Chinese international students and American domestic students’ intercultural communication in response to group criticism: collective face and discomfort feelings

Purpose Group criticism plays an important role in intergroup relations and conflicts, but few studies have related group criticism to intercultural communication contexts. This study aims to explore two cultural groups’ (Chinese international students in the USA and American domestic students) collective face concern as a unique experience in intercultural communication and other psychological responses while encountering group criticism targeting their country image. Design/methodology/approach A laboratory experiment was conducted assessing Chinese international students (n = 115) and American domestic students’ (n = 100) responses to a research-confederate critic (whose group membership was manipulated) criticizing participants’ country image such as blaming China and the USA for air pollution or using drugs in the Olympics. analysis of covariance, correlational analysis and regression analysis were adopted to analyze the data. Findings Chinese international students reported higher collective face concerns and lower liking toward the critic compared with American students. When criticism specifically targeted participants’ country image, Chinese international students reported more discomfort feelings than American students; and while responding to the critic who identified as participants’ ingroup member, Chinese international students’ discomfort feelings were more susceptible to their collective face than American students in the same condition. Originality/value This study illustrates cultural differences in collective face concerns and psychological reactions in responding to criticism targeting a country image in intercultural communication contexts.

Stigma of mental illness and cultural factors in Pacific Rim region: a systematic review

Background Although cultural factors play a crucial role in experience of stigma, there is scant review on the impact and importance of culture on stigma of mental illness across Pacific Rim Region. This study aims to investigate: 1) the cultural factors related to stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness in Pacific Rim region, and 2) culture-specific measures and interventions on stigma of mental illness. Methods A systematic search of papers was conducted in the MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Google scholar through January 2003 to April 2019. Results Forty-one studies in Pacific Rim region which met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The rate of stigma of mental illness (e.g., public stigma: from 25.4 to 85.2%) was relatively high in Pacific Rim region. Culture factors (e.g., Collectivism, Confucianism, face concern and familism, religion and supernatural beliefs) contributed to people’s stigmatizing behaviors and attitudes toward persons with mental illness, their relatives and mental health professionals. Certain measurements were developed and employed to assess different type of cultural factors related to stigma of mental illness. Conclusions Cultural factors play an important role in influencing the rate and performance of stigma of mental illness. Further research on stigma of mental illness and culture-specific interventions to reduce the stigma should be conducted in the Pacific Rim region.

“Income vs. education” revisited – the roles of “family face” and gender in Chinese consumers' luxury consumption

PurposeThe transgenerational influence of inherited family capital on consumers' luxury consumption has been studied recently in the mature luxury market. However, little research explores this topic in the emerging luxury market. In China's Confucian culture, “family face” as part of “family inheritance” has been conceptualized as a factor driving luxury consumption. However, this hypothesis has not been empirically tested. The current research, therefore, seeks to examine the impact of economic and cultural capital on Chinese consumers' luxury consumption within the family inheritance context and the roles that face concern and gender play to reveal the particularities of a specific emerging luxury market.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 324 Chinese consumers was recruited in Shanghai. With the full sample, the author first assessed the effects of economic and educational capital (both personal and family sources) and face concern on luxury consumption using regression analyses. Next, the author conducted the regression analyses again by gender.FindingsUnlike trends in the mature luxury market, Chinese consumers' educational levels do not drive their luxury consumption, and the transgenerational influence of economic and cultural capital functions as a negative factor. Influenced by the patrilineal tradition, higher levels of luxury consumption to compensate for parents' lower income and educational levels and to enhance family face are found only in the male consumer group, but not in the female group.Originality/valueThis research contributes to expanding the current understanding of emerging luxury markets and how the Confucian tradition influences Chinese consumers' luxury consumption through gender role norms.

Is It Cultural Context or Cultural Value? Unpackaging Cultural Influences on Stigma Toward Mental Illness and Barrier to Help-Seeking

There have been growing interests in sampling underrepresented populations to test whether psychological processes are universal. The present cross-sectional study examined cultural influences on stigma toward mental illness and perceived barrier to help-seeking among Hong Kong Chinese, Chinese Americans, and European Americans ( N = 555 university students). Significant cultural differences were found in the mean levels, with the two Chinese groups reporting higher levels of stigma toward mental illness and perceived barrier to help-seeking than European Americans, and these cultural differences were accounted for by face concern. In addition, the strengths of paths from face concern to stigma toward mental illness and perceived barrier to help-seeking were equivalent across the three cultural groups. These findings tease apart the source of cultural influences and underscore the importance of comparing cultural differences both at the mean level and the structural level, but more importantly, to unpackage the observed differences by testing the mediating role of cultural values.

Exploring individuals’ behavioral intentions toward donation crowdfunding: evidence from China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply the self-determination theory (SDT) to propose a research model that incorporates the SDT framework and contextual variables as determinants and self-identity and social identity as mediating constructs to predict individuals’ intentions toward donation crowdfunding in China. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data collected from China. Findings The results indicate that the self-identity and social identity collectively or separately mediate the effect exerted by the sense of self-worth, face concern, moral obligation, perceived donor effectiveness, social interaction and referent network size on donation intentions. However, there is no evidence supporting the hypothesis connecting moral obligation with self-identity. Practical implications The study provides suggestions for service providers on how to improve and perfect the functions, and it also provides insights for donation crowdfunding fundraisers on how to increase the success rate. Originality/value The conclusions of this study provide academics with a more thorough understanding of the driving forces of individual behavior intention toward donation crowdfunding in China. This study further expands the SDT and identity theory in the context of donation crowdfunding, which improves their robustness in explaining behavioral intention. These theories may be an important part of future information system research.

Eastern and Southern Africa

This chapter focuses on the competition policies of selected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, specifically Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and the island of Mauritius. The eastern and southern countries’ competition authorities span a range of functionality, from very high to almost inert. Even the highest functioning competition authorities face severe challenges in terms of financial and human capital, corruption, political pressure to favor government cronies and vested interests, and sometimes war and bankruptcy. Other challenges that competition authorities face concern the privileges of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), corruption through government procurement, and a plethora of not always transparent cross-border restraints. Even though their agendas are crowded by mandatory duties of vetting mergers and authorizing agreements, the best of agencies carve out precious time to identify the most harmful market obstructions and develop strategies to solve them.

Managing the face in service failure: the moderation effect of social presence

Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of in-group social presence on the relationship between face concern and hotel customers’ behavioral responses to service failures. Design/methodology/approach Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions: in-group presence vs control group. They read a scenario describing a hotel check-in service failure and answered questions regarding their behavioral intention after the failure and level of face concern. Findings The results indicate that face concern is positively associated with the intention to voice a complaint, to spread negative word-of-mouth and to post negative online reviews. While the impact of face concern on complaint intention became insignificant in the presence of an in-group, its effect on posting negative online reviews was enhanced when surrounded by an in-group. Research limitations/implications It addresses the long-lasting debate about the association between face concern and various types of behavioral responses to service failure. Practically, extra attention should be paid to the process quality when serving face concerned customers, particularly when they are accompanied by important others. Originality/value This study enriches the literature on cultural effects by identifying the situational effect of face concern on customers’ service failure responses. A model that describes the situational effect of face concern on different types of behavioral intention has been built.

Social exchange approach in knowledge sharing of online communities – A Case of online health communities at Ho Chi Minh City

The demand to look for information and share information in nowaday society are a huge needed, especially in the internet revolution are developing more and more. The studies proposed the model that includes the benefit factors (sense of self-worth, face concern, reputation and social support) and cost factors (executional costs, cognitive costs) with the points of view of Social Exchange Theory that influences to knowledge donating behavior, knowledge collecting behavior and community promotion among members. The studies will be verified in health care member of the online health communities in Ho Chi Minh City. Quantitative research also was conducted 336 samples were used to evaluate and test the research. The results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) show that the theoretical models are suited the market data and hypotheses of the research model are supported. In particular, factors of the benifit group (sense of self-worth, face concern, reputation and social support) have a positive impact on the knowledge donating behavior and knowledge collecting behavior. In addition, factors of the cost group (executional costs, cognitive costs) have a negative impact the knowledge donating behavior and knowledge collecting behavior. Knowledge donating behavior and knowledge collecting behavior have a positive impact on community promotion to the online health community. In addition, the results of multi-group analysis that there is no difference between knowledge sharing’s writing group and no knowledge sharing’s writing group. The results may be usefull for online health community, hospitals, doctors, individuals and businesses.