Lauder Intercultural Ventures

ENTREPRENEURIAL ECONOMIES OF THE BALTIC BACKWATERS
March 6-14, 2020

This LIV will discuss the questions: Why does Denmark rank as one of the world’s best environments for doing business? Why is Estonia a startup paradise? Experience entrepreneurship in action by comparing and contrasting economies of business across two of the most vibrant countries in the European Union. This LIV will discuss how Denmark has established itself as one of the world’s leading entrepreneurial economies, including a focus on cultures of commerce, the ebb and flow of high capital investments, the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technology, and a growing professional workforce. Compare how Estonia’s advanced entrepreneurship policies, especially its progressive e-residency program, have enabled digital nomads, freelancers, and entrepreneurs from all over the world to get access to resources around company formation, banking, payment processing, and taxation. Discussions will also debate to what extent each country’s topographical features and geographical location have made certain kinds of business environments possible. For example, can Denmark’s advanced industrial peninsula and vast archipelago of 443 islands be productively compared to the striking biodiversity of Estonia on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea? What about the nature of politics and policies that have affected cultures in both countries? Through a series of firsthand experiences, including company tours, exchanges with local academics, and interactions with businesses at various stages, this LIV is all about entrepreneurship in action.

Listen to a Lauder student’s experience on this LIV by clicking the image below:

This LIV will explore the culture, history and politics of two societies confronting several complex challenges: (1) the turbulent transition from a planned economy to liberal capitalism, which all the countries of Eastern Europe experienced during the 1990s, and (2) the most violent conflict the European continent had witnessed since the end of World War II. Meet with refugees and survivors of wartime atrocities, many of whom still struggle with the trauma they sustained during the 1990s wars. Speak to leaders of non-governmental organizations and local activists to learn more about the challenges facing a region that was at war at a time when other post-socialist states experienced large-scale growth. Students will hear from business owners and executives trying to sustain and expand their businesses in an economically stagnant region where the wounds of the violent conflicts of the 1990s have never fully healed. The group will be able to speak with our commentators about what it was like to work under socialism before 1989, under international sanctions during the 1990s wars and today, when the privatization of formerly state-owned enterprises has largely reached completion. Government representatives and academics from Bosnia and Serbia will detail the difficulties that both states encounter as they try to prevent the “brain drain” of talented young people to the more prosperous states of Northwestern Europe.