ECONOMIC MENTALITIES – CAUSE OR EFFECT FOR TODAY’S VALUES IN ROMANIAN BUSINESS HIGHER EDUCATION? A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Mentalities and behaviours are the result of the interactions between persons/groups and the en-vironment. 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 charac-teristic 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 capitalist spirit, understood as atti-tudes towards money, goods, trade, capital movement, is the main element in inducing and developing the new business oriented behaviour. The economic constraint becomes way as well as means of build-ing up a wage earning attitude and behaviour of workers in the unfolding of economic activities. 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. Although on the present Romanian territory the 19th century was characterized by a profound political instabil-ity, reflected in specific life values and attitudes, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the main institutions which allowed the functioning of the market, the social contract and de-mocracy had been set up and were running. 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 or-der 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.