NORDIC AND FENNO-UGRIC BUSINESS CULTURE: ESTONIA AND SWEDEN –SOME NUANCES TO CONSIDER

In fruitful cooperation and leadership, understanding the culture and background of the business partners is important. Our about decade´s long experience of cooperation in different Nordic-Baltic cooperation, about seven years of this in the position of leading the teams, has offered us some unique insight into the intricacies of what may be important for different cultures. In general, most Nordic countries have rather similar business styles, based on punctuality, trust and transparency. However, due to some cultural and historic influences, there are also nuances that may differ. The article below takes a more specific look at some similarities and differences in the business and communication cultures of Estonia and Sweden. Although the two Nordic nations have many similarities, there exist some traits that are different for the Fenno-Ugric nations (like Estonia, but also e.g. Finland) on the one hand, and Sweden on the other hand. At the same time, the belonging of Estonia to also the Central and Eastern European Cultural Group, and having the Soviet legacy, may impose a third kind of “stamp” on some unwritten practices or understandings. A lot of research has earlier been carried out on Swedish and Finnish business and communication culture. This – as far as we know - has not been the case with Swedish and Estonian business culture. Thus, this article is to our knowledge one of the first scientific pieces to introduce research into the area, as concerns the Estonian cultural preferences. The goal is to further mutual understanding and be of support in cooperation for different current and future cooperation projects and partners, as well as in general diplomacy and cooperation.