Media and Communication Ph.D. Dissertations

How Influencer-product Gender Congruency Impacts Influencer's Endorsement Effectiveness: A Cross-national Comparison between Douyin and TikTok Users in China and the USA

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Media and Communication

First Advisor

Louisa Ha (Committee Chair)

Second Advisor

J.P. Oehrtman (Other)

Third Advisor

Ilyoung Ju (Committee Member)

Fourth Advisor

Yanqin Lu (Committee Member)

Abstract

This cross-cultural comparison study between China and the U.S. aimed to examine the short video-sharing social media platform, TikTok/Douyin, particularly its use in the two countries. Other than analyzing how people use the short video app platform and their influencer video use, the study further explored how cultural values influenced user behaviors on TikTok/Douyin. Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions as a theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of cultural differences on the gender fit expectation and influencers’ endorsement effectiveness (product attitude and purchase intention) between China and the U.S. An online survey was conducted in each country. In general, Chinese participants were more likely to be persuaded by influencers to make purchase decisions than US participants. Unexpectedly, Chinese participants claimed a higher individualism score and a lower power distance score than US participants, which contradicts with Hofstede’s original cultural scores for each country. The findings supported that participants’ gender fit expectations positively predicted influencers’ endorsement effectiveness, and Chinese users were more influenced than the U.S. users. Besides, the influencer’s expertise-product congruency and gender congruency impacted people’s product attitudes and purchase intentions independently for the gendered product, and expertise congruency was less influential than gender congruency. The impact of influencers varies by consumers gender, influencers’ gender, and consumers’ age. In both countries, old users were more easily persuaded than young users. Male influencers more influenced the US TikTok users, both male and female. In China, female influencers were more persuasive than male influencers among male and female Douyin users. Therefore, marketing practitioners should consider the demographic characteristics and user preferences of TikTok and Douyin for their marketing practices. In addition, the study confirmed that cultural values influenced users’ TikTok/Douyin use in some conditions, especially their gender values. Hence marketers should consider consumers’ gender expectations and gender influence as well. This is the first study to compare TikTok/Douyin use between the U.S. and China. The study enhances our understanding of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory. Furthermore, it demonstrates helpful and detailed information on the general platform use and how it is influenced by the cultural differences between the two countries.

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