(2025). Breaking the Ice: Can Early Peer Activity Enhance Platform Engagement and Persistence?Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 25-09.
How does peers’ early behavior foster cohort integration and prime future user engagement on digital knowledge exchange platforms, amplifying positive externalities of contributions? We analyze data from 12,000+ professionals participating in online upskilling across 36 cohorts to comprehend user engagement regarding general cohort activities and directed interactions. Leveraging quasi-random variation in initial user behaviors, we find that users receiving early comments or likes are more likely to engage and persist later on. NLP analyses reveal that receiving ‘elaborating and agreeing’-comments has the largest positive effect on outcomes. We further show that observing high levels of early peer activity positively impacts focal users’ future engagement of the same type. Our results highlight the benefits of encouraging individual member reciprocity versus cultivating shared norms for cohort interactions.
