Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] Knowledge-based short-form videos have been widely used by the general public. This study aims to explore the mechanism of knowledge adoption intention of short-form videos in the vision of flow theory. [Design/Methodology] Based on flow theory and Information Adoption Model, this study designed controlled experiments, collected data via questionnaire, and explored the mechanism of knowledge adoption intention by PLS-SEM. [Findings/Conclusion] The flow experience positively influences the perceived usefulness and knowledge adoption intention directly, negatively moderates the positive influence of video quality on perceived usefulness, and positively moderates the positive influence of perceived usefulness on knowledge adoption intention. In the high skill state and high flow state, users' knowledge adoption intention is influenced by both the information content path and the flow experience path and in the high challenge state, it is only influenced by the information content path. [Originality/Value] This study applies flow theory to the study on users' knowledge adoption intention when watching short-form videos, and proposes a short-form video knowledge adoption intention generation model. Also, the complex relationships between the flow experience, knowledge adoption and image cognition are discovered in this study.

Key words: Knowledge adoption, Knowledge-based video, Short-form video, Flow theory, Challenge-skill balance