The Relationship Between Recommendation Serendipity and User Satisfaction: a Moderated Mediation Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_49How to use a DOI?

Keywords

recommendation system; serendipity; self-expansion; regulatory focus; user satisfaction

Abstract

Although existing research has shown that serendipitous recommendations can enhance user engagement and sociality perception of recommendation system, limited attention has been paid to how the recommendation serendipity may trigger users’ self-expansion and, in turn, influence their satisfaction. Drawing upon self-expansion theory and regulatory focus theory, this study employs a questionnaire survey to investigate the underlying mechanisms through which recommendation serendipity affects user satisfaction, while also identifying boundary conditions and potential interventions. The results reveal that: first, after controlling for age, gender, daily usage time of streaming platforms, and educational background, recommendation serendipity significantly and positively predicts user satisfaction; second, self-expansion plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between recommendation serendipity and user satisfaction; third, regulatory focus not only moderates the effect of recommendation serendipity on self-expansion, but also enhances the mediating effect of self-expansion as individuals’ regulatory focus increases. These findings contribute to the existing literature on recommendation system by enriching the theoretical understanding of self-expansion and regulatory focus, and provide practical implications for optimizing recommendation algorithms and improving user experience on streaming platforms.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Manxi Ye
AU  - Jing Zhang
AU  - Linghua Zhang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/12
TI  - The Relationship Between Recommendation Serendipity and User Satisfaction: a Moderated Mediation Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 9th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 444
EP  - 461
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_49
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-462-4_49
ID  - Ye2025
ER  -