Education, Training and Networking for Entrepreneurship in ...

In short, although entrepreneurial skills have increased
in the population in Denmark, they are
only a little above the typical for the developed
countries.
measure for the year. With measurement taken
in 2008 and in preceding years, we can track recent
changes in the value attached to individualism.
Individualism as a value in culture
Values refer to what is appreciated in society,
what is considered good (Schøtt, 2006a:64,
2007a:33, 2008:28). Our culture of modernity
values the individual as an actor that is not
only capable of taking action, and acting alone,
by own effort, but also taking responsibility
for acting alone and finding ways to act and to
gain by acting (Weber, 1930). Modernity thus
has a value that we briefly can call individualism,
in contrast to collectivism, valuing the collectivity
and the collective good (Mueller and
Thomas 2000; Nakata and Sivakumar 1996;
Thomas and Mueller 2000; Tiessen 1997). Denmark
is in many ways a highly modern society
but is actually also rather collectively oriented.
The value attached to individualism in Denmark
is assessed annually by asking a panel of experts
to ascertain the truthfulness of each of the
following statements,
– In Denmark, the national culture is highly
supportive of individual success achieved
through own personal efforts.
– In Denmark, the national culture emphasizes
self-sufficiency, autonomy, and personal initiative.
– In Denmark, the national culture encourages
entrepreneurial risk-taking.
– In Denmark, the national culture encourages
creativity and innovativeness.
– In Denmark, the national culture emphasizes
the responsibility that the individual (rather
than the collective) has in managing his or her
own life.
Each expert ascertains the truthfulness of each
statement in terms of ’Completely false’, ’Somewhat
false’, ’Neither true nor false’, ’Somewhat
true’ and ’Completely true’. The assessment is
quantified on a scale from 1 to 5. The assessments
are then averaged across the experts
and averaged across the five statements for a
The value attached to individualism in Denmark
has changed, Table 4.5. Individualism has
tended to become more highly valued over
time.
Table 4.5
Cultural value of individualism
in Denmark
Annually from 2002 to 2008
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
2.0 2.4 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.9 2.7
How does the valued attached to individualism
in Denmark compare to its value in other countries?
Individualism is assessed likewise in other
countries. Several societies are highly individualistic,
notably USA, Taiwan and Israel, Table
4.6. Among the developed countries, Denmark
is not highly individualistic, 58% of the
others are more individualistic, and 42% of the
others are less individualistic.
Table 4.6
Cultural value of individualism
The three countries with the most
individualistic values, the three
countries with the least
individualistic values, and Denmark
2002-08, weighted toward 2008
USA 4.2
Taiwan 4.1
Israel 4.0
…
Denmark 2.6 42 percentile rank
…
France 2.0
Portugal 1.9
Sweden 1.8
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