The theory of basic human value developed by Shalom Schwartz has held a dominant place in the field of value studies for at least two decades. Despite of some modest adaptations, the theory has maintained its original form. Still, an increasing number of critical discussions have recently been published throwing doubt upon universality of its inner structure (e.g. Mohler and Wohn in Persönliche Wertorientierungen im European Social Survey, ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht, <CitationRef CitationID="CR48">2005</CitationRef>; Clercq 2006; Perrinjaquet et al. in J Res Pers 41:820–840, <CitationRef CitationID="CR15">2007</CitationRef>; Davidov and Schmidt in Measuring meaningful data in social research, Acco, Leuven, pp 373–386, <CitationRef CitationID="CR45">2007</CitationRef>; Davidov et al. in Public Opin Quart 72:420–445, <CitationRef CitationID="CR5">2008</CitationRef>; Davidov in Surv Res Methods 2:33–46, <CitationRef CitationID="CR43">2008</CitationRef>; Knoppen and Saris in Surv Res Methods 3:91–103, <CitationRef CitationID="CR10">2009a</CitationRef>; Knoppen and Saris <CitationRef CitationID="CR11">2009b</CitationRef>; Fischer et al. in J Cross Cult Psychol 41:135–151, <CitationRef CitationID="CR44">2010</CitationRef>). Most of these studies have proposed that the shortcomings of that model can be improved through unification of some adjacent value types (e.g. Davidov and Schmidt in Measuring meaningful data in social research, Acco, Leuven, pp 373–386, <CitationRef CitationID="CR45">2007</CitationRef>; Davidov et al. in Public Opin Quart 72:420–445, <CitationRef CitationID="CR5">2008</CitationRef>; Davidov in Surv Res Methods 2:33–46, <CitationRef CitationID="CR43">2008</CitationRef>). However, Knoppen and Saris (Surv Res Methods 3:91–103, <CitationRef CitationID="CR10">2009a</CitationRef>; Knoppen and Saris <CitationRef CitationID="CR11">2009b</CitationRef>) have showed that the given grouping of factors was a consequence of misspecifications in the model and proposed an alternative structure with 19 value types, which has been largely confirmed by several recent papers (Cieciuch and Schwartz in J Pers Assess 94:321–328, <CitationRef CitationID="CR4">2012</CitationRef>; Beierlein et al. in Surv Res Methods 6:25–36, <CitationRef CitationID="CR1">2012</CitationRef>). Current study will also test the new model, but contrarily to cited papers, a representative national sample is used, which raises the robustness of findings. The data is from Estonia and collected in late 2008. Due to the existence of large ethnic minority in Estonian society, the sample allows additionally testing the equivalence of the measurement in the two subpopulations. This study shows that the alternative value-structure, proposed by Knoppen and Saris, applies well to the representative Estonian data. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
