequently,it is an important issue to strengthen the intention of potential donors to click on links to enhance the effectiveness of project links.In addition to the content and presentation of the forwarding,how the links of public welfare projects are forwarded-for example,private sending,mass sending,and sharing in friend circles-is also essential in the individual intention of link clicking.Therefore,there is an urgent need to reveal the mechanisms and effect boundaries of the forwarding mode of projects on link clicking to enhance the effectiveness of charity connections. However,existing studies have not sufficiently uncovered the differences between the impacts of the various forwarding modes of public welfare projects on click intention or how the differences arise.Although the importance of clicking as the threshold of the online world has aroused widespread concern in academia,existing researches have mainly focused on consumer behavior in commercial field rather than donor behavior in charity field.However,despite rich studies on the drivers,formation mechanisms and transmission modes of forwarding behavior on social platforms,its impact on users' subsequent behavior as a causal factor has not been sufficiently studied.Moreover,the impact of forwarding mode,which is one of the three elements of forwarding behavior,on click intention has been neglected.Given the digitization and decentralization of public welfare establishments,there is a need for them to attract and link with the benevolent people,thereby constructing an online ecosystem of public welfare with the best regard for mutual connection,mutual assistance,and mutual benefits.Nevertheless,this progress may be seriously restricted without knowledge of how the forwarding modes of public welfare projects affect users' link clicking.To this end,this study takes the most popular form of project content presentation,that is,picture links,as the object of study and tries to answer 1)how the forwarding modes of a project affect users' willingness to click on a link,and 2)what boundary conditions are needed when this impact takes place. Based on social exchange and social identity theories,this study developed a moderated dual mediation model to describe the conditions and mechanisms of the forwarding modes of public welfare projects on users' link clicking.Four scenario simulation experiments were conducted to test the conceptual framework model and proposed hypotheses.Experiment 1 was conducted in the context of WeChat as a 1×3 between-subjects experiment.The three forwarding modes(i.e.,private sending,mass sending and sharing in friend circles)were manipulated to test their direct effects on users' link-clicking intention,as well as their indirect impact through the mediators of perceived neediness and perceived relationship pressure.Experiment 2 demonstrated the robustness of the results of Experiment 1 using two sub-experiments to eliminate the interference caused by the forwarding platform,experimental method,project type,and potential variables.With other conditions fixed,the experimental situation was changed from WeChat to QQ in Experiment 2a.In contrast,Experiment 2b kept the WeChat experimental situation unchanged,while the project type was changed from personal assistance to community disaster relief and the field experiment to an online experiment.Some possible alternative explanatory factors(i.e.,perceived value,perceived trust,subjective norms and empathy)were also excluded in Experiment 2b.Finally,Experiment 3 was designed to determine the role of self-construction in moderating the impact of forwarding mode on perceived neediness,perceived relationship pressure,and click intention.The experimental context and stimulus materials in Experiment 3 remained the same as in Experiment 1,while self-construction was manipulated to conduct a 3(forwarding modes:private sending vs.mass sending vs.sharing in friend circles)×2(self-construction:independent vs.dependent)between-subjects experiment. In summary,the findings of this study not only expand the research on click intention and forwarding behavior in the charity field,but also provide important supplement and extension to the research on philanthropic participation behavior and theories related to individual cognition.It provides important guidance on how to forward the links of public welfare projects by social platforms,which is essential for improving charity connections.This paper also has some limitations,such as no consideration of the moderating role of perceived social distance and the impact of individual preference for social platforms.