How different cultures affect online communication on knowledge sharing between the Thais and Chinese

Abstract

In today's society, people can share knowledge with others via online communication tools. However, the process of sharing or acquiring knowledge between people from different cultures may involve problems and misunderstandings. To enhance intercultural competences and improve understandings of the cultural variations, this paper investigates how different cultures affect patterns of online knowledge sharing; the study focuses on Thais and Chinese who have a high-context communication style. We set up a laboratory experiment to analyze discourses posted by Thais and Chinese utilizing six categories including declaration, interrogation, exclamation, opinion, acknowledgement, and agreement. The discourse analysis showed that there is a significant difference in the number of interrogation and exclamation discourses. Then, we examined connections between the discourse analysis results and cultural dimensions conducted by Hofstede [6]. A post-questionnaire was provided to investigate participants' attitudes during online knowledge sharing. Our experiment revealed that the main cultural dimensions that influence Thais and Chinese to have the different patterns of online knowledge sharing are individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Moreover, problems with the online communication among people who have a high-context communication style are explained. It can be concluded that the cultural differences and the high-context communication style of the Thai and Chinese can influence the ways knowledge is shared between these groups online. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.