Information Forwarding User Behavior on Social Networking Services: A Comparative Study in India and Japan

Abstract

Social media provides an effective way to share information, preferences, and life stories with others. The power of social media lies in its ability to rapidly disseminate information to a wide audience via information forwarding. Various researchers have studied user motivations behind the use of social media; however, there hasn't been much research in the past on understanding the user motivations behind information forwarding on SNS sites. This research is focused on understanding the reasons behind the information forwarding on SNS through a comparative study of users in India and Japan. For this research, quantitative analysis is conducted on the data collected from SNS users in India and Japan. The scope of the research extends beyond the sentiments and emotions sparked by the information contents and proposes a research framework with a broader scope that includes other important factors too, such as social contribution, self-benefits, and organizational propaganda. It is found that positive emotions, negative emotions, and social contribution are the significant predictors of information forwarding on SNS in Japan, however for India, the organizational propaganda construct is also found to be a significant predictor. The relative importance of the various predictors was also found to be different. Based on the comparative analysis, it could be concluded that the relative importance of these factors varies depending on the geographical region due to the differences in their social and cultural environment.