RUSSIAN versus BULGARIAN PERSONALITY VARIBLES: NEW FINDINGS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING IN THESE TWO TRANSITION ECONOMIES

Bulgarian University business students compared to Russian University Business students had statistically significantly higher need for both change and lower impulsivity. This is discussed in view of previously presented findings of significantly higher Bulgarian need for achievement and dominance. The findings herein support the suggestion that the Bulgarian group will have a greater propensity for entrepreneurship and marketing. To the extent the findings in this exploratory study are true among the broader mass of these countries it has implications for their respective future economic development. INTRODUCTION Historically, Bulgarians have had significant cultural, economic, and political ties with Russia. These countries share similar religions, language, and ethnicity. For example, in the early Middle Ages, two Bulgarian Monks, Cyrus and Methodis created the Cyrillic alphabet used by both countries. In the 1800’s, Russia provided manpower and treasure to help end the 500-year Ottoman Turk occupation of Bulgaria. In this struggle, the Russians lost 200,000 troops before achieving victory at Shipka Pass in 1878. After WWII, until the breakup of the Soviet empire, the vast majority of Bulgarian exports went to Russia; in the post Soviet transition years such exports diminished dramatically. They now constitute less than ten percent of total Bulgarian exports. The primary reason for this is the decline of the Russian economy. (Bousfield and Richardson, 1999) While it is reasonable to assume Russian dominance of Bulgarian exports will not reach levels seen under the Soviet system, it is unreasonable to conclude they will remain at present depressed volumes. Given Bulgaria’s move toward NATO and EU membership and more Russian connectivity to NATO and the Western economies the historically strong economic ties between these two Slavic nations will probably reemerge. The reconstruction of these ties will to some extent depend on these nations changing culturally and economically via transition processes at roughly the same rate. Southwestern Economic Review 92 If this is not the case, Russia and Bulgaria may become more dissimilar making future business transactions and negotiations more complicated and difficult. McClelland (1976) found differences in needs between countries and within countries over time. McClelland’s work primarily focused on need for achievement; which he characterized as a need to be efficient. He defined this need as specifically referring to a desire to do something (in business or other fields) faster, better, and with less effort and cost. McClelland (1976) asserted that cross-culturally business entrepreneurship was one (but not the only) activity that demanded or encouraged cost-benefit analysis and efficiency. Consistent with his assertion, achievement need was measured and found to change over time in several different countries including England, Germany and Greece. These achievement need measurements were then compared with various measures of economic growth and found to be correlated. Strain and Jackson (1998) discovered statistically significant differences in their comparisons of Russian university business students and American university business students’ need for achievement and need for dominance. Their work rested on defining an achiever as being , among other things, striving, industrious, selfimproving, productive and goal oriented. The high achiever was one having high standards and willing to work to attain excellence as defined within themselves. The highly dominant person was viewed as attempting to gain control of their environment. In their relations with other people the dominating person was assertive, commanding, leading, and authoritative. Their work showed American subjects having statistically significant higher scores on each. Jackson and others (2002) presented data showing Bulgarian business students having statistically significant higher scores than Russian business students on both need for achievement and dominance. Need for dominance has been noted as increasing sales success in the USA. Sales and marketing success is important to entrepreneurs and economic development. This is probably true in most western cultures. In negotiating with American and other Western businessmen, dominance can often be a useful trait. As noted by Jackson et al (2002), the findings on achievement are not positive for Russian business students relative to either Americans or Bulgarians since need for achievement has been found to be a correlate of entrepreneurship and salesperson success. Successful entrepreneurship and personal selling is, on a micro level, needed for most businesses to prosper and, on a macro level, necessary for economic development to take place. Fry (1993) indicated to the extent there is an entrepreneurial personality, it includes high need for achievement. Zimmerer and Scarborough (1996) listed a number of factors successful entrepreneurs have in common. These include tolerance for commitment, risk and uncertainty, flexibility, quick adoption to change, and a constant, ongoing look for opportunities. The success factors listed by Zimmerer and Scarborough (1996) support the assertion that ability to adapt readily to change is a trait needed for business and entrepreneurial success. Countries having groups with an ability to quickly adapt to change should then do better in terms of their relative economic development. Hence, the present paper compares the need for change between Bulgarian and Russian subjects. Further as also noted by Zimmerer and Scarborough (1996) “Successful entrepreneurs are not gamblers. They do not take wild risks. Rather, they are risk managers.” In short, they are not impulsive. Therefore, the second hypothesis concerns impulsivity differences New Findings with Implications for Entrepreneurship Economic Development and Marketing in these Two Transition Economies 93 between the two groups. The findings are then discussed in terms of implications for relative entrepreneurial propensity, economic development and marketing. Murray’s (1938) taxonomy of psychological needs provides some of the theoretical underpinning for this paper. Personality trait research is largely an extension of Murray’s taxonomy. Murray (1938) identified twenty manifest needs that appear to be universal to human beings. Personality variables’ ability to serve as an explanatory construct for behavior is well established (George, 1992). Hence to understand and predict individual, organizational, and cultural behavior (Hough et. al,) it is important to study personality traits. Further, need for achievement and other psychological needs found in groups express the values of those groups and are predictive of entrepreneurial activity and economic development among other things. (McClelland, 1976) A personality test by Jackson (1987) draws upon Murray’s taxonomy and measures twenty universally manifested human needs. It was used in the present study in testing the hypotheses below. HYPOTHESES H1 There will be no statistically significant difference between Bulgarian and Russian need for change. H2 There will be no statistically significant difference between Bulgarian and Russian impulsivity. METHODOLOGY Measurement Instrument Jackson’s Personality Research Form was used on both Bulgarian and Russian respondents. This is a 351-item instrument has had item analysis performed with strong positive results. Retest, parallel form, and internal consistency reliability was quite high. Convergent and discriminate validation has been extensively examined and verified in other studies and is discussed in the manual for the PRF-E. Jackson’s test has been employed in a large number of previous cross-cultural studies. The PRF-E measures twenty personality traits using a sixteen-item scale for each trait (Jackson, 1987). Samples Bulgarian respondents (N=97) were chosen from several business classes at a university in Sofia. The Russian respondents (N=60) were chosen from several business classes in a Moscow area university. The classes surveyed were chosen on a convenience basis. The respondents were business majors. Scoring Each scale on the Personality Research Form by Jackson (1987) is composed of sixteen statements the respondents answer as either true or false. Each response indicates a person to be high or low in a given personality trait and is scored, respectively, as a one or a zero. Thus, the highest score possible for a trait is sixteen and the lowest is zero. The means for both samples on the two traits is given below. Southwestern Economic Review 94 Statistics Due to using convenience samples a nonparametric statistic (Kruskal-Wallis) was employed. The results, with the resultant p-values, are presented below. A pvalue of .05 or less was required to reject a null hypothesis and conclude that the two values are significantly different.