SALES MANAGEMENT IN FOREIGN MARKETS : Case study on Finnish companies´ knowledge management in Russia

Finnish companies’ sales in Russia are important income from the perspective of foreign trade. Over the years many companies of Finnish origin have established operations in Russia and practiced business model that suit new markets. Often the management style of foreign subsidiary has been same as in home market, but the dynamic environment demanded a lot of operational adaptation. There is only limited number of academic research on international sales. The lack of universal guidelines for sales management in foreign markets had led to the situation, where companies develop their operations and create own management systems and transfer information to meet the changing environment and demand. Finnish companies have their own best practices to perform sales and collect knowledge from Russian markets. There are differences in most suitable operation model. Company´s business model, amount of experience in foreign trade and available resources all affect modification of strategy. Many sales executives are put in a position where besides numerical data analyses of performance they are expected to excel in cross-border human resource management, knowledge management and information collection on foreign markets. This research strives to find explanations to success of Finnish companies managing sales in Russia. The focus is on the perspective of knowledge management, which is argued to affect performance in markets. Theoretical framework included international sales management, knowledge management theories and culture- and market specific characteristics of human resource management. The research method was case study research with interviews of sales executives of three different Finnish companies and one Russia-expert interview. The results of research indicate Finnish companies to rely on their know-how when it comes to management of foreign sales in Russia. Sales organizations are adapted to changing business needs of foreign market, but in knowledge management company is dependent on competence of managers. Sales executives, who rely on their experience and lead employees in Russia based on own beliefs and strategy developed in Finland may create fragile organization or ensure survival in foreign markets. Contribution of this research is the perspective of importance of knowledge management in cross-border sales organization management. Finnish companies are advised to adapt sales organization strategies to meet set targets and continuously collect knowledge from their foreign employees