Building successful cross-border cooperation : Case: trust building in the relationship between the Finland-based company TMI New Media Professional IC and the Russian company Sweet-Tour Ltd.

Abstract

The aim of this Bachelor Thesis is to help TMI New Media Professional IC and Sweet-Tour Ltd. building successful cooperation with each other on the basis of mutual trust. TMI New Media Professional IC is a Finland-based company located in Tornio which specializes in marketing of tourism in the Tornio-Haparanda area and developing projects with tourist companies. Sweet-Tour Ltd. specializes in local and cross-border tourism, bringing tourists from the Murmansk region to the Nordic countries and vice versa. The studied companies have not established the cooperation yet.

For carrying out the research, the following aspects were studied. The topics include challenges related to strategic vision, organizational cultures and soft skills of the partners, success and critical success factors, strategies for the successful cooperation, and trust building between the partners.

Two structured interviews with the owners of the studied companies and literature analysis were used for data collection in this qualitative single-case study. Due to the fact that the studied companies had not established the cooperation yet, the overall research was based on the concept of building business relationships, namely on the pre-relationship and exploratory stages.

The result suggested that the following factors might influence the successful cooperation: shared goals and values of the partners, open communication for developing understanding, mutual commitment, and importance of the trust building between the partners. The work concludes by suggesting recommendations for the studied companies in order to make it possible for them to succeed in their partnering process.

Key words: cross-border cooperation, challenges, success factors, strategic alliance, trust building.