Professor Angela Aerry Choi of Korea University Business School received the SK Award for March 2026 for her research examining how the partitioning of digital content affects consumption and engagement. 

This research began with a simple question: how does the way digital content is divided and delivered influence consumption and engagement? It was a meaningful experience to discover interesting patterns—some of which were unexpected—through real user data. Going forward, I hope to continue conducting research that offers new insights based on actual consumer behavior. 

• Paper Title : To Split or to Merge?: How Partitioning Affects Consumption and Engagement with Digital Content  
• Journal : Information Systems Research (ISR)  
• Publication Year : 2025  
• Summary of Key Findings : 

This study examines how different ways of delivering the same digital content—partitioning it into smaller segments versus merging it into larger units—affect consumption and engagement. By comparing a structure in which the same e-book content is divided into short episodes (SP) with a structure composed of longer episodes (LP), the study shows that the two approaches lead to distinct consumption patterns. 

The results show that the SP structure increases overall consumption (measured by the number of words read), whereas the LP structure is more effective at encouraging readers to finish the content. In addition, the LP structure promotes more active engagement, such as annotations and highlights, and leads to longer, more informative reviews as well as increased follow-up purchases. 

This study demonstrates that a simple “partitioning strategy” in digital content can have a significant impact on user experience and behavioral outcomes, and offers practical implications for platforms and content creators regarding effective content design. 

▶ View the original paper: To Split or to Merge?: How Partitioning Affects Consumption and Engagement with Digital Content