Disintegration processes nowadays have led to the division of the world into separate regions. National and cultural differences, previously considered insignificant, play an important role again, determining the peculiarities of people's economic behaviour. The idea of a universal single path of human development from savagery to civilisation dominated the economic theories of the first half of the 20th century. Based on the Enlightenment ideas, economists did not recognise the importance of cultural differences. They noticed only the differences in people at the stages of advancement along the same path. The scientists strived to find common ground among people and their socio-economic institutions. Since the middle of the 20th century, such a sociological approach has been increasingly replaced by an ethnographic one: the desire to identify the difference between peoples and their socio-economic institutions. Cultural differences have ceased to be perceived as annoying deviations from the only correct norm. Ethnometric analysis of cultural characteristics of different nations has become popular. Of particular interest is the Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory.