RUSSIAN-AMERICAN BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

This research paper discusses the evolution of business partnerships between Russians and Americans as vehicles for doing business in the Russian Federation, including their potential and problems. From a business standpoint, the terms business partnerships, joint ventures and strategic alliances can be used interchangeably but the term joint ventures is the term most commonly used in the Russian context because of its special legal meaning and is therefore used in this paper. Joint ventures have become the most common vehicle for carrying out American business investment in Russia since 1987, but by no means the only one. Enormous difficulties stand in the way of their becoming successful financially, but a few thousand hardy investors, American and Russian, have persevered in the face of truly awesome obstacles. Success or failure depends on a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of the joint venture partners themselves.

Attractions of the Post-Soviet Union Market

Joint ventures, Russian companies jointly owned by foreign and Russian investors, were not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th century and were briefly permitted in the 1920s under Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy. For all practical purposes, foreign investment disappeared from the Soviet scene during the Stalinist era and until Russian-foreign joint ventures were authorized again by the regime of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 under decrees whic

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eign joint ventures in Russia followed the end of the Cold War and the failure of the hardliner coup against Gorbachev in 1991. During the period 1992-1995, 18,000 foreign joint ventures were formed involving $10 billion in foreign investment with the number involving Americans rising from 625 at the beginning of 1992 to 2800 at the end of 1993 (Kvint, 1994, March-April 1994, p. 64). Some of the most familiar American blue chip companies were involved, IBM, General Electric, Ford Motor, Hewlett Packard, Eastman Kodak, Chevron, AT &T, Mcdonalds & Pepsi Cola. Articles appeared in leading business publications such as the Harvard Business Review heralding a new age in Russian-American economic cooperation now that the communist dragon had been slain and Russia had turned to capitalism for the solution to its economic problems. Kvint termed Russia a gigantic firesale of undervalued assets with a vast cheap but educated work force and a plethora of natural resources waiting for the taking. He said "the climate for international joint ventures has never been better" (1994, March-April, p. 62). Lawrence & Vlachoutsicos said "the possible gains from investing in Russia today far outweigh the hazards" (1993, Jan.-Feb., p. 44). There w
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Yergin Gustafson, Lawrence Vlachoutsicos, According McCarthy, Jeffrey Burt, Business Americans, Yergin Gufstafson, Business Review, Russians Soviet, Russian Federation, Russia Arino, joint ventures, joint venture, foreign joint ventures, foreign joint, yergin gustafson, ventures russia, joint ventures russia, russian partners, foreign investors, harvard business review, 1994 march-april, business review, american companies, joint ventures russian, political democracy free,
Approximate Word count = 2936
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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