A Comparative Study of Corporate User-Generated Media and its Usefulness: Kuwait vs. United States

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As blogging phenomenon becomes more pervasive in personal and corporate lives, companies and universities are harvesting useful information from user-generated media (e.g., Blogs). Due to the significant growth of this phenomenon, businesses in Kuwait and United States have to become more engaged in the blogging behavior of their employees and customers. Though it appears that user-generated media (e.g., Blogs, Twitter, among others) has become an increasingly important way for companies to connect with their employees and customers; to date only a handful of research has been done by scholars. Hence, the main objective of this study is to help fill that void in the literature and ascertain the following: 1. Lay the groundwork for understanding the critical factors that lead businesses and institutions in Kuwait and US to create their own user-generated media. 2. To understand organizations’ awareness of their potential liabilities resulting from action of managers or employees in violation of the different laws when using the different tools of user-generated media such as Blogs, Twitter and Instagram. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, the project team will design a survey in two versions: English for the US and Arabic for Kuwait. The study is expected to assist teachers/researchers in both Kuwait and US in enhancement of their graduate and undergraduate programs. Teaching can be more versatile and/ or interesting by incorporating different communications tools, such as Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, among others. In addition, this study may give insights to administrators, policy makers, and employers in managing their blog sites.