With the rapid rise of social e-commerce, user-generated content (UGC) has become one of the most influential external information sources shaping consumer cognition and purchasing decisions. However, existing studies tend to focus on single dimensions, such as information quality or credibility. While offering an incomplete understanding of the multidimensional nature of UGC quality and largely overlooking the critical role of platform governance in content filtering, presentation, and trust transmission. Addressing this gap, the present study examines users of major Chinese social e-commerce platforms and constructs a fivedimensional UGC quality framework encompassing information quality, credibility, interaction quality, presentation quality, and the appropriateness of emotional arousal. Platform governance is incorporated into the analytical model alongside consumer purchasing behaviour to develop an integrated structural equation model. Based on 445 valid responses, the results show that information quality, credibility, interaction quality, and presentation quality significantly enhance consumer purchasing behaviour, whereas the appropriateness of emotional arousal does not exhibit a significant effect. Moreover, platform governance mediates the effects of information quality, credibility, and presentation quality, underscoring its fundamental role in trust transmission and exposure mechanisms within social e-commerce environments. These findings enrich theoretical discussions on the multidimensional structure of UGC quality, reveal the institutional mechanisms through which platform governance operates, and provide practical insights for platforms seeking to improve content governance, algorithmic optimisation, and user trust building.
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Gan, W., Xiao, M., Mohammed, T. A., Vijayan, S. K., Hashim, F. B. (2025) The Synergistic Effects of Multidimensional UGC Quality and Platform Governance: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis of Consumer Purchasing Behaviour on Chinese Social E-commerce Platforms. Hong Kong Financial Bulletin, 1(5), 7-16. https://doi.org/10.71052/hkfb2025/SKND6369