International project management in the Russian business environment

Abstract

Project management is a discipline that manages projects, both domestic and international, so that they are completed successfully in time and according to project plan. In international and especially in Russian business context, project management is vital tool in order to fulfill customers’ need and solve possible cross-cultural problems and in this way foster new possibilities for new project opportunities for project providers.

Russian business environment is approaching to the Western business culture and environment, but it still has its own characteristics. These characteristics must be taken account when Western project providers enter the Russian markets or operate there.

The purpose of this Master’s Thesis was to study how can the international projects be successfully managed in the Russian business context from the project providers’ perspective The focus was on risk management and stakeholder management in the Russian business environment. Also the cultural aspects were taken account in this study.

The research approach of the Thesis was deductive and qualitative. The empirical data was collected through seven unstructured face-to-face interviews with Finnish small and middle sized project providers which possess experience on Russian business environment as well as with Russian business experts.

The result revealed that risk management of projects should be accordance to the target market, in this case the Russian Federation, and must contain also general risk management of project business. Also stakeholder management is vital when operating in Russian business environment since networking and trust are extremely important in Russian business