<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><bold>Research background:</bold> Ongoing globalization has led companies to operate on foreign markets and in consequence to recognize very different conditions especially in terms of sociocultural factors. The literature review identifies the behavioral patterns in social media (SM) usage determined by national cultures.<bold>Purpose:</bold> The article presents the relationship between six dimensions of national culture defined by Hofstede and the use of SM in world markets.<bold>Research mmethodology:</bold> To determine how national culture influences the frequency of use of SM, a study of secondary data was carried out. The percentage of SM users from the Global Digital Yearbook 2019 was used as a dependent variable. The statistical analysis links cultural dimensions with SM use in 44 countries.<bold>Results:</bold> The study employed polynomial regression, which revealed a significant correlation between long-term orientation, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and the percentage of SM users. However, the research discovered no influence of masculinity, leniency, and power distance. The estimated models also show the income’s strong moderating effect on the analyzed relationship.<bold>Novelty:</bold> In this study a deeper analysis of the relationship between the dimensions of national cultures and the use of SM was made than in previous studies. It was also shown that it is necessary to introduce moderating factors, which may significantly affect the relationship between the use of SM and some dimensions of culture.</abstract>

Research background: Ongoing globalization has led companies to operate on foreign markets and in consequence to recognize very different conditions especially in terms of sociocultural factors. The literature review identifies the behavioral patterns in social media (SM) usage determined by national cultures.Purpose: The article presents the relationship between six dimensions of national culture defined by Hofstede and the use of SM in world markets.Research mmethodology: To determine how national culture influences the frequency of use of SM, a study of secondary data was carried out. The percentage of SM users from the Global Digital Yearbook 2019 was used as a dependent variable. The statistical analysis links cultural dimensions with SM use in 44 countries.Results: The study employed polynomial regression, which revealed a significant correlation between long-term orientation, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and the percentage of SM users. However, the research discovered no influence of masculinity, leniency, and power distance. The estimated models also show the income’s strong moderating effect on the analyzed relationship.Novelty: In this study a deeper analysis of the relationship between the dimensions of national cultures and the use of SM was made than in previous studies. It was also shown that it is necessary to introduce moderating factors, which may significantly affect the relationship between the use of SM and some dimensions of culture.

Cultural Determinants of Social Media Use in World Markets

Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Cultural Determinants of Social Media Use in World Markets"}

Research background: Ongoing globalization has led companies to operate on foreign markets and in consequence to recognize very different conditions especially...

Cultural Determinants of Social Media Use in World Markets

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 423 - 435

Received: Jan 08, 2020

Accepted: Apr 02, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/foli-2020-0057

Keywords
social media, cultural dimensions, national culture, polynomial regression

© 2020 Elżbieta Wąsowicz-Zaborek, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Cultural Determinants of Social Media Use in World Markets

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 423 - 435

Received: Jan 08, 2020

Accepted: Apr 02, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/foli-2020-0057

Keywordssocial media, cultural dimensions, national culture, polynomial regression

© 2020 Elżbieta Wąsowicz-Zaborek, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
social media, cultural dimensions, national culture, polynomial regression