English as Business Lingua Franca : A comparative analysis of communication behavior and strategies in Asian and European contexts

Past research has concluded that people from collectivist cultures communicate differently from individualist cultures. This distinction has been based upon the observation of Hall's (1976) theory and has not been subjected to systematic empirical investigation. In this paper, I report a research finding examining communication behaviors of individualist cultures (Sweden and Finland) and collectivist cultures (Hong Kong and Japan). The data sets were the transcripts of intercultural meetings where participants discussed and made decisions about similar topics. Using this meeting data, the communication behaviors on multiple dimensions are examined. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the data are analyzed to answer the three research questions put forward. While the quantitative aspect of the data answers research questions related to turn-taking behaviors, the qualitative data describes the discourse patterns used in relation to topic management strategies.