Regional Cultural Differences Research Articles

Superior medical resources or geographic proximity? The joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences on online medical consultation

Online medical consultation platforms enable patients to seek health advice from physicians across geographic regions. In this study, we analyze patterns of online consultation between patients and physicians. We examine the joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences between patients and physicians on patients' decisions about which physicians they consult online. Using a unique dataset of city-to-city tuples based on 813,684 online consultation records and combining it with region-level data from multiple external sources, we find that while regional medical resource disparity drives patients from medically disadvantaged regions to seek online consultations with physicians from medically advantaged regions, geographic distance and cultural differences tend to constrain these consultations. We also find that cultural differences can amplify the impact of regional medical resource disparity, whereas geographic distance may lessen this effect. Further, we discover that the constraining effect of geographic distance is partly due to the online-to-offline nature of online medical consultations. Moreover, additional analyses suggest that physicians' online reputation and information about physicians’ participation on the platform can help alleviate the negative effects of geographic distance and cultural differences. These findings hold significant implications for the allocation of medical resources and the formulation of healthcare policies.

A Study on the Driving Mechanisms of Water Supply and Demand Perception in the Digital Age

This study investigates the drivers of water supply and demand perception in the digital age, focusing on the impact of various factors including climate change awareness, socio-economic impact perception, environmental policy awareness, and water resource protection consciousness. Through questionnaire surveys conducted in Chengdu City and data analysis using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), this study reveals how the aforementioned factors collectively influence the perception of water supply and demand. The findings indicate that a profound understanding of climate change and socio-economic activities, along with a high awareness of environmental policies, can significantly enhance the public’s consciousness towards water resource protection, thereby affecting the accurate perception of water supply and demand conditions. This study not only offers a new perspective in the field of water resource management but also provides a theoretical basis and data support for formulating effective water resource protection strategies, emphasizing the critical role of intelligent water resource management in addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development. The limitations of the study include the restricted sample size and scope, which may affect the generalizability of the results. Future research is recommended to consider more variables, such as regional cultural and economic differences, and to conduct validations across a broader area and population.

Determinants of funding intention of crowdfunding campaigns from India – a subregional cultural variation and transnational migrants perspective

Purpose This paper aims to explore how sub-national or regional cultural differences influence backers’ willingness to crowdfund projects. The paper also explores how migrant transnationalism influences the impact of backer’s sub-national culture and crowdfunding relationships. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on the experimental design technique using analysis of covariance methods. The authors tested the study hypotheses on a sample of 790 respondents. Findings The study results suggest that individuals differ in their intent to crowdfund product campaigns depending on value congruence between their cultural values derived from the region to which they belong and the nature of the product category, such as environmentally friendly or happiness-enhancing products. Originality/value This paper explores the role of regional cultural differences in determining the intention to crowdfund different campaigns based on the nature of the product. Value congruence, as driven by regional cultural differences with crowdfunding campaigns, has not been explored before.

Relational models and entrepreneurship ecosystems

PurposeUsing social relations theory, we argue that entrepreneurship ecosystems must also include relationships such as market pricing, equality matching, authority ranking and communal sharing to be successful and thrive.Design/methodology/approachWe theorize using Fiske’s typology that a successful entrepreneurial system must have certain characteristics to be successful.FindingsIn doing so, we suggest an alternative perspective of the role of exchange relationships in ecosystems which considers both the geographic context and social relationships as equally important ecosystem components. Our contributions include (1) exposing social processes as the explanatory mechanism for exchanges instead of solely market forces, (2) illustrating the role of regional cultural differences in exchanges and (3) emphasizing how entrepreneurs can better realize ecosystem benefits through understanding the methods of exchange in these ecosystems.Originality/valueSocial relationships include a wide variety of different types of resources and exchange mechanisms, so by their inclusion into the entrepreneurship ecosystem literature, a more complete view of ecosystems is possible.

A Study of Spatio-Temporal Differentiation Characteristics and Driving Factors of Shaanxi Province’s Traditional Heritage Villages

The spatial distribution of traditional villages is a key factor for rural revitalization and sustainable development. However, the rapid expansion of cities has resulted in the disappearance and decline of many traditional villages. Therefore, for the protection of traditional villages, it is necessary to analyze the spatio-temporal differentiation characteristics and driving factors. In this study, a total of 500 traditional villages were selected in Shaanxi Province. With the support of spatial analysis tools such as ArcGIS and Geo-detector, the spatial differentiation and its driving factors were analyzed. It was found that traditional villages showed a three-core distribution mode, indicating a typical aggregation distribution of tendency. In Shaanxi, the directional evolution of traditional villages was characterized by a spatial and temporal trajectory toward the north, and then towards the south. In addition, traditional villages existed in areas with underdeveloped economies, far from the cities and close to water sources, with an elevation over 500 m and a slope less than 25°. Traditional villages in Shaanxi Province are experiencing uneven spatio-temporal evolution due to regional cultural differences and uneven economic development in southern, central, and northern areas. It is possible to provide strategies for the development, protection, and utilization of traditional villages and promote the development of rural revitalization based on the traditional villages.

Do Regional Cultural Differences Affects the Effect of Accounting Firms’ Merger: Evidence From China

Using data of the mergers among accounting firms from 2007 to 2018 in China, this paper examines how regional cultural differences between accounting firms in different places affect audit quality after a merger. We found that the greater the regional cultural differences (proxied by dialectal difference in spoken Chinese) between the accounting firms’ registered places before the merger, the greater the improvement in audit quality of the merged accounting firm after the merger. Our research indicates that in the process of accounting firms’ mergers, the utility of cultural capital brought about by regional cultural variations exceeds cultural conflicts. The results imply that cultural differences could be potentially beneficial to firms’ mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, managers should try to make full use of cultural differences to help a newly merged firm to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable development.

The Effect of Regional Differences on the Value-Relevance Proposition for Intangible Assets

We examine the value relevance of intangibles reported by technology firms in electronics industries and any regional difference between Southern and non-Southern firms in the relative importance of how value relevance is reported. For technology firms, the essential asset in their valuation is intellectual property, which idiosyncratic accounting practices could have either capitalized or expensed. We are interested in the intangible assets and goodwill on balance sheets and amortization expenses from income statements, which together capture the magnitude of a firm’s intellectual property. We present evidence that the market value of a firm is negatively associated with the size of its intangibles but positively associated with the size of goodwill and amortization expenses. We find that this relationship between the market value of a firm and measures of intangibles is statistically stronger for Southern firms than for non-Southern firms. We interpret this finding as a manifestation of stronger accounting conservatism among Southern firms due to regional cultural differences. We find that the value relevance of intangibles weakened significantly during the 2008 financial crisis, and we interpret the intertemporal difference as a spillover effect of the stringent application of the fair value accounting standard (SFAS 157) to financial assets.

Influence of motivational factors on knowledge sharing methods and knowledge creation process in an emerging economic context

The present study aims to extend our understanding of motivational factors that improve the knowledge sharing intention of employees thereby can lead to creating knowledge successfully. Specifically, we aim to extend previous knowledge management research to contribute to both knowledge sharing theory and knowledge creation process with consideration of motivational factors including socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. This study has used quantitative research methodology wherein the data have been collected from 405 students from various universities in Iran using a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modelling has been applied to test the hypotheses of the study. The findings of the study reveal that motivational factors positively influence knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. Results reveal that motivational factors tend to increase the usage of knowledge sharing methods, and consequently, they impact on the creation process of knowledge. Further, motivational factors act as a mediator between knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. This study has limitations that present opportunities for future research. First, the research context covered people from universities only, which limits the generalizability of findings. Second, we did not consider regional cultural differences, which could cause variations in people’ knowledge sharing intention. Future studies can build upon the research models to understand the influence of the cultural factors on other type of organisations. This research contributes to both knowledge sharing theory and knowledge creation process with consideration of motivational factors including socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. Thus, the study provides directions to managers to focus on cognitive social aspects (i.e., motivational factors) to encourage the people to share and create knowledge. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is an early study conducted to examine the influence of motivational factors on knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. This research provides valuable information and guidelines that will be helpful for the managers to consider the important issues during knowledge creation establishment in the universities and organizations which are directly involved with creating knowledge.

Social trust distance in mergers and acquisitions

We study the role of regional cultural differences in M&A transactions in the U.S. A larger social trust distance between two companies reduces the likelihood of them combining via an M&A transaction and results in lower completion rates and longer completion times, indicating higher complexity in deal execution. However, a larger social trust distance is also associated with higher gains from mergers, as measured by acquirer and combined announcement returns and medium-term buy-and-hold abnormal returns. This suggests that for these announced deals, the synergy potential is high enough to offset the costs induced by the large cultural distance.

Research on Regional Cultural Consumption Variability and its Influencing Factors in China in the New Era

In the new era, cultural consumption has become an important aspect of promoting economic development, and how to correctly grasp the development direction of cultural industry and the direction of consumption is the key to achieving a modern and strong country. This paper uses the cultural consumption data of 31 provinces nationwide from 2015 to 2019 to analyze the current situation of cultural consumption and analyze the differences in cultural consumption and its influencing factors among regions nationwide. The study shows that the value added of cultural industry, GDP per capita and disposable income per capita have significant positive effects on regional cultural consumption levels, the consumer price index has a significant inverse effect on regional cultural consumption levels, the education level per capita has the most significant effect on regional cultural consumption differences, and government input has less influence on regional cultural consumption levels. Therefore, in order to further improve the level of cultural consumption in China, we should focus on regions with slightly backward economy, increase the government’s financial investment in cultural industry, improve the system, and at the same time, continuously improve the cultural literacy of residents and increase their income to jointly promote cultural development.

The Influence of Social Information: A Study of Architectural Attribute from an Event Structure Analysis Perspective

Scientific and technological developments have led to gradual abstraction in architectural research and design. People no longer interpret spatial meaning simply through external forms, rather, the emphasis is put on the essence of design thinking. This change has given rise to analysis and expression methods at the level of the architectural attribute, which scientifically summarize the attributes shared by different architectural types through investigating the literature data and professional phenomena. They improve the architects’ level of awareness and provide a guiding framework for subsequent design work. However, rapid social progress and regional cultural differences make it difficult for previous methods to reflect the real-time and in-site expression of the attributes. This paper proposes a new attribute study approach based on Event Structure Analysis (ESA) in combination with social science theory. This approach provides architects with a reference for more comprehensive attribute expression by coordinating the social information at the pre-design stage. Meanwhile, with openness and operability as its technological advantages, it forms a cross-disciplinary research and exchange platform, thereby allowing public participation. The study verifies its feasibility through the structured analysis of specific social events in Beijing, discusses this interdisciplinary approach’s practical significance and positive impact at the professional and societal levels, and points out the direction for future research.

A meta-analysis of online travel booking services adoption: the moderating effects of national or regional economic development level and culture differences

PurposeThis study aims to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the strength of the path relationship in the proposed model for online travel booking service adoption. It also explores the moderating effect of national or regional economic development levels and cultural differences.Design/methodology/approachA meta-analysis was conducted on the factors correlated with users' intention to adopt online travel booking services (OTBS) and the moderating effects of economic development levels and culture based on 42 empirical studies.FindingsPerceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive impact on adoption intention. By contrast, subjective norms have a significantly negative impact on adoption intention. Furthermore, the economic development level of a country or region significantly moderates the relationships between perceived usefulness and perceived behavior control, attitude and perceived behavior control, and subjective norms and adoption intention. At the same time, national or regional cultural differences significantly moderate the relationships between attitudes and adoption intention, perceived usefulness and perceived behavior control, and subjective norms and adoption intention.Originality/valueThis study was conducted to obtain a unified conclusion regarding the research field of online travel booking service adoption. Its content was original. The conclusion provides theoretical references for follow-up research and the development of targeted marketing programs for online travel-booking service providers.

Ecological migrants' socio-spatial integration in Yinchuan City, China.

Promoting the social integration of ecological migrants and identifying the key constraints to their integration are significant issues for social governance and transformation. Most previous studies have not systematically analyzed the level of social integration of migrants from the perspective of spatial ternary dialectics or systematically analyzed physical, social, and spiritual spaces. Based on space production theory, this study used principal component analyses to evaluate the ternary spatial integration level of physical, social, and spiritual spaces of ecological migrants in a specific resettlement area in Yinchuan City, China, and the Tobit regression model was used to identify the key constraint factors. The results demonstrate that the overall socio-spatial integration levels of ecological migrants in Yinchuan City are lower than that of the overall migrant population nationwide, and the levels of their spatial adaptation and spatial practice integration lag behind that of spatial belonging and spatial identity integration. Meanwhile, length of residency, occupation type, monthly income, and household type have facilitating effects on the ecological migrants’ social integration, while gender, age, ethnicity, and education levels have insignificant effects. In particular, occupation type is a key factor in promoting social integration and improving employment among ecological migrants. It is concluded that upgrading production skills and raising employment for ecological migrants can foster sustainable social space production patterns, facilitate virtuous cycles, and eliminate inhibiting factors such as lagging spatial practices, regional cultural differences, and socio-spatial deprivation.

The role of telepathology in improving cancer diagnostic and research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Non-communicable disease (NCD), including cancer, disproportionately affect Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This inequity is in part due to limitations of pathology services, both human and infrastructural. While significant improvements have been made to address these gaps, creative approaches that are mindful of regional priorities, cultural differences, and unique local challenges are needed. In this perspective, we will describe the implementation of telepathology services in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that serve as cornerstones for direct patient care, multi-disciplinary care coordination, research programs, and building human capacity through training. Models and challenges of system implementation, sustainability, and pathologist engagement will be discussed. Using disease and site-specific examples, we will suggest metrics for quality control and improvement initiatives that are critical for providing high-quality cancer registry data and necessary for future implementation of therapeutic and interventional clinical trials.

Host Identity and Consumption Behavior: Evidence from Rural–Urban Migrants in China

Rural–urban migrants significantly contribute to developing economy, whereas they face high housing prices, rare work opportunities and insufficient consumption. By stimulating the consumption of migrants, their happiness and life satisfaction can increase, regional consumption structural transformation can be stimulated, and economic growth can be boosted. By exploiting the data from the “China Migrants’ Dynamic Survey” (CMDS) conducted by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, this study explores the effect of rural–urban migrants’ host identity on their consumption. We measure host city identity by migrants’ sense of belonging in the city. Propensity score matching (PSM), instrumental variable methods (IV), and structural equation modeling (SEM) are adopted to tackle down the potential selection bias and endogeneity concerns. As indicated by the empirical results, host identity significantly impacts rural–urban migrants’ consumption, while regional cultural differences hinder migrants from forming host identity. Compared with those without a host identity, migrants with a host identity, the monthly household consumption increased by 4%, and savings decreased significantly by 1.7%. As revealed by the heterogeneity analysis, the host identity effects are significantly larger for migrants aged over 30 years or for those staying in big cities. The results of SEM show that a one-unit increase in the latent variable of identity will increase the consumption by 5.2%, and education, social insurance, and household registration have a significant effect not only on consumption but also on host identity. The findings of this paper contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the psychological and economic integration of migrants in cities and provide valuable suggestions for city managers and policymakers.

Hometown attachment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from overseas Chinese entrepreneurs.

The relationship between hometown attachment (HA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a topic to be explored in depth. We measured the HA by the Chinese diaspora background and the immigrant culture of the ultimate controllers of the firm and employed the sample of Chinese non-financial private-listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2003 to 2019 to investigate the impact of the HA on overseas Chinese entrepreneurs on CSR. We found that the HA of the overseas Chinese ultimate controller significantly increases the level of CSR, and this promoting effect rises when the firm ultimately held by the overseas Chinese entrepreneur is registered in the expatriate hometown. Our further analysis found that the personal characteristics of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and regional cultural differences have a moderating effect on the above relationship. In particular, we found that overseas Chinese entrepreneurs who are women or with lower academic qualifications have a stronger sense of CSR. Moreover, in areas with low marketization or a high level of social trust, HA of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs plays a more active role in CSR. The results remain robust after the robustness test and the endogenous test. The conclusion of this study not only highlights the impact of psychological factors on the level of CSR but also provides a reference for the study of the decision-making behavior of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs.

Q방법론에 의한 유아용 제품 디자인 선호도 연구

Tableware is among the important necessities of daily life, and children's tableware is especially valued by the society. Under such social background, a study centered at users of children's tableware was conducted from four aspects, including health & safety, sensory experience, behavior guide, and emotional cognition. Children's tableware products were evaluated using the Q method to understand users' cognition of children's tableware products. The interviewees' views about children's tableware design in China can be divided into four types, and put forward different psychological needs for these four types, In the interviews, some interviewees suggested that the ergonomic and regional cultural differences shall all be considered during children's tableware design. Therefore, this study evaluates the design preferences of Chinese children tableware and validates the results of the paper based on the results.

Analysis on the Influence of Urban and Rural Economic Differentiation on the Development of Art Design Teaching

Art design education in China has nearly 30 years of development history. Due to China’s vast territory, a large population, regional economic development, and social resources are extremely unbalanced, resulting in the uneven development of art design education in various regions. Art design is not only a practical and artistic comprehensive discipline, it also spans more majors. It contains almost all aspects of urban and rural construction, beautification, so its scientific and effective design scheme indirectly affects the future development process of urban and rural economy. First, this paper analyzes the impact of urban and rural economic development on art design teaching. The research results show that it has a great influence and a wide range of influence on art design teaching, including enhancing the naturalness of art discipline, promoting the creativity of art design discipline, and promoting the historicity of art discipline. Second, this paper also analyzes the role of art design in promoting regional economic development. For example, we should make full use of regional cultural differences, expand regional historical elements, pay attention to art design talents, and ensure the supply of funds.

Yearly changes and regional differences in Japanese fish-eating culture in terms of the diversity of major fish species consumed

Yearly changes and regional differences in Japanese fish-eating culture in terms of the diversity of major fish species consumed

The Influence of Regional Cultural Factor s on Corporate Behavior

Differences in business behavior due to regional cultural differences are a primary concern in studying the capital markets. This paper highlights the impact of regional trust, regional corruption, and religious beliefs on local business behavior. Firstly, the paper compares the phenomena that occur in companies because of cultural differences between regions. Then, this study analyzes the effect of these regional differences on local business behavior, taking the attitudes of auditors in China and the United States toward the discovery of problems, the prevalence of corruption in 64 transition economies in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa, and the impact of Islam on local business as examples. Secondly, the paper analyzes the factors influencing business behavior in terms of social trust, corruption, and religion based on the existing literature. Finally, after summarizing the findings of the above literature, this paper suggests possible future research directions. Overall, this study provides a new insight for future studies concerning the impact of local culture on business activities.