Using YouTube for corporate communication: a comparison between Chinese and American companies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to compare the communication practices of Chinese and US companies on YouTube and explores the effectiveness of different communication strategies at the topic level. Design/methodology/approach The author selected 22 Chinese companies and 22 US firms and compared the content of their English language corporate YouTube channels through content analysis, sentiment analysis and cluster analysis. Findings The results revealed that the three communication strategies (information, response and involvement) in general were not significantly different regarding their engagement rates, but they generated different comment scores when communicating topics of corporate social responsibility. The results also showed that Chinese companies were more likely than American firms to display the speeches of corporate leaders, use collectivistic references and present human interest messages in YouTube videos. Research limitations/implications This study sheds light on how national institutional environment shapes corporate communication on YouTube. Practical implications This study challenges the infatuation with the involvement strategy and offers some advice for practitioners on topic selection and user comment function management. Originality/value This study makes a novel contribution to the literature of corporate communication on YouTube by adopting a cross-national comparative approach. A conceptual framework of major factors influencing stakeholder responses on YouTube was presented. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-02-2023-0061