Consumer characteristics and the use of social networking sites : A comparison between Korea and the US

Purpose – This study examined the antecedents and consequences of intensity of SNS use in a cross-cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of three IT-related consumer characteristics – privacy concern, consumer innovativeness and propensity to share information – on the use of social networking sites (SNS) and examine if there are cross-national differences in the relationships between consumer characteristics and SNS use. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed and tested a structural equation model including consumer characteristics related to SNS usage, by using survey data of 977 SNS users in Korea and the US. Findings – Consumer innovativeness, propensity to share information and privacy concern affected intensity of SNS use and the usage of SNS enabled social capital. In addition, the effects of innovativeness and privacy concern on the intensity of SNS use were greater in the US sample than in the Korean sample. People in the culture of high peer pressure and herding behavior tend to expect more reciprocity in social surveillance, especially among in-group members because they are interested in tracking others in the group. This tendency might alleviate the negative impact of privacy concern on the intensity of SNS use. The positive impact of innovativeness on the intensity of SNS use was alleviated in the collectivism culture. This is maybe because the imitation factor predicts the adoption behavior better than the innovation factor in the collectivism culture. Research limitations/implications – Despite several notable contributions, this study has a few limitations, which may be overcome by further research. First, this study did not considered many other personality variables. Second, most measurements were retrospective, depending on the respondents’ memory of past shopping behavior. Third, an experimental study will be needed to obtain more accurate effects of the antecedents on the intensity of SNS use in the next stage. Fourth, there are sample limitations in the study. Although this study has some limitations, it also provides very meaningful implications. For example, both the positive impact of innovativeness and the negative impact of privacy concerns on the intensity of SNS use were alleviated in the collectivistic culture. Practical implications – This finding implies that SNS in the collective culture should focus more on group behavior than individual behavior in order to promote SNS use. In addition, it is an effective strategy to emphasize the innovative function of SNS in individualism culture. As privacy concern is not big problem of SNS usage in collectivism culture, it is an effective strategy to stimulate the needs of in-group surveillance. Originality/value – The study contributes to the literature examining cross-cultural influence on SNS use. The study presents how consumer characteristics interact with culture in order to explain the intensity of SNS use.