Social media usage and international expatriate’s creativity: An empirical research in cross-cultural context

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Considerable evidence suggests that social media usage has become an indispensible part of international expatriates’ daily lives. Studies have identified social media usage serves both as a positive and a negative channel to influence international expatriate’s personal development. Nevertheless, there is paucity of literature examining the effects and underlying mechanism through which social media usage impinges on international expatriates’ creativity, especially in cross-cultural settings. OBJECTIVE: To address the gaps, the current research is designed to investigate whether and how social media usage accounts for variance phenomena in international expatriates’ creativity with intervention role of cultural intelligence. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted at three Chinese public universities with assistance of officials in charge of international education. 248 informative responses were used for testing hypothesis. RESULTS: Research findings suggest that social media usage contributes to international expatriates’ creativity partially through the conduit of peer relationship. Additionally cultural intelligence positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and peer relationship. CONCLUSIONS: As the elite group who make quick responses and efficacious solutions to manage the complexities in such an interconnected world, international expatriates deserve more scholarly attention for their creativity development. The current research examines the mediating role of peer relationship and the role of cultural intelligence moderating the relationship between social media usage and peer relationship. And this paper serves to arouse more scholarly attention to apply interdisciplinary analytics approaches to investigate how to develop international expatriate’s creativity in complicated cross-cultural settings.