Using YouTube for corporate communication: a comparison between Chinese and American companies
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to compare the communication practices of Chinese and US companies on YouTube and explores the effectiveness of different communication strategies at the topic level.
Design/methodology/approach
The author selected 22 Chinese companies and 22 US firms and compared the content of their English language corporate YouTube channels through content analysis, sentiment analysis and cluster analysis.
Findings
The results revealed that the three communication strategies (information, response and involvement) in general were not significantly different regarding their engagement rates, but they generated different comment scores when communicating topics of corporate social responsibility. The results also showed that Chinese companies were more likely than American firms to display the speeches of corporate leaders, use collectivistic references and present human interest messages in YouTube videos.
Research limitations/implications
This study sheds light on how national institutional environment shapes corporate communication on YouTube.
Practical implications
This study challenges the infatuation with the involvement strategy and offers some advice for practitioners on topic selection and user comment function management.
Originality/value
This study makes a novel contribution to the literature of corporate communication on YouTube by adopting a cross-national comparative approach. A conceptual framework of major factors influencing stakeholder responses on YouTube was presented.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-02-2023-0061
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China under Grant 19BXW102. Project Name: Study on the Corporate Communication by Chinese Companies on International Social Media. Project Type: General Project.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Sheng Yuan “Using YouTube for corporate communication: a comparison between Chinese and American companies”, published in Online Information Review, was published with an incorrect affiliation. The author’s affiliation is School of Humanities and Arts, Ningbo University of Technology, Ningbo City, China. The error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
Yuan, S. (2023), "Using YouTube for corporate communication: a comparison between Chinese and American companies", Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-02-2023-0061
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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