Identification of russian corporations' strategies: markers and results

A strategy is an integral part of the corporate governance and planning process in companies. Today, in a period of high uncertainty in most markets, strategic planning allows companies to pay special attention to the most effective development directions, point out priorities, and assess the effectiveness of company management and its decisions. The study aims to assess the comparative performance of various types of corporate strategies based on identifying their types and strategy markers. The study of existing approaches to the classification of companies’ strategies made it possible to identify their advantages and disadvantages and, on this basis, propose an alternative typology of companies’ strategies. The proposed alternative typology of strategies is based on the characteristics of the corporation’s environment and its response to external stimuli, as well as the planning methods used by corporations. Seven types of corporate strategies were identified and analyzed: classic planned, classic process, classic ideological, adaptation, formation strategy, visionary, renewal strategy. Strategy markers are identified for each strategy type: indicators that allow one or another implemented strategy to be attributed to a specific type following the adopted typology. The authors empirically analyzed the data of the 40 most significant Russian corporations and studied their strategies and performance indicators concerning each of the strategy types. It was found that the classic process, which is based on a clear vision of the expected results and their process-by-process planning, is the most common strategy type among the most significant Russian corporations. Also, many corporations are implementing the classic planning strategy, which is more formal: developing plans without clearly indicating the directions and ways of their implementation. To identify the most effective type of strategy, an analysis of performance indicators (revenue and market capitalization) of corporations was carried out within the framework of individual strategies. It was found that the revenue growth of the companies surveyed over ten years (from 2010 to 2019) did not differ significantly for groups of companies with different types of strategies. However, the market capitalization growth for the period from 2010 to 2020 was different for various strategy type related groups of corporations with the indicator sometimes differing by 2.5 times. The directions of further research are: the inclusion of a larger number of companies in the analysis, addition and more detailed analysis of the results of the companies following different strategy types, international comparisons in the frequency of distribution and industry specificity of the strategies used, assessment of the impact of technological transformations and implementation of Industry 4.0 achievements on the strategies and the results of their implementation.