A cross-cultural comparison of electronic word-of-mouth and country-of-origin effects

Word-of-mouth has been shown to differ across cultures but the extent to which these differences extend to the online environment has not been investigated. This study examines the content of 5993 discussion postings to U.S.- and China-based discussion boards during two 90-day periods in 2004 and 2005. The results show significant differences in the behavior of participants on the different discussion boards; those on the China-based discussion boards engaged in higher levels of information-seeking than their U.S. counterparts, and lower levels of information giving. Participants on the Chinese discussion boards also engaged in significantly higher (and increasing) levels of discussion regarding the Country-of-Origin (CoO) of products. This first study of cross-cultural differences in CoO effects online revealed an important extension to previous offline studies of CoO effects, finding strong negative CoO effects which appeared to be largely independent of product quality, relating instead to nationally based animosity towards the CoO.