The case study is about two companies established by Russians with only a recent Western investors involved.
Generally there are four key factors related to context differentiation that need to be especially considered when focusing on knowledge sharing in Russian companies with Western participation:

• the business contacts between Russia and the West are not characterized by rich traditions and a long history,


• the knowledge providers and the knowledge seekers are from the different cultures and represent very different ideological, religious, and social backgrounds as well,


• language is the core of communication difficulties and misunderstandings and heavily affects the processes of learning and knowledge sharing,


• Russian culture is generally considered to be a collectivist culture what causes great difficulties in dealing with the Western participation.

Russians accumulate knowledge but do not share it, not even between the departments within the organisation. Knowledge is approached as an important source of individual power. Another problem is a fear of making and admitting mistakes. Making a mistake is not viewed as learning opportunity and talking about mistakes is taboo.
There’s a presence of “not-invented-here syndrome”, which shows a resistance towards using knowledge created somewhere else.

The strong hierarchical status builds a barrier in knowledge sharing, especially from lower to higher levels. Russian managers have difficulties accepting that they can learn from employees from the lower levels. Especially in Russian-West cooperation it is difficult to develop mutual trust.