Resumo

Prior marketing literature has analyzed the endorsement carried out by digital influencers, addressing issues of engagement, influence, expected value, and consumer purchase intent. Cultural issues, however, remain without due attention from studies of digital influencers. As Singh, Zhao and Hu (2003) state, the internet is not a culturally neutral medium, quite the opposite; it is full of markers and cultural norms that often appear on social media profiles. In this way, the endorsements made by influencers are permeated with cultural aspects that organizations must consider.

Even though digital influencers work in communication channels that go beyond geographic boundaries, they build their narratives and develop their posts based on the cultures to which they belong. In this paper we aim to analyze possible cultural aspects exposed in the posting pattern of digital influencers; through a cross-cultural research. For this, some cultural dimensions defined by Hofstede (1980, 2011) are used: collectivism vs. individualism and femininity vs. masculinity. For this analysis, two countries that have opposite cultural dimensions were selected; they are: USA and Brazil.

Posts in individualistic cultures is more ‘me’-focused, enhancing information and the individual's experience and opinion to self-promote while in collectivist cultures, content shared on networks is more "we"-focused, emotionally social, aiming for interaction (Sheldon et al., 2017). In masculine cultures, the exposure of a lifestyle surrounded by products that symbolize wealth, independence, competitiveness and prosperity; in contrast, posts in collectivist cultures will emphasize interpersonal relationships and tend to be compassionate and expressive (Hoehle, Zhang & Venkatesh, 2015).

The posts made by these influencers during a month (Brazilian: October 1st to November 1st, 2018; American: October 1st to November 1st, 2019) that involved the announcement of brands and products, a total of 112, were analyzed. For that, we used the Semiotic image analysis that aims to identify the system of signs involved in the image and its description in order to find out how they produce meaning (Penn, 2000). Following the guidelines described by Penn (2000), a dissection of the image followed by its articulation or reconstruction was performed.

Endorsements made by influencers bring distinctions based on the nationality of these opinion leaders. Individualistic traits were identified in the posts of fitness influencers from the USA, such as the search for self-promotion in their posts. In turn, collectivist traits were identified in the posts of Brazilian fitness influencers being characterized especially by the search for socialization and interaction. The cultural dimension femininity versus masculinity, however, was not so evident in the posts of influencers of different nationalities.

This research aimed to identify whether the endorsements made by digital influencers from the USA and Brazil reflect the cultural dimensions of their respective countries. For this, propositions were developed considering the cultural dimensions of individualism versus collectivism, and femininity versus masculinity proposed by Hofstede (1980, 2011). The research results reinforced the premise that social media are culturally rich virtual environments, with norms and markers that reflect values, lifestyles and preferences.

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 1-26. Sheldon, P., Rauschnabel, P. A., Antony, M. G., & Car, S. (2017). A cross-cultural comparison of Croatian and American social network sites: Exploring cultural differences in motives for Instagram use. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 643–651. Singh, N., Zhao, H., & Hu, X. (2003). Cultural adaptation on the web: A study of American companies’ domestic and Chinese websites. International Journal of Global Information Management, 11, 63-80.