National business cultures: methodology and scientific and practical research objectives

Abstract

Problems of implementation of Ukraine's European integration course and a number of other issues of the modern world economy (disintegration processes and tendencies, which are clearly confirmed by the example of Brexit and inability of international organizations to act effectively in emergencies, shown by COVID-19 pandemic spread and scale ) actualize the importance of developing the interdisciplinary problem of national business cultures. On the basis of generalized contribution of the founders of national business cultures theory (G. Hofstede, C. Hampden-Turner and F. Trompenaars and R. Lewis) and own scientific and practical developments of this problem the author's definition of basic investigation category «national business cultures» is given. The content of the methodology for its investigation, epistemological limitations (requirements of theoretical knowledge) and the relationship of the methodology with the subject of investigation are determined. Blocks (enlarged groups) of methods of national business cultures investigation are separated, specific methods within each block are identified and scientific and practical goals of the investigation according to each method are defined. The following blocks of methods of national business cultures cognition are distinguished: general scientific, social-humanitarian, economic-mathematical, applied and special. The attempt to determine the factors of trends in the evolutionary transformation of national business cultures within the medium and long term perspective are substantiated (such factors do not affect the internal features and properties of the stable quality of national business cultures): the role of Catholicism as the most favorable to entrepreneurship religion in the modern world; the COVID-19 pandemic; displacement of oil and gas as the main sources of energy; modification of entrepreneurial activity influenced by information technologies; the dialectical nature of the universalization and deepening of «self-identification» of national business cultures. The primary prospects for further elaboration of the investigated problem are the practical use of identified methods in order to reveal the content of national business cultures as a phenomenon of theory and practice of entrepreneurship and life of modern society.