In light of the currently limited understanding of the role of cultural issues that may hamper firm success in cross-border activities, particularly in the context of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the purpose of this paper is to examine how export managers experience and perceive cross-national differences, frequently referred to as ‘psychic’ or ‘cultural distance’ in the literature. We offer empirical insights from a small and open CEE country, in which exports are recognized as a driving force for economic growth. We conducted a series of systematic in-depth interviews on the sample of Slovenian exporting companies of different sizes, industries, and experiences in cross-border activities. Based on a grounded theory approach, we identified three sets of factors underlying psychic distance and their six related components from the exporters’ perspective: cultural differences and the language (i.e., patterns of thinking, behaviours, language), perceived differences in relational business practices (i.e., relationships with business people, business practices), and differences in the macro environment.

中文翻译：

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出口经理跨国活动中文化和心理距离的根本因素：来自中东欧国家的定性见解

鉴于目前对文化问题的作用的了解有限，尤其是在中欧和东欧（CEE）国家的背景下，文化问题可能会阻碍跨界活动的成功，因此本文的目的是研究出口经理的经验并了解跨国差异，在文献中通常被称为“精神上的”或“文化上的距离”。我们从一个开放的CEE小国提供经验性见解，在该国中，出口被认为是经济增长的驱动力。我们对不同规模，行业和跨境活动经验的斯洛文尼亚出口公司的样本进行了一系列系统的深入采访。基于扎根的理论方法，