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ut it is also true, that the system took root deeply in the society in all the described
countries.
A characteristic, which is often pointed out for the Slavonic cultural
environment, is the difficulty to lift up from the societal base, entrepreneurs and
entrepreneurship, based on individual responsibility. To the contrary, such a
phenomenon is typical for the western world. Let’s take, for instance, only some
few well known cases from different areas, countries and periods: Cortez for Spain,
Da Gama for Portugal, Renault for France, Agnelli for Italy, Benz for Germany and
so on. This peculiar characteristic of the Slavonic cultural environment was already
pointed out by Schumpeter in his book about the economic development 4 . In a
previous research work 5 we gathered impressions about cultural characteristics of
the Slovene employees in companies, where there is some foreign ownership and
management. In the eyes of the foreign partners the Slovenes have, of course, both,
some favourable and other unfavourable characteristics. The favourable or positive
ones are: disposition to learn, proneness to executive activity, easy integration in
diverse work environments, good technical and linguistic capacities. The negative
ones are low risk, responsibility and bargaining propensities and scarce managerial
capacity. The last one could be learned, but the impression is that the first three
ones may be to some degree connected to some innate character. As well known,
from the Schumpeterian point of view, the entrepreneur is an individual who
decides to make a break with the existing situation inherited from the past,
introducing some new way, not known in the tradition. In order to succeed, he must
be a risk and a responsibility taker, as also good in bargaining to counterparts,
which is needed in order to contact and convince to deal with them.
The reason of this behaviour is not easy to tell. Looking at table 2 we see that
in history the Slavic nations were often subject to foreign rule. But is this kind of
temper due to their history, or is the history dependent on the described temper? It
is the question of the hen and the egg: who came first? Probably none of them, but
there was a step by step evolution in the described direction.
Russia was to some extent a historical exception, as it always enjoyed
independence, but it must not be forgotten, that it was extended only to a very thin
aristocratic class, whereas the bulk of the population has been in a state of
servitude, similarly to the other Slavonic nations considered. Only very recently the
described nations have been enjoying the transition to independence, democracy
and free market conditions.
Also the attraction of the Socialist idea may be pervasive to this characteristic.
We know that the offer or supply side economy of a nation can develop only
through entrepreneurship. If there is not enough domestic entrepreneurship, there
4
Joseph A. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits,
Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle, Harvard University Press
5
Alessio Lokar, Marina Banovic, Cultural Differences and Competitive Advantage in
International Companies in Central-East Europe, Transition Studies Review, 33, Volume X,
1/2003, New Series, CEEUN, Central Eastern European University Network
10