SPATIAL AND SECTORAL ASPECTS OF FOREIGN TRANSNATIONAL BUSINESS OPERATION IN RUSSIA

Abstract

The study is devoted to the identification of sectoral and spatial features of the functioning of transnational business in Russia. The author used two analytical approaches: the one based on the analysis of flows and the nature of foreign direct investment and the other based on work with materials on the activities of individual transnational companies. Both approaches are described; the advantages and disadvantages of their application are identified; joint use of these approaches is shown to be beneficial for a productive economic and geographical analysis of foreign transnational activities in Russia. The author created a database of 100 largest non-financial foreign companies operating in Russia, which contains comparable information about all the companies: specialization, country of registration, location of the head office in Russia, number of branches and their location in Russia, number of the company’s own enterprises and their location in Russia, whether and where the company conducts educational activities, whether and where the company conducts research activities, the value of net assets, and the amount of revenue. Based on this, the companies were ranked according to each of the listed quantitative indicators and the largest of them were identified; the geography of their registration was determined, their belonging to economically developed countries and countries with economies in transition is noted; the sectoral structure of their activity was identified, the leadership of electronics, food industry, pharmaceuticals, automotive industry, and retail trade is shown; the activities of the companies within each industry are described, with a statement of the number of the employed with the companies, country affiliation, and the location of production, research, and educational activities. The companies were grouped according to their attitude to work in Russia under economic and political sanctions: companies that have announced their complete withdrawal from Russia; companies that have suspended the implementation of investment projects, marketing campaigns, closed part of of part of their production facilities; companies that do not plan to cease their operation in Russia. A correlation has been revealed between the type of behavior of a foreign company in Russia, on the one hand, and the sectoral structure of its activities and the geography of registration, on the other. The reasons for the correlation are indicated: a situation when the company's specialization falls under the sanctions list of goods or when the company is registered in a country being the initiator of the sanctions.