ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategies of Finnish companies in Russia and aims at relating the findings to some general concepts and theories in the strategy literature. The empirical research is based on case studies, which comprise 12 enterprises with Finnish ownership. The investments made by Finnish companies in Russian subsidiaries have generally been relatively small, particularly in relation to the size of the parent companies. The most common motivation of the investors to enter the Russian market has been the attraction of the huge mostly untapped market. Although the motivations for entry are generally clearly explained by Finnish managers, the business strategy for the Russian market seems to be somewhat vague for many Finnish investors. Most Finnish companies have started their operations in Russia via exporting and even after setting up a production subsidiary they often import a relatively big share of their production factors.
