Exploring Consumer Reactions to the Recession in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

In order to analyze the impact of the current economic crisis on consumersof FMCG products in the Balkan region this paper investigateschanges and trends in consumer values and attitudes between years2007 and 2009 in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A comparisonof value ranks and factor scores between the two years and twocountries shows some significant differences and surprising findings interms of changes in consumer values and attitudes, which were otherwiseexpected to be relatively stable over a short time period. In order toprovide an insight into questions of if, why and how the crisis differentlyaffected Slovene and Bosnian consumers, possible causes for identifieddifferences are discussed from the theoretical and practical standpointand several managerial implications are suggested.