Economic Mentalities And Present Day Values In Romanian Business Higher Education. A Historical Perspective

Mentalities and behaviours are the result of the interactions between persons/groups and the environment. The present paper explores the way mentalities and behaviours have been created by and have themselves determined the economic, social and political processes on the present day Romanian territory at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. A historical perspective to the study of mentalities shows that the adaptation of a certain mindset, of the mainstream values characteristic of an epoch, to the changes in the evolution of the economy and society was also responsible for preparing the changes in the development of the economy. The present paper explores the differences between economic and business mentalities of people belonging to developed and emerging market economies by considering their historical development. The paper looks at the importance of the presence in the curriculum of business schools of the history of economy and/or of economic thought disciplines in order to help Romanian business higher education become a driving force in changing present day mentalities into values that pro-actively help Romanian students to become effective employees on the globalized labour markets.