High-versus low-Context culture: A comparison of Chinese, Korean, and American cultures

Abstract

The potential usefulness of Hall's concept of high- versus low-context cultures to international marketing has been discussed widely. However, implications of this concept in marketing have largely been discussed descriptively and little attempt has been made to empirically compare various cultures in a real setting. In this article the authors report the findings from a cross-cultural study that attempts to show whether Hall's description of the characteristics of high- and low-context cultures can indeed be empirically confirmed. With the use of a survey consisting of 16 items, subjects from three different countries—China, Korea, and the U.S.—representing both high- and low-context cultures, are studied. Overall, the results show that the three cultures differ in a way that is consistent with Hall's conceptualization. Specifically, the Chinese and Korean subjects are shown to exhibit tendencies that are consistent with Hall's description of high-context cultures, and the American subjects are shown to exhibit tendencies that are consistent with low-context cultures. For example, the subjects from China and Korea are found to be more socially oriented, to be more confrontation-avoiding, and to have more trouble dealing with new situations. The article concludes by pointing to a further need for efforts in developing measurement scales for the concept. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.