Individualism Collectivism Research Articles

Collectivism–Individualism Makes the Relationships Between Digital Games Use and Creativity Different

ABSTRACTWith the increasing popularity of the Internet, there is significant interest among academics and the public in understanding the relationship between the Internet and individual development. However, the association between digital games use and creativity has been a topic of controversy, as highlighted in previous research. This study aimed to investigate the potential moderating effect of cultural backgrounds on the relationship between digital games use and creativity. To examine this hypothesis, a meta‐analysis of 11 papers (51 effect values) was conducted. The findings revealed digital games use was significantly correlated with originality and elaboration, rather than fluency and flexibility. Moreover, the relationship between digital games use and originality was found to be moderated by cultural collectivism–individualism. Specifically, as the level of individualistic culture increased, the strength of the correlation between digital games use and originality gradually diminished. No such moderating effect was observed for other dimensions of creativity. These results hold important theoretical implications for understanding the impact of digital games use on individual cognitive development. Additionally, they provide practical insights for offering sensitive recommendations on how to effectively harness the positive effects of digital games.

EXPRESS: How Do National Cultural Differences Affect Cross-Border Acquisitions? Cultural Dimensions, Learning from Supply Chain Partners, and Post-Acquisition Performance

This research examines how national cultural differences between the acquirer and target firms affect post-acquisition performance in cross-border acquisitions. We focus on two dimensions of national culture—individualism/collectivism (IDV) and power distance (PDI)—for their close relevance to structural changes that occur during post-acquisition integration. We find that while differences in PDI are negatively associated with post-acquisition performance, differences in IDV positively affect such performance. We also find that the acquirer’s cultural learning from supply chain partners helps mitigate the negative impact of PDI differences on post-acquisition performance, especially when the partner has a similar national culture in PDI to the target. Our theoretical development and empirical findings contribute to the operations and supply chain management research by illuminating the differential effects of national cultural differences on post-integration outcomes. Also, our study sheds new light on the possibility that working with supply chain partners may provide an opportunity for cultural learning that can be utilized in a post-acquisition integration setting.

Self-Efficacy and Life Satisfaction in Adolescence: Testing the Presumed Role of Individualism–Collectivism

Previous studies suggest a positive association between self-efficacy and subjective well-being. However, these investigations depend on the dichotomy between East Asian and Western cultures, often without directly examining the influence of cultural orientation. This raises questions: How do the psychological benefits of adolescent self-efficacy vary across countries, and to what extent does this variance relate to countries’ cultural orientations? To address these questions, the current study analyzed a sample of 15-year-old students across 66 countries ( N = 427,584) drawn from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. As expected, we found that higher self-efficacy was related to better life satisfaction among adolescents in every country studied. Notably, the beneficial role of self-efficacy varies based on cultural context: The relationship between self-efficacy and adolescent life satisfaction is stronger in individualistic than collectivistic countries. These findings suggest that cultural environment is important for understanding adolescent social-psychological well-being and potentially offer broader implications for global mental health initiatives.

Does Collectivism Make a Difference? A Comparative Test of Common Ingroup Strategies to Reduce Affective Polarization

Abstract Common national identity appeals have been identified as one of the most promising strategies to reduce affective political polarization. However, research on this is concentrated in highly individualistic Western democracies. Because much of the global population lives in more collectivist societies, it is important to conduct comparative tests to see if common national identity appeals operate similarly when considering the increasingly global problem of polarization. In this study, we investigate how the individualism–collectivism dimension of culture interacts with national identity salience as a polarization reduction strategy. Survey experiments were conducted in South Korea and the US. We find that priming national identity increases national pride much more in collectivist societies, but that the depolarizing effect of our national identity prime was only indirect and limited.

Sustainable human resource management and job satisfaction—Unlocking the power of organizational identification: A cross‐cultural perspective from 54 countries

AbstractSustainable human resource management is gaining importance in organizations due to its role in developing a sustainable work environment and well‐being. This paper discusses the relationship between employee perceptions of sustainable human resource management and job satisfaction in 54 countries. We propose that sustainable HRM is positively associated with job satisfaction but that this relationship is moderated by employees' identification with the organization and country‐level individualism–collectivism. Thus, we suggest national culture functions as a second‐level moderator of the relationship of sustainable HRM with organizational identification on job satisfaction. Findings from the multi‐level analyses using data from 14,502 employees nested within 54 countries provided support for our hypotheses, namely that employee perceptions of sustainable HRM were positively associated with job satisfaction and that this relationship was more pronounced for employees with lower levels compared to higher levels of organizational identification in individualistic rather than collectivistic countries. These findings bear important implications for both theory and practice.

Work–family and family–work conflict and negative attitudes toward having children: A multilevel cross‐national analysis

AbstractThe relationship between work–family and family–work conflict and attitudes toward having children has been established; however, how it varies by different national cultural dimensions remains unclear. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the moderating effects of two cultural dimensions, individualism–collectivism and indulgence‐restraint, across a sample of 40 countries and regions. Data from the 2012 round of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) are utilized, encompassing 30,613 participants (M = 43.33 years old; SD = 13.22). Multilevel modeling is employed to integrate individual‐level and country‐level factors and examine the cross‐level moderating effects. The findings demonstrate that both work–family conflict and family–work conflict are positively associated with negative attitudes toward having children. Moreover, these relationships between work–family and family–work conflicts and negative attitudes toward having children are more pronounced in individualistic societies compared with collectivist societies. Furthermore, these relationships are stronger in restrained societies as opposed to indulgent societies. These results underscore the significance of addressing work–family and family–work conflict both at the policy and practice levels and emphasize the need for considering cultural dimensions.

Adaptation of a Cultural Measure in Brazil – Developing a Short Version of the Individualism–Collectivism Vertical–Horizontal Scale

Abstract: We report psychometric analyses of an adapted version of the measure of individualism–collectivism (IC) and its horizontal–vertical (HV) manifestations ( Singelis et al., 1995 ) for Brazilian samples. We used a large sample ( N = 1,669) split into an exploratory and two cross-validation samples. Using confirmatory factor analysis and a new metaheuristic machine learning approach inspired by ant colony foraging, we found poor psychometric properties. We developed and compared three short scales, which showed poor reliability and poor factor structures. Considering widely used short scales of this measure, our results suggest that key items may be understood differently by Brazilians, and we urge caution in interpreting individualism–collectivism scores with Brazilian samples. We discuss issues for further developing cultural orientation scales to measure individual differences and the utility of an advanced metaheuristic data-driven approach for psychometric research.

Cultivating sustainable consumption: The role of harmonious cultural values and pro‐environmental self‐identity

AbstractThis paper investigates the connections between harmonious cultural values, pro‐environmental self‐identity and consumers' sustainable consumption behaviours spanning acquisition, usage and disposal. It evaluates the relevance of Chinese cultural values that purport harmony between humans, nature and society that is, man‐nature orientation, and horizontal/vertical dimensions of individualism collectivism. The results from the online survey with 503 urbanised Chinese reveals these values disparately influence this consumption. Despite the limited direct behavioural effect of these harmonious values, pro‐environmental self‐identity plays an important role in mediating their indirect effects on the five behaviours. This paper therefore extends theorisation of the values‐identity‐behaviour relationship from a cultural‐values orientation perspective. It offers new insights to understand urbanised Chinese consumers sustainable consumption behaviours.

Individualism-Collectivism (I-C) indices do not mediate the negative association between non-referent downward counterfactual thinking and prevention pride in Australian university students

Non-referent downward counterfactual thinking pertains to visualising how life events could have turned out for the worse without identifying who is blameworthy for the negative outcome. A key question is whether its link to prevention pride corresponds to the direction articulated in the Functional Theory – that is, in general, downward counterfactual thinking is positively associated with prevention goal-attainment, and this could be facilitated by greater adherence to social norms that maintain the status quo. This research question was investigated in a cross-sectional study using a sample of Australian university students (N = 209, Mage = 24.48, SD = 8.23; Range = 18-56). Contrary to the Functional Theory of Counterfactual Thinking, it was found that more frequent non-referent downward counterfactual thinking was associated with lower prevention pride. Non-referent downward counterfactuals did not significantly predict Individualism-Collectivism indices (i.e., social harmony, self-control, social identification, and social sharing of recognition). Amongst the I-C indices, only social identification and social sharing of recognition were found to be significantly positively and negatively associated with prevention pride, respectively. However, the I-C indices did not mediate the negative association between non-referent downward counterfactual thinking and prevention pride. Therapeutic implications were discussed in relation to the “wake-up call” principle to help individuals take preventative actions in the future.

The Correlation between Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and COVID-19 Data in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Period.

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) has become the deadliest virus to affect the international community in recent history, with more than 760 million people infected and more than 6.87 million deaths as of March 2023; therefore, based on Hofstede's national cultural theory, this study collected Hofstede's six national cultural dimensions on a global scale, namely, power distance (PDI), individualism/collectivism (IDV), masculinity/femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), long-term/short-term orientation (LTO), and indulgence/restraint (IVR) scores, and COVID-19 data from the World Health Organization (WHO) from 22 February 2020 to 30 February 2021. Then, based on eight items of global COVID-19 data, this study analyzed the correlation between Hofstede's six dimensions and the COVID-19 data from six regions (Africa (AFRO), Europe (EURO), the Americas (AMRO), the Western Pacific (WPRO), South East Asia (SEARO), and the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO)) divided by the WHO. This study found the following: (1) Hofstede's six cultural dimensions indeed have a significant correlation with the COVID-19 data of different WHO regions in different ways. (2) Except for IDV and UAI, PDI is a highly critical factor and has a significant correlation with the COVID-19 data from AFRO and EMRO. MAS also is an important factor and has a significant correlation with COVID-19 data from WPRO and SEARO. Meanwhile, LTO has a significant correlation with some COVID-19 data from the AMRO region, and IVR has a significant correlation with some COVID-19 data from the EURO region. Finally, the new insights from this study are worthy of further study by scholars, and they will be of great help to global governments and medical institutions in formulating policies to suppress infectious diseases in the future.

Unlocking the gender diversity–group performance link: the moderating role of relative cultural distance

PurposeThis study aims to shed light on the relationship between gender diversity and group performance by considering the moderating role of relative cultural distance. Drawing from the categorization–elaboration model (CEM), the authors hypothesize that gender-diverse collaborative learning groups perform better when a low level of relative cultural distance in country-level individualism–collectivism or power distance exists among group members.Design/methodology/approachTo test this hypothesis, the authors conducted a study on 539 undergraduate students organized into 94 groups. The assessment of group performance was based on scores given by external raters.FindingsThe authors found that relative cultural distance significantly moderated the gender diversity–group performance relationship such that gender diversity was positively related to group performance when the collaborative learning group included members who similarly valued individualism–collectivism or power distance (i.e. relative cultural distance was low) and was negatively related to group performance when the collaborative learning group comprised members who differently valued individualism–collectivism or power distance (i.e. relative cultural distance was high).Originality/valueThis study contributes to understanding when gender diversity is positively associated with group performance by expanding the range of previously examined diversity dimensions to include relative cultural distance in country-level individualism–collectivism and power distance.

Literature review of the sharing economy: Socio‐cultural perspective

AbstractThis article reviews the literature to explore the role of culture in the sharing economy. During the literature review process, we used the terms collaborative consumption, collaborative economy, gift economy, gift‐giving, mesh, peer‐to‐peer, and commercial sharing systems in addition to the term sharing economy. Thus, we offer a reasonably broad scope in our research. It analyses 89 articles through a systematic literature review to determine the role of society and culture in the sharing economy. In addition, it offers a theoretical and descriptive exploration of the sharing economy and culture. The research shows that cultural dimensions and sharing motives shape the role of culture in the sharing economy. In this context, we determine the dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism–collectivism, masculinism, long‐ and short‐term orientation, and indulgence‐restrain. In addition, we determine economic, social, sustainability, materialism, and trust motives. It shows that materialism, economic, sustainability, and trust differ depending on cultural dimensions. This situation shapes the attitudes and intentions of individuals toward the sharing economy. In addition, the study lists the cultures studied and the theoretical approaches used in previous cross‐cultural studies on the sharing economy. The study shows that cross‐cultural studies often focus on the cultures of the United States, China, and India. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research.

How Culture Shapes the Influence of Work Design Characteristics: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review

This paper presents a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the literature on the influence of cultural dimensions on work design characteristics. With our proposed work design universals typology as a framework, we provide a narrative review and analyze the influence of six cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism–collectivism, masculinity–femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence–restraint) on work design characteristics’ effects on job satisfaction and performance. In addition to running meta-analytic regressions examining the role of cultural characteristics as individual moderators of the relationship between work design characteristics’ and job satisfaction and performance, we further utilize qualitative comparative analysis to move beyond treating each cultural dimension as an independent predictor and, instead, investigate configurations of cultural dimensions as moderating variables of the relationships between work design characteristics and workplace outcomes. The present effort, therefore, serves as a test of a complex universal approach when examining the influence of culture on the relationship between work design characteristics and outcomes. Collectively, this study provides a systematic narrative and quantitative review of the work design literature to assess how cultural dimensions (both individually and through complex configurations) may affect the impact of work design characteristics on job satisfaction and performance. Based on our review, we offer recommendations for future research and continued calls for more systematic and integrative cross-cultural work design research.

Is “regional culture” a meaningful concept? Cultural differences across 60 Russian regions

PurposeThere is an increasing interest in the international management literature in cultural differences between in-country regions. Yet, the regions of any country may be merely political products and not necessarily cultural units. The goal of this article is to propose clear empirical criteria for deciding if a set of entities, such as a country's administrative regions, can be legitimate units of cross-cultural analysis and to test these criteria in an empirical study.Design/methodology/approachThe authors review the literature on what constitutes a unit of cross-cultural analysis and propose empirical criteria. For instance, the regions of a given country are meaningful units of cross-cultural analysis if one can replicate (an) established dimension(s) of culture at the regional level, including some of the dimension(s)' antecedents and predictive properties. The authors apply this test in the context of the Russian Federation (RF), using an RF database (18,768 respondents from 60 administrative regions) with items borrowed from the World Values Survey.FindingsThe RF regions pass the authors’ test. At the regional level, the selected items yield an individualism-collectivism (IDV-COLL) dimension that is similar to its nation-level counterpart in the revised Minkov-Hofstede model in terms of concept and antecedents (wealth differences and geographic latitude) and outcomes that are relevant in business (innovation rates and quality of governance). The authors also find other patterns that confirm the properties of RF regions as meaningful units of cultural analysis.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ criteria and the test based on them are suitable for large countries, with significant geo-climatic variety and ethnic diversity, but may be inapplicable in small countries with less diversity. It is questionable if the latter countries contain enough cultural variation to justify a cross-cultural analysis of their sub-national regions.Practical implicationsThe authors’ criteria can be used in future research in any large country to decide if its regions justify a cross-cultural analysis in the field of management and business or any other field.Social implicationsCultural differences within a country are important as they may inform political and management decisions. Yet, to demonstrate that those differences are real, and not imaginary, one needs a methodology like the authors’.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the discussion of the meaningfulness of in-country regions as cultural units for cross-cultural analysis in international business by focusing on the RF.

Cross-country determinants of citizens' e-government reuse intention: empirical evidence from Kuwait and Poland

PurposeDespite the major information technology investments made by public institutions, the reuse of e-government services remains an issue as citizens hesitate to use e-government websites regularly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cross-country determinants of e-government reuse intention by proposing a theoretical model that integrates constructs from (1) the Delone and McLean IS success model (i.e. system quality, service quality, information quality, perceived value and user satisfaction); (2) the trust and risk models (i.e. citizen trust, overall risk, time risk, privacy risk and psychological risks); and (3) Hofstede's cultural model (i.e. uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism and cross-cultural trust and risk).Design/methodology/approachBased on data from interviews with 81 Kuwaiti citizens and surveys of 1,829 Kuwaiti and Polish citizens, this study conducted comprehensive, cross-cultural and comparative analyses of e-government reuse intention in a cross-country setting.FindingsThe results show that trust is positively associated with citizens' intention to reuse e-government services, whereas risk is negatively associated with citizens' perceived value. This study also found that masculinity–femininity and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with the intention to reuse e-government services and that individualism–collectivism has no significant relationship with reuse intention. This study's findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and improve e-government success in cross-country settings.Originality/valueThis study developed a parsimonious model of quality, trust, risk, culture and technology reuse that captures country-specific cultural contexts and enables us to conduct a comprehensive, cross-cultural and comparative analysis of e-government reuse intention in the cross-country setting of Kuwait and Poland.

Correction to: Loneliness in Europe: Personal and Societal Individualism–Collectivism and Their Connection to Social Isolation

Correction to: Loneliness in Europe: Personal and Societal Individualism–Collectivism and Their Connection to Social Isolation

Individualism–collectivism and organ donation intentions

AbstractThis article investigates the impact of individualism–collectivism on a person's willingness to donate organs. In Study 1, an online survey showed that individualism–collectivism was significantly and positively associated with participants' willingness to register as organ donors while perceived benefit mediated this relationship. Study 2 demonstrated the causal effect of individualism–collectivism on organ donation intentions using a priming technique. Participants primed with collectivism were more likely to register as organ donors than those primed with individualism. Our findings provide unique insights into whether cultural values (i.e., individualism–collectivism) can predict people's organ donation intentions.

Students from humanities and human sciences are basically the same aren’t they? Cultural factors affecting entrepreneurship in Iran

In a third-generation university, concepts of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, help link the university with industry and society. These concepts, however, have not been uniformly distributed across all university disciplines. This paper, reviews the characteristics of a third-generation university, focusing on the capabilities of the humanities faculties to address the challenges and barriers of entrepreneurship. Identification of these notions is important for the development of the humanities in academic entrepreneurship. This research was conducted among 80 Iranian humanities entrepreneurs, using the Hofstede Model of National Culture and Entrepreneurial Tendency and Action questionnaires as data collection tools. Entrepreneurial tendency among those in the human sciences disciplines was greater than those in the humanities. Short-term orientation was only influential in the humanities group. However, individualism–collectivism and short-term orientation were influential to entrepreneurial tendency in both disciplines. While the power distance (high) was influential to entrepreneurial tendency in the humanities. The findings of this study showed significant entrepreneurial tendency differences between students from the humanities and human sciences. The findings also show that entrepreneurial tendency in the humanities is mostly influenced by cultural factors. This research has provided invaluable knowledge of the entrepreneurial differences from a cultural perspective in the third-generation university.

Structural Equation Modeling Pada Adopsi Sistem Informasi Akuntansi Berbasis E-Commerce Menggunakan UTAUT2

Batam City MSME players still encounter obstacles in the adoption of e-commerce-based Accounting Information Systems (AIS). This study aims to analyze the factors that influence the adoption of an e-commerce-based accounting information system for MSMEs in Batam City using the UTAUT2 model by considering cultural factors. The data used in this study is primary data obtained through a survey of MSME actors in Batam City using a questionnaire with the purposive sampling method. The sample used was 150 MSME actors. Hypothesis testing is carried out using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS. The results of the study proved that facilitating conditions, habits and behavioural intentions affect the use behavior variable directly. Cultural factors of individualism collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation also succeeded in moderating the influence of behavioural intention variables on use behavior. The results of this study imply that the government can consider cultural factors in developing a strategy to increase the adoption of MSME e-commerce accounting information systems in Batam City to improve business performance.
 Keywords: SEM, AIS, E-commerce, UTAUT2

Family First: Evidence of Consistency and Variation in the Value of Family Versus Personal Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size ( N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries ( N = 49). We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen’s ds = .20, range −.02 to.48), but present in 98% of the studied countries, with statistical significance in 73% to 75%, and variance across countries <2%. We also found that the size of this effect did vary somewhat across cultural contexts. In Latin American cultures highest on relational mobility, the idealization of family over personal happiness was very small (average Cohen’s ds for Latin America = .15 and .18), while in Confucian Asia cultures lowest on relational mobility, this effect was closer to medium ( ds > .40 and .30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country-level individualism–collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of “protecting family life” to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers and by progressive movements too.