Cultural Differences in Online Community Motivations: Exploring Korean Automobile Online Brand Communities (KAOBCs) and American Automobile Online Brand Communities (AAOBCs)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-3-2017

Abstract

To gain a better understanding of online brand communities, this study has examined why people joined in online brand communities and whether there were some differences in the motivations of Internet users based on different cultures. Open-ended questions were asked to the community members from both South Korean Automobile Online Brand Communities (KAOBC) and American Automobile Online Brand Communities (AAOBC) in the first stage and then generated and utilized an online survey for the study. The study found that KAOBC members tended to have a stronger social network, business, and communication motivations than AAOBC members. As a primary motivation, information seeking is the strongest motivation for members of both KAOBC and AAOBC. They had a similar level of information motivation.

Publication Title

Journal of Promotion Management

Volume

23

Issue

5

First Page

633

Last Page

653

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1080/10496491.2017.1297981

ISSN

10496491

E-ISSN

15407594

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