Effects of using social networking sites in different languages: Does Spanish or English make a difference?

Accepted Manuscript Effects of Using Social Networking Sites in Different Languages: Does Spanish or English Make a Difference?

Cong Li, Jiangmeng Liu PII:

S0747-5632(17)30274-1

DOI:

10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.031

Reference:

CHB 4930

To appear in:

Computers in Human Behavior

Received Date:

21 October 2015

Revised Date:

13 April 2017

Accepted Date:

15 April 2017

Please cite this article as: Cong Li, Jiangmeng Liu, Effects of Using Social Networking Sites in Different Languages: Does Spanish or English Make a Difference?, Computers in Human Behavior (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.031

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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Manuscript submitted to Computers in Human Behavior “Effects of Using Social Networking Sites in Different Languages: Does Spanish or English Make a Difference?” Cong Li, Ph.D. Associate Professor, School of Communication, University of Miami [email protected] Jiangmeng Liu, Doctoral student, School of Communication, University of Miami [email protected]

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Manuscript submitted to Computers in Human Behavior “Effects of Using Social Networking Sites in Different Languages: Does Spanish or English Make a Difference?” Highlights    

People depend on social networking sites for the purpose of social play. Using social networking sites in different languages can affect people’s cultural orientations. Using social networking sites in Spanish or English leads to different effects. Social media usage may influence people’s culture-related brand perceptions and evaluations.

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Effects of Using Social Networking Sites in Different Languages: Does Spanish or English Make a Difference?

Abstract Although a large volume of research on social networking sites (SNS) and their effects has been accumulated in the literature over the past few years, empirical studies examining how people use SNS in languages other than English are somewhat limited. Particularly, the use of Spanish SNS has rarely been investigated. To shed light in this research direction, the current study compared the effects of using Spanish and English SNS on individuals’ cultural orientations and attitude formation. A total of 113 adult consumers participated in a laboratory experiment where they were asked to evaluate either of two experimental websites, one with Hispanic cultural connotations and the other with American cultural meanings. Their SNS usage and cultural orientations were also measured. It was found that more frequent usage of Spanish SNS was significantly associated with a higher level of Hispanic cultural orientation and a more favorable attitude toward the website with American cultural meanings. However, the use of English SNS did not significantly influence people’s American cultural orientations and their website evaluations. Usage of both Spanish and English SNS was found to be motivated by individuals’ social play dependency on such media platforms. Keywords: Social media, Social networking sites, SNS, Media dependency system, Hispanic culture

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As more people use social networking sites (SNS) on a regular basis, a tremendous amount of research on their effects has been documented over the past few years across various disciplines (Wilson, Gosling, & Graham, 2012). However, the number of empirical studies examining how long-term usage of SNS influences people’s cultural orientations is surprising limited (Li & Tsai, 2015). Given that SNS can be regarded as “cultural products,” using particular ethnic SNS may affect individuals’ cultural orientations (Lamoreaux & Morling, 2012). Previous research found that people who participate in multiple SNS platforms can detect the nuanced cultural differences on those platforms and flexibly switch their behavior accordingly (Qiu, Lin, & Leung, 2013). Different SNS, such as those in different languages, can foster and encourage unique cultural patterns. Through continuous usage of such SNS, users will follow those culture patterns, which can subsequently influence their cultural identifications and behavior (Li & Tsai, 2015). The current study is designed in this research direction by examining the effects of using Spanish and English SNS. Active users of Spanish SNS are likely to be connected to many Hispanics online and thus keep their Hispanic cultural values reinforced constantly via online interactions. As a consequence, they are expected to favor brands and products associated with Hispanic cultural meanings. Such brand- and product-related attitudes will be tested with two experimental websites in this study, one associated with ethnic Hispanic culture and the other associated with traditional American culture. It is anticipated that the use of Spanish and English SNS will influence people’s orientations toward American and Hispanic cultural values, which consequently affect their attitudes toward the websites with distinct cultural meanings. Such a proposition is consistent with the argument in prior studies that Spanish-language media are effective vehicles to reach the Hispanic population (Ojeda, Flores, Meza, & Morales, 2011) and

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more exposures to those media help people maintain their tendency toward ethnic Hispanic culture (Tsai & Li, 2012). In short, this study aims to test a cause-and-effect relationship between people’s SNS usage and their cultural orientations and culture-related brand perceptions in an experiment. To further explain why people choose to use certain SNS in their daily lives, media system dependence (MSD) theory is adopted as the theoretical framework in this research (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Ball-Rokeach, 1985). According to MSD theory, people depend on mass media to fulfill various goals. This dependency on media can be determined by micro-level factors such as perceived usefulness of the media, personal goals, and demographic variables (Loges & Ball-Rokeach, 1993; Patwardhan & Yang, 2003). It can also be affected by macrolevel factors such as perceptions of threat and uncertainty caused by social system changes (Kim, Jung, Cohen, & Ball-Rokeach, 2004; Lyu, 2012). As a fast-growing ethnic group in American society, Hispanics need to figure out how to connect to both ethnic Hispanic culture and traditional American culture (Li & Tsai, 2015). Due to different needs, people may thus purposely select certain SNS in Spanish or English to use and depend on those media. Literature Review SNS Usage and Media System Dependency The effects of media have been researched for more than half a century. Historically, scholars believed that media have a direct and uniform effect on their users. In such viewpoints, media and media messages are considered as persuasion-centered concepts whereas users are merely passive information receivers. However, the development of new technologies and increasing options of media platforms give users an opportunity to actively select particular media platforms to use and also determine the way to use them. From this perspective, media

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effects on each individual depend on his/her relationship with those media. Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) developed media system dependency (MSD) theory to explain how this usermedia relationship could influence media effects. Individuals’ demographic and psychological characteristics are believed to be important determinants of their goals, which in turn influence their dependency on media systems (Loges & Ball-Rokeach, 1993). According to MSD theory, the more an individual depends on a media system, the more he/she will use it and the more effects the media will have on his/her cognition, affect, and behavior (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Baran & Davis, 2000). Previous studies have revealed significant correlations between media dependency and individuals’ attitudes and behavior, such as newspaper readership (Loges & Ball-Rokeach, 1993), product purchases (Grant, Guthrie, & Ball-Rokeach, 1991; Skumanich & Kintsfather, 1998), and political efficacy (Ognyanova & Ball-Rokeach, 2015). The center of MSD theory is the dependency relationship, referring to the extent to which users rely on the media system to achieve certain goals at both an individual level and a social level (Ball-Rokeach, 1985; Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976). People depend on media to accomplish different goals because in a modern society media are their main contacts to the abstract social and economic systems (Grant et al., 1991). These goals range from understanding the world, seeking guidance to act meaningfully and effectively, to relaxing and escaping from tensions and problems (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976). Built on this argument, six types of media dependency relationships emerge: self-understanding and social understanding, action orientation and interaction orientation, and solitary play and social play (Ball-Rokeach, Rokeach, & Grube, 1984). Self-understanding refers to interpreting one’s own beliefs, behavior, and selfconcept, and social understanding refers to awareness of others, culture and world events; action orientation involves the guidance of one’s own behavior such as purchasing and voting, while

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interaction orientation deals with a person’s behavior on other people; solitary play means using media alone for stimulation or relaxation, and social play refers to recreation with others (Skumanich & Kintsfather, 1998). These six types of relationships may be correlated with each other, but they are conceptually distinct (Grant et al., 1991). Given the entertaining feature of SNS and their function of helping people connect with each other (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008), the current study selects the social play dimension of media system dependency construct to explain the effects of SNS usage. It is expected that heavy users of SNS will develop a strong dependency relationship with the media so as to fulfill their needs of strengthening social relationships with other people. Applying this rationale to form a hypothesis, a positive association between social play dependency and SNS usage is predicted: H1: People’s social play dependency on SNS will be positively associated with their frequency of SNS usage, for both English and Spanish SNS. Besides, it is anticipated that people who habitually use one SNS platform will also tend to use another because different SNS platforms share similar functions of helping people connect with families and friends. Thus, it is hypothesized that: H2: People’s English SNS usage frequency will be positively correlated with their Spanish SNS usage frequency. SNS Usage and Cultural Orientation Previous research showed that media usage has a potential to influence individuals’ attitudes, behavior, as well as their cultural orientations (Masgoret & Ward, 2006). SNS, as a unique type of new media, is expected to be able to influence users’ cultural orientations. When people use SNS, they interact with their friends. These interactions will help individuals learn

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new cultural norms and also reinforce their existing cultural values (Li & Tsai, 2015). According to Berry (1980), people who are exposed to two cultures can not only maintain their ethnic cultural identities but also connect to the mainstream culture. Both demographic factors (e.g., age, language proficiency) and environmental factors (e.g., perceived distance between mainstream culture and ethnic culture) can affect a person’s cultural adaptation process. For example, language plays an important role in culture learning because it influences the effectiveness of communication with the host population (Masgoret & Ward, 2006; Miglietta & Tartaglia, 2009). Length of residence is also correlated with culture learning because long-term stay helps individuals become familiar with the new cultural environment (Miglietta & Tartaglia, 2009; Searle & Ward, 1990). Interactions with mainstream culture, including direct contacts (e.g., communication with native speakers) and indirect contacts (e.g., mass media usage), are reliable and effective methods for adaption to the new cultural milieu (Masgoret & Ward, 2006). Ward and Kennedy (1993) found that increased contacts with mainstream culture and satisfaction with those contacts were related to sociocultural adaptation. Searle and Ward (1990) illustrated that the psychological wellbeing of Malaysian and Singaporean students in New Zealand was significantly correlated with their satisfaction of contacts with native people. In addition, using mass media affects people’s cultural adaptation (Masgoret & Ward, 2006). In a multicultural society, using mainstream media not only helps people improve their language proficiency, but also provides them culture-related knowledge for better interpreting the cultural environment (Dalisay, 2012; Masgoret & Ward, 2006). Extensive exposure to American television programs, for example, facilitates people’s learning of American culture and connects them to American society (Moon & Park, 2007; Somani, 2010; Stilling, 1997).

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Different from prior studies that examined the effects of using traditional mass media such as television on people’s cultural orientations, this study focuses on the impact of SNS usage. English-language SNS and Spanish-language SNS are selected for testing because English and Spanish are the two most commonly used languages in American society. Qiu and colleagues’ (2013) study found that bilingual users acted more individually (a norm of American culture) on Facebook but behaved more collectively (a norm of Chinese culture) on Renren (a Chinese SNS). Thus, it is expected that when people use English SNS, they are more likely to be placed in an American cultural environment, reinforcing their orientations toward tradtional American culture. On the other hand, when people use Spanish SNS, they are more likely to be exposed to Hispanic cultural norms, leading to stronger orientations toward ethnic Hispanic culture. Based on this rationale, the third and fourth hypotheses are generated as follows: H3: More usage of English SNS will be positively associated with people’s American cultural orientations. H4: More usage of Spanish SNS will be positively associated with people’s Hispanic cultural orientations. Effects of Cultural Orientation A person’s cultural orientations affect his/her beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. Members within the same cultural group share a common history, tradition, and sense of peoplehood that is distinctive from other cultural groups, thus they tend to have similar shopping behavior and preferences such as utilizing the same information sources, having similar needs, influenced by similar factors, and shopping at similar types of stores (Banks, 1981; Delener & Neelankavil, 1990). Many prior stuides have demonstrated the influence of culture on individuals’ product evluations and purchase intentions (Dimofte, Johansson, & Bagozzi, 2010; Gentina, Butori,

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Rose, & Bakir, 2014; Hirschman, 1981; Yuan, Song, & Kim, 2011). When making purchase decisions and product evaluations, individuals are naturally appealed to and prefer products that are consistent with their cultural orientations (Kleine, Kleine, & Kernan, 1993). Yuan et al. (2011) compared mobile phone purchasing behavior between Asian coutries (China and Korea) and East European countries (Russia and Uzbekistan). Significant differences were found: Asian consumers paid more attention to others’ opinions (social affiliation value) than did East European consumers due to the influence of collective Asian culture. Gentina et al. (2014) investigated the impact of culture on teenagers’ shopping behavior in France and the U.S. It was found that French teenagers focused more on susceptibility to peer influence (SPI) than need for uniquenss (NFU) because French culture is less individulistic but has a stronger tendency toward uncertainty avoidence, compared to American culture. In Dimofte et al. (2010) study, African American and Hispanic consumers showed a more favorable attitude toward global brands than did Caucasian consumers. Furthermore, Hirschman (1981) discovered that the more an individual identified himself/herself as Jewish (both on culture and religion), the more he/she preferred innovativeness and other Jewish consumption norms. In a multicultural society such as the U.S., people may be identified with more than one culture (Li & Tsai, 2015). Whether a person is strongly or weakly connected to mainstream culture and his/her ethnic culture is expected to influence his/her attitudes and behavior such as consumptions and evaluations of clothing (Chattaraman, Rudd, & Lennon, 2009; Gbadamosi, 2012), foods (Neuhouser, Thompson, Coronado, & Solomon, 2004), dining-out choices (Bojanic & Xu, 2006), brands (Deshpande et al., 1986; Seo, Phillips, Jang, & Kim, 2012), media and targeted advertisements (Donthu and Cherian, 1994; Li, 2014; Tsai & Li, 2012) and so forth. In Tsai and Li’s (2012) study, for example, people who were strongly connected to both American

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culture and Hispanic culture preferred bicultural and bilingual advertising, whereas people who were more oriented toward American culture showed more positive attitudes toward Caucasiantargeted advertising. Chattaraman et al. (2009) showed similar results in their experiment. Hispanic-oriented individuals evaluated apparels in red (culturally related to Hispanic aesthetics) more positively than those in blue (culturally related to American aesthetics). However, mainstream-oriented individuals’ preferences toward the two types of apparels showed the opposite direction. With respect to dining-out choices, people who are highly assimilated to mainstream American culture tend to dine out more frequently than people who are not (Bojanic & Xu, 2006). Similarly, a study about foreign residents’ dining-out behavior in Korea found that individuals who were strongly identified with Korean culture had a more positive attitude toward, higher satisfaction, revisiting and recommendation intention for Korean restaurants (Seo et al., 2012). Based on these theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, it is predicted in the current research that people’s cultural orientations will affect their evaluations of two experimental websites, one associated with mainstream American culture and the other related to ethnic Hispanic culture. Specifically, it is hypothesized that: H5: People’s cultural orientations will influence their evaluations of two experimental websites that: a) when the website is related to American culture, people’s American cultural orientations will be positively associated with their website evaluations; b) when the website is related to Hispanic culture, people’s Hispanic cultural orientations will be positively associated with their website evaluations. To summarize all five hypotheses prospoed in this study, a conceptual model is presented in Figure 1. ----------------------------------

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Insert Figure 1 about here ---------------------------------Method Study Participants The study participants were recruited at a metropolitan area in the U.S. where Hispanic residents constitute approximately two thirds of the local population and Spanish is the unofficial language. The recruitment message was sent out via online flyers (e.g., Craigslist) and oral inclass announcements at a local university. A total of 113 participants agreed to take part in the study on a voluntary basis, including college students, working professionals, and housewives and unemployed. The ethnicity distribution of this research sample resembles that of the local population (see Table 1 for participants’ demographic information). Each participant was compensated with either a small amount of cash or extra course credit points for participation. ---------------------------------Insert Table 1 about here ---------------------------------Experimental Stimuli Two fictitious restaurant websites were created for the study as the experimental stimuli, featuring ethnic Hispanic culture and mainstream American culture, respectively. Both websites carried a similar amount of information and their layouts looked identical, including a homepage with customer reviews, a restaurant menu, a description of chef’s specialties, an offer of discount coupon, and a generic overview of the restaurant. The number of entrées included on both restaurant menus was equal and each comparable entrée was priced the same. However, certain elements were manipulated on the two websites to reflect cultural differences. Specifically, one

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restaurant was named “El Empacho” and it was described to provide authentic Hispanic foods. The three customer reviews on the homepage were from Isabel, Jose, and Juan. The head chef, Diego, was specialized in making Bistec Empanizado, Arroz Morro, Platanitos Maduros, and Tostones. In contrast, the other restaurant was named “Stuffer” and it provided traditional American cuisines. The customer reviews on the homepage were from Irene, John, and Paul. The head chef was named Thomas, who was particularly good at cooking strips, hash browns, shrimp cocktails, and strawberry cheesecake. The customers and chefs on both websites were fictitious. Experimental Procedure The experiment was conducted in a computer laboratory. Multiple experimental sessions were scheduled based on participants’ availability. No session held more than eight participants. On average, each session lasted approximately 20 to 25 minutes. After arriving at the laboratory, participants were greeted by an experimenter. They were asked to read and sign a consent form first. Then, they were informed to view a designated restaurant website on a desktop in the laboratory and provide feedback afterwards. They were randomly assigned to either the Hispanic restaurant website (N = 56) or the American restaurant website (N = 57). After they finished viewing the website, they were given a paper-and-pencil questionnaire to answer, which included all the measures. Study Measures SNS usage. In the questionnaire, participants were asked to report their usage frequency on a 1-to-7 point scale (1 = never; 7 = very often) of Spanish SNS and English SNS. SNS social play dependency. The measure of dependency on SNS was adapted from Patwardhan and Yang’s (2003) Internet dependency relations scale. Participants were asked to rate the helpfulness of SNS on a 1-to-7 point scale on three items representing social play. A

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sample item was “In your daily life, how useful are social networking sites to give you something to do with your friends?” (1 = not helpful at all; 7 = very helpful) (α = .88). Cultural orientation. To measure participants’ orientations toward mainstream American culture and ethnic Hispanic culture, they were asked to rate their agreement with two sets of six statements on a 5-point Likert scale (Bauman, 2005). Sample items included “I enjoy English (Spanish) language movies” (American cultural orientation, α = .63; Hispanic cultural orientation, α = .93) Attitude toward the website. Participants’ attitudes toward the experimental website were measured with six items on a 7-point Likert scale such as “I am satisfied with the service provided by this website” (Chen & Wells, 1999) (α = .86). Culture associated with the website. For the purpose of manipulation check, perceived cultural meanings associated with the experimental website (i.e., whether it was more Hispanic culture oriented) was measured with six items on a 7-point Likert scale such as “This restaurant is more associated with Hispanic culture than American culture” (adapted from Li, Tsai, & Soruco, 2013) (α = .95). Demographics. Participants’ demographic information including gender, age, ethnicity, educational background, occupation, and country of birth, was collected. Results Manipulation Check As expected, the Hispanic restaurant website was rated significantly higher on the Hispanic cultural orientation (M = 5.19) than did the American restaurant website (M = 2.32), t(111) = 12.21, p < .001 (two-tailed), confirming the success of experimental stimulus manipulation.

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Tests of Hypotheses To test the five hypotheses, a structural equation modeling analysis was performed with Mplus 7. The four latent variables in the model were social play dependency on SNS, American cultural orientation, Hispanic cultural orientation, and attitude toward the website. As seen in Figure 1, regression paths in the model were created according to each hypothesis: social play dependency on SNS led to both English and Spanish SNS usage (H1), which subsequently affected American cultural orientation and Hispanic cultural orientation (H3 and H4). Usage of both English and Spanish SNS was expected to be correlated together (H2). Finally, people’s cultural orientations would influence their attitudes toward the experimental website, and these influences would be moderated by specific cultural meanings associated with the website (H5a and H5b). Overall speaking, the structural equation modeling results suggested a good to adequate model fit: CFI= .909, TLI = .903, RMSEA = .079 (.058, .097), χ2 (321, N=113) = 432.879, p < .001. Specifically, the relationship between social play dependency and participants’ usage of SNS was significant for both Spanish SNS (B = .24, SE = .11, p < .05) and English SNS (B= .15, SE = .06, p < .05). Thus, H1 was fully supported. However, English SNS usage and Spanish SNS usage were not significantly correlated with each other (p = .449). Thus, H2 was not supported. The modeling results also indicated that Spanish SNS usage significantly predicted participants’ Hispanic cultural orientations (B = .38, SE = .07, p < .001, supporting H4), but such a relationship was insignificant between English SNS usage and American cultural orientation (B = .05, SE = .04, p = .213, not supporting H3). In terms of the relationship between cultural orientation and attitude toward the website, American cultural orientation had no significant impact on attitude toward the website of either American restaurant (B = .36, SE = .70, p = .605)

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or Hispanic restaurant (B = -.59, SE = .38, p = .121). Hispanic cultural orientation, on the other hand, was found to be positively associated with attitude toward the American restaurant website (B = .27, SE = .12, p < .05), but not significantly related to attitude toward the Hispanic restaurant website (B = .13, SE = .10, p = .179). All the analyses results are presented in Table 2 and Figure 2. ---------------------------------Insert Table 2 about here ------------------------------------------------------------------Insert Figure 2 about here ---------------------------------Discussion As more people adopt SNS for communication, research on the effects of using such social media is quickly growing. Most prior studies are focused on who use SNS, for what purposes, and how (Wilson et al., 2012). The current research makes a unique contribution to the literature by testing a causal relationship between people’s SNS usage and their cultural orientations and culture-related website evaluations in a laboratory experiment. Using MSD theory as the framework, the results of this study demonstrated that people use SNS for the purpose of social play. Moreover, using SNS in different languages could strengthen their orientations toward certain cultures, which in turn might influence their evaluations of culturerelated brands and products. The implications of these experimental findings can be interpreted from the following perspectives.

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First, MSD theory has been widely applied and tested in prior studies that focused on various mass media including newspaper, television, and Internet (Grant et al., 1991; Loges & Ball-Rokeach, 1993; Patwardhan & Yang, 2003; Skumanich & Kintsfather, 1998). However, little prior research discussed the dependency relationship users might have with SNS. In this study, a positive association was found between social play dependency and SNS usage, for both English SNS and Spanish SNS, confirming that social play dependency is particularly salient for SNS. These findings contribute to MSD theory by treating SNS as a special media system and suggesting its unique ability to fulfill people’s social play needs. Moreover, this study revealed a significant effect of using Spanish SNS on individuals’ orientations toward Hispanic culture. As argued by Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels (2009), the driving force of SNS’ vitality and attractiveness is the content contributed by their users. SNS usage frequency should be positively associated with users’ expectations of the volume of new content shared by their connected friends online. By facilitating the flow of user-generated content, SNS help reinforce the shared norms and imperatives prevalent among users (Qiu et al., 2013). Consistent with this argument, the results of this study suggested that people who use Spanish SNS more often tend to be strongly identified with Hispanic culture, likely because they consume more content embedded in Hispanic culture compared to others. Contrary to the prediction, English SNS usage showed no significant effect on participants’ tendency toward American culture in this study. A possible explanation of this result is that users may not consider English SNS to be exclusive platforms to foster mainstream American culture. In fact, English is a universally-accepted language online (i.e., official net language), thus the content shared on English SNS may not necessarily reflect traditional American cultural values. For instance, Facebook users are so diversified that it is hard to

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imagine that all messages in English transmitted through Facebook will collectively reflect American culture. Another counterintuitive finding presented in the current study is that increased usage of Spanish SNS and higher Hispanic cultural orientation positively influenced participants’ evaluations of the experimental website associated with American culture. Given that the experimental website was about a restaurant, this study result might be caused by the unique nature of individuals’ dining-out choices. Different from purchasing foods at grocery stores or eating at home, dining-out consumptions are considered as less frequent and sometimes a onetime deal. Trying new foods and satisfying curiosity could be weighted more than other factors when people make dining-out decisions (Seo et al., 2012). Applying this logic to the current study, the more a person identifies himself/herself with Hispanic culture, the more he/she may consider American cuisines novel and exciting, thus give higher evaluations of the restaurant website featuring American cuisines. It is worth pointing out that all participants in the current experiment lived in the U.S., thus they should be reasonably familiar with American cuisines. If the same study were conducted with Hispanic individuals with limited knowledge of American cuisines, the study results might be different. In addition, this study showed that participants’ evaluations of the experimental website featuring a Hispanic restaurant were not significantly affected by their Hispanic cultural orientations. A potential explanation of this null finding is that Hispanic culture may be a much more complex value system than what was proposed in this study. As argued by Li and Tsai (2015), there might be several sub-cultures under the big umbrella term of Hispanic culture. For example, Cuban culture is believed to somewhat different from Mexican culture, but both can be considered as representatives of Hispanic culture. In the current study, the experimental website

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featuring Hispanic culture presented several traditional Cuban dishes and thus could be considered as a typical Cuban restaurant. However, people who are highly oriented to Hispanic culture in general may not necessarily prefer and favor a Cuban restaurant. To conquer this weakness, future research that designs different experimental stimuli to test the same hypotheses proposed in this study is needed. Furthermore, it should be noted that language is not the only indicator of consumer cultures on SNS although language itself is a part of culture. As argued by Qiu et al. (2013), Web users are not restricted to use a certain language on a particular SNS platform. Taking a popular SNS in China, WeChat, for example, users can post messages in English on WeChat despite the fact that most of them are from mainland China and the platform is hosted in China. The purpose of the current study is not to create a clean cut between Spanish and English SNS. It is quite possible that a particular SNS platform allows coexistence of multiple languages. To avoid misleading the study participants to associate certain SNS with certain languages, they were asked to report their usage frequency of Spanish and English SNS in general terms in the questionnaire (e.g., “How often do you use Spanish social networking sites?”) instead of specific websites. Moreover, the two experimental websites were both presented in English except for the restaurant brand name, thus the observed effect in the experiment was unlikely to be caused by the website language. The primary goal of this research is to examine the effect of SNS usage on people’s cultural orientations and attitude formation. Long-term usage of Spanish and English SNS may potentially lead to different cultural tendencies and brand perceptions, although theoretically speaking a certain SNS platform may be used by some people in Spanish and others in English.

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Finally, the findings reported in this study bear practical implications for business professionals. It has been shown that nearly half of social media users recommend or talk about a product/brand on Facebook and on Twitter, and 31 percent of them regard SNS as good places to seek company- and product-related information (Palmer, 2009). People in fact are more likely to purchase what is recommended to them than what is “marketed” to them, especially with those recommendations that come from someone they trust (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Indeed, SNS have presented ample opportunities and challenges to organizations and they should not be neglected (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). As argued by Waters, Burnett, Lamm, and Lucas (2009), organizations nowadays recognize the growing importance of SNS, but many of them are not using SNS properly to engage the public and foster relationship growth. It is shown in this study that SNS in different languages encourage different consumer cultures and may consequently affect people’s attitude formation, thus organizations should strategically select specific SNS platforms for their relationship management purpose, depending on who they want to target and what type of consumer culture they wish to pursue.

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Table 1. Study Participants’ Demographic Information Percent Gender

Female

61.1

Male

38.9

Age Ethnicity

Education

Occupation

Place of birth

Hispanic

61.1

Caucasian

30.1

Asian

4.4

African American

2.6

Others

1.8

High school or less

7.1

Some college or currently in college

61.9

College degree or post-graduate

31.0

Working professional

35.5

College student

60.1

Housewife or unemployed

4.4

U.S.

63.7

Others

36.3

Min.

Max.

M

SD

18

56

24.7

9.2

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Table 2. Structural Parameter Estimates and Model Fit Statistics Path (From  To) Social play dependency  English SNS usage

Unstandardized Coefficient (S.E.) .150 (.060)

p .013

Social play dependency  Spanish SNS usage

.240 (.109)

.028

English SNS usage  American culture orientation

.045 (.036)

.213

Spanish SNS usage  Hispanic culture orientation

.377 (.073)

.000

American culture orientation  Attitude toward website

.361 (.698)

.605

Hispanic culture orientation  Attitude toward website

.268 (.115)

.020

American culture orientation  Attitude toward website

-.594 (.383)

.121

Hispanic culture orientation  Attitude toward website

.132 (.098)

.179

American restaurant website:

Hispanic restaurant website:

Goodness-of-fit indices χ2 (df)

432.879***

RMSEA

.079

CI90% lower bound

.058

CI90% upper bound

.097

Tucker-Lewis index (TLI)

.903

Comparative fit index (CFI)

.909

Note: *** p < .001

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English SNS usage

H3

American cultural orientation

H1

Social play dependency

Culture associated with website

H2

H1

Spanish SNS usage

H4

H5

Attitude toward the website

Hispanic cultural orientation

Figure 1. A conceptual model summarizing all five hypotheses

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English SNS usage

.045

.150*

Social play dependency

American cultural orientation

.361

Attitude toward American restaurant site

- .142

.240*

Spanish SNS usage

.377***

English SNS usage

.045

.150*

Social play dependency

Hispanic cultural orientation

American cultural orientation

.268*

- .594

Attitude toward Hispanic restaurant site

- .142

.240*

Spanish SNS usage

.377***

Hispanic cultural orientation

.132

Figure 2. A summary of structural parameter estimates (*p < .05, *** p < .001)

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