The Learning Styles of Accounting Students in Vertical and Horizontal Collectivist Cultures

To expand cross-cultural research beyond the East-West binary, this study utilises the horizontal-vertical construct to understand the learning-style differences of accounting students in South Korea and Taiwan, representing vertical collectivism, and in Singapore, representing horizontal collectivism. Using Kolb’s learning style model (1976, 1984), this study finds that Taiwanese and South Korean accounting students represented the assimilation type of learning style. Compared with the Singaporean accounting students, who exhibited the accommodation learning style, Taiwanese and South Korean accounting students were more abstract and reflective, as well as less concrete and active. These learning style variations reflect the relative emphases on vertical and horizontal social relationships and have implications for future cross-cultural research including research that examines academic adjustment and learning processes by students.