Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Research Articles

Impact of spirituality, culture, behaviour on sustainable consumption intentions

AbstractSustainable consumption is a growing area of research due to the climate change and environmental degradation. The present study examines a conceptual model by integrating spirituality with cultural values from Hofstede cultural dimensions theory and constructs from Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to determine sustainable consumption intention. The paper also examines the moderating role of gender. The data was gathered from 726 customers. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the main variables influencing sustainable consumption intentions. Spirituality, collectivism and long‐term orientation were found to have a positive impact on attitudes that leads to sustainable consumption intention. Thus, this study helps to improve the predictive ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour by incorporating spirituality as a behavioural belief and collectivism and long‐term orientation as cultural dimensions. The findings show that gender has no moderating effect. The study outlines the process for converting a person's cultural values, norms, and beliefs into a purchase intention. As a result, the research offers practitioners and decision‐makers insight into how to boost intention towards sustainable consumption.

Analysis of the Internet Reviews of The Wandering Earth 2 in China and America Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

Films are carriers of a countrys culture, thus building a powerful film country is to build a strong cultural country. In this context, ensuring the smooth sailing of Chinese films is of great significance. Taking The Wandering Earth 2 as an example, this research builds a cultural dimensional model of films communication effects under Hofstedes cultural dimensions. Based on a self-built corpus of reviews which contains 200 most heated comments from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and Douban, the research applies an original codebook consisting of 12 two grade indicators to rationalize audience cultural sensing. It is found that the sensing of Chinese viewers on the four dimensions averagely higher than the ones of American viewers, while the long-term orientation provides a possible common ground in both sides. The differences in the audiences internet reviews of The Wandering Earth 2 give a clue to the needs of soft landing, hard core and human touch, which Chinese films should well adopt as the key capabilities in cross-cultural diffusion.

Cultural Sensitivity in Global Public Relations Campaigns

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the cultural sensitivity in global public relations campaigns. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low-cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive's time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings revealed that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the cultural sensitivity in global public relations campaigns. Preliminary empirical review revealed that cultural sensitivity influences crisis communication strategies and outcomes. Many multinational corporations still struggle with culturally insensitive messaging, leading to misalignment with local values and sentiments Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory, Communication Accommodation Theory and Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Theory may be used to anchor future studies on the cultural sensitivity in global public relations campaigns. Cultural sensitivity should be considered a key performance indicator (KPI) for global PR campaigns. By integrating cultural sensitivity into campaign goals and measurement criteria, organizations can ensure it remains a top priority. The government needs to develop standardized metrics and assessment tools for evaluating cultural sensitivity in PR campaigns.

Technological Adaptation and Cultural Contradictions: An Analysis of the Socio-Cultural Roots of Teacher Anxiety in the Intelligent Era

In the era of intelligence, teachers are facing the challenges of new educational technologies, and technological anxiety has become an issue that cannot be ignored. Existing research often starts from the perspective of the technology acceptance model, neglecting the impact of diverse factors such as individual adaptation of teachers, socio-cultural environment, and cultural differences on technological anxiety. However, the emotional state of teachers will affect the effectiveness of their use of technological tools. This study attempts to apply theories of cross-cultural adaptation, postmodern social theory, Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, social constructivism theory, and combine representative empirical research to deeply explore the socio-cultural factors and mechanisms behind the formation of teachers' technological anxiety, and propose suggestions from various social levels. From the perspective of socio-cultural contradictions, teachers' technological anxiety is mainly caused by differences in teachers' ability to adapt to technology, the impact of technology on educational practices, attitudes towards technology in different cultural backgrounds, and obstacles in the construction of technological cognition. To balance the contradiction between teachers' technological adaptation and socio-culture in the intelligent era, it is necessary to enhance the individual technological adaptability of teachers; construct a technology-friendly socio-cultural environment; pay attention to cultural differences, promote equal acceptance of technology; guide the social construction of positive technological cognition, and cultivate teachers' positive attitude and motivation for using technology.

The potential of corruption based on Hofstede cultural dimensions and institutional quality: an international evidence

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the risk of corruption in several countries based on the cultural dimensions of Hofstede and institutional quality (IQ).Design/methodology/approachData was collected from the Corruption Perception Index, Hofstede index and Worldwide Governance Indicators in 92 countries. Structural equation modeling based on partial least squares was used to test the proposed model.FindingsThe findings support the fraud triangle theory, which states that high transparency of individualist cultural attitudes and institutional control mechanisms reduces the opportunities for fraud to occur. From this research, it is also concluded that culture is a factor that tends to be constant and difficult to change.Research limitations/implicationsResearch limitations include: First, it is limited to the number of samples, where the number of samples depends on the availability of data. However, only 92 countries intersect and have complete information. Second, this study only uses individualism from the Hofstede cultural dimension to see the risk of corruption.Practical implicationsThe result of this study implicates the policymakers in government agencies to increase IQ to reduce the risk of corruption.Originality/valueThis is a preliminary study that discusses national culture (NC) and corruption, as well as the effect of the mediating variable, namely, the IQ. By including IQ, the authors hope that the impact of the effects of NC on corruption risk can be clarified.

Tell me about your culture, to predict your tourism activity preferences and evaluations: cross-country evidence based on user-generated content

ABSTRACT This study extracts user-generated content from Tripadvisor to understand the relation between national culture with tourists’ preferences and evaluations of activities at destinations. Travel reviews were analyzed to measure the tourists’ preferences for three types of tourism activities using machine learning methods. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relations between Hofstede's cultural dimensions, tourists’ preference and evaluation of tourism activities. Findings show that national culture significantly relates to tourists’ preferences for only one type of activity (i.e. participatory), while it does significantly relate to tourists’ evaluations of all three types of tourism activity (sightseeing, participatory, and ancillary activity). Tourists’ cultural dimensions are found to have differential relations with tourists’ evaluations of tourism activities. Power distance, individualism, and masculinity have positive relationships with tourist evaluation. Conversely, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence are negatively related to tourist evaluation. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications.

The Influence of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions on Job Satisfaction: A Study of African Expatriates in Turkey

This article investigates the influence of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions on job satisfaction among African expatriates working in Turkey. The study specifically focuses on the dimensions of Indulgence-Restraint, Individualism-Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity-Femininity, Power Distance, and Long-Short term orientation. A hierarchical regression model was employed to analyse the data collected through a survey questionnaire administered to legally employed African individuals from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Results revealed that all five dimensions—Indulgence-Restraint, Individualism-Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity-Femininity, and Power Distance—displayed a significant relationship with job satisfaction. These dimensions exerted varying degrees of influence on job satisfaction, suggesting that cultural factors significantly influence the overall job satisfaction levels of African expatriates in Turkey. However, it is worth noting that no significant relationship was found between Long-Short term orientation and job satisfaction among the participants. This implies that this particular dimension may not play a prominent role in influencing job satisfaction among the surveyed African expatriates. The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the intersection of cultural dimensions and job satisfaction, specifically within the context of African expatriates in Turkey. The results highlight the importance of understanding and considering cultural factors when examining job satisfaction levels among individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

Digital innovation and transformation capabilities in a large company

AbstractIn a dynamic and quickly changing world, digital innovation and transformation can help enhancing organizational efficiency and have competitive advantage. In addition, the digital innovation and transformation can facilitate the development of a growth‐oriented culture of workforce. Therefore, this study aims at developing the digital innovation and transformation capabilities at large organization. The study uses a four‐layered process for driving the digital innovation and transformation in the case organization. The study positions the digital innovation and transformation mechanism through the lens of the dynamic capability view and institutional theories. The findings indicate the emergence of digital champions as change agents, a digital council as a monitoring channel, a digital core team as technological enablers and reverse mentoring as an innovative cultural dimension of change facilitating dynamic capabilities of the organization. In terms of institutional pressures, coercive and mimetic pressures emerged as major contributors to the advancement of the digital skill set and digital mindset of the experienced workforce especially, supported by Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Study further delineates the insights for practice, theory and policy. To this end, the study showcases the future scope of work at the case company, since it is an ongoing project on digital innovation and transformation to make organization and related infrastructure resilient, digital and innovative.

Towards Digital Resilience: Formulating strategies for farmers in a digitally disruptive environment

This study conceptualizes a digital culture strategy to fortify the resilience and competitiveness of middle-skilled farmers in Selangor, Malaysia. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, it synthesizes the Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, and Hofstede's cultural dimensions into a rural digital framework. The research underscores a positive correlation between strategic digital culture adoption and factors like digital literacy and farming productivity, moderated by cultural dimensions. It offers actionable recommendations for policy formulation and resource allocation, enriching existing literature on technology adoption in traditional sectors.

Analyzing Organization Culture’s Role on Digital Transformation During Pandemic Era: An Ethnographic Study

Public behavior toward shopping is changing due to limited mobility. E-commerce has changed consumer shopping behavior. The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation process. From this, the company finally decided to carry out digital transformation and try to sell their product to e-commerce. The company uses digital marketing to market its brands effectively to the public during a pandemic. The application of digital transformation makes organizational culture an important thing that influences the success or failure of digital transformation. The culture in each company will make the strategy of each company different. Corporate culture has a role in measuring the company's success in implementing digital transformation to deal with the pandemic. Because of this, this study uses Hofstede's organizational culture theory and cultural dimension theory. Ethnography is the method in this research because researchers can focus on culture. In general, ethnography is for researchers who are outside the organization. However, in this study, researchers are part of an organization, so they have a more in-depth picture of the culture that occurs within it. From this study, the symbol in each category of organizational culture in the company has a unique meaning, which plays a role in digital transformation that will impact company performance. The combination of cultural dimensions is also a factor in the success of digital transformation in companies. Culture, organization, consumers, technology, and strategy are five things in digital transformation that affect company performance.

Digital Technologies in Healthcare Management: A Study of Influence of National Culture for Adoption of Electronic Health Records in India and Australia

In the emerging healthcare landscape, digital technologies like electronic health records (EHRs) could play a vital role in healthcare management. While developed nations like Australia have taken the lead in implementing EHRs, developing nations like India, have lagged. Prior research in developing and developed countries has mainly focused on government policy, interoperability, standardization, security, technological infrastructure, and finance as EHR adoption factors, but the influence of national culture has remained unexplored. This study addresses this gap in the literature by comparing the influence of national culture on EHR adoption in India (a developing nation) and Australia (a developed nation). In this study, Hofstede's cultural dimensions were utilized to determine the influence of national culture. The assessment of India revealed that the adoption of EHRs could be influenced by the use of EHRs by respectable healthcare providers, the commitment and support of top management, and the education and training of healthcare managers to minimize risks connected with the use of EHRs. On the other hand, the adoption of EHRs in Australia may be influenced by professional involvement and discussion of the benefits of EHRs, business profitability, timely financial outcomes, and education and training of healthcare managers to understand the benefits of EHRs adoption.

Views about perceived training needs of health care professionals in relation to socially assistive robots: an international online survey

Background As Artificial Intelligence and social robots are increasingly used in health and social care, it is imperative to explore the training needs of the workforce, factoring in their cultural background. Objectives Explore views on perceived training needs among professionals around the world and how these related to country cultures. Design Cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed-methods international online survey. Methods Descriptive statistical analysis explored the ranking across countries and relationships with three Hofstede cultural dimensions. Thematic analysis was conducted on the open-ended text responses. Results A sample of N = 1284 participants from eighteen countries. Knowing the capabilities of the robots was ranked as the top training need across all participating countries and this was also reflected in the thematic analysis. Participants' culture, expressed through three Hofstede's dimensions, revealed statistically significant ranking differences. Conclusions Future research should further explore other factors such as the level of digital maturity of the workplace. Impact Statement Training needs of health and social care staff to use robotics are fast growing and preparation should factor in patient safety and be based on the principles of person- and culture-centred care.

The Success and Failure of International Business English Negotiation: Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Perspective

With the increasingly frequent international economic and trade exchanges, the use of Business English in transnational exchanges has become more popular and valued. However, in international Business English negotiations, the differences in language expression under different cultural backgrounds have become a major obstacle in the negotiation process. Based on Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and through typical examples of Business English expressions, this paper explored how cross-cultural differences are reflected in negotiations, and has found that Hofstede's cultural dimension theory affects the success or failure of negotiations by influencing decision-making mechanisms, identity cognition, semantic understanding, risk perception, and goal pursuit of negotiation parties. Then further, giving corresponding suggestions of negotiation strategies, proposing an application framework of the whole process of international Business English negotiations in the cross-cultural context, aiming to help negotiation practitioners cope with cross-cultural conflict and achieve success in negotiations. At the end of the paper, the theoretical contributions and practical contributions are discussed, as well as the direction for future research.

Cross-cultural Communication Skills in River Town

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, the Sino-American cultural conflict depicted in American writer Peter Hessler's documentary book River Town focuses on four aspects: Individualism versus Collectivism, Power Distance, Long-term versus Short-term, Indulgence versus Restraint. Hessler experienced inevitable cultural conflicts in physical and mental aspects. Finally good things wear out. He fitted into Chinese life and fell in love with this Chinese town. Through the textual analysis of the cases in the book, the cultural conflicts between China and the United States and the intercultural communication skills used by the cross-boundary communicators can be clarified. Under the background of reform and opening up, Chinese society has undergone great changes, the stereotype of traditional China has been broken in River Town. Thus, it is very important to use intercultural communication skills in different places according to local conditions and times.

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.

“Chameleonization” in the Folds of Culture: A Comparative Analysis of Cross-Cultural Qualitative Fieldwork

This paper argues against a prevailing culture-free tendency in cross-cultural qualitative research that has been normalized by conventional qualitative research methodology to propose “ chameleonization,” a culturally sensitive research process. First, I delineate the paradoxes encountered in comparative research of Sino-U.S. university partnerships by comparing five fieldwork elements: research ethics, access to fields, informed consent, informants’ recruitment, and interview environment and process. The comparison reveals that the seemingly “golden” rule of Western-centered qualitative research and procedure were both disturbing and paralyzing in non-Western fields. Subsequently, this work deciphers these paradoxes with Hofstede's cultural dimension theory as a main analytical framework, supplemented by theories from cultural theorists in the two cultures. These paradoxes can be resolved through a chameleonization process through which researchers attune to a postmodern cross-culturalness by navigating the “folds of culture,” as characterized by their cross-cultural qualitative fields. Tentative strategies for applying chameleonization to activate, solidify, and extend a “folding-unfolding-refolding” process are then proposed, followed by a discussion on the approach’s potential limitations.

Examining the Relationship between Individualism and Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Moderating Role of Social Cohesion.

Combining Hofstede's cultural dimensions, value-belief-norm theory, and social exchange theory, this study explores the impact of individualism and social cohesion on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) as well as the moderating role of social cohesion in the individualism-PEB link in the context of Korean society. Using the 2021 Korean General Social Survey and multiple linear regression analyses, we found that individualism is negatively related to PEB, whereas social cohesion is positively related to PEB. Further analysis showed that social cohesion attenuates the negative relationship between individualism and PEB. Our findings suggest that although individuals with high levels of individualism are less likely to perform PEB than those with a high level of collectivism, social cohesion is a valuable community resource that encourages them to engage in eco-friendly activities even when they seek to achieve person-oriented goals and pursue their own interests. The implications and contributions of these findings regarding environmental psychology are discussed.

Sleep and happiness: socio-economic, population and cultural correlates of sleep duration and subjective well-being in 52 countries

IntroductionGetting enough sleep is one of the essential lifestyle factors influencing health and well-being. However, there are considerable differences between countries in how much people sleep on average. The present study investigated how socio-economic factors, population variables, and cultural value dimensions are related to sleep duration in a sample of 52 countries.MethodThe study design was ecological, i.e., the aggregate values for each country were obtained, and their correlations to national average sleep duration were analysed. The sleep duration estimates were based on Sleep Cycle Application (Sleep Cycle AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) data. The socio-economic variables included the economic health of a country (GDP per capita), how well a country is governed (governance quality measured with WGI), and the economic inequality (the gap between rich and poor measured with the Gini index) within a nation. The population variables included the urbanisation rate (proportion of people living in urbanised areas), life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling among the population aged 25 years and older, median age of the population, and the prevalence of obesity (% of adults with BMI ≥ 30). The cultural value dimensions were measured with Hofstede's cultural value dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence). The data were analysed by using zero-order correlations, partial correlations, and canonical correlation analyses.ResultsResults showed a relatively strong intercorrelation between the national average of sleep duration and national happiness, i.e., subjective well-being. Among the socio-economic variables, WGI had the strongest relationship to sleep, whereas among population variables, schooling and obesity had the strongest correlations with sleep. Zero-order correlations between sleep and power distance and individualism were statistically significant, whereas in the partial correlations, individualism and masculinity appeared as important factors. Canonical correlation analysis showed strong correlations between the well-being variables (sleep and happiness) and the socio-economic variables, well-being variables and population variables, and cultural values and well-being variables.DiscussionThe present study is an opening for a new line of research in which sleep is seen as an essential part of societal life and collective well-being.

Cultural diversity and its impact on governance

Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions make it possible to measure the culture of countries but are criticized for assuming the homogeneity of each country. In this paper, we propose two measures based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions which take into account the heterogeneous structure of citizens with respect to their countries of origin. Using these improved measures, we study the influence of heterogeneous culture and cultural diversity on the quality of institutions measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators, which encompass Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. We use a linear regression model allowing for dependence in spatial and temporal dimensions as well as high correlation between the governance indicators. Our results show that the effect of cultural diversity improves some of the governance indicators while worsening others depending on the individual Hofstede cultural dimension. Most notably, diversity in the Power Distance cultural dimension has a negative impact on Political Stability.

Cultural Dimensions and Pragmatic Failure: The Case of Moroccan EFL University Students

This study examines the impact of cultural values on the production of three speech acts (complaints, apologies, and refusals) by Moroccan Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study involves three groups of participants: Moroccan EFL learners (MLE), American speakers (AE), and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MA). The objective of this cross-cultural pragmatic study is to explore and identify the extent to which pragmatic failure can be attributed to the cultural value and dimensions of the learners rather than their linguistic incompetence. Participants were given Discourse Completion Task questionnaires to elicit their reactions to various situations. The results, based on Hofstede's cultural dimension framework (2010) and Hall's cultural specifications (1976), showed that culture has a significant effect on the performance of the speech acts under investigation. Findings suggested that cultural specificities do affect the pragmatic choices made by the interlocutors across the three groups of informants.