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 low- versus 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.
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Li, H., Rau, PL.P., Hohmann, A. (2011). The Impact of Cultural Differences on Instant Messaging Communication in China and Germany. In: Rau, P.L.P. (eds) Internationalization, Design and Global Development. IDGD 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6775. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21660-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21660-2_9
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