International Journal of Management and Business Studies

International Journal of Management and Business Studies ISSN 2167-0439 Vol. 15 (1), pp. 001-007, January, 2026. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The Impact of National Culture on Economic Productivity and Competitiveness

Herciu Mihaela*, Ogrean Claudia and Belascu Lucian

Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania.

Accepted 18 October, 2025

The 21st century offered new challenges for the national economy. One of the most controversial aspects of globalization was the worldwide spread and dominance of the American culture. The cultural dimensions that characterize a nation had a major impact on national competitiveness, although in the globalization age the nations are tending to lose their own identity and culture. Competitiveness always was the motive which generates economic growth through productivity. The multicultural dimension of the world is a well-known and acknowledged fact. It is manifested both inside the borders of a nation, and outside them, and there are certain nations which are called „immigration countries” in which an own culture is impossible to bring into the debate, rather a conglomerate of cultures. The main idea of the paper was to identify the impact and the link, with the help of CORREL index, between cultural dimensions – power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance measured by Geert Hofstede – and national competitiveness of a country measured by World Economic Forum through global competitiveness index (GCI). The results exhibited a significant impact of cultural dimensions on national competitiveness.

Key words: national competitiveness, cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance.