No abstract

No abstract

This article explores the specific features of the institutional environment and their implications for business operations of Russian companies on foreign markets. The author gives some insights into the relationships between internationalisation and firm behaviour. In order to analyse how and how far internationalisation can influence enterprise behaviour, this article deals with the business activities of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom on foreign markets. It hypothesises that the different institutional settings on the various markets influence the enterprise behaviour of Gazprom, i.e. that internationalisation disseminates international norms and practices. Der Artikel beleuchtet die spezifischen Merkmale der institutionellen Umgebung und ihre Verwicklungen für Geschäftshandlungen von russischen Unternehmen auf ausländischen Märkten. Der Autor gibt Einblick in die Beziehungen zwischen Internationalisierung und Firmenverhalten. Zwecks der Analyse, wie und inwieweit Internationalisierung das Unternehmensverhalten beeinflusst, behandelt der Artikel die Geschäftstätigkeiten des russischen Gasmonopolisten Gazprom in ausländischen Märkten. Er stellt die Hypothese auf, dass die unterschiedlichen institutionalen Bedingungen auf den unterschiedlichen Märkten das Unternehmensverhalten von Gazprom beeinflussen, d.h., dass Internationalisierung die Verbreitung von internationalen Normen und Praktiken zur Folge hat.

The social sciences are increasingly addressing the quality of research data and debating ways to improve data transparency, that is, the availability of original research data to corroborate claims made in academic publications. This article offers a systematic discussion of related problems and challenges with the example of post-Soviet area studies. It goes on to examine ways to improve data transparency. Although the Internet has a huge potential for linking research with resulting publications and underlying data as well as for organizing a collective discussion around the research, current data repositories do not truly go beyond basic upload and download functions for datasets. With the example of the Discuss Data project, this article gives an overview of more elaborated features that can easily be implemented to improve the visibility and quality assessment of data collections. Finally, it discusses ethical concerns about data transparency related to privacy protection and copyrights.

This article examines the political economy of foreign direct investment in the Russian oil and gas industry in order to explain the limited role of foreign capital in this sector. There are three forms of foreign direct investment in the Russian oil and gas industry: (1) joint ventures, (2) investment within the framework of a production sharing agreement (PSA) and (3) foreign equity investment. The development of these three forms of foreign direct investment is analysed with special reference to the interests of the parties involved, before a conclusion on the political factors determining the conditions for foreign investment is made.