Waardensegmenten: en andere kijk op cultuurverschillen tussen landen

In the literature on culture, cultural differences are seen as differences between countries such as in the work of Hofstede, or as differences between individuals such as in the work of Schwartz. When using the country level there is an implicit assumption that all people in a country have about similar cultural values. The question is whether this implicit assumption of cultural homogeneity, such as culture scores at country level, is justified, especially as there can be large differences between individuals within countries. An interesting alternative, which takes account of cultural heterogeneity within countries, is the use of segments of individuals who have similar values. For the current study we use the Schwartz values from the European Social Survey (ESS) in 30 European countries and from the original Schwartz Values Survey (SVS) in 72 countries worldwide. We find in both surveys and in all countries the same four segments. What differs is the size of the segments in the different countries.