Conflict Management in German-Russian Joint Ventures

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1,4, University of Cooperative Education Mannheim, course: International Seminar, language: English, abstract: The German-Russian foreign trade has been doubled since the year 2000 to 50billion Euros. According to the Ost-Ausschuss of the German Economy (DeutscheWirtschaft) this positive trend will continue during the next years. Germancompanies are planning investments accounting to 1.4 billion Euros in the Russianmarket and as well Russian firms are going to invest in Germany.Russia is not only the biggest country in the world but also richest in commodities.Furthermore, it is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world with ageographical closeness to Germany. This should be reason enough for theGerman companies to invest in the Russian market and reversely. Next toexporting and licensing the entity form of joint ventures represents a good strategyfor entering the foreign market. The hosting partner will deliver the knowledge andtechnology and the home partner will offer experience in the market, meaningawareness of cultural differences, political regulations and potential conflicts.Nevertheless, joint ventures are also starting points for conflicts that mayendanger the success of the business. This paper deals with the conflictmanagement of joint ventures that have been coordinated by German andRussian firms.At first the terms conflict management and joint venture will be defined followed byan introduction to the two countries Germany and Russia. At the second stagedifferent starting points for conflicts will be determined. Examples of these are thedifferences in culture, the restrictions and regulations for entering the Russianmarket and opinions of experts on joint ventures with Russia. Due to the lacking ofdirect information on conflict management of actual joint ventures, two successfuljoint ventures will be presented. Occurred and potential conflicts will bedetermined. With help of these conclusions will be drawn upon the management ofconflicts which most often leads to success in business. To complete the paperlessons learnt for more Russian joint ventures will be pointed out.