Russian Banking Sector: Key Points of International Expansion

Banking industry is traditionally seen as strictly regulated and driven to avoid political context. While Russian economy in general lacks both well developed regulatory framework and political independence of business entities, we would like to analyze the current state of affairs in an industry for which these attributes have become a hallmark. As Russian non-resource-based industries in general and the banking sector in particular are becoming more and more active players worldwide, the question arises, how exactly do Russian banks internationalize. We analyze four cases of international expansion by Russian banks in order to determine the main destinations for expansion, the entry modes used and whether they resemble resource-based companies in their internationalization. The results show that banks, even while being significantly state owned, are most likely guided by economic motives (as opposed to political ones), are leaning towards safer expansion destinations and are in several ways suffering from home market immaturity

Russian outward FDI and its policy context

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from Russia often surprises outside observers by its landmark deals. One of them was the purchase in September 2009 of a 55% stake in General Motors' German affiliate Opel by a consortium of the Canadian car maker Magna and the Russian state-owned bank Sberbank. The latter is the largest creditor of the Russian car maker GAZ, and may represent its commercial interests in the contract. With this deal, Russia has bought into the industrial heartland of the world economy and could potentially access more advanced technology. This acquisition hints at the growth of Russian OFDI in general, which has prospered despite fears in many host countries that the investors are subject to Russian political interference, a fear that recently announced Russian policy intentions may allay

Joint Venture Strategy for Emerging Economy: Evidence From Russian Energy Sector

This paper investigates the strategies of global companies operating in power generation and supply, electrical equipment, and oil and gas industries in Russia. Russian energy sector has been considered by these companies as a huge and perspective and Russia has shown in the last two decades the greatest activity in the field of internationalization of major national industries through IJVs. Local joint ventures are therefore one of the cornerstones of these firms strategy in the respective energy sectors of Russia’s economy. These partnerships facilitate the entry process to Russia, raise an efficiency of post-entry operations, and prevent the state intervention in Russian operations of western companies

Entry Modes and Liability of Foreignness Effects: Evidence From Russian Firms on the German Market

Foreign subsidiaries are at a disadvantage as compared to domestic enterprises, which is especially the case for emerging market firms in more developed economies. In this paper we apply liability of foreignness (LOF) concept to address the issue of these disadvantages. We consider LOF effects associated with equity vs. non-equity entry modes for Russian firms when penetrating the German market. The paper presents the results of a pilot study of 41 subsidiaries of Russian firms operating in different regions of Germany. Our results show that investors are more concerned about information, customers and partnerships, which can be explained by preeminent reliance on their own resources, while exporters appeared to be driven mostly by image considerations indicating minor interest in other characteristics of the host market. Although both exporters and investors experience significant negative effects from the lack of proper institutional and business knowledge on the host market, these effects vary for equity and non-equity entry modes. We suggest instruments to mitigate these effects, including cooperation with institutional agents, which is especially important for FDI strategy