How Far Can the Message Go Through Online Communication: Simulation Outcomes of Information Stickiness

Abstract

The phenomenon of information stickiness is widely seen by a declined information vitality and is hypothesised with multiple causes, but research on it is scant. Therefore, it is necessary to unmask the myth and concretise the concept. This research adopts an agent-based simulation model incorporating information accumulation, attitudinal proposition, interest, and preference for searching and matching information to determine how identified antecedents affect four defined symptoms of information stickiness in a simulated virtual community. This paper demystifies these symptoms, which are embedded in various personal, relational, and environmental settings. Some aggregate-level outcomes of consumer message-triggered responses emerge as an endogenous outcome of information stickiness. Analysis of data is visualised and quantified for its longitudinal changes in information acquisition, group affiliation, information growth, and the system’s vitality.