Purpose– This study aims to examine relational norms in cross-cultural business settings. Cross-cultural business partners may differ in theirnormative orientations toward relational exchange. Owing to the high extent of international trade, there is a need for developing a more nuancedunderstanding of cross-cultural relational exchange.Design/methodology/approach– The repertory grid method was used to elicit the personal constructs characterizing the perceptions ofbusiness-to-business (B2B) relational exchange for 22 Russian and Finnish managers. These items were further categorized into categories ofrelational elements drawn from relational exchange literature using a content analysis. Then, the category means of scored importance and scoredevaluations of domestic and foreign business partners were tested statistically.Findings– Relational norms of flexibility, information exchange, long-term orientation, mutuality and solidarity were equally important to bothRussian and Finnish managers. The importance of a business partner’s ability seems to be culturally dependent. Sharing the same culturalbackground might have an adverse effect when evaluating poorly functioning business relations.Research limitations/implications– The validity of these findings is limited to this context and material. Future research should repeatcross-cultural comparisons of the relational norms with more data and other nationalities.Practical implications– Firms should focus on long-term orientation and mutual targets to form well-functioning cross-cultural businessrelationships.Originality/value– This study provides new knowledge into B2B marketing literature by revealing the role of relational norms, business partner’sability and shared cultural background on functionality of cross-cultural business relations. It also demonstrates the use of the repertory grid methodin studying perceptions of relational norms.