Home Governments and MNEs in Russia: Relationships and MNE External Legitimacy

Abstract

This paper examines the complex relationships between the government and multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Russia. Different from most studies that focus on the state as a whole, we distinguish between different levels of government, namely federal and regional. We investigate how these relationships influence the ability of Russian MNEs to gain external legitimacy. We report the findings of a qualitative multiple-case study of 12 Russian MNEs based on observations and 55 face-to-face interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015. The analysis reveals four different types of relationships: collaborative, submissive, adversarial, and collusive. We find that collaborative and submissive relationships have a positive effect on the external legitimacy of MNEs, whereas adversarial and collusive ones have a negative effect. We conclude that Russian MNEs are able to gain external legitimacy by capitalizing on different types of relationships with the federal and regional governments and using them to advance their own international activities.

Keywords: Multiple-case study, Government-MNE relationships, Legitimacy, Russia