Page 14 - travel guide 10.06

THE BALTIC STATES:
DIGITALIZATION AS A MODEL
The Baltics have
gained a reputation
as digitalized
countries :
How did this start?
With an average Internet
penetration rate of 74.5% in 2013,
the Baltic countries are indeed are
far ahead some European countries.
The Latvian government has set
itself a target of having 85% of
connected population by 2017 and
already provides a higher quality
and speed of connection than many
European countries.
Above all, young Baltic entrepreneurs
have managed to associate their
names with telecommunication
projects that have become global
phenomena. Estonians, in particular,
12
Hofstede’s Cultural dimensions
like to recall that Skype, the remote Valdis Krebs, Latvian American
messaging service owned today by naturalized mathematician who
the Microsoft titan, was born from modeled the use of social networks,
the work of some developers in meets the typical profile of these
locally trained Baltic engineers
Tallinn.
As a showcase of state-of-the-art who are capable of an international
technologies in the Soviet era, the career.
Baltic republics were known for the
manufacture of radio equipment. The local social networking
For several decades, they have
factory
trained brilliant engineers from all Skype is not the only exchange
over the USSR.
platform born on the shores of the
As European frontiers of the Baltic Sea. The «Made in Baltica»
Soviet Union, they were strategic could even become a trademark for
information centers. This was part social networks launched in those
of a certain historical tradition: in countries. Indeed, what country of
Estonia, for example, Tartu is home two million inhabitants can boast
to one of the oldest universities in of having created its own social
northern Europe, which since the network welcoming one in two
17th century has been teaching citizen? This performance is that
science. In the neighboring republic, of Draugiem.lv, now more popular
the Riga Technological Institute saw than Facebook in Latvia. Yet, as the
the emergence of great computer eponymous IT group based in Riga
scientists who, for a significant points out, maintaining leadership
number of them, went to inflate the in a country open to competition
ranks of the Baltic diaspora in the requires constantly integrating
United States after 1991. new functionalities. This requires
resources.
In addition, the use of local social
networks in Latvia also hides
political issues: for some time the
main local competitor of Draugiem.
lv was One.lv, a network targeted
primarily at Russian-speakers in
the country, Which account for
almost a third of the population.
It had to close in 2013, when the
number of regular users dropped
below 100,000. Draugiem.lv, which
is rather addressed to a Latvian
audience, was probably right
because it also offers A Russian
version.
In order to understand the specificity of Estonian and Latvian culture, we decided to use the five
cultural dimensions of Geert Hofstede. You will find below some information that will enlighten you
on how these two cultures reacts in front of certain situation.
Power distance
Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions
and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Estonians do not readily obey and respect Latvians show tendencies to prefer equality
people in authoritarian positions based
and a decentralization of power and decision-
merely on their rank and status as power- making. Control and formal supervision
is generally disliked among the younger
holders. Instead, Estonians welcome managers
that give them the opportunity to state their generation, who demonstrate a preference for
opinions and express disagreement, as well as teamwork and an open management style.
to be included in the decision-making process.
However, similar to the other Baltic States,
But the older Soviet ways of thinking and there is a sense of loyalty and deference
relating to the world still remain and the boss- towards authority and status among the older
subordinate relationship among Estonians is generation, who has experienced Russian and
sometimes more hierarchical than the score Soviet dominance.
suggests.
Uncertainty avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous
or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these.
Estonia has a high preference for avoiding Just like Estonia, Latvia has a high preference
uncertainty. for avoiding uncertainty.
Countries exhibiting high Uncertainty In these cultures there is an emotional need
Avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and for rules (even if the rules never seem to work),
behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox time is money, people have an inner urge to be
behavior and ideas. busy and work hard, precision and punctuality
are the norm, innovation may be resisted and
security is an important element.
Long-term orientation
This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while
dealing with the challenges of the present and future.
Estonian culture is shown to be highly Latvia’s culture is pragmatic in nature, as well
pragmatic. They show an ability to adapt as the Estonian’s.
traditions easily to changed conditions, a
strong propensity to save and invest, and
perseverance in achieving results. 13