National Culture Values: reflections on formation process of future leaders in international economic cooperation

Marija Nikolic,Maura La Torre,Goran Lalić

doi:10.15503/jecs20132.217.226

Abstract

The trend towards foreign investments in Serbia has been in rapid progress in recent years. The biggest and most valuable numbers of investments are coming from Italy. The authors’ expectation is that the trend of Italian investments in future will continue; therefore it is of high importance for the representatives of both countries’ business sectors to under-stand and accept differences and similarities to the other country’s business culture. Research of cultural differences between two nations , which are considered like a frame of business culture, helps avoiding possible misunderstandings and improving business cooperation be-tween two countries. Having in mind students of economics and management, on one hand like future leaders of Italian and Serbian business and on other like representatives of the cur-rent education value system in the field of economics and management, this study consists of an application of the 7-D Hofstede Model. The application of the model takes place through the administration of two surveys done by students of Serbian Megatrend University, in Bel-grade, and Italian Università degli Studi Gabriele d’Annunzio, in Pescara

Highlights

De nition of the concept of culture is not easy
From the comparative analysis of the data extracted by the questionnaires administered to students Serbs and Italians, the differences between the two national cultures emerges with clarity, differences ltered by the experience of economics and management in young students
The Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), which measures the aversion of members of an organizational society against future uncertainty or ambiguous situations, shows that young people in Serbia are trustworthy, but hardly show their emotions in public and that the predisposition to take risks in life is supported by the active role of the institutions together with the ability to resolve con icts and competitions in terms of fair play

Summary

Introduction

De nition of the concept of culture is not easy. The extraordinary transversality of the term makes dif cult any attempt to crystallize in precise de nitions, constructs or theories. We have made the decision to apply a version of the well-known Hofstede’s Seven Dimension model (1984, 1990, 2001, 2008), to compare the systems of cultural values of Italy and Serbia from the point of view of young people engaged in courses of study in economics and management, who live within the current context of training and preparation for the world of work and that these values are the subject inevitable in uences Based on these considerations, this paper is structured as follows: rst, a review of the main theoretical contributions on the subject; subsequently, the description of the research methodology, with clear indication of all seven dimensions predicted by the model; the elaboration and discussion of data obtained from the administration of questionnaires to Italian and Serbian students; and, nally, conclusive re ections of research

Literature review

Research methodology

Conclusions