Abstract: Former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have transformed with a great speed in the last few years, and it is no surprise we see an enormous business and research interest for this new world. In a relatively short period of time, a lot of interesting studies were carried out, especially about cultural and value differences among different countries in Central and Eastern Europe. However, almost all of this work has been done by researchers from Western Europe or the United States, who have the necessary methodology and knowledge, but they might lack some first hand experience with "transforming socialist cultures".

Myself being an insider in one of the former socialist countries might allow me, though lacking rigourous peace of research in consumer behavior, to discuss some already available data and specific observations about Slovenian consumers. In the context of worsening of economic situation very important question can be raised: What were the consumer reactions to great economic and social changes, which practically meant lower living standard for large majority of people ? Next to this question it is certainly relevant to ask, how to approach "consumers with empty pockets, but great expectations". Here we talk about topic of economic crisis behavior, which has gained lately relatively little attention in the West (Shama, 1980, Van Veen, Schelbergen,1984). By my opinion, it is of the greatest importance to learn more about consumer reactions to decreasing buying power, which is not of just temporary nature. In this paper, I also want to test my hypothesis, that people's perception of economic crisis was even greater than actual worsening of living standard or changes in buying habits.

Full paper: Damjan Janez (1993), "Consumer Behavior in Transforming Socialist Countries: The Case of Slovenia", in Van Raiij, Bamossy, ed., European Advances in Consumer Research. Vol. 1. Provo : ACR, 236-243.