Cultural Values and Voluntary Participation: A Comparison Study Between USA and South Korea

• In Event: NGOs and INGOs in East Asian Context

Abstract

The research explores the effects of cultural dimensions in individual’s voluntary behaviors in terms of participation. From the previous studies in country-level comparisons for voluntary participation, significant differences were observed between different countries in voluntary participation. The paper targets understanding the different country-level cultural values and how they correlate to the different levels of individual’s voluntary participation. Based on the World Values Survey 2012 (WVS6) data, a quantitative measurement was performed to see if selected items for our target cultural dimensions correlate to the voluntary participation index. Findings indicate that cultural background, indeed, matters for individual’s voluntary activities.

Author

• Sungil Chung, James Madison University