Cultural hybridization in the Russian car industry[Hybridation culturelle dans l'industrie automobile russe]

How should foreigners manage a partnership or an acquisition in Russia? We know a lot about Russian culture per se, but research on foreign companies having to deal with Russia remains scarce. To answer our question, we used the concept of nationally-bound administrative heritage to identify how foreign practices are efficiently implemented in Russia in the context of partnerships and acquisitions. We interviewed 16 Russian managers working in the car industry about their perception of foreign practices and how things ought to be done. Our investigations show the maintenance of a strong national culture that generates a need to cope with uncertainty for foreign firms. For local people, Russia is a particular country, not comparable to others. When transferring practices, foreign managers need to organize hybridization processes in order to successfully import these practices. Hybridization means transferring but adapting in order to impregnate them with the Russian specificity. Such hybridization requires foreign managers to work and network locally for the implantation of practices.