Employees’ Opportunism and Firm Performance: Evidence from Russian Corporations

The paper aims to analyze the relationship between behavioral opportunism and the firm performance of Russian corporations. The research is based on the survey results of 463 Russian employees from 57 biggest companies from all leading industries. The survey results allowed us to calculate the opportunism level for every respondent and every company. The research shows the negative correlation between opportunism and firm performance in Banking, Communication, and Metallurgy. The correlation is positive for Energy, Transport. In other industries (Retail, Manufacturing, Oil and gas industry, Transport, Chemistry) there’s no significant relationship between opportunism and firms performance. The study results partially confirm the initial hypothesis of the study. The results will be useful for the human capital-related programs based on decreasing opportunism levels in companies. The research results interpretation is limited by country and by the method. Research results can be used for further development of related studies (for wider samples, more performance indicators, comparative studies).