Advances in communication technologies such as instant messaging and video conferencing has given birth to virtual teams consisting of members who are geographically and culturally separated, and are working towards a shared goal. Extant literature has focused on trust development in computer mediated communication settings. In this research, we investigate whether broken down trust can be repaired in mediated settings. Specifically, we investigate the effects of culture and the type of computer media on trust reparation following trust breakdown. Twenty students each from China and US played a trust game designed to simulate a trust breakdown. Ten participants in each cultural group were randomly assigned to either the instant messaging media condition or the audio-video media condition. Results showed that Chinese participants recovered slightly better from a trust breakdown initially than US participants, while trust recovery was not significantly different under the two media conditions. However, results were better for US participants in audio-video media condition as compared to instant-messaging condition. Findings from this research refute previously established notion that cultural differences significantly influence behavior patterns and also raise doubts about the impact of media richness when communicating over computer media.
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