International joint ventures in Russia: Cultures' influences on alliance success

A Literature-Based Analysis and Comparative Assessment of Key Success Factors for Managing Russian-Foreign IJVs

“…Empiricism Table 1 shows that our sample of 19 research articles encompasses seven empirical-quantitative publications (Banai et al, 1999;Fey, 1996;Fey & Beamish, 2000, 2001Katsioloudes & Isichenko, 2007;Nigh et al, 1990;Szymanski, 1998) as well as twelve empirical-qualitative publications (Ariño, Abramov, Skorobogatykh, Rykounina, & Vilà, 1997;Ayios, 2003;Bzhilianskaya, 1997;Cattaneo, 1992;Daniels & Perez, 2007;Fey, 1995aFey, , 1995bFey & Beamish, 1999;Kobernyuk, Stiles, & Ellson, 2013;Nigh & Smith, 1989;Rosten, 1991;Teslenko, 1999). Rather surprising, not more than four publications (21 %) unfold information regarding the application and operationalization of independent, dependent and control variables (Fey, 1996;Fey & Beamish, 2000, 2001Katsioloudes & Isichenko, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, a large proportion of our sample relies on IJV parent firms originating from the United States of America. Despite this general dominance of North America and Western Europe in terms of the foreign partner's country of origin there are also several studies that include IJV parent firms from Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and Croatia (Bzhilianskaya, 1997;Fey, 1995a;Szymanski, 1998) as well as from countries located in the Near East (Fey, 1995a) and Asia (Kobernyuk et al, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, the investigation of the particular Russian-and Soviet-Foreign IJV and/or its relations with its parent companies is often linked to the macro-, thus environmental and contextual level in Russia and the Soviet Union, respectively. This includes issues such as e.g., the perceived riskiness of foreign investment in Russia and the former Soviet Union, Russia's peculiarities as a transitional economy with a different business culture or little sound institutional development as well as a generally high inoperative or failure rate of IJVs (Bzhilianskaya, 1997;Daniels & Perez, 2007;Fey, 1995a;Katsioloudes & Isichenko, 2007;Kobernyuk et al, 2013;Nigh & Smith, 1989;Nigh et al, 1990;Rosten, 1991;Teslenko, 1999). The research articles also involve very different perspectives, such as an evaluation of IJV performance solely from the Russian partner's viewpoint or from the perspective of US parent companies (e.g., Banai et al, 1999;Szymanski, 1998;Nigh & Smith, 1989).…”

“…While trust is also considered to be a key success factors arousing within the cluster 'Relationship management between the IJV and the IJV parent firms (n.s. if local/foreign)' (Rosten, 1991;Fey, 1995bFey, , 1996Kobernyuk et al, 2013;Ariño et al, 1997;Daniels & Perez, 2007), other success factors address features and characteristics regarding the relationship itself such as organizational climate dissimilarities (Fey & Beamish, 2001). In addition, critical success determinants can be derived from the dissatisfaction and conflicts between all parties involved in an IJV (Fey & Beamish, 1999, 2000, 2001).…”

“…This is reasoned primarily with the geographical proximity between the Russian-Foreign IJV and its Russian parent company helping to foster mutual understanding as well as the historically-grown capability of Russians to cope with differing and continuously changing circumstances (Fey & Beamish, 2000). In terms of the cluster 'Fit categories between the IJV and the foreign IJV parent', two studies (Fey & Beamish, 2001;Kobernyuk et al, 2013) point to the significance of a similar organizational climate/culture between the IJV and its foreign parent firms as elaborated above. Kobernyuk et al (2013) highlight the importance of further qualifying the IJV management and its employees in adapting a market-oriented perspective and primarily Western management and organizational philosophies for each of the IJV's departments.…”