Does Cultural Difference Matter on Social Media? An Examination of the Ethical Culture and Information Privacy Concerns

Abstract

While social media has become a very popular tool for sharing information and news worldwide, the ethical culture of the users emerged as a significant issue in cyber space. This research investigates the role of perceived ethical culture and information privacy concerns on social media behaviors. More importantly, this study investigates the role of cultural difference in the relationship among those factors. Based on the study results of U.S. and Korean social media users, this study found ethical culture to be positively associated and information privacy concerns negatively associated with users’ information-sharing behavior on social media. In addition, the study results indicated that the size of the impact of the two facts are varied between the two countries. This study’s results direct that users’ perceived ethical culture and privacy concerns are important factors affecting social media users’ information sharing. However, these factors could have a different impact with cultural differences.