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Introduction
Culture has a tremendous impact on many factors, including management style and has developed within the international business field to become a focal issue ([43] Nasierowski and Mikula, 1998). In particular, the knowledge of American, western European and Japanese influence on organizational management has become an essential tool for global actors. Since the end of the cold war and the fall of the iron curtain, increasing attention has finally been paid to cultural research in central and eastern Europe.
However, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been systematically ignored in the cultural research and are still being treated as a forecourt of Russia. Many publications consider them as a common block, due not only to their geographical proximity. Only a very small number of scholars focus on cultural differences among former Soviet-Union states and/or CIS countries ([70] Vadi and Meri, 2005). In business, the "block" classification has meanwhile become a fact and most corporations and multinational companies pursue a standardized marketing strategy across the three markets. As part of the former Soviet Union, the region had been heavily targeted by settlement programs of the Stalin era. Nevertheless, these "three small tigers" have always been able to keep their cultural values and their close ties, especially to Scandinavia ([33] Manning and Poljeva, 1999). Sometimes their inhabitants are described as "people with a Slavonic heart and a Scandinavian head" ([22] Huettinger, 2006a, [23] b). Their citizens behaved very similarly in their antipathy towards the Soviet style communism and have always associated their identity with that of central Europeans ([1] Alas and Rees, 2005). Baltic people are more attuned to the politics of self-determination than their Slavic counterparts and they are more inclined to look westward than inward ([59] Smith, 1990). Compared with other former Soviet Republics, the level of education is remarkably high and notable stress is put on western skills ([36] Martinsons, 1995). Excellent language skills and a strong working ethos are helping to re-establish historic economical relations with western Europe and revive the old Hanseatic trade routes ([33] Manning and Poljeva, 1999; [34] Manrai et al. , 2001). Furthermore, Lithuanians share a cultural and political heritage with Poland and have strong historical links with Germans. They are said to be emotional and grandiloquent ([29]...