Higher Context Research Articles

Manifestation of Culture in B2C Websites of Digitally Transformed Businesses in Emerging Asian Economies

ABSTRACT Emerging Asian economies are undergoing significant economic expansion and cultural adaptation aided by globalization and the pervasive spread of ICT. This study empirically examines the depiction of cultural values in digitally transformed business websites from India, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia to determine if website culture is showing a shift from the national culture of the selected countries taken up in the study. We empirically examined 53 B2C websites, and the findings show that aside from the government-owned, organizations are demonstrating a marked shift from high context to low context cultural attributes. The study findings also indicate that organizations are increasingly leaning toward culture-neutral designs. Prior studies in this domain have focused on developed countries, and no comparable study exists on emerging economies. The findings of this research can shed light on the contemporary world views of the audiences from the selected country contexts, which in turn can enable firms to adopt appropriate engagement strategies.

An Exploratory Study on the Derivation of Ironical Implicatures by English Foreign Language Learners: Could Culture Play a Role?

Literature on cross-cultural communication has demonstrated that communication breakdowns are more likely to occur among speakers from different cultural backgrounds (Keenan 1976; Devine 1983). This kind of assumptions constituted the departing point of further studies, such as that of Bouton (1988), where he tested the communicative habits of non-native speakers of English and contrasted them with those of English native speakers. The results of these studies have proved that the derivation of implicatures by English non-native speakers differs if compared with that of English native speakers and that ironical implicatures are among the most difficult ones to grasp for English non-native speakers. What is more, culture has been regarded as a possible variable influencing the derivation of implicit meanings (Bouton 1988; Liddicoat 2009). In view of this literature and applying the approach on High Context and Low Context cultures (in accordance with Hall 1976; Würtz 2005; Min 2016; Hornikx and le Pair 2017), this exploratory study aims at analysing if culture plays a role in the derivation of ironical implicatures by English foreign language learners. For current purposes, the present study aims to analyse, first, whether a group of English foreign language learners derives pragmatically felicitous ironical implicatures or not; and, secondly, if culture as a bidirectional factor has an impact on participants’ interpretations. In order to do so, an exploratory sample of twelve English foreign language learners (all of them belonging to a High Context culture) filled a questionnaire, which was used to gather data. The questionnaire contained fifteen questions: ten multiple-choice questions and five open questions, each of them giving rise to an ironical implicature. The results suggest that participants show a high tendency to derive pragmatically felicitous ironical implicatures and that culture as a bidirectional variable has an impact on their interpretations. This leads to the conclusion that culture as a bidirectional variable seems to play a role in the derivation of ironical implicatures by the English foreign language learners in our sample.

The Effect of Hearing Loss and Working Memory Capacity on Context Use and Reliance on Context in Older Adults.

Older adults often complain of difficulty in communicating in noisy environments. Contextual information is considered an important cue for identifying everyday speech. To date, it has not been clear exactly how context use (CU) and reliance on context in older adults are affected by hearing status and cognitive function. The present study examined the effects of semantic context on the performance of speech recognition, recall, perceived listening effort (LE), and noise tolerance, and further explored the impacts of hearing loss and working memory capacity on CU and reliance on context among older adults. Fifty older adults with normal hearing and 56 older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss between the ages of 60 and 95 years participated in this study. A median split of the backward digit span further classified the participants into high working memory (HWM) and low working memory (LWM) capacity groups. Each participant performed high- and low-context Repeat and Recall tests, including a sentence repeat and delayed recall task, subjective assessments of LE, and tolerable time under seven signal to noise ratios (SNRs). CU was calculated as the difference between high- and low-context sentences for each outcome measure. The proportion of context use (PCU) in high-context performance was taken as the reliance on context to explain the degree to which participants relied on context when they repeated and recalled high-context sentences. Semantic context helps improve the performance of speech recognition and delayed recall, reduces perceived LE, and prolongs noise tolerance in older adults with and without hearing loss. In addition, the adverse effects of hearing loss on the performance of repeat tasks were more pronounced in low context than in high context, whereas the effects on recall tasks and noise tolerance time were more significant in high context than in low context. Compared with other tasks, the CU and PCU in repeat tasks were more affected by listening status and working memory capacity. In the repeat phase, hearing loss increased older adults' reliance on the context of a relatively challenging listening environment, as shown by the fact that when the SNR was 0 and -5 dB, the PCU (repeat) of the hearing loss group was significantly greater than that of the normal-hearing group, whereas there was no significant difference between the two hearing groups under the remaining SNRs. In addition, older adults with LWM had significantly greater CU and PCU in repeat tasks than those with HWM, especially at SNRs with moderate task demands. Taken together, semantic context not only improved speech perception intelligibility but also released cognitive resources for memory encoding in older adults. Mild-to-moderate hearing loss and LWM capacity in older adults significantly increased the use and reliance on semantic context, which was also modulated by the level of SNR.

Studying international complaints: a multicultural analysis across two time periods

PurposeThis paper first aims to examine associations between factors involved in business-to-business complaints management and results (satisfaction and loyalty) and analyses three types of distributors based on their cultural profile (domestic, low context and high context). Second, the paper investigates whether the identified associations remain stable over time.Design/methodology/approachData from a sample of distributors for a manufacturing company were gathered during two periods of time. A factorial analysis of correspondences and a cluster analysis were carried out to visually represent the associations among clients, complaints and results in the associations among clients, complaints and results. The stability over time of these relationships was also analysed by calculating the correlations between the Euclidean distances on the two maps (one per year) and their mobility ratio.FindingsThe authors found significant evidence that clients from different cultures are associated with varying profiles of complaint and different result types and that certain associations remain stable over time.Originality/valueWhile many studies have analysed complaint behaviour in business-to-consumer contexts, there is a lack of research from an international business-business relations point of view, leaving questions virtually unexplored. Second, the last phases of supply chain management, specifically complaints management, have been undeveloped, limiting the cultural factor to the general scope of negotiation. In this vein, this paper compares different complaint profiles and results, comparing culturally different customers/distributors. Third, research has mostly referred to a single period, while this paper investigates two different periods of time for the same company (and their distributors) to analyse the relevance of the stability (or not) over time of the associations identified.

Sociocultural characteristics of consumer behavior among Japanese youth: From traditional paradigm to modern trends

This article analyzes a range of sociocultural aspects that influence the formation, development and dynamics of consumer behavior among youth in contemporary Japanese society. The authors note that, while the modern context (technology, media) influences the consumer behavior of Japanese youth, traditional values and orientations continue to have an impact on it. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the research is a comprehensive methodology based on Edward T. Hall’s theory of high-context and low-context cultures, which is applied to characterize the stage of decision-making in the purchase of various products. Additionally, a sociocultural approach was employed, allowing the analysis of consumer behavior aspects such as values, value orientations, behavioral stereotypes, motivations. This approach enabled a more in-depth understanding of the target audience’s needs and preferences, which, in the future, will facilitate the development of effective marketing strategies aligned with the cultural and social norms of consumers. To conduct a more detailed analysis of the brand communications effectiveness with the youth segment of the market, four international companies were selected, representing various approaches to interacting with the target audience: UNIQLO, Comme des Garçons (CDG), ZARA, and Louis Vuitton (LV). These brands were chosen based on their popularity among Japanese consumers according to one of the largest ranking websites, ranking.net. The authors then focused their attention on a thorough analysis of a vast amount of empirical data obtained from various sources, including data from diverse resources, including the report from the World Values Survey Association and news media. They analyzed social networking services (SNS) accounts and official websites of the aforementioned international trading companies. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of in-depth structured interviews with representatives of the Japanese youth, with a total of 11 participants, which allowed for the refinement of the research on certain aspects and the visualization of consumers’ attitudes towards the selected companies in the form of perception maps and word clouds.

Invasion success of three cool‐season grasses in the northern prairie: a test of three hypotheses

Empirical invasion ecology is laden with high context dependency. If general mechanisms underlying invasion success exist, they should be detectable in species that share biological and ecological characteristics. We carried out a growth experiment with Agropyron cristatum, Bromus inermis and Poa pratensis (subsp. angustifolia), to better understand the mechanisms underlying the invasion success of cool‐season grasses in northern prairie grasslands of North America. By using a home–away approach, we tested whether 1) non‐native plants have a higher performance than native plants, and whether invasiveness is 2) mediated by interactions with soils, such as a release from pathogens or enhanced mutualism, or 3) an adaptation to local soils. We compared seed size and weight of populations in Canada (non‐native range) and Eurasia (native range) and carried out an experiment, in which seeds from the non‐native and native ranges were planted into sterilized soil (control) and soil from a population in Canada or Eurasia, or local soils, respectively. We found inconsistent effects across species and response variables. Seed size and weight were not significantly different between native and non‐native populations. The experiment showed a seed origin effect in A. cristatum (root and total biomass) and B. inermis (root biomass), with non‐native populations outperforming native ones. Soil‐mediated effects were supported in A. cristatum (root biomass) and local adaptation in B. inermis (root and total biomass). Germination across all species and biomass in P. pratensis did not respond to treatments. Despite the high similarity of our study group, our results indicate that invasiveness might be driven by idiosyncratic causes at the species level. Mechanisms not considered in our study, such as high propagule pressure and preadaptation could also potentially explain the invasion success across species.

Communicating Meaning across High- and Low- Context Cultures – a Comparative Analysis

Communication involves a host of factors, being embedded in the broad socio-cultural context in which messages are conveyed. Several theoretical frameworks have been proposed concerning patterns of communication and the way(s) they differ according to culture. Our paper draws on Hall’s (1976) key notions of low-context and high-context cultures, coupled with strategies of explicitation and implicitation. Our analysis focuses on the extent to which communicators rely on “context” to overtly state something in low-context cultures, or to covertly render a message in high-context cultures. Accordingly, we aim to highlight that culture-specific ways of communication are typically reflected in the use of phrases and/or idiomatic expressions that count as allusions (historical, literary, etc.) or opaque culture-specific items.

Exploring Service Gratuity Motivations from a Cultural Context Aspect and the Moderating Role of Gender

The Saudi consumer, being the focus of this study, is driven by multiple forces and motivations that impact their consumption behavior, where the gender of consumer is another major determinant of those behaviors. While recent macroenvironmental changes were observed to justify the shifts in consumer behaviors, the cultural dimension and gender of consumer are the focus of our research. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between cultural context level and tipping motivations, and the moderating role of gender on this relationship. To assess this research, an SEM model is presented along six hypotheses to uncover the nature of relations among the said variables. With a sample size of 351 participants, respondent’s data confirmed that majority of sample do represent features of a high context culture, and the results are only similar with previous findings when assessing service as a dimension for tipping motivation. Social norms and peer pressure were not significant indicators of tipping behaviors for consumers in high context cultures. Furthermore, gender differences were clearly spotted, where females showed higher motivation to tip following motives of social norms and peer pressure. This study adds to the literature of cultural consumer behavior, and the findings represent handful information that can be applied by international managers to better understand and serve their global agenda.

Science stories through a cultural lens: The effects of cultural framing of storytelling in the natural and social sciences

Storytelling is a critical element for the effective communication of science in online videos. However, its effect is not consistent across different cultures. Here, we review and examine cultural framing of storytelling used to communicate science, including social science, in online teaching videos. We found that students from high-context cultures engage more with online videos than do students from low-context cultures but, nevertheless, do more poorly in tests that measure knowledge obtained. Our findings highlight the need to consider the cultural framing of storytelling – cultural science communication – when communicating science to audiences from different cultures.

Annual report readability and trade credit financing: Evidence from China

The clarity of an annual report is crucial for stakeholder understanding and trust, notably so in China, which is characterized by its unique high-context culture. This study investigates the impact of annual report readability on trade credit financing in Chinese listed companies. Beyond the measure derived from the Fog index, we employ innovative methodologies, including machine learning and the application of Chinese linguistic “hedge words”, to refine the understanding of the relationship between annual report readability and trade credit financing. Our findings indicate that poor readability significantly restricts firms’ access to trade credit financing, particularly for companies with limited international engagements and those with weaker product market power. These results remain consistent across different measures of report readability and trade credit financing.

Communication models in a foreign language in relation to cognitive style category width and power distance.

Understanding how category width of cognitive style and power distance impact language use in cultures is crucial for improving cross-cultural communication. We attempt to reveal how English foreign language students, affected by high-context culture, communicate in English as a foreign language. What models of foreign communicative competence do they create? We applied association rule analysis to find out how the category width of cognitive style affects the foreign communication competence in relation to culture and language. The requester tends to be more formal and transfers conventional norms of the culture of the mother tongue into English, which mainly affects the use of alerters and external modifications of the head act of request. A broad categorizer, regardless of social distance, prefers to formulate the request in a conditional over the present tense form, contrary to narrow categorizers who, in a situation of social proximity, prefer the request form in the present tense. A similar finding was shown in the case of external modifications of the head act, where we observed the inversion between broad and narrow categorizers, mainly in the use of minimizers and mitigating devices.

Alpha-Band Dynamics of Hearing Aid Wearers Performing the Repeat-Recall Test (RRT).

This study measured electroencephalographic activity in the alpha band, often associated with task difficulty, to physiologically validate self-reported effort ratings from older hearing-impaired listeners performing the Repeat-Recall Test (RRT)-an integrative multipart assessment of speech-in-noise performance, context use, and auditory working memory. Following a single-blind within-subjects design, 16 older listeners (mean age = 71 years, SD = 13, 9 female) with a moderate-to-severe degree of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss performed the RRT while wearing hearing aids at four fixed signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of -5, 0, 5, and 10 dB. Performance and subjective ratings of listening effort were assessed for complementary versions of the RRT materials with high/low availability of semantic context. Listeners were also tested with a version of the RRT that omitted the memory (i.e., recall) component. As expected, results showed alpha power to decrease significantly with increasing SNR from 0 through 10 dB. When tested with high context sentences, alpha was significantly higher in conditions where listeners had to recall the sentence materials compared to conditions where the recall requirement was omitted. When tested with low context sentences, alpha power was relatively high irrespective of the memory component. Within-subjects, alpha power was related to listening effort ratings collected across the different RRT conditions. Overall, these results suggest that the multipart demands of the RRT modulate both neural and behavioral measures of listening effort in directions consistent with the expected/designed difficulty of the RRT conditions.

Enhancing International Mindset in English Classes at a Japanese Music College: Impact of Integrating Documentary Photography and Piano Performance

This study explores the impact of an innovative Japanese music college workshop incorporating documentary photography and piano performance to foster the students’ international mindset. In today’s globalized society, it is becoming increasingly crucial to facilitate intercultural exchange and mutual understanding. Harnessing the power of music presents an opportunity to bridge cultural divides, and this approach may be particularly beneficial within the unique cultural context of Japan. In high-context cultures like Japan, students may not always recognize the potential information gap between themselves and others. This information gap can lead to implicit communication, obstructing a comprehensive understanding of conveyed messages. Although previous research offers models and theories regarding intercultural receptivity and communication skills, there is a lack of studies focusing on the effects and methodologies of workshops blending documentary photography and piano performance, specifically within Japanese music colleges. Therefore, the present study conducts such a workshop and assesses its effectiveness by analyzing English reports from second-year students participating in the mandatory English class at a Japanese music college. The students’ level of English proficiency is CEFR A2. The assessment focuses on whether participants, from a low-context cultural perspective, can effectively express their individuality through originality by recognizing the differences in their information compared to others based on the information they acquire during the workshop. The results demonstrate an overall increase in students’ international awareness, with particularly high-performing students showcasing a deep understanding and insightful perspectives on the situation in Ukraine. This research aims to provide practical insights and directions for educators at Japanese music colleges to more meaningfully and effectively incorporate such workshops within their English curriculum.

Superficial Causes of AUM Theory Affect Uncertainty and Anxiety among Students in a High-Context Culture

International students in Malaysian universities face uncertainty and anxiety toward a multi-new culture, a must-encountered cultural shock. This study investigated the relationship between superficial causes of AUM theory and uncertainty and anxiety in a high-context culture. In this study, 388 international students from different faculties were chosen through a method called stratified random sampling, which sampled two public universities with the largest number and richest nationalities of international students. The researchers used a self-administered questionnaire to gather information from the participants, which was analyzed by AMOS and applied to the validation of theoretical construct through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and other statistical methods were employed to analyze the data and test seven hypotheses. The findings of the study showed that five superficial causes affect the management of uncertainty and anxiety in AUM theory. The results of this study have important implications for Malaysian public universities in terms of understanding the factors that influence uncertainty and anxiety management among students.

“But it’s truly aggravating and depressing”: Voicing counter-expectancy in US–Philippines service interactions

Intercultural competence is essential in a globalized business environment, where successful cross-border transactions rely on effective cross-cultural communication. Interactions between US customers and Filipino customer service representatives (CSR) in call centers are one example where intercultural competence is required. This study examines the use of counter-expectancy expressions in call center complaint calls by American consumers and Filipino CSRs in the insurance sector. This study used a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) framework to examine the various linguistic realizations used in the dialogues, with a focus on appraisal theory. To further explore the connection between the use of business language, cultural norms, and the growth of intercultural competence, this study also considered Hofstede's cultural distinctions, as well as Hall's high-context and low-context cultures. Using a mixed approach, the present study examined 20 authentic audio recordings of complex insurance complaint calls (approximately four hours in length and containing 39,440 words). These spoken data were transcribed and analyzed for linguistic characteristics that indicated concessive expressions, for example, connectives such as “but” and “however”, and adjuncts such as “just” and “only”. The findings of this study have implications for language and cultural awareness training programs, and ultimately for enhancing intercultural communication skills in professional settings.

Explicitation and (In)directness in Literary Translations from Japanese into English and Romanian: A Contrastive Analysis

Abstract A complex process that necessarily goes beyond the surface level of words and phrases, (literary) translation is also a means to understand the cultures whose products the translated texts are. In this article, I look at the English and the Romanian translations of two Japanese novels in an attempt to identify those elements that prove that the texts carry the load of the specific type of culture that both the translators and the readers belong to. More specifically, I analyse the way in which the discourse is reconstructed in English and Romanian in light of Edward T. Hall’s high-context culture vs. low-context culture distinction. This article does not focus on the translation of culture-specific realities, as is the case with most studies that compare textual products belonging to different cultures, but on the way in which ordinary realities are rendered in English and Romanian. I look at the degree to which the context created by the Japanese authors is explicitly specified and the level of directness of the discourse in the two languages, as representative features of the high-context vs. low context cultures dichotomy. The examples analysed here suggest that the English translations tend to employ more strategies for an explicit specification of the context and to create a more direct discourse than the Romanian ones, which is consistent with the fact that English is a language considered typical of low-context culture spaces. Romanian translations are generally closer to the Japanese original, showing a more high-context culture perspective, confirming the existence of a continuum between the two extreme ends in Hall’s dichotomy.

Cognition and gender differences in cyberbullying in China: an investigation of textual cues and sentimental clues

Purpose Cyberbullying is a globally pervasive problem and not novel in academia. Previous studies mainly focussed on the features, consequences and technological management of cyberbullying. However, most of the studies took cyberbullying examples in the West, and some issues still need to be addressed in the Chinese context. Thus, this study investigates how participants use cyberbullying words and why they use them in that particular way in China.Design/methodology/approach This study uses content analysis to summarise the typical features of cyberbullying words, revealing a positive relationship between cyberbullying words and sentimental expressions. This paper also uses the questionnaire (N = 705) to explore the prevalence of cyberbullying among Chinese Internet users and to compare the gender differences in the cognition of cyberbullying words and involvement in cyberbullying, in line with the social cognitive theory.Findings This study stated that people prefer repetitively using offensive words to achieve cyberbullying goals. Interestingly, this study does not find obvious gender differences in cyberbullying roles and cyberbullying language use. However, it explained the relationship between cognition and the use of cyberbullying words from a gender perspective.Practical implications Theoretically, this study expands cyberbullying studies into a new cultural environment, pointing to a novel term, “imbalanced relation,” for exploring cyberbullying behaviours. This study highlights the significance of technology and education in detecting and preventing cyberbullying, suggesting that educators and social media platforms can directly predict and prevent cyberbullying through textual perspectives and individuals' cognition of cyberbullying.Originality/value This study aims to examine cyberbullying linguistic and emotional features and individual differences in cyberbullying behaviour in a high-context culture like China. Its values include comparing the differences between cyberbullying in China and cyberbullying in the West from the linguistic and cultural directions and reconsidering the “power imbalance” feature of cyberbullying.

Developing and Validating Thai Sexual Orientation Microaggression and Microaffirmation Scales

ABSTRACT Mental health disparities exist for sexual minority populations globally. Microaggressions and microaffirmations related to sexual orientation may negatively or positively impact well-being. Culturally validated tools are needed to assess these constructs among LGBQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer/questioning) individuals in Thailand’s high-context culture. This study aimed to develop and validate the Thai Sexual Orientation Microaggressions Scale (T-SOMG) and the Thai Sexual Orientation Microaffirmations Scale (T-SOMF) to quantify experiences among LGBQ+ Thais. A mixed-methods approach was utilized. Initial scale items were derived from a literature review, expert consultation, and interviews with LGBQ+ Thais. Exploratory factor analysis (n = 164) refined the item pools. Confirmatory factor analysis (n = 200) confirmed the factor structures. Reliability and validity were examined. The final 18-item T-SOMG contained two subscales—Interpersonal and Environmental Microaggressions. The 13-item T-SOMF contained Interpersonal and Environmental Microaffirmations subscales. All scales demonstrated good model fit, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The T-SOMG and T-SOMF are culturally valid tools for assessing microaggressions and microaffirmations among LGBQ+ Thais. These localized scales can enable research on factors impacting LGBQ+ well-being. Further validation in diverse samples is warranted.

Differences in Communication Between Chinese and American Cultures

With the development of globalization and cultural diversity, cross-cultural communication has become popular around the world. Though many scholars have formulated various principles for people to observe, to some extent people violate them in real settings. Therefore, there may exist misunderstandings and conflicts between people communication from different cultural backgrounds, which can destroy peoples friendship and cooperation. This paper listed four aspects: praise and response, request and response, refusal and response and task reception, which violated the cooperative principle between Chinese and American cultures, compared them and explored reasons mainly from Kluckhohn and Strodtbecks value-oriented model, theories of dimensions of cultural variability and high-context and low-context cultures. In cross-cultural communication, individuals tend to violate some maxims based on their social forms which are not observed by others. For appropriate communication, people should respect and learn more other cultures and social norms instead of languages only.

Problemy kommunikacii v usloviyah vysokokontekstnoj kul'tury Kitaya

This article is devoted to the problem of intercultural communication against the backdrop of China's high-context culture. High dependence on the context of communication is a characteristic of Chinese culture, and only a full understanding of this aspect of Chinese culture can improve the quality of interaction between the Chinese and other ethno-national communities.