آیا فرهنگ های ملی در حال تغییرند؟
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Methodology
3- Analysis of the results
4- Conclusion
References
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze from a quantitative standpoint the stability of the concept of ‘national culture’. In this respect, we analyzed whether significant changes in people’s perception have occurred in the past 25 years in different national cultures. A longitudinal study based on data provided by World Values Survey and European Values Survey was conducted. 13 countries were selected. One of the main research findings is that some national cultures are more stable than others. The cultures that are subject to major changes, such as economic ones, change to a greater extent and faster, while others change more slowly. Results and limits of the research are discussed.
Introduction
The importance of national culture and of its study has long been argued in numerous researches pertaining to a large number of fields: management (Liu, Meng & Fellows, 2015; Mao & Shen, 2015), sociology (Ye & Ng, 2015), marketing and market research (Assiouras et. all, 2015), medicine (Bailey & Kind, 2010), education (Kubow & Blasser, 2014) and many more. It seems, culture is more important nowadays than ever. The role and importance of national culture derives from the need for a generally accepted unit of analysis that facilitates the intercultural comparison and knowledge transfer. But, in order to use culture as a variable in explaining the human behavior, it is necessary that we identify a means of measuring culture, to understand it in its whole. Many scholars have been preoccupied by the study of culture throughout time. Today, the study of cultural differences remains of topical interest. Numerous studies from diverse fields handle nations as entities from both a political and cultural standpoint. Considering the fact that nations provide a variety of statistical data about their population, it is easier to obtain data as a nation than it is as a society (Hofstede, 2001). In many cultural studies, nations are used as units for analysis, so that the question arises whether national cultures are homogenous enough to be considered entities. Moreover, because nations are used as units for cultural analysis, it is important to see if the concept of national culture is stable enough to be considered valid.