A social influence view of the internationalization of cultural products

A thriving international cultural industry fuels the expansion of the global creative economy. Yet, what drives the international diffusion and performance of cultural products? This study adopts a social influence perspective to examine the international performance of film exports, addressing a critical gap in existing research that often isolates social influences without considering the impact of their (in)congruence. Given the subjective nature of cultural products and their vulnerability to multiple influences across global value chains, we theorize and empirically test the effects of congruence and incongruence between supply-side and demand-side social influences on films’ international performance. Analyzing 1676 U.S. films released between 2009 and 2018, our findings reveal that congruence between supply-side and demand-side social influences significantly enhances a film’s appeal, credibility, and international success. Moreover, this effect is amplified by two key moderators across global value chains, namely, upstream home-country adoption of social media promotion and downstream host-country press freedom. This study contributes to the understanding of the social influence view within global value chains by highlighting the importance of supply-demand congruence and the contextual factors that shape their effectiveness in driving the international performance of cultural products.