Zhukova D.A. Development of the system of strategic choice of a company. – Qualification research work as a manuscript.
The thesis for the scientific degree of a Candidate of Economic Sciences (Doctor of Philosophy) in specialty 08.00.04 – Economics and Management of Enterprises (by type of economic activity). – University of Customs and Finance. – Dnipro, 2021.
The thesis is dedicated to solution of the currently important scientific and practical issue on advancing the theoretical basis, methodical provisions and practical recommendations on the development of the system of strategic choice of a company.
The thesis contains analysis and refinement of the conceptual construct on the issues of the research, including the revised definitions of the “system”, “strategic choice” and “strategic decision”. The proposed distinction and refinement of the above definitions serves as a fundamental basis for the development of the system of strategic choice.
Based on the refined definitions of conceptual construct and proposed key elements of the system, the “system of strategic choice” was defined as the ordered set of the components of the strategic analysis, tooling of strategic choice, methods of decision making, strategic sets of strategies by all levels of hierarchy of strategies and corresponding strategic alternatives, that changes with time under the impact of the factors of external environment, depending on the financial state of a company and the quality of its information flows. The objective of the system is the development of methodic provisions for managerial decision making on choosing the strategy of the company and formulating a set of strategic alternatives of its development.
The procedure for making strategic decisions was proposed, which contains the processes of developing the information environment for choosing a strategy, strategic analysis of external environment and opportunities of company development, assessment of the financial state of a company, strategic choice and the activities of the decision maker. The distinguishing attribute of the procedure is the inclusion of the component of information to the procedure at different stages of decision making within each of the processes, as well as a distinct separate process.
Key trends of the machine-building industry and the activities of the machine-building companies were analysed based on the official statistics and the annual reports of forty three companies. The main issues of the industry were determined as the ones relating to the growth and its financing, the challenges of competitive abilities of the products on the domestic and international markets, as well as the adequacy of the products in relation to the new technology standards and potential to produce the innovative products.
The impacting factors of external environment were systemized and the scientific and methodic approach to the analysis of the impact of external environment on the company was developed. The approach is based on the calculation of an integrated measure using the set of indexes describing Ukrainian economic conditions.
A methodic approach to the analysis of the financial state of the company was proposed. The basis of the approach is the integrated measure calculated via Harrington’s desirability function as a folding technique, which distinguishes the proposed approach versus existing methods by neutralizing key potential disadvantages of integrated measures, e.g. possibility of correlations between components, differences in their scales, potential for data duplication etc. The method also leverages actual company data to develop the desirability scale, which corresponds to benchmarking approach.
To account for information component within the system of strategic choice a scientific and methodic approach to the evaluation of the quality of information flows of a company was developed. It is based on the analysis of incoming, outgoing and internal information flows of the company via a set of statements describing their quality, that can be leveraged to conduct an expert poll.
A matrix of strategic alternatives was developed based on the criteria of financial state and impact of external environment, and the strategic sets containing strategies of all hierarchical levels were formulated. To systemize the results of the research, a methodic approach to the development of the system of strategic choice of a company was proposed, which is based on the assessment of the impact of external environment and the financial state of a company, leveraging the matrix of strategic alternatives and the application of the method of fuzzy sets during the calculations.
Key words: system, strategic choice, strategic decision, external environment, financial state, machine-building company, information flows, strategic alternative, strategic set, matrix of strategic alternatives, system of strategic choice
