What Affects the Strategy Type of the Biggest Russian Corporations?

The chapter aims analysis of the factors influencing the selection of the declared strategy type of the biggest Russian corporations. The research focuses on institutional factors: industry, ownership, amount, and composition of the board of directors. The chapter uses data on the 40 largest Russian corporations’ strategies in terms of sales proceeds, independently collected and systematized by the authors, and information on the factors studied. The combined approach is developed to identify the strategy type, based on two approaches: Reeves-Love-Tillmanns and Mintzberg-Waters. Four types of strategy are identified: classical planned, classical process, classical ideological, and formation strategy. Chi-squared testing is used to analyze the influence of factors on the choice of a strategy type. Classical planned and classical process strategies are more frequent than others, while classical ideological and formation strategies are encountered only in 3–4 cases. As a result of empirical research, the dependence between strategy type and three factors (industry, ownership, the share of independent directors in the board of directors) is confirmed. The board of directors’ size and women’s share in it did not significantly influence the strategy type. State-owned companies often use the classic planned strategy, while private companies use the classic process strategy. Metallurgical corporations’ adherence to the classical process strategy and financial companies and banks to the formation strategy is also revealed.