Being one of the biggest transition markets, Russia plays an increasing role within the global economy. Non-Russian firms are expanding into Russia in order to exploit the abundant growth opportunities. Simultaneously they face stronger competition in their home markets due to the entrance of global Russian players which try to explore opportunities abroad.

Based on the results of 177 survey responses, Tobias Weigl shows that the simple transfer of managerial and organizational skills, techniques, values and culture from developed countries to Russia is a false assumption among academics and practitioners. While executives from developed markets are driven by a rational economic model, which includes objective rules and arm's length transaction structures, successful businesses in Russia need to incorporate the remaining influence of collectivism, paternalism and 'blat'. Thus, successfully conducting business in Russia is based on network capitalism and relationships that co-exist within the pervasive environment of the Russian state.

Autorentext
Dr. Tobias Weigl promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Christopher Jahns am Supply Management Institute der European Business School (ebs) in Oestrich-Winkel. Er ist als Business Development Manager Emerging Markets bei DHL tätig.

Zusammenfassung
st Since the beginning of the 21 century, three key business trends have been identified with a pronounced influence on future microeconomic and macroeconomic developments across the globe: Firstly, with the advent of the network economy, int- organizational relations and structures are increasingly becoming the object of analysis. Successful companies have extended the concept of an appropriate organizational structure beyond internal relationships to those spanning across the entire business network by taking the country specific institutional context into consideration. Secondly, with slowing growth in the developed markets and abundant growth opportunities in the developing economies, companies are turning to these markets for new business expansion. Finally, during the last number of years, so called 'emerging giants', which are strong local players from developing economies, have started to globalize and to expand into the developed markets. Among other reasons, these firms have edged themselves into the limelight by maintaining the right fit between their strategy type and inter-organizational structures in their home markets.

Inhalt
Basics on Strategy, Structure and Environment.- Russia as a Major Transition Economy.- Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses.- Empirical data.- Empirical analysis of the theoretical model.- Conclusion.