Theories of Lewis and Hoefstede: Differences between Russia and Latin America
Russian business mentality and cooperation with countries of Latin America
The interest of Russia for Latin America countries is a very old story which can start during the cold war when USRR wanted to implement missile in Cuba. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Latin American countries were the best countries as a partner to compete with USA. So Russia’s recent quest for influence throughout Latin America began in 1997. Since then Russia’s goals have remained remarkably consistent, as have the instruments of its policy: trade, arms sales and political support for governments seeking to escape U.S. influence. We know that all countries have different ways for doing business, thus, let’s explain the main differences between Russia and Latin America with the theories of Lewis and Hoefstede.
Within the Lewis Model is the fact that there are 3 types of cultures: Linear active, multi-active and reactive. The interaction among these kind of cultures can present some inconvenient, but in the case of the relation Russia-Latin American, Latin American countries have a really multi-active culture and Russia is between multi-active and linear active but more on the side of multi-active, which means that there are no such big differences between Latin American countries and Russia to do business but anyway sometimes it is still being difficult.
Now talking about the approach of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, we have that on the power distance Russia is scoring 93 in a world ranking and is among the 10% of the most power distant societies in the world. Status symbols have a huge importance, while for example, Mexico (a specific country in which we emphasize the implementation of theories in this paper) is scoring 81, the country has a hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. About individualism Russians often use “We” instead of “I”. Family, friends are extremely
The interest of Russia for Latin America countries is a very old story which can start during the cold war when USRR wanted to implement missile in Cuba. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Latin American countries were the best countries as a partner to compete with USA. So Russia’s recent quest for influence throughout Latin America began in 1997. Since then Russia’s goals have remained remarkably consistent, as have the instruments of its policy: trade, arms sales and political support for governments seeking to escape U.S. influence. We know that all countries have different ways for doing business, thus, let’s explain the main differences between Russia and Latin America with the theories of Lewis and Hoefstede.
Within the Lewis Model is the fact that there are 3 types of cultures: Linear active, multi-active and reactive. The interaction among these kind of cultures can present some inconvenient, but in the case of the relation Russia-Latin American, Latin American countries have a really multi-active culture and Russia is between multi-active and linear active but more on the side of multi-active, which means that there are no such big differences between Latin American countries and Russia to do business but anyway sometimes it is still being difficult.
Now talking about the approach of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, we have that on the power distance Russia is scoring 93 in a world ranking and is among the 10% of the most power distant societies in the world. Status symbols have a huge importance, while for example, Mexico (a specific country in which we emphasize the implementation of theories in this paper) is scoring 81, the country has a hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. About individualism Russians often use “We” instead of “I”. Family, friends are extremely