Configurational Path to Chinese Reading Stickiness of Digital Library

Abstract

Attracting and retaining readers in an increasingly competitive environment is an urgent problem for digital libraries of original literature. However, few empirical studies address online reading stickiness, particularly the factors affecting the promotion of online reading stickiness, in what combinations or paths these effects exist, and whether there are complementary, alternative, and inhibitory relationships among the factors. To solve the practical problems and fill the theoretical gap, we use a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to study the interaction effects of the flow experience (feeling of immersion and perceived pleasure), technology acceptance model (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), and customer participation (information sharing and interpersonal interaction) to identify the critical configurations leading to a high level of stickiness in online reading and to verify the complementarity, substitution, and inhibition relationships among these variables. The findings provide implications for further research on complexity theory in digital libraries of original literature, and for managers to view and redesign online reading stickiness as configurations of IT and psychological capabilities. This study enriches and develops the existing theories and expands the application of the qualitative comparative analysis method in the field of digital libraries.