The impact of cultural differences on instant messaging communication in china and germany

Authors:
Hui Li;Pei-Luen Patrick Rau;Andreas Hohmann
Affiliations:
Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China;Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China;Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China
Venue:
IDGD'11 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Internationalization, design and global development
Year:
2011

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Abstract

Instant messaging (IM) is a popular real-time communication tool to facilitate cooperation. This study attempts to provide a better understanding of instant messaging communication in China and Germany. The study aims to investigate the effects of individualistic versus collectivistic culture and lowversus high-context communication on the preference of multi-party chat and the level of responsiveness in instant messaging communication. 72 Chinese and 60 Germans participated in the survey. The results revealed that Chinese users significantly preferred multi-party chat, seldom sent messages to offline contacts, and used emoticons more frequently to increase the respond speed than German users. Further implications on designing effective cross-cultural communication tools were discussed.