On September 22nd, the Hujiang Economics and Management Forum Series (70th session) was successfully held in the First Meeting Room. The academic report titled Describing Your Podcasts: Disentangling the Effects of Textual Features in Appealing to Online Learners’ Engagement with Podcasters was delivered by Dr. Xiaohui Liu, a lecturer from the Department of Information Management and Information Systems. The report was chaired and commented on by Dr. Peng Qin, a lecturer from the Department of Information Management and Information Systems, and was attended by some faculty and students from the School of Management.
During the report, Dr. Liu reviewed the relevant research on textual features and user behavior in the context of digital platforms, and identified research gaps in the literature review. Based on the research gaps, a conceptual model and related hypotheses were proposed. The report utilized NLP algorithms to extract textual features from the textual descriptions of audio albums which were web-scraped from an exemplary audio platform in China, and used a pseudo-Poisson regression model to verify the inverted U-shaped relationship between lexical richness as well as subjectivity and online learners’ intention to participate in albums. It also demonstrated the positive (negative) moderating effect of readability on the inverted U-shaped relationship between lexical richness (subjectivity) and online learners’ engagement intention.
After the presentation, the participants engaged in discussions and exchanges with Dr. Liu regarding to the content of the report.