| Virtual space stands more and more popular in the last few years.An increasing number of users join and immerse in Social Network Services(SNS).The greatest popularity was reached in communication applications,especially,applications for instant messaging(IM).Sharply updated social events which are shared on SNS has become a pervasive phenomenon in the digital era.People spend a lot of their own time to extend and maintain relationships by updating their online status;sharing videos,photos,and knowledge,presenting their online profiles,giving thumbs-up or likes and comments.According to statist ic,Wechat Moments is recognized as one of the most popular SNS between application with IM(Instant Messaging)functions.Because Wechat contains a lot of mini-programs that gives users opportunity not only keeping in touch with their friends and colleagues but also making their everyday life more convenient with ordering tickets,taxi,food,and other services.It has more than 1 million active users,and has been widely applied in other countries such as Russia and continue to attract more and more newco mers annually.Compared with Chinese users,Russian users possess different use preferences.Accordingly,we aim to use empirical study to investigate the behavioral and motivational differences between Chinese and Russian users.We hope that our research gives the opportunity to the extent the boundaries for applying this application.Our research aims to examine why users continue to use WeChat in their daily lives and what are the drivers that influence a member’s decision to share substantiated and unsubstantiated content with other online members.Drawing upon SDT and UGT and context-based features that users’ engagement manifested in the Wechat Moments,this study develops a research model to examine impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motives on users’ behaviors.This study investigates Wechat Moments users’ motivation to participate or contribute in Wechat Moments platform.For writing this thesis we examined a big volume of the existing literature about users’ behavior in SNS and noticed that scholars focused more on the mobile social platform like Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,and others.But here we decide to extend knowledge about Wechat application and apply Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explain the moderating effect of national culture.This article will address the issues of theoretical and practical aspects of Self-determination theory(SDT)and Uses and Gratification theory(UGT),for investigating uses’ instinctive motivations for participation in the Wechat Moments.Also,This study divides user’s behavior into two types: active participation(content contribution in the Wechat Moments)and passive participation(community participation).Active behavior in the mobile social platform characterized by the frequency of posting,writing comments,and download new content or editing existing content in the Wechat Moments.The passive participation is defined as reading other people’s post,thumbing up or reading comments.Different motivational factors have a different effect on active and passive participation.We have chosen five the most relevant and often used motives for user’s behavior in SNS.What is more,these five factors also combine in two sections,intrinsic motivation(self-determination,sense of belonging,social identity)and extrinsic motivation(guanxi building and information seeking)as stated in self-determination theory.We apply self-determination and uses and gratification theories to understand what motivates users’ active and passive participation in the Wechat Moments,and examines the cross-culture differences between Chinese and Russian users regarding the influences of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors.We conducted a survey to collect empirical data.A questionnaire was developed for data collection.The survey wаs conducted in Chinа from Mаrch to Mаy in the yeаr of 2019.Questions were trаnslated into three languages: English,Chinese and Russian.That can make the survey more comfortable for participants Chinese and Russian,for making the accent on the culture as a moderator factor.The survey was totally anonymous and participant don’t need to put any private information in the answer sheets.Only choosing from the existed variant.This study refers to the previous literature to operationalize the items for eac h construct,using 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree”(1)to “strongly agree”(5).Each aspect is measured using three reflective items.For spreading these QR-code where used.Face-to-face method.Majorly were asked students of the Har bin Institute of Technology to participate in the investigation.Also,we used some personalization parameters for personalized experiment participants as age,gender,nationality,education,number of friends in Wechat,use frequency,friends’ visibility,and strangers’ visibility.An empirical study of more than 400 Wechat users(333 valid data)and after structural equation modeling analysis,results in addresses how users are motivated to active or passive participation in the social networks as Wechat Moments and what differs across culture.Specifically,we found that intrinsic motivations(self-enjoyment,sense of belonging and social identity)have stronger influences on active participation than passive participation.While extrinsic motivations(Guanxi building and information seeking)have higher influences on passive participation than active participation.Moreover,we use Hofstede cultural dimensions to explain the moderating effect of national culture.SmartPLS 3.0 was used to examine the theoretical model.Our research findings indicate that self-enjoyment and social identity are more salient for Russian users,whereas the sense of belonging,information seeking,and guanxi building networks are more significant for Chinese users.This study contributes to the Wechat Moments of research by providing a better understanding of users’ behaviors and motivations.The results have implications for Wechat Moments and other open content systems on how to encourage users’ participation and contribution.Also,this research shows the cultural differences between Russian and Chinese users.Based on previous research on understanding SNS engagement behavior,it is clear that users have a lot of motivation for using WeChat Moments.Practitioners can also benefit from understanding the exact motivations to encourage participation.Therefore,it is important to understand why people should participate in instant messaging sites such as WeChat.This empirical study includes a comparison of Russian and Chinese users’ behavior that examined the cultural trends of users participating in WeChat Moments on mobile phones and laptops.Culture is the degree of ethnic cultural differences in different countries comes from the region of the respondent or the country of origin.The National Culture Model is a well-known model for studying cultural differences between different countries.This model focuses on the social identity of the person’s place of belonging,rather than the general rules.It also explores the importance of various cultures for each individual’s personal social identity.It can determine which cultural levers are more important to him.In most cultural works,Hofstede’s cultural dimension compares the cultural characteristics of each country’s population.These six measurements can be displayed at the national level of each country.You can set the following parameters: Power Distance(PDI),Individualism and Collectivism(IDV),Men and Women(MAS)to prevent uncertainty index(UAI),long-term orientation(LTO),indulgence and constraints.A multiple group analysis further suggests that culture difference is important in characterizing of social networks.We can state that for Russian people more significant factors are Social identity,self-enjoyment,information seeking and sense of belonging.For Chinese most,significant factors are Sense of Belonging,Information seeking and Guanxi building networks.This has had a huge impact on how technology is accepted and distributed by society.Therefore,cultural tendencies still play a role in the technological factors in the cross-cultural environment.Given the results of this research and many of the results of previous studies,culture has transcended the impact of new technologiesThis study provides insight into the role of culture in influencing user behavior.In addition,by understanding the motivations of user engagement and consumption,it is possible to find motivations that are relevant to a particular WeChat time function.This research may also help to better understand how organizations are attracted to maximum participation.This is because understanding user behavior is a prerequisite for any marketing effort.Encouraging user participation in the form of comments,likes/dislikes have its advantages.It provides marketing information for products that help organizations improve.In addition,the active participation of users is critical to creating an image of an active audience.Sites that attract more reviews,likes/dislikes and opinions can be more popular in search engines.Better decisions can be made when the reasons or motivations for participation are clearly known.This thesis contains some theoretical and practical implications for future research and good content for extending present knowledge about users behavior in the SNS and how culture effect on participation in social networks. |
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