Culture

Self-Construals, Types of Social Media Usage, and Consumer Decision-Making Styles -- A Study of Young Asian Americans

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Abstract

Limited studies have included social media behavior as a variable in shaping the consumer's decision-making styles (DMS) in a contemporary setting or self-construals as an individual characteristic that might influence specific social media platform behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate (1) self-construals of young Asian Americans, (2) the relationship between self-construals and different types of social media usage, (3) the relationship between different types of social media usage and DMS, and (4) the relationship between self-construals and DMS in purchasing apparel among young Asian Americans. The majority of participants held both high interdependent and independent self-construal. Independent self-construal had a statistically significant positive relationship with the frequency of updating social media, especially for YouTube. The strongest relationship between social media usage and DMS was between opinion seeking on YouTube and perfectionistic DMS. This study is especially useful for apparel companies seeking to market products to young Asian American consumers.

How to Cite:

Tao, Q. & Hahn, K. H., (2016) “Self-Construals, Types of Social Media Usage, and Consumer Decision-Making Styles -- A Study of Young Asian Americans”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 73(1).