报告题目：Smart Users: Effort Management in Earning Rewards

报告人：张紫琼教授

邀请人：崔淼教授

时间：2023年02月15日（周三），上午10: 00-11: 00

地点：腾讯会议244-621-375

报告摘要：

User-generated content (UGC) websites usually offer rewards and incentives, such as points and badges, to encourage high-quality content from their users. Will these incentives compel users to strive to earn certain rewards? If so, will the quality of UGC decline? To answer these questions, we collect data from Ctrip.com (a leading online travel agency in China) wherein users can earn 80 points by posting a review with >=50 characters. Our research context features a quasi-experimental environment: we apply a regression-discontinuity design to infer the causal effects of UGC related incentives on users’ posting behavior. Regarding effort management, the results reveal a sharp negative jump at the review-length cutoff, indicating that users manage their effort to earn rewards more quickly. We further find that experienced users are more skilled in managing their effort, hence leading to a larger decline in UGC quality. Effort management and UGC quality are less likely to decline when the goal is easy to achieve. Our results offer actionable implications to help UGC platforms optimize their incentive systems.

人物简介：

张紫琼，哈尔滨工业大学经济与管理学院副院长、博士生导师。近年来，在MISQ、TM、JTR等期刊发表录用论文50余篇；主持国家自然科学基金5项(优秀青年项目、重点项目等)以及教育部新世纪优秀人才支持计划项目、教育部霍英东教育基金青年教师项目各1项。获教育部CJ学者奖励计划(青年学者)、教育部全国百篇优秀博士学位论文提名奖等。兼任国务院学位委员会第八届管理科学与工程学科评议组成员、国内多个学术组织常务委员/常务理事/委员/理事，SSCI期刊JECR副编辑。