Cultural forces shaping social influences: The role of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of cultural forces that shape social influence with a look at Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. The direct effect of these cultural dimensions on social influence is investigated. To measure social influence, this paper relies on the dimensions of Hofstede. A multiple regression analysis is applied to answer the hypotheses. The research design adopted for the research was quantitative, and the method used to collect data was an online survey. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and distributed to the targeted respondents for obtaining primary data. The respondents involved were 340 SMEs in the urban area of Harare province in Zimbabwe. A nonprobability convenience sampling method was used for the study. Hofstede's cultural factors of power distance, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance were used as the independent variables that moderate social influence. The results show that power distance significantly predicts uncertainty avoidance and individualism but does not directly influence social influence. However, uncertainty avoidance is a significant positive predictor of social influence.