Page 32 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

researchers in this field has been taken into consideration while developing the questionnaires and response options.
The field research in Russia for this study is organised as follows:
i. Conduction of 11 pilot interviews with (advised) Russian organisations in 2011
for gaining basic ideas and directions for the actual research;
ii. Development of the two separate questionnaires with predominantly close-ended
questions;
iii. Conduction of 2 pilot interviews with advised Russian organisations and 2 pilot
interviews with Russian managers, alumni of the Presidential Programme for
testing the questionnaires;
iv. Finalisation of the two questionnaires;
v. Distribution of the questionnaires among the sample populations “A” and “B” through digital channels (predominantly email);
vi. Statistical analysis of the completed and returned questionnaires;
vii. Development of the focus group guideline;
viii. Conduction of focus group sessions and individual in-depth interviews with randomly selected respondents in Kazan, Perm, Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinenburg, which are economically active cities, spread over Russia;
ix. Methodological analysis of both the outcomes of the questionnaires and the focus group sessions and interviews;
x. Thesis writing.
Research target groups
Data sets of companies, involved in and benefitted from the NMCP-PUM Programme and alumni of the Presidential Programme, with traineeship experience in Germany and The Netherlands, are questioned on the level of cultural differences. The focus was on what they had experienced during the advisory project (organisations) or as beneficiaries of the business training and internship in host-companies (i.e. managers/entrepreneurs).
A permission to use the data bases of contact information of knowledge recipients (Russian organisations) and the full scope of advisory clients among Russian for-profit organisations was granted. The support of the RVO Agency of Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German GIZ organisation was instrumental in establishing connections with the alumni of the Presidential Programme, from the cohorts from 1998 until 2016. Additionally, the organisation of the “Netherlands Senior
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