The role of culture in consumer-generated content engagement: A cross-cultural examination of ‘liking’, commenting, sharing, and creating posts about brands on Facebook

Even though the underlying factors behind engaging with Br-UGC, and consumers’ motivations to do so, appear to be similar across cultures, differences in cultural collectivism-individualism still exist and do have an effect on consumer engagement with Br-UGC. The evidence of cultural differences that has been presented in this dissertation helps to emphasize that Br-UGC engagement on SNSs does not occur in a cultural void. In particular, we should be aware that 1) consumers’ motivations for engaging with Br-UGC are not always the same between consumers in individualistic Western and collectivistic Eastern societies, 2) how consumers use Br-UGC to develop and maintain social relationships with others differs between cultures, and 3) the effect of Br-UGC characteristics on consumers’ decision to engage with the Br-UGC also differs between cultures

How audience diversity affects consumers’ creation of brand posts on Facebook: A cross cultural examination

The purpose of this study is to investigate cultural influence on the creation of brand-related posts on Facebook, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of the diversity of user audiences, as well as the intensity of Facebook use. The online survey was conducted with a representative sample of respondents from South Korea, Thailand, the Netherlands, and the United States (N = 802). The findings show that cultural differences at both personal and national levels play a role for social relationships between users and their audiences with consequences for the creation of brand posts. Specifically, as a result of audience diversity, users in individualistic cultures create brand-related content more frequently than users in collectivistic cultures, partly as a consequence of their higher Facebook use

How audience diversity affects consumers’ creation of brand posts on Facebook: A cross cultural examination

The purpose of this study is to investigate cultural influence on the creation of brand-related posts on Facebook, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of the diversity of user audiences, as well as the intensity of Facebook use. The online survey was conducted with a representative sample of respondents from South Korea, Thailand, the Netherlands, and the United States (N = 802). The findings show that cultural differences at both personal and national levels play a role for social relationships between users and their audiences with consequences for the creation of brand posts. Specifically, as a result of audience diversity, users in individualistic cultures create brand-related content more frequently than users in collectivistic cultures, partly as a consequence of their higher Facebook use

Challenging Traditional Culture? How Personal and National Collectivism-Individualism Moderates the Effects of Content Characteristics and Social Relationships on Consumer Engagement with Brand-Related User-Generated Content

Consumers across the globe increasingly engage with user-generated content about brands on social networking sites (i.e., brand-related user-generated content [Br-UGC]). As online consumer behavior does not occur in a cultural void, the present study extends earlier research by explicitly examining how the collectivism-individualism dimension, both at the national and at the personal level, influences consumers’ engagement (“liking,” commenting on, and sharing) with different types of Br-UGC created by different sources. Results based on a diverse sample of participants from South Korea, Thailand, the Netherlands, and the United States (N = 812) suggest that collectivism-individualism at the national level moderates the effects of content characteristics and social relationships on Br-UGC engagement. Moreover, consumers who hold the same values as others in their national culture are more comfortable sharing informative Br-UGC

Cultural differences in motivation for consumers’ online brand-related activities on Facebook

Given the increased relevance of social networking sites (SNSs) for consumers around the globe, companies face the challenge of understanding motivations underlying consumers’ interactions with online brand-related content. Cross-cultural research on consumer motivations for online brand-related activities on SNSs, however, is limited. The present study explored, via in-depth interviews, reasons why Facebook users from individualistic (the Netherlands, the United States) and collectivistic (South Korea, Thailand) cultures engage with brand-related content. The findings provide in-depth insights, in particular, with regards to collectivistic consumers, to the varied interpretations of the motivations for COBRAs identified in previous literature. We also identified a new motivation specifically for collectivistic cultures: the desire to share an intention to purchase or try a product. Moreover, while collectivistic motivations were driven by the wish to express a sense of belonging to the social group, individualistic cultures appear to engage with brands mainly for obtaining advantages for themselves