ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies those factors that enhance or decrease interpersonal/interorganisational trust between Russian and western partners to an east-west strategic alliance in Russia. Researchers on east-west business partnerships in Russia generally propose that the optimum kind of trust is affective, emotionally-based trust, which is much stronger and durable than cognitive or institutionally-based trust. The chapter focuses on investigating factors that build or reduce trust in expatriate-local relationships in east-west enterprises in Russia. It aims to the development of a practical model, based on empirical data, which could help companies to understand the functioning and development of trust in east-west business relationships in Russia. The initial arrangement would be characterised as low trust, as westerners implement ways of doing business in their own image, and transfer functional competence to Russian partners and staff. The monitoring-interpersonal skills continuum, and the proposed development of business relationships through the ideal model, represent baselines.
