When at the turn of the 1980, the face of the political world was largely remodelled with the vanishment of classical East and West blocs, the economical wasteland created by the failed socialist planned economic system constituted a fascinating research pasture for economists of all disciplines - especially macroeconomists and specialists for economic politics. At universities, new faculties for transformation studies were created. Authors like Rodrick elucidated the reasons for the acute period of the COMECON alliance in form of teh Soviet trade shock, de Melo, van den Mortel a.o. discussed reasons for discrepancy of initial condions, Aghion & Blanchard about the speed of transition, just like Wyplosz, Fischer & Sahayestablished a balance sheet after a decade of transition. However, the preponderant part authorship dedicated to the fate and future of Central and Eastern European countries left apart a force of influence which disciplines of business adminitration have discovered for disciplines like management and staff motivation: culture. The author of the present study did extended research for working papers a.o. which may provide hints for characteristics of development visible in two exemplaric states, out of which one used to be part fo the soviet Union (Ukraine), the other a satellite brother country" (POland), which lie below the surface of economic behaviour and performance. The result of this quest was y and large that there indeed do exist works which deal with the selected econo-political aspects; however, most authors refer to the five dimensions of national culture presented by Hofstede, which in the authors opinion oversimplify the complex and difficultly obervable domain fo culture, sometimes even is entangled in contradictions like with the high masculinity/femininity index for Italy. This is why the author rather oriented by the need-belief-value-attitude continuum described by Culatta and thus developped his chapters on EU accession, adv

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The major objective of this work is besides economic considerations to estimate how far Poland and Ukraine have grown on the social and cultural EI path layer of inter-country convergence which is assumedly even more difficult to achieve than consensus in an economic and political state union - what are the causes of the present state of evolution and what inferences for future transformations steps can be deducted thereof. In terms of more specific terms of reference, so-to-speak research question antedating each chapter of the corpus, the author posed the following hypothesis: In the section about national identities, the embracing question is the following, since it is suspected that the course of history of both nations observed moulded the tangible layers of NC and thus indirectly the development of mental EU convergence: Hypothesis 1: Design and intensity of national identity contribute to Polish and Ukrainian aggregated opinion about their home countries` role on the European theatre and general emotions about the contact to Europe In order to be able to proceed solidly on the territory of BHN, the frame of research is meant to be solidified by retrieving answers to whether the very existence of needs varies across nations or merely their degree of intensity by claiming the following fact: Hypothesis 2: The scan of advertising in Poland (Pl) and Ukraine (Uk) reveals types of human needs which are not part in commonly cited BHN theories; in other words: human needs are culture-specific instead of universal. The structure and intensity of BHN like in the case of other features alongside the N-B-V-A (Needs-Beliefs-Values-Attitudes) axis are a fairly difficult entity to seize; what may be observed and thus measured at utmost is when the bearer satisfies a need by an overt action, e.g. when he buys soap to satisfy his needs of body spruceness. However, purchase decisions are decided by so many factors, e.g. branding, packaging, CRM (Customer Relations Management) etc. that it seems more rewarding to observe what conditions of internal tension are activated by advertising as intermediate entity and possible incentive of acquiring the item promoted. Hypothesis 3: Advertising of fast-moving resp. durable consumer goods delivers indications on single elements of Poles` and Ukrainians` human need structure Experts of transformations studies commonly consider a brisk small-business sector and salubrious [...]

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book reviews a variety of approaches to the study of the European Union’s foreign policy. Much analysis of EU foreign policy contains theoretical assumptions about the nature of the EU and its member states, their inter-relationships, the international system in which they operate and the nature of European integration. Such assumptions, when not discussed openly, often curtail debate. This book opens up this field of enquiry so students, observers and analysts of EU foreign policy can review a range of tools and theoretical templates from which the development and the trajectory of the EU’s foreign policy can be studied. Situated at the interface between European studies and international relations, the book outlines how the EU relates to the rest of the world, explaining its effort towards creating a credible, effective and principled foreign, security and defence policy.

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