Keyword: «cross-border cooperation»

The article discusses the possibility and necessity of including the cultural factor in the analysis of cross-border cooperation between Russia and Finland. The author considers the general scheme of actions when analyzing sociocultural factors and their influence on the level of cross-border cooperation. The article also summarizes the existing methods of quantitative analysis of socio-cultural factors, highlightes the techniques that are most suitable, according to the author, for the purpose of analyzing the influence of culture on cross-border cooperation.

In recent years, relations between Russia and Finland at the interstate level have experienced a period of serious cooling in due to the Ukrainian crisis of 2013–2014. Nevertheless, cooperation between the border territories of Russia and Finland, despite the sanctions and the decline in trade, continues today. In this regard, the regional institutional environment of cross-border economic cooperation (CEC), its quality is important. The article describes approaches to assessing the quality of the institutional environment of CEC; the example of the Republic of Karelia outlines the possibilities of such an assessment at the regional level.

Despite the long history of good-neighborliness and cross-border cooperation between Russia and Finland, the Ukrainian crisis has led to a chill in bilateral relations. Searching for ways to activate cross-border cooperation, the author of the article proposes to pay attention to socio-cultural factors, which have recently become the subject of economic analysis. The article examines the socio-cultural profiles of Russia and Finland according to the methods of G. Hofstede and the World Study of Values, analyzes their similarities and differences. The obtained estimates of cultural differences can become a starting point for further empirical research of informal institutions.

The experience of the BRIDGE cross-border cooperation project clearly shows that case technology is easily integrated into international educational projects. An example of the BRIDGE project is a more advanced level in solving business cases, since not only economic problems are solved, but also soft skills and intercultural communication of students are developed. The case method is especially successful if the project participants actively use such modern tools as storytelling, digital marketing, video materials, as well as mobile applications for group interaction: MS Teams, Slack, Trello, Wunderlist, etc.

One of the options for revitalizing cross-border cooperation between Russia and the European Union can be programs of cross-border cooperation in the field of higher education, based on the principles of partnership and depoliticization. As an example, a case study on the development of a marketing strategy for the entry of the Russian company "Trip for students" into the Scandinavian and Baltic markets is given. The case was solved by an international interdisciplinary team of students from Russia, Finland and Norway in the fall of 2021 as part of the 6th session of the BRIDGE international educational project.