Cultural Dimension Scores Research Articles

28-country global study on associations between cultural characteristics and Recovery College fidelity.

Recovery Colleges (RCs) are learning-based mental health recovery communities, located globally. However, evidence on RC effectiveness outside Western, educated, industrialised, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries is limited. This study aimed to evaluate associations between cultural characteristics and RC fidelity, to understand how culture impacts RC operation. Service managers from 169 RCs spanning 28 WEIRD and non-WEIRD countries assessed the fidelity using the RECOLLECT Fidelity Measure, developed based upon key RC operation components. Hofstede's cultural dimension scores were entered as predictors in linear mixed-effects regression models, controlling for GDP spent on healthcare and Gini coefficient. Higher Individualism and Indulgence, and lower Uncertainty Avoidance were associated with higher fidelity, while Long-Term Orientation was a borderline negative predictor. RC operations were predominantly aligned with WEIRD cultures, highlighting the need to incorporate non-WEIRD cultural perspectives to enhance RCs' global impact. Findings can inform the refinement and evaluation of mental health recovery interventions worldwide.

Examining Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions in Iranian and Chinese Context: A Mixed Methods Approach

This study investigated key cultural value dimensions in samples of undergraduate business students from Iran (n = 40) and China (n = 40). Hofstede’s national culture framework spans Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity/Femininity. A survey measured and compared cultural dimension scores between countries. Classroom observations also qualitatively assessed how societal norms shape teaching and learning. Results showed that Iranians accepted greater power inequality, showed more discomfort with unstructured situations, and were more individualist than the strongly collectivist Chinese sample. Both countries were distinctly masculine. Observation data reflected high Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance in Iranian classrooms, with professors tightly controlling discourse and censoring student opinions. Chinese classrooms demonstrated more collaboration and student debate. Findings update Hofstede’s country rankings with generational data. Insights can inform educational reforms catering teaching practices to cultural orientations while developing needed competencies. Limitations include sample size and generalizability. Further cross-cultural research should track evolving youth attitudes, translate macro-culture into micro-domains like academia, and leverage understanding to optimize learning systems. This mixed methodology comparing Iranian and Chinese university students on cultural dimensions and academic manifestations makes a novel contribution. Practical implications span cross-cultural understanding, organizational leadership, policy, and culture-specific social initiatives.

Geert Hofstede'nin kültürel boyutları dünya çapındaki pandemi istatistikleriyle ilişkili mi?

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in China in 2019 and was seen in many parts of the world in a short time, has affected individuals and communities with quarantine and public health regimes. Like every event that has taken place at the global level, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected societies differently, and societies have different attitudes and reactions to the pandemic. Many historical, political, and economic factors can influence societies' attitudes and behaviors toward events. Culture is important, perhaps the most important variable in the context of the lives of societies and individuals, their attitudes toward social developments, and their behavior. The dimensions of culture, theorized by Geert Hofstede, compare societies in five dimensions, provide information about the lives of societies, and help predict possible behavior. This study examines the relationship between the statistics of total cases, total deaths, new cases, new deaths, total cases per 100,000 people, total deaths per 100,000 people, new cases per 100,000 people and new deaths per 100,000 people from the pandemic statistics published continuously during the COVID-19 pandemic and the cultural dimensions determined by Hofstede. For this purpose, pandemic statistics of the 100 countries with the highest number of cases on 7 dates during the COVID-19 pandemic were taken as a sample and analyzed with Hofstede's culture dimension scores. At the end of the study, it was revealed that there was a significant inverse correlation between the power range and long-term orientation scores of the countries and the COVID-19 statistics. In contrast, individuality and uncertainty avoidance scores correlated significantly with COVID-19 statistics. The findings related with high uncertainty avoidance may be explained by Extended Parallel Process Model. No significant correlation was found between countries' masculinity scores and COVID-19 scores. As a result of the study, it was revealed that there were significant relationships between the cultural dimension scores of the countries and the COVID-19 statistics.

Perceptions of organizational culture among infection preventionists in Israel, the United States, and Thailand: Results from national infection prevention surveys

In national surveys of infection preventionists in Israel (n=15), the United States (n=415), and Thailand (n=100), we found that views of organizational culture track well with these countries' cultural dimension scores of power distance and individualism. Our findings highlight the importance of considering cultural dimensions when implementing infection prevention efforts.

The impact of political freedoms on cross-border M&A abandonment likelihood

This study aims to provide evidence of the impact of political factors of acquirer’s and target’s countries and their differences on cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) abandonment likelihood, showing that political differences have a more pronounced impact on M&A abandonment likelihood compared with social or cultural differences. We analyse a large cross-border M&A data sample under a probit regression, using target’s and acquirer’s score as well as score differences computed using the sum of squared differences. The results show that while analyzed target’s political factors don’t seem to have a statistically significant impact on M&A likelihood, level of efficiency and quality of government’s core institutions as well as political culture in acquirer’s country have statistically significant impact on M&A abandonment likelihood with the first having a greater marginal effect on the M&A abandonment likelihood than the second. We also document that political culture differences between acquirer’s and target’s countries have a greater explanatory power for M&A abandonment likelihood than the difference between acquirer’s and target’s Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores. This is true both in statistical and marginal terms, with the indulgence cultural dimension being the only statistically significant variable impacting M&A abandonment likelihood. These findings represent a useful groundwork for economists, corporate finance specialists, academic scholars and practitioners, potentially allowing for a better understanding of the underlying impact of political culture and the functioning of the acquirer’s and target’s country government on M&A deal outcome.

The Influence of Culture on Collaborative Learning Practices in Higher Education

Abstract Objective: This study systematically identifies the various pertinent cultural dimensions and the group processes involved in collaborative peer learning before empirically exploring their associations among a sample of university students. Methodology: Twenty statements encompassing various cultural dimensions that could possibly influence students’ preferences towards collaborative peer learning practices were incorporated into a survey. The data were collected from 147 multicultural students studying applied sciences in Finland. Chi-squared test of independence was used to test the association between the cultural dimension scores for students and their stated preferences for collaborative learning practices. Findings: A major finding of this study is that learners from diverse cultural backgrounds have differing modes of engaging in the eight separate collaborative learning processes. The findings clearly reveal that students from cultures that are hierarchical, collectivist, less bound by rules, and traditional are less likely to have any prior familiarity with peer-learning methods. It seems relatively clear that the power distance and collectivism dimensions have the greatest impact on shaping the preferences of students for collaborative peer-learning methods. Value Added: Very few studies have looked at how the cultural backgrounds of students can influence their use of, and preferences towards, collaborative peerlearning methods. This study identifies key processes in collaborative learning practices, which are shaped by culture as communication, decision-making, leadership, evaluation, trust building, the expression of disagreement, scheduling, and persuasion within a peer group. Recommendations: This study found that Hofstede’s framework might be too constraining when understanding how culture shapes a student’s preferences towards collaborative peer learning in the educational context. It would be even more fruitful to develop an altogether endogenous framework that is more suitable for exploring the influence of culture on learning and education. Such a model should identify the various dimensions of culture beyond those of national identity and consider how they jointly influence attitudes towards collaborative learning rather than considering them in isolation. This model should also take a more dynamic approach towards both culture and learning.

Culture Linked to Increasing Ageism During COVID-19: Evidence From a 10-Billion-Word Corpus Across 20 Countries.

ObjectivesOlder adults experience higher risks of getting severely ill from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulting in widespread narratives of frailty and vulnerability. We test: (a) whether global aging narratives have become more negative from before to during the pandemic (October 2019 to May 2020) across 20 countries; (b) model pandemic (incidence and mortality), and cultural factors associated with the trajectory of aging narratives.MethodsWe leveraged a 10-billion-word online-media corpus, consisting of 28 million newspaper and magazine articles across 20 countries, to identify nine common synonyms of “older adults” and compiled their most frequently used descriptors (collocates) from October 2019 to May 2020—culminating in 11,504 collocates that were rated to create a Cumulative Aging Narrative Score per month. Widely used cultural dimension scores were taken from Hofstede, and pandemic variables, from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker.ResultsAging narratives became more negative as the pandemic worsened across 20 countries. Globally, scores were trending neutral from October 2019 to February 2020, and plummeted in March 2020, reflecting COVID-19’s severity. Prepandemic (October 2019), the United Kingdom evidenced the most negative aging narratives; peak pandemic (May 2020), South Africa took on the dubious honor. Across the 8-month period, the Philippines experienced the steepest trend toward negativity in aging narratives. Ageism, during the pandemic, was, ironically, not predicted by COVID-19’s incidence and mortality rates, but by cultural variables: Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation.DiscussionThe strategy to reverse this trajectory lay in the same phenomenon that promoted it: a sustained global campaign—though, it should be culturally nuanced and customized to a country’s context.

The impact of national culture on the increase of COVID-19: A cross-country analysis of European countries

In recent years, countries have been fighting with increasing momentum against outbreaks. This struggle requires the effective implementation of several measures that are required in medical science. However, the cultural characteristics of each society prevent these measures from being applied in the same way globally. One area in which social scientists have not applied much effort is observing the impact of countries' cultural characteristics in the fight against outbreaks. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether cultural differences among countries have an impact on their fight against outbreaks. This study uses the COVID-19 pandemic’s total cases and selected European countries’ cultural dimension scores as data. Due to the differences in the measurement units of cultural and outbreak variables, a stepwise multiple logarithmic regression analysis is preferred to select the proper regression model. The results have shown that power distance has a significant and negative effect on the increase rate of the total COVID-19 cases per million (IRTCCPM). In addition, the results have demonstrated that both individualism and indulgence have significant and positive effects on IRTCCPM, at the 95 % confidence level. However, the hypotheses concerning the impacts of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation on the IRTCCPM are rejected at the α = 0.05 level. In light of the findings of this study, it can be asserted that countries act in harmony with their cultural characteristics in the formal or informal practices of their fight against outbreaks. The contributions of the study can be discussed in academic and practical fields.

Ageism Linked to Culture, Not Demographics: Evidence From an 8-Billion-Word Corpus Across 20 Countries.

ObjectivesAgeism has increased over 200 years and costs the U.S. health care system $63 billion a year. While scholars agree on the consequences of ageism, there are disagreements on whether it is related to the demographics of aging, or society’s cultural values. We test both hypotheses across 20 countries.MethodTo circumvent the sampling limitations of survey studies, we used an 8-billion-word corpus, identified 3 synonyms with the highest prevalence—aged, elderly, old people—and compiled the top 300 words (collocates) that were used most frequently with these synonyms for each of the 20 countries. The resulting 6,000 collocates were rated on an ageism scale by 2 raters to create an ageism score per country. Cultural dimension scores—Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation—were taken from Hofstede, and demographics—size and speed of population aging—came from the World Development Indicators.ResultsOf the 20 countries, UK topped the ageism table, while Sri Lanka had the lowest ageism score. Multiple regression models showed that higher levels of masculinity and long-term orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions, demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita).DiscussionOur findings blunt the deterministic nature of ageism at the societal level. Demographics is only one side of the ageism coin, and the cultural side is equally, if not more important. This study lays the groundwork to tackle societal ageism—one of our generation’s most pernicious threats.

Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies: Is There an Entrepreneurial Characteristic Similarity to Western Entrepreneur?

This empirical study consists of two parts. The first part of the study examines the cultural characteristics and dimensions of entrepreneurs and factory workers in transition economies during the early transition period to determine if their cultural values were similar to those found in other nations. The second part of the study compares the differences in Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores between entrepreneurs and workers in market economies. It might seem extraordinary that after more than 70 years of a centralized nonentrepreneurial society that all of the communist nations that the current authors studied had essentially the same cultural differences among entrepreneurs that were found in capitalist nations with a long history of entrepreneurial activity.

The comparation of cultural dimention between Sulawesi, Indonesia and Philippine: a measurement of five Indonesian islands

The Indonesian archipelago is bordered by many countries, such as Sulawesi island bordered by the Philippines. The culture of Sulawesi allegedly had the same style with the culture of the Filipinos. Several studies have examined the details of Indonesian culture, especially the culture of Sulawesi and the Philippines, but has not studied the details of the cultural dimension measurement of both countries. This study aims to measure the dimensions of Hofstede cultural communities in the Indonesian archipelago and do a comparative study of cultural dimensions of Hofstede to Sulawesi and the Philippines. The data (631 respondents) was analysed using calculations score of Hofstede cultural dimensions consists of the Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Long-term orientation (LTO) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI). The measurement results of Hofstede cultural dimensions Indonesia is slightly different from the predecessor research. There are several dimensions of Hofstede Indonesian culture which decreased compared to the results of research on the IBM Company, which consists of PDI, UAI, and LTO as well as an increase at IDV and MAS. The geographical position of the region of Sulawesi and the Philippines affect both cultural interactions. Several cultural dimension scores of Sulawesi and the Philippines were relatively close. It shows that Sulawesi and the Philippines have similar cultural dimensions PDI, IDV and MAS. This cultural dimension measurement results expected to contribute to the fields of science related to the cultural mapping of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Expatriates Cultural Adjustment: Empirical Analysis On Individual Cultural Orientation

Previous researches have shown that expatriates` failure rate has steadily increased in recent years. The failure of expatriates mainly related with the cross-cultural challenges. The purpose of this study was to identify factors which have a paramount implication on expatriates’ cultural adjustment. Hierarchical regression and MANCOVA were applied in data analysis. Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimension scores were used to measure culture at national level. The individual cultural orientation was measured using a scale that used Hofstede (1980) dimensions as a framework. Moreover, a recently developed model was adopted to analyze the expatriate adjustment. Cultural adjustment found to be affected more by individual cultural orientation than national culture differences among expatriates` home and host countries. The alignment of the expatriate cultural orientation with the national culture found to be critical for effective expatriate cultural adjustment. The result indicated that gender difference does not have a significant role in expatriate cultural adjustment. This research would have a conceptual contribution in comprehensively assessing individual cultural orientation with cognitive expatriate adjustment. The study indicated factors that MNCs managers would use for effective selection and assignment of expatriates.

Does Culture Impact Choice of Pictures for Websites: An Analysis of Chinese Cultural Dimensions on Websites of Chinese Universities

The Internet and global information technology have changed the way people advertise because of instant access to different cultures. Reflection of culture in web items have gained the attention of researchers and China , with more than 704 million Chinese speaking internet users and unique cultural norms, is needed to be studied comprehensively. This study tried to measure the cultural dimensions and compare the findings of cultural elements in pictures presented on the homepages of Chinese educational websites with Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores. Content analysis of pictures from top 100 universities in China was done and the results indicated pictures of male teachers and students in group were more frequently selected for the homepages. More frequent pictures of teachers addressing seminars or meetings, posing for pictures and students busy in extracurricular activities showing cultural advertising appeals for Chinese students. The study result is correlated with individualism, masculinity, indulgence and pragmatism. However, a different fashion is seen for power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The finding might be interesting for advertisers having interest in Chinese educational market and cultural scholars. Findings suggest that institutions should adopt local values to effectively communicate with the local users, however, further research is needed especially regarding Chinese society. Keywords: Cultural Communication, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, User-Centred Design, Higher Education Marketing, Advertising Appeals, Chinese Culture

Primary Care Units in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

This study investigates the organizational culture and associated characteristics of the newly established primary care units (PCUs)-collaborative teams of general practitioners (GPs) who provide patients with integrated health care services-in the Emilia-Romagna Region (RER), Italy. A survey instrument covering 6 cultural dimensions was administered to all 301 GPs in 21 PCUs in the Local Health Authority (LHA) of Parma, RER; the response rate was 79.1%. Management style, organizational trust, and collegiality proved to be more important aspects of PCU organizational culture than information sharing, quality, and cohesiveness. Cultural dimension scores were positively associated with certain characteristics of the PCUs including larger PCU size and greater proportion of older GPs. The presence of female GPs in the PCUs had a negative impact on collegiality, organizational trust, and quality. Feedback collected through this assessment will be useful to the RER and LHAs for evaluating and guiding improvements in the PCUs.

Understanding the epidemiology of MRSA in Europe: do we need to think outside the box?

The epidemiology of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, using bacteraemia as a marker, shows a striking geographical pattern in Europe. The prevalence of MRSA is low in Northern European countries, increases into central Europe and reaches its highest levels in the Mediterranean region. This has been attributed to varying levels of implementation of infection control and antibiotic stewardship (ICAS) programmes, but reasons for this variation have not been clearly established. To investigate the possible impact of national cultural dimensions on the epidemiology of MRSA in Europe. Median proportions of MRSA bacteraemia were sourced for countries participating in the EARS-Net surveillance network in 2010, and correlated with the national cultural dimension scores of Hofstede etal. Significant associations were identified between MRSA proportions and the cultural constructs of uncertainty avoidance (UAI), masculinity (MAS) and power distance. Multiple regression models found significant associations for UAI, MAS and short-term orientation (R(2) adjusted=0.475; P<0.001). The model was found to be predictive of MRSA trends identified in several European countries between 2006 and 2010. Implementation of ICAS programmes often requires behavioural change. Cultural dimensions appear to be key factors affecting perceptions and values among healthcare workers, which in turn are critical for compliance and uptake. Customizing ICAS initiatives to reflect the local cultural background may improve their chances of success.

Exploring the feasibility of web form adaptation to users’ cultural dimension scores

With many daily tasks now performed on the Internet, productivity and efficiency in working with web pages have become transversal necessities for all users. Many of these tasks involve the inputti...

Can Hofstede's Model Explain National Differences in Perceived Information Overload? A Look at Data From the US and New Zealand

Hofstede's cultural dimensions model has been widely used as a basic explanatory and predictive model in a variety of business studies, including studies addressing information management and electronic communication issues. This study aimed at assessing Hofstede's model by looking into a key issue for information management and electronic communication-information overload. The study compared information overload-related data from the US and New Zealand. The sample involved 108 MBA students who held professional or management positions. Data analyses employed comparisons of means and partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modeling techniques. Information overload perceptions in the two countries appear to differ significantly. This finding seems to be inconsistent with the relatively small differences in cultural dimension scores between the US and New Zealand, and with those two countries being placed in the same country cluster in Hofstede's model. The results call into question the adequacy of Hofstede's model as a basis to explain information management phenomena.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Ethical Attitudes of Business Managers: India, Korea and the United States

Culture has been identified as a significant determinant of ethical attitudes of business managers. This research studies the impact of culture on the ethical attitudes of business managers in India, Korea and the United States using multivariate statistical analysis. Employing Geert Hofstede's cultural typology, this study examines the relationship between his five cultural dimensions (individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation) and business managers' ethical attitudes. The study uses primary data collected from 345 business manager participants of Executive MBA programs in selected business schools in India, Korea and the United States using Hofstede's Value Survey Module (94) and an instrument designed by the researchers to measure respondents' ethical attitudes (attitudes toward business ethics in general and toward twelve common questionable practices in particular). Results indicate that national culture has a strong influence on business managers' ethical attitudes. In addition to national culture, respondents' general attitudes toward business ethics are related to their personal integrity; their attitudes toward questionable business practices are related to the external environment and gender, as well as to their personal integrity. A strong relationship exists between cultural dimensions of individualism and power distance and respondents' ethical attitudes toward certain questionable practices. The analysis of the relationship between cultural dimensions of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation and respondents' ethical attitudes toward questionable practices produced mixed results, likely due to the lack of notable differences in cultural dimension scores among the countries surveyed.