Poznyakov V. P. The Results and Prospects of Research on Russian Businessmen from the Perspective of the Conception of Psychological Relations

The article is prepared with the support of Russian Foundation for the Humanities (grant No. 12-06-12042 „The Information and Research Database "The Social Psychology of Russian Entrepreneurship“").

(The Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow University for the Humanities)

Abstract ♦ The article presents the results of research on Russian entrepreneurs conducted from the perspective of the conception of psychological relations between individual and group subjects of joint life activity. The author considers the features of entrepreneurs’ attitude to their economic activity depending on the assessment of a number of its characteristics in the context of regional particularities and differences caused by gender.

The theoretical ground of the research is the author's conception of psychological relations of the individual and group subjects of joint and economic activity. On the basis of the author's conception of psychological relations, a program of socio-psychological research on Russian entrepreneurs has been developed and a comprehensive large-scale investigation has been pursued. The study has allowed to identify and analyze the features of the structure, dynamics, regional and gender differences in the socio-psychological characteristics of Russian entrepreneurs.

The author reveals the content of the most important motivations for the selection of business activity: the achievement of a high material well-being, independence in work and opportunity to realize one’s abilities. The following characteristic features of Russian entrepreneurs are determined: the high degree of orientation to their own resources, propensity for competition and moderate risk in economic activity, the low level of trust in public authorities and business entities. The socio-psychological factors of business activity are empirically determined: the assessment of one’s competitive ability and own opportunities for the enhancement of business success, attitude to the risk and competitive economic activity, the degree of reliability of the majority of partners, the estimation and anticipation of changes in family living standards, the assessment of the success of their business activities.

As a new and promising field of research on the social psychology of Russian businessmen from the perspective of the theory of psychological relations, it is proposed to study the factors, mechanisms and regularities of interrelations within the business community and the relationships between entrepreneurs and representatives of other social groups. In the framework of this trend, the author determines and analyzes the gender differences in entrepreneurs’ attitude to partnership and competition, types of entrepreneurs’ psychological attitude to business partnership, the socio-psychological factors of entrepreneurs’ responsible attitude to the other participants of business interaction.

The research shows the leading role of value orientations of the person as the factors determining the character of relations in business community. The applied value of the conducted research is that the results can be used by central and regional authorities for the support and development of small and medium business in Russia.

Keywords: psychological relations, Russian entrepreneurs, social psychology, economic psychology, the psychology of entrepreneurship, business activity, gender, motivations, value orientations

Poznyakov Vladimir Petrovich, Doctor of Science (psychology), professor, the leading research fellow of the Laboratory of the Social and Economic Psychology, the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; associate professor of the Social and Ethnical Psychology Department, Moscow University for the Humanities, correspondent member of the International Academy of Psychological Sciences (IAPS). Postal address: 13 Yaroslavskaya St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 129366. Tel./fax: +7 (495) 682-72-70; +7 (495) 682-92-01; +7 (499) 374-56-11. E-mail: pozn_v@mail.ru

Citation: Poznyakov V. P. (2014) Itogi i perspektivy issledovaniia rossiiskikh predprinimatelei s pozitsii kontseptsii psikhologicheskikh otnoshenii  [The Results and Prospects of Research on Russian Businessmen from the Perspective of the Conception of Psychological Relations]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 1, pp. 267–275. (In Russ.)

Submission date: 10.12.2013.

RUSSIAN VERSION

REFERENCE

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