On a seminar at the Swedish Institute in Stockholm, which was presented by the Swedish Institute and the company Managing Cultural Differences, Sweden and the perception other countries have about the Swedish culture, business, tourism and the Swedish governance was discussed.
During the seminar a study was presented and how important it is to learn about other cultures. When learning how people in other countries think, we also learn much about Sweden and our own culture.
How is Sweden really perceived by other countries?
Monika Wassén talked about what perceptions people from other countries have about Sweden. Most people associate Sweden with for example IKEA, Abba and famous Swedish athletes. But what is important to know is the fact that most do not know anything concrete about our country. Many people have assumptions and often draw the wrong conclusions.
Globalization makes the world smaller and the competition for business, education and tourism is growing. Since Sweden is a small country, it is important how other countries perceive us in order for us to become an important country to visit and do business with. Therefore, it is important that Sweden is given a fair image.
The survey was conducted in 20 different countries with 500-1000 people per country. The participants were between 18-64 years old. The survey has been conducted online and has measured perceptions of each country's strengths and weaknesses in the cultural, business, education, perception of people in the country, governance and tourism areas.
It has been shown that most countries have different views on Sweden. Overall, it seems to countries that we have strong governance and relatively good business opportunities but a weak culture and tourism.
Sweden ended up in total on the 10th place behind the following countries in order: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Italy, USA, Switzerland and Australia.
This is the worst placement since 2005 when the first survey was conducted, but we are comparatively a small country.
Countries in the Middle East and India have a poor image of Sweden. They believe that Sweden has no strengths. It should be added that these countries are geographically very far away and that the culture is substantially different and this certainly affects the perception of us.
The important thing is to get other countries to understand that Sweden is interesting and unique, and thus attract other nationalities to see more business opportunities in Sweden since we are extremely export dependent.
Tony Harkén