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Economic sanctions imposed by the EU and United States on Russia have brought significant changes into Russian foreign economic policy, in particular leading to deepening cooperation with Asian countries and China in particular. The present contribution aims to shed light on the influence of sanctions on Russian multinational enterprises (MNEs) internationalization toward China using the example of energy and information and communication technology (ICT) industries.

The chapter builds on case study analysis. The choice of sectors allows us to highlight the recent strategic trends in the internationalization of oil and gas industry, dominated by state-owned multinationals, and in ICT by privately owned companies.

Our results provide empirical data for understanding the influence of sanctions on MNEs from the country being under the sanctions. In the case of Russian oil and gas industry and ICTs, research indicates that the shift toward China was not initiated primarily by the sanctions. In both cases, expansion to Asian markets was correlated with business interests in the Chinese market. However, changes in geopolitical and macroeconomic business environment accelerated Russian MNE’s pivot to China, for the purposes of attracting capital and reaching new markets in context of deteriorating relations with western partners. The cases demonstrate a moderating role of the industry in the context of sanctions, helping compensate for the slowdown of economic relations with traditional partners.

The novelty of the chapter is to delineate the consequences of sanctions on MNEs from the country being under sanctions. In this way, it illustrates the role of geopolitical environment in intensifying internationalization of Russian MNEs toward China.

What core strategic capabilities should multinational and domestic firms possess to create competitive organization in Russia? In this chapter, we try to answer this question with our pilot case study of six firms operating in the Russian high-tech, low-tech, and services markets – four global companies and two Russian firms. Our research shows that customer orientation is the crucial strategic capability, highlighted by all of the firms involved in the research. For multinational and high-tech players, this is followed by research and development, mentioned by two-thirds of the respondents. Moreover, the four multinational companies leverage their strategic capabilities of cross-cultural management and general sales capabilities as keys for their success in Russia. Russian firms emphasize importance of entrepreneurship, understanding local customer needs, and an engaged team as strategic capabilities that particularly differentiate them from the multinational players in the Russian market.

We examine the behavior of the Russian stock market as one of the leading indices of economic health, reflecting investors’ expectations about future returns. The sample period includes the global financial crisis, a recovering period, and the recent crisis in the Russian economy 2014–2015.

We assume that the Russian stock market strongly depends on the global market, but the market is not fully integrated. This chapter investigates whether specific risk factors such as high dependence of the Russian economy on oil prices and currency volatility are priced in the Russian stock market, using International CAPM with time-variant parameters and conditional heteroskedasticity. The results show that the global financial crisis has had a profound negative impact on the Russian market, and that the expected return and liquidity has declined. The risk of investing in the Russian market is estimated as higher than in the developed market and even in other emerging markets after the global recession. We find that oil price exposure and currency risk to be priced in the Russian stock market and indicate that international investors require higher compensation for bearing these risks. The price of the currency risk has decreased since the implementation of the floating exchange rate regime by the Central Bank of Russia in 2014, but still significant.

Some opportunities to overcome the present stagnation and drive for a sustainable development are discussed.

The paper aims to examine the Russian stock and bond markets for evidence of calendar anomalies in the first decade of the twenty-first century including a monthly seasonality, weekday seasonality, and a turn-of-the-month (TOM) seasonality. The study is motivated by interest in the Russian transition to a free market economy and provides an opportunity to examine an important emerging market in the process of transition, while adding to the extensive body of research on calendar anomalies.

Parametric and non-parametric tests are used to examine two Russian stock indices and two Russian bond indices for evidence of persistent calendar patterns in daily returns. The paper also includes in the study a US bond index and US stock index.

There is strong evidence of a persistent monthly pattern (but no January effect) and strong evidence of weekday seasonality (but no Monday effect) in the Russian bond market. There is also strong support for a TOM effect in the Russian and US stock and bond markets.

The stock return data cover a ten-year period covering two recessions, two bull markets, and two bear markets, including the 2008 crisis. The bond market data are limited to six years of data and the results may be biased by the time period analyzed.

This is the first study, to the knowledge, that extensively examines the Russian stock and bond markets for evidence of calendar anomalies and finds a significant monthly pattern in Russian bonds.

The purpose of this paper is to document the first major step in the dissemination of modern marketing knowledge in the Soviet Union, the publication of a heavily censored, translated, unauthorized edition of Kotler's Marketing Management in Moscow in 1980. Kotler and his books in Russian translation have continued to inform how Russian marketers understand and implement marketing.

The research approach was historical, based on close comparison of texts; research in the USA and in Russia on the historical context; a comprehensive compilation of Kotler books translated into the Russian language; and interviews with key participants in the book's preparation.

The Soviet edition of Marketing Management was widely read by Soviet foreign trade experts and guided training for Soviet foreign trade enterprise managers in the 1980s. Kotler's book was the first – and, for a decade, the only – book on modern marketing in the Russian language. The story of the book's selection, censorship, publication, and impact provide insights into Soviet thinking about marketing and trade, and about post‐Soviet readiness to adopt modern marketing.

This paper presents for the first time the story behind the translation, censorship, and publication of Kotler's Marketing Management in the Soviet Union. It documents subsequent Kotler books published in the Soviet Union/Russia and how they shaped Kotler's reputation there.

This paper aims to focus on interactions between old and new cultural influences, investigating consumer preferences for a new type of product – the mobile phone – by looking at the cultural and socio‐economic factors that affect these preferences.

A total of 22 Russian experts in design and marketing were interviewed in the spring of 2005. The paper takes the viewpoint of Western firms interested in Russian (mobile phone) markets.

The study shows that the general features (high power distance, femininity, high uncertainty avoidance) characterizing Russian culture affect preferred mobile phone design. Long‐term values are seen, for example, in family orientation, which affects the use of mobile phones. Changing cultural and socio‐economic features are seen in the strict division of consumers into distinct segments. Current aspects of society, such as high level of street crime, are apparent in the desired features of products. The emerging Russian markets seem to consist of very different consumer groups and simultaneously represent both old and new cultural features and norms. Design has become a central tool for affecting product marketing, and an influential community of designers and a design industry are emerging.

Cooperation with the local designers can provide an important competitive edge and support when promoting both industrial and consumer goods in Russia's emerging markets.

Design was earlier neglected and it has only recently started to play a more significant role in production and marketing of products in Russia. Designers can now act as important intermediaries between Russian markets and Western marketers.

After the collapse of communist and socialist regimes at the beginning of 1990s, a number of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies started their journey into capitalism by establishing private property and capital markets. As a result, a number of stock markets have since been established in the region. Since then, they have displayed considerable growth in size and degree of sophistication, and they have attracted the interest of academics for a number of reasons. First, these markets provide a possibility to re-examine existing asset-pricing models and pricing anomalies in the conditions of the evolving markets. Market efficiency of the CEE markets is tested in Ratkovicova (1999) and Gilmore and McManus (2001); a version of the CAPM is tested in Charemza and Majerowska (2000); Mateus (2004) explores the predictability of European emerging market returns within an unconditional asset-pricing framework while the January-pricing anomaly is studied in Henke (2003). Second, in the light of growing interdependencies between world equity markets due to enhanced capital movements, numerous studies have investigated the extent to which emerging European stock markets are integrated with global markets, and the extent to which they are subjects to global shocks (Gelos & Sahay, 2000; Gilmore & McManus, 2002; Scheicher, 2001). Among the CEE markets, those of the Vysegrad countries (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) have attracted most of the attention of the academics due to their economies faster growth relative to their regional counterparts (Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Baltic countries), in addition to political stability and their (successfully realized) prospects of joining the European Union (EU).

The export of Russian educational services worldwide was not considered by the Russian Government as a full-fledged economic sector until recently. However, the situation has changed since the early 2000s, when in 2002, the Russian Government approved the national strategy for higher education promotion abroad and since then has been actively working on development of incentives and measures to support Russian universities to better market themselves in a global competitive market place of higher education. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors use a systematic approach to analyze different instruments for promoting higher education services abroad, consider the current state of this issue in Russia and look at what difficulties may arise at various levels when the state attempts to implement its strategy.

They are formulated as a set of marketing activities at different levels (national, regional and institutional), allowing a more advantage positioning of Russian universities in the global environment.

This paper focuses on the development of a marketing strategy for universities in a dynamic setting. The urgency of the problem is determined by the fact that today universities have to deal with a number of challenges: the reduced funding; increased competition at the regional, national and global markets; the growth of the importance of international and national rankings; and demographic and social challenges. Effective positioning in the global market place can be viewed as a source of new opportunities, as well as a challenge, not easy to master in some cases.

The paper scrutinizes strategies for the promotion of Russian universities to increase effectiveness of their positioning and create for them comfortable conditions for development in the world markets of educational services. The topic of marketing of educational services worldwide for a post-Soviet country is not an issue commonly addressed in the literature today.

The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret post‐socialist consumer experiences in relation to clothing consumption practices when consumers shop, acquire, and wear clothing and other fashion‐related products.

The in‐depth interview was the primary data collection tool. Data collection was conducted during summer 2004 in St Petersburg, Russia. College students formed the sample for the study. In total, 17 students (four males and 13 females) were interviewed. The hermeneutic approach was used to interpret the meanings of the participant lived experiences.

In comparison to consumers in an established market‐based economy, consumers in this post‐socialist market have unique perceptions of clothing attributes (quality, brand name, country of origin, retail channel) critical for buying decisions. Overall, appearance and clothing play a special role in the emerging Russian market as they help construct and communicate new identities more than any other product category.

Identified challenges of the Russian apparel market indicate opportunities for domestic and foreign apparel businesses. The meanings Russian consumers attach to clothing attributes can be used to develop product positioning and promotional strategies. Discussed implications of the research findings can be extended to other post‐socialist emerging markets.

This study explored how Russian consumers have adjusted to the new economic reality after almost fifteen years of transition from a socialist to a capitalist society from the perspective of the consumer. Whereas previous research findings were confirmed, the present study provides rationale for perceived importance of quality and unimportance of brand name in the Russian apparel market.

This paper explores and analyses the findings from a survey of UK participants in a trade mission to Moscow, with reference to relevant academic literature. The focus is on their experience of doing business in transition economy (TE) country‐markets (including Russia itself); their perceptions of Russian market opportunities and risks; their main sources of information and advice; and their strategies for Russian market entry and development. The findings suggest businesses with experience of TEs and Russia may be best placed to succeed in the Russian market, provided that they draw fully on the resultant lessons. Newcomers to the Russian market can maximise their chances of success by seeking out good information and advice, forging good contacts with Russian businesses, and by adopting a well‐structured, but flexible approach to their marketing strategies. Official support agencies can help UK businesses to succeed in Russia by maximising the quantity and quality of the support, information and advice that they provide.