One type of international business activity that is expanding rapidly in Russia is the business-to-business transaction (Milmo, 1990, p. 38). Russian companies are in great need of western technology and western management assistance. This need has prompted western firms to advertise on a business-to-business basis to their counterparts in the east. Conversely, manufacturers in Russia are badly in need of western markets (State Statistical Committee, 1992, p. 31). This need has resulted in business-to-business advertising by the east in the west.
In the context of consumer marketing, western business firms are slowly learning that what is acceptable in the west is often unacceptable in Russia. In line with the social system to which they have become accustomed over the past 70 plus years, Russians tend to be irked and offended by western lifestyle advertising (Advertising Age, 1990, p. 56). As western marketers and advertising agencies have expended great efforts in determining what will appeal to western audiences, so must they act in Russia. It will not be sufficient to assume that what works in the west will be equally effective in Russia.A major anomaly between the Russian economy and those of the developed western countries is the nature of risk. In part, risk in Russia is affected by the foreign debt, both of the former Soviet Union and of contemporary Russia.
Net Soviet foreign debt increased by 17.2 percent in 1986, to a level approximating US$30 billion (Rossant and D'Anastasio, 1986, p. 49). In 1987, it rose yet another 16.7 percent, to approximately US$35 billion (Shirreff, 1987, p. 46). By 1990, Soviet external debt reached a level of US$53 billion--a further 51.4 percent over the three-year time period.
A net external debt of US$53 billion was not a worrisome level for an economy the size of that of the former Soviet Union, nor is it for an economy the size of the Russia of the early-1990s, the count...