Introduction
In 2018 I was engaging with car-dealerships in South-Sweden. One clear example of trust struck me as a brilliant example of the benefits of trust as a cultural component. As I spoke to the German owner of a large dealership he told me that it was never his plan to move to the south of Sweden. However, when he wanted to establish the dealership he compared the two regions for attractiveness. It was here that his argument was made to move to Sweden. The cost for lawyers to arrange all the paperwork was 12 times as high in Germany as it was in Sweden. That was not because Swedish lawyers are a bargain, the bureaucratic workload was just a fraction of the German workload. He told me that it has everything to do with how Scandinavians view the good practice of business.
It might appear strange that we will be looking at the relationship between Vikings and trust. Their reputation is such that you can only look at them as a cruel, reckless military force that managed to plunder much of Northern Europe. However, scientists are arguing that how the Vikings themselves operated might give us more insights into the role of history and trust.
What is the paper about?
In the pilot paper, we spoke about path-dependence and the outcome of risky choices. The term is used again to get a historical perspective on the success of Scandinavian countries when it comes to trust. They always rank as the top countries on trust.
The Vikings earned a fierce reputation as warriors, mostly, during the early stages of the Viking age. During this age, they switched strategies from plunder to trade. Break-throughs in ship-building technology meant that overseas trade would be made much easier and thus favorable over plunder. Options to rule the Northern seas and the rivers of Europe meant that they could dominate the naval trade routes. The fact that Scandinavians ruled the European seas might be hard to grasp for Dutch people and perhaps Spaniards and English people too.
Apart from technology, trade norms, and cultural aspects gave rise to a higher level of collaboration. Interdependence between traders and trading posts created a mutual incentive to play according to the rules, something that was not quite normal in Europe during the time. It was around 5 centuries later that Adam Smith turned this idea into a book and laid the foundation for classical economics, or capitalism.
The honor was found in being acknowledged as trustworthy because that was something commonly regarded as very meaningful because it was highly valued in trade. Another thing of great importance is the oral culture that was prevalent. around 1240AD not many people were literate and so the informal culture was of far greater importance than it is in our “terms & conditions” society. Hence, it was common to have trials now and then and only the most honorable members of society took place as a judge.
What can the curious executive learn from this?
Trust is not easily earned but easily broken. It is a very fragile aspect of an organization and individual that can not be put on a balance sheet. It is exactly the fragility of the matter that makes it so important. So, path-dependence allows you to assess your organization, team or brand in a way that can give you a clue on what you might find. Having research to back this up makes it much easier to accept that your past can tell you something about trust. However, I do believe you should not dwell on it. Likely, you as a reader are not a Viking. But we all have ancestors, cultures and organizational aspects around us. Having an honest look might give you some perspective on what this can entail.
It might help you to address issues that are going unnoticed. It might help you in your internationalization process or investment decisions.
Important notes
Full credit goes to Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen and Gert Tinggaard Svendsen. The one-and-only aim of this paper is to further promote it’s content to a wider audience. For the original paper please visit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0939362516300322#!
About the author
Bram van Kleef is an operations-consultant @ VanKleef/Andersson and is located in Amsterdam. He holds an MSc in Business Administration: International Business & Marketing from Kristianstad University in Sweden. For inquiries: info@vankleefandersson.com
