Characteristics of the Finnish transportation corridor for the Russian automotive industry

The Russian automotive industry has enjoyed fast growth in recent years. The increase of consumer demand in Russia has created huge business potential for the Finnish logistics industry and Finland as an important transportation corridor. The objective of this paper is to identify the factors that hinder or enhance the utilisation of the Finnish transportation corridor by the Russian automotive industry. The research approach of this study can be categorised as a case study, and the data has been collected by conducting theme interviews in five companies, two of which represent logistics service providers in Finland, and three companies operate in the automotive industry in north‐western Russia. The objective of the interviews was to find out the main strengths and weaknesses of the Finnish transportation corridor. The results indicate that the competitiveness of Finnish transportation corridor looks promising, e.g., the security and border‐crossing practices of the Finnish corridor are considered to be at a high level, whereas nationwide marketing strategies and the cost‐effectiveness of the corridor need to be improved.