Culture change and globalization: The unresolved debate between cross-national and cross-cultural classifications

•We investigate the assumptions of culture homogeneity within nations and its stability in the current global context.•We examine the cultural values of three countries at three different continents.•Horizontal collectivism dominates the cultural environment of the three countries.•We report three segments that transcend national borders, each of them sharing the same cultural values.•Some changes are occurring in cultural values/patterns in the three countries.

This study intends to examine the assumptions of culture homogeneity within nations and its stability in the current global context. First, by using a sample of 720 respondents (207 in Canada, 263 in Japan, and 250 in Morocco), it empirically examines the cultural values of three countries at three different continents (Canada in North America, Japan in East Asia, and Morocco in North Africa) and compares the findings to Hofstede's framework. Second, it tests for the existence of cultural segments transcending the national boundaries. Cultural values are measured using the horizontal–vertical individualism and collectivism scale. The findings show that: (i) horizontal collectivism dominates the cultural environment of these three countries; (ii) horizontal collectivism and horizontal individualism coexist in Canada; and (iii) vertical individualism characterizes Morocco and Japan more than Canada. In addition, the study reports three segments that transcend national borders, each of them sharing the same cultural values. When compared with each other, the three clusters completely differ on horizontal collectivism, vertical collectivism, and horizontal individualism. The research concludes that some changes are occurring in cultural values/patterns in the three studied countries.

Chinese abstract本研究欲考察各国文化同质性的假设及其在当前全球化背景下的稳定性。首先，通过使用720名被抽取出的调查对象（加拿大207名，日本263名，摩洛哥250名），本研究按经验主义考察了分属于三个不同的大洲（加拿大属北美洲，日本属东亚，而摩洛哥属北非）三个国家的文化价值观，并将研究结果与霍夫斯泰德的框架进行比较。其次，本研究查验了超越国界的文化区段。文化价值观乃通过横向——纵向的个体主义和集体主义尺规进行衡量。研究结果表明：i）横向的集体主义在这三个国家的文化环境里都占主导地位；ii）横向的集体主义和横向的个体主义在加拿大并存；以及iii）与加拿大相比，摩洛哥和加拿大更以纵向个体主义为其特征。此外，本研究汇报了三个赵越国界的区段，每一个区段都共享相同的文化价值观。当互相进行比较时，这三个集群在横向集体主义、纵向集体主义和横向个体主义方面完全不一样。本研究总结到在被研究的三个国家里文化价值观模式/模式。