Abstract

Due to the ongoing process of world globalisation, the prevailing majority of the world’s biggest multinational corporations (MNCs), including European ones, are opening subsidiaries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was created as a successor entity to the Soviet Union and comprises most of its ex-members. As successors, post-socialist states inherited not only rich resources and large territories, but also the need for transition from planned to open market economies (Altman 2009) that facilitate the interests of European companies in this region, as increasing involvement of European companies in CIS countries means having new markets, customers, labour force and, thus, business development opportunities. The increased economic integration along with the evolution of the important international economic and business organisations has led to a remarkable boost of the world’s businesses. The step of expanding companies to the CIS might be considered an inevitable one: while the market niches in these regions are not occupied, the business strategy of market development seems reasonable.