Relative Capitalist Systems and Fairness in the Baltics: The Case of Lithuania

Abstract

This paper deals with the concept of fairness as it is applied to economic decision making in different cultures. The objective of the research is to determine whether the concept of fairness can be applied universally throughout all cultures by doing a study in Lithuania and comparing it to similar studies done in other countries. Lithuania was chosen because it belongs to the group of the Baltic advanced transition countries with their own unique form of capitalism. We find that Lithuanians are more apt to consider price or wage changes as fair as long as there is an underlying macroeconomic reasoning for the price change. These effects were found to hold true in spite of the framing effects of loss aversion found in previous studies.

Corporate social responsibility and SMEs

“…In particular, it might be interesting to investigate whether and to what extent SMEs in transition countries (e.g. in Central and Eastern Europe) that often have a very different understanding of capitalism and the role of business from those in developed Western economies (Huettinger and Zirgulis, 2013), apply the CSV approach. Prior empirical research has not studied CSV in CEE countries; however, studies conducted in emerging markets such as Brazil and India have shown that CSV can serve as a key differentiation strategy (Borgonovi et al , 2011; Spitzeck and Chapman, 2012); thus we consider CSV an appropriate approach to the study of CSR in the CEE context.…”