Collectivism,individualism, and outgroup cooperation in a segmented China

A consistent theme in cross-cultural management research is that collectivists are more cooperative than individualists. We use Hofstede's measure for individualism–collectivism and combine it with an experimental measure of cooperation to test this relationship in China. In contrast to the established paradigm, we find that groups with higher individualistic scores are more cooperative than those groups with higher collectivistic scores. We attribute these results to groups being composed of outgroup members. In addition, we find that subjects from the more developed coastal area are more individualistic and cooperative than are subjects from inland China.

Bradley J. KochEmail:

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Bradley J. Koch   , PhD, is a Teaching Fellow at Nanyang Technological University. His research is focused on China where he studies a variety of topics including cognitive institutional environments, foreign direct investment, social capital, gender, and Internet and society. Pamela Tremain Koch   , PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. Her current research is focused on organisational communication, conflict management, internet, work, and society as well as information communication technologies and development.