A Cross-Cultural Comparison of UCC usage in Korea and U.S.A.

Integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) mode, this study aims at identifying the determinants of the favorable user created contents (UCC) usage. This study further attempts a cross cultural comparison on collectivistic and individualistic cultures, Korea and the U.S.A., respectively. The study shows the significant effects of usefulness and ease of use, which are critical variables in TAM, on UCC usage. Pleasure and arousal, which are very supportive constructs in PAD research, are considered to be positively related with UCC usage. Particularly in social influence constructs, the subjective norm was the only construct to be differentiated in the two countries. Subjective norm is shown to be significantly related with usefulness and UCC usage in Korea, a collectivistic culture, whereas proved insignificant in the United States, an individualistic culture. In addition, it was observed that image was positively related with usefulness in both countries.