National stereotypes and social distance towards Slovenians among former Yugoslav countries : 25 years later

english

2016

volume 53, issue 5

International business    Stereotypes    Social distance    Slovenes    Former Yugoslav republics    Balkans    Yugoslavia 

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za družbene vede

The paper looks at national stereotypes and social (ethnic) distance towards Slovenians among other former Yugoslav countries. We assess how Slovenians are perceived by others 25 years after the disintegration of Yugoslavia and discuss the potential implications for international business (IB). Analysing a matched six-country sample, we observe that: (1) Slovenians are generally positively perceived; (2) the majority of positive stereotypes can be linked to conscientiousness; (3) Croats and Serbs display the lowest level of social distance towards Slovenians, Macedonians the highest; (4) the share of positive national stereotypes about Slovenians is negatively correlated to the share of exports to Slovenia; (5) social distance towards Slovenians is negatively correlated to the share of exports to Slovenia; and (6) Serbs display the most favourable attitudes to IB with Slovenians.

05.09.2018