Abstract
Even though product visibility’s effect on real-life consumer decisions is well-known, it is unclear whether these effects also extend to online consumer behaviors. In addition, many cross-cultural studies of user-generated content generation compared samples gathered from US and China, which may mislead scholars due to unique cultural aspects and internet regulations in China. As a continuation of Soylemez (2021a) and Soylemez (2021b), the present study utilized the equity theory and investigated how product visibility and individualism-collectivism influence the relative generation of brand-oriented and community-oriented content. Samples are collected from Turkey and the United States. The study found that members of more visible product communities to generate more brand-oriented content than community-oriented content, while members of less visible product communities generate more community-oriented content than they generate brand-oriented content. Similarly, individualist members are likely to generate more brand-oriented content than community-oriented content, whereas collectivist members are likely to generate more community-oriented content than brand-oriented content. Product visibility and individualism-collectivism do not interact significantly. Managerial and theoretical implications of the study are also discussed.
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