Russian market internationalization: Ceramifor case study

The development of technologies made the world “smaller” fostering the emergence of connections between all parts of the world. Under such conditions companies tend to evolve into internationalization process expanding to different markets, pushed by various goals and motives. International business and management have been trying to develop ideal framework allowing companies avoid risks and implement the most appropriative entry strategy. Among the most popular perspectives we can highlight the Resource based view, Transaction costs view, Institutional view, Uppsala model, among others. The work is based on the case study of CERAMIFOR company, which is Portuguese producer of heat treatment equipment. The company has a large experience of world activity and is now interested in expanding into the Russian market to widen customers’ base and improve performance. Careful analysis of the Russian environment allowed to identify trends of the country’s economy movement, crucial points in political and cultural life. According to collected information specific characteristics of the negotiation with Russian community were declared. Customers’ database including most of companies from ceramic industry was organized. Concluding, results from joint theoretical approaches and the market analysis led to suggestions for CERAMIFOR potential entry strategy, which we think should focus on Export.