In low context culture, business always comes first, while social trust and personal relationships are less valuable. This helps negotiations progress faster and more efficiently.

High context culture includes China, Japan, Vietnam, Arabic countries, Korea, Italy, Spain and France.

Low context culture, in turn, is represented by the USA, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia, among others.

Russia is somewhere in between, preferring to handle business matters in the low context fashion, but dealing with personal issues as a high context culture. Below you will find a comparison table.