Does culture influence our ways in handling COVID-19?

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has hit all nations across the globe since the beginning of 2020. As the whole world is connected ever than before, the virus has spread very fast and affected almost all nations worldwide. Despite facing a common enemy, each nation reacts and manages the virus differently. The research studies how culture influences the way nations and society choose different approaches towards the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The study uses classical cultural dimension by Hofstede and links them with three conflict management styles “integrating”, “avoiding” and “competing” in analysing three main measurements of the pandemic (test rate, case rate and death rate). The study analyses data from 116 countries and clusters them using a combination of agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and K -means clustering. Findings The study shows there are six nation clusters with different ways of handling COVID-19, driven by their underlying dominant culture dimension. It shows that individualistic culture combined with high indulgence dimension makes fatality worse, while nations with collectivism culture or uncertainty avoidance culture are better off, especially if accompanied with restraint dimension or long-term orientation. Originality/value The originality of the research lies in linking Hofstede cultural dimension with modified Onishi's conflict management style in analysing how different cultures and nations manage the COVID-19 pandemic.