Chinese Brand Cross-Cultural Communication Strategy: Psychological Distance: Spatial Relation Perspective

Drawing on psychological distance (or psychic distance) research achievements from the domains of literary psychology, social psychology, international investment, and communication studies, and based on the spatial relationship theories from postmodern geography and cross-cultural communication, this study investigates the cross-cultural communication tactics of Chinese brands. The three spatial relationship perspectives involved in the psychological distance of this study are physical space (first space), conceptual space (second space), and regulatory space (third space). Physical space relationships include store location and layout, media and information proximity, international location choices, and spatial relationships in the workplace. The management and resolution of territoriality, localization, globalization, and ethnicity are all entailed in the conceptual space relationships. And the three types of institutional elements that are included in regulatory space relationships are “soft” institutional factors like behavioral pattern, “hard” institutional factors like laws and policies, and “conceptual rules” like cultural thought patterns.