Analysis of the use of the blue ocean strategy in Russian companies

This article is devoted to the analysis of modern strategic management tools used by Russian managers and entrepreneurs, focusing particularly on the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS). An analysis of the literature revealed a relatively low level of publications devoted to the BOS, low citation rates, and the presence of system errors. All this determined the research objective: to assess the familiarity level of practitioners with the BOS. Other research objectives were: ranking the popularity and prominence of various business development strategies, evaluating the application level of the BOS by practicing managers, identifying barriers to the use of the BOS and explaining the insufficient level of use of the BOS in domestic practice. A working hypothesis has been put forward: practicing specialists in Russia are poorly familiar with the BOS and are not ready to apply it in practice. Anonymous interviewing technology using the on-line tool Yandex.Forms was chosen as a research tool. In the survey took part master's students of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade (of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University) in the field of study “Management” of full-time and part-time study, including online master's students, as well as participants in the Presidential Management Training Program for Organizations and Enterprises of the Russian Federation. The questionnaire contained 16 questions, and out of 201 completed questionnaires 168 (corresponded to the target audience) were selected: respondents should be familiar with Russian business or have work experience and also be familiar with the BOS (the source of their knowledge could be personal initiative or the educational process). The survey results confirmed the working hypothesis and assessed the level of use of the BOS. Barriers preventing its application by Russian practitioners were identified and systematized, including insufficient level of proficiency in the BOS methodology by domestic managers, lack of examples of using BOS in Russian business, the requirement for a radical revision of the organization's overall development strategy during the transition to the BOS. The study also identified directions for further research.