MAKING A MUNDANE CEREMONY INTO A MEANINGFUL ORGANIZATIONAL RITUAL -- RE-DESIGN OF RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONIES FOR OVERSEAS MANUFACTURING PROJECTS

NRU Higher School of Economics , 2020. No. WP BRP 62/MAN/2020.

Gurkov I. B.

According to UNCTAD, the global number of foreign direct investment projects in manufacturing announced in 2018 reached 8049 (UNCTAD, 2019: 9-10). Although the real number of realized projects will be much smaller in 2020-2021 because of the global fall of foreign direct investments (UNCTAD, 2020: xi) the overall number of newly installed factories will be still counted in thousands. In many developing and emerging markets, especially in South-East Asia, Latin America and Russia, ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new facilities opened by foreign investors are mandatory. We ran a study identifying all videoed ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new facilities opened by foreign investors in Russia in 2012- 2018. Using a detailed analysis of the content of speeches delivered by representative of foreign investors and representative of local authorities at those ceremonies, and information obtained through personal observations and interviews, we were able to discover the surface and deeper level meaning attaching to these ceremonies, to propose the definition of efficient plant-opening ceremonies and to demonstrate how it is possible to amend the design of such ceremonies to increase their effectiveness and also to increase mental coherence between the corporate center and oversea subsidiaries.

Keywords: Россия, Russia, промышленные предприятия, прямые иностранные инвестиции, manufacturing, foreign direct investment (FDI), organizational rituals, организационные ритуалы

Publication based on the results of: ­­­Forms and Methods of Development of Manufacturing Facilities by Multinational Corporations in Russia (2020)