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Partnerships as internationalization strategy: Russian entrepreneurs between local restrictions and global opportunities

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Abstract

This paper studies the small and often overlooked group of internationally created research-driven ventures and discusses their impact on Russia. Building on previously established networks which allow new knowledge-intense assets to be formed, these companies introduce novel products and processes to the Russian market and develop them further. While such ventures get access to knowledge generated outside Russia, they also benefit greatly from their partners’ ecosystems which allow them to avoid the obstacles in their home markets. Thereby, they increase their learning opportunities beyond the rather restricting Russian environment and learn much about international entrepreneurship.

Abstrakt

Dieser Artikel behandelt die kleine Gruppe internationaler forschungsorientierter Start-ups in Russland und diskutiert deren Bedeutung für die russische Wirtschaft. Diese Gründungen entstehen aus etablierten akademisch-geprägten Netzwerken und konzentrieren sich auf die Vermarktung eigener Forschungsergebnisse. Dabei bringen diese Start-ups nicht nur neue Technologien nach Russland, sie entwickeln diese auch weiter. Wir zeigen statistisch dass Unternehmen, die diese internationale Kooperation als Strategie verfolgen, finanziell höchst erfolgreich sind. Anhand einer Gruppe von deutsch-russischen Kooperationen zeigen wir weiters, wie wichtig die Zusammenarbeit für die russischen Partner ist um die lokalen Schwierigkeiten erfolgreich zu vermeiden und um sich das notwendige unternehmerische Know-how anzueignen.

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Notes

  1. Other models proposed by Madsen and Servais (1997) or Rialp et al. (2005) also identify the unique firm-specific resources for competition in international markets (Jones et al. 2011; Knight and Cavusgil 2004).

  2. Performed biannually by HSE’s Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) since 2009 within the framework of the European Manufacturing Survey (http://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/isi-en/i/projekte/fems.php), the Monitoring of Innovation Activities survey is an internationally harmonized survey aimed at collecting a broad range of indicators on innovation and other dimensions of companies’ strategies. The data on Russia are discussed in for example, Gokhberg, Kuznetsova 2011, and Zaichenko at al. 2014.

  3. Source: FASIE website http://www.fasie.ru/

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Compliance with ethical standards

The financial support from the Government of the Russian Federation within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and within the framework of implementation of the 5–100 Programme Roadmap of the National Research University Higher School of Economics is acknowledged.

The authors did not have any conflict of interest. We have received informed consent from all interviewees. Also, no humans or animals were hurt when conducting the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Laboratory for Economics of Innovation, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Myasnitskaya 9/11, 101000, Moscow, Russia

    Thomas W. Thurner, Mikhail Gershman & Vitaly Roud

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  1. Thomas W. Thurner
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  2. Mikhail Gershman
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  3. Vitaly Roud
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Correspondence to Thomas W. Thurner.

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Summary highlights

Contributions: This paper studies the small and often overlooked group of internationally created research-driven ventures and discusses their impact on Russia’s economy. Although collaboration as a strategy in innovation management is actively discussed (see for example the debate on open innovation), collaboration as an internationalization strategy has received somewhat less attention. As most contributions examine the developments of networks after internationalization has taken place, little is known about how such partnerships are built and which network strategy will succeed under different cultural and institutional circumstances.

Research Questions/Purpose: We study international collaborations as a strategy for Russian SMEs and a group of ‘born-global’ firms established by partners from Germany and Russia for more evidence of networks and partnerships to understand how firms benefit from these.

Results/Findings: International cooperation is seen to be a resource-intensive but rewarding strategy. Such companies invest more than 10 % of total sales into innovation. On the other side, companies that engage in international cooperation constitute the largest proportion of highly profitable enterprises. Building on previously established networks which allow new knowledge-intense assets to be formed, these companies introduce novel products and processes to the Russian market and develop them further. Partnering with international colleagues allows these start-ups to overcome some of the difficulties entrepreneurs face in Russia.

Limitations: The paper uses a quantitative study of Russian SMEs and a qualitative study of 10 Russian-German born-globals. It would be interesting to see more intercultural comparisons with start-ups between teams from other cultural backgrounds.

Theoretical Implications and Recommendations: Previous contributions on Russia have already suggested the importance of networking for overcoming local obstacles. Firms based on both emerging markets and advanced economies get support from different types of networks for the discovery and exploitation of business opportunities. Thereby, they increase their learning opportunities beyond the rather restricting Russian environment and learn much about international entrepreneurship.

Practical Implications and Recommendations: While such ventures get access to knowledge generated outside Russia, they also benefit greatly from their partners’ ecosystems which allow them to avoid the obstacles in their home markets. For policymakers, the born-global strategy should be understood as a very valuable source of knowledge transfer. These internationally active teams are creating state-of-the-art technologies which potentially have immense value for economic development.

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Thurner, T.W., Gershman, M. & Roud, V. Partnerships as internationalization strategy: Russian entrepreneurs between local restrictions and global opportunities. J Int Entrep 13, 118–137 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-015-0146-8

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