eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Objectives of the study:

The goal of the study is to find the main reasons why Western small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Russian value-added resellers (VARs) are engaging into partnership with each other. Furthermore, the comparison of expectations has the purpose to reveal the differences or similarities that each side is holding on the partnership and requirements for successful partnership development. The second goal of the study is to develop a model of successful partnership between Western SMEs and Russian VARs that is based on combination of literature review and empirical study.

The theoretical background and methodology:

The study combines the existing research in the areas of value chain, partnership and Russian business environment. Then, the resource-based view is used to analyze those literature streams. Later, the importance for Western SMEs to get involved into value chain partnership in the context of Russia is presented. Finally, theoretical framework combines several existing models to offer preliminary framework for successful partnership between Western SMEs and Russian VARs. After the empirical findings were collected, the discussion of those data was performed in the light of the resource- based view. Finally, the revised theoretical framework added to the preliminary framework those elements that were not mentioned in the literature analysis.

Findings and conclusions:

There are two main findings from this study. First of all, the theoretical framework for successful partnership between Western SMEs and Russian VARs was developed by combination of several existing frameworks. Then it was tested in the Russian market and revised accordingly. Second, the perception of the partnership by Russian VARs and Western SMEs was collected and analyzed to find out the main reasons each sides is engaging into partnership and demonstrate how different/similar expectations from the partnership both sides hold.