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FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Saint Petersburg School of Economics and Management

Department of Management

Bachelor's thesis

Intellectual capital and development strategy of modern company

Maksimova Polina Vladimirovna

In the field 38.03.02 `Management'

Educational programme `Management'

Reviewer: docent M.L. Krichevskiy

Supervisor: PhD E.G. Serovah

Saint Petersburg

2019

Abstract

The significance of the paper is in revealing direct, visible connection between intellectual capital and development strategy, using the example of the Russian industrial oil company Public Joint-Stock Company (PJSC) Gazprom Neft. It will be able to describe and evaluate the impact of intellectual capital in the form of digitalization and its products on the development strategy of the oil company, as well as the current state of digitalization in Russian oil companies: is the digital economy ready for large-scale digitalization, does it have barriers, is it ready for the introduction of digital technologies and products today? The answer on mentioned above question will be received from the in-depth interviews from representatives of 5 different departments of the company, various age and work experience. As a result, it is expected to see a positive attitude of employees towards digitalization and its direct influence on the development of the company's future strategy.

Keywords: intellectual capital, strategy, development, digitalization

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. Theoretical foundation
• 1.1 Intellectual capital
• 1.2 Development strategy
• 1.2.1 The first classification: Linear, Adaptive, Interpretive strategy
• 1.2.2 The second classification: Evolutionary, Grand Design, Incremental strategy
• 1.3 Digitalization
• 1.3.1 Digital economy in Russia
• 1.3.2 Digitalization in the oil industry
• 1.3.3 PJCS “Gazprom neft”: digitalization strategy
• 2. Statement of the research question
• 3. Methodology
• 4. Description of the results
• Conclusion
• Reference list
• Appendix

Introduction

What happens if you combine the concepts of intellectual capital and development strategy? Probably something worthwhile and perhaps having a place to be in a modern company. The word “maybe” is mentioned above, as well as today there is no qualitative background in the form of theoretical and practical research, confirming or refuting the positive or negative influence of the two concepts on each other. Thus, the research topic is Intellectual capital and Development strategy of modern company.

Today in Russia there are many enterprises, large and small, amenable to Western trends from strategic development and digital trends, which in turn are part of structural intellectual capital. The company on which this study will be based is the vertically integrated oil company PJSC Gazprom Neft, which actively promotes and develops digitalization in its activities.

The main problem of the research lies in the fact that today there are no studies on the Russian market that reveal the connection and pattern between the constituent and types of intellectual capital and the development strategy of a company. Existing studies describe only cases of separate development of these components for various industries and countries.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the influence of intellectual capital in the form of digitalization and its products on the development strategy of an oil producing company. The purpose of the study is exploratory, its feature and relevance is not only that the issue of integrating intellectual capital and strategy is poorly understood, but also in the specifics of the company itself, as well as in addition to extracting raw materials, vertically integrated oil companies are engaged in refining, supply chains, sales of petroleum products, monitoring production safety and compliance with environmental standards. Each of the above activities has its own development strategy, which is currently being modernized and automated, correlating with changes that are happening in parallel in the digital economy of the state.

The research strategy is to conduct a study, videlicet an in-depth interview with employees of various departments and various work experience. To carry out this study and determine the impact of the two main components on each other, an in-depth study will be conducted with twelve heads of various departments of the companies responsible for the procurement, import substitution, marketing, HR, capital construction and exploration projects at the fields. The purpose of the in-depth study is to determine the attitude of division managers to digital changes in the company's strategy for its activities in a global and local sense, that is, for the company's performance as a whole and for the comfort of employees. The variables obtained, namely the qualitative data from the in-depth interview, are independent variables, since the responses, properties and intentions of the respondents are unspecified.

Furthermore, for a clearer understanding of the company's development strategy, it is necessary to determine its type: Evolutionary, Grand Design or Incremental (Wasson, 2005). The definition of the type of going to be carried out according to the existing description, criteria, and also it is going to be based on the analysis of the employees received from in-depth interviews.

The research question of this paper is as follows: How does intellectual capital in the form of digitalization and its products affect the development strategy of the oil producing company PJSC Gazprom Neft?

Furthermore, research has following subsidiary questions:

* Does structural capital have a significant impact on the development strategy of a Russian oil company?

* Do strategies of development of other industrial enterprises in Russia influence the development strategy of oil producing companies?

* Is the Russian digital economy ready for the introduction of digital products into the activities of a Russian oil company?

* Does digitalization have barriers to development in Russian oil companies?

* Is digitalization, according to company employees, significant in terms of strategy for the next 5 years?

This study has 4 hypotheses:

1. The development strategy of company is closely related to digitalization and digital economy;

2. The more time employees work in the company, the more negative attitude they have towards digitalization;

3. Company employees see only the theoretical, non-practical development of the company's digital strategy;

4. Company has Incremental development strategy, rather than Evolutionary or Grand design.

Research choices or research method used in the work is a mixed method, since the analysis of secondary data, namely the analysis of cases related to digitalization in Russia, in Russian and foreign industrial companies, their influence on the development strategy is initially carried out. It also discusses the relationship between the level of development of production and the development of a digital economy and national policy. Then an in-depth interview is conducted and, as a consequence, an analysis of the primary data received from the respondents. Primary data includes the respondents' attitude both to digitalization in general and to its influence on the company's development strategy for the next 5 years (is the introduction of this phenomenon relevant to the company's employees, to production activities, as well as to processing, supply and the sale of raw materials.)

The time horizons of the research is cross-sectional, since data collection is carried out in one period of time in order to find the answer to the research question, namely within a month, it does not have further information update or re-data collection after a certain period of time.

To achieve the goal of the work, it is necessary to take the following steps:

* Studying the theoretical background of intellectual capital, development strategy and digitalization, both individually and in aggregate, reflecting the influence of these concepts on each other;

* Examining the findings and integrating the findings with the current and future strategies of Gazprom Neft aimed at digitization in various sectors of its activities;

* Conducting in-depth interviews with 12 heads of company lines with different work experience and relevance to digitalization, and an analysis of the results obtained;

* Consolidation of the results, identification of limitations for further study of this issue and disclosure of the topic of the impact of intellectual capital on the strategy.

1. Theoretical foundation

Today, in the conditions of rapid business development, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of how to properly build a working strategy for developing the potential of a company. For this, in turn, it is necessary to understand how the internal mechanism of the company works, what it consists of.

Therefore, in order to lay the foundation for building the correct development strategy of PJSC Gazprom Neft in terms of digitalization, it is necessary to disassemble the following components: first of all this concept and types of intellectual capital, then it is necessary to consider the types of digitalization and its current state in Russia, define the concept and types of development strategy and, in conclusion, it is necessary to analyze the company's current strategy for reviewing the development and development of digitalization.

1.1 Intellectual capital

According to Marr and Schiuma, intellectual capital can be defined as the group of knowledge assets that are attributed to an organization and most significantly contribute to an improved competitive position of this organization by adding value to defined key stakeholders (Marr & Schiuma, 2001).

Intellectual capital is a fairly broad concept, with the result that it is divided into several categories: human capital, structural and organizational. (Stewart & Ruckdeschel, 1998) Consider each of the above categories and definitions.

· Human capital

Human capital includes the cumulative knowledge, experience, skills, creative and intellectual potential of employees of companies that are used by the organization or individual for profit (Chiucchi & Dumay, 2015). The recognition of human capital may cause the need for innovative changes, knowledge of their foundations, know-how, creative and developed thinking, experience, ability to work in a team, willingness to uncertainty, motivation, initiative, learning ability, etc.

· Relational capital

Relational capital is defined as a collection of all resources, as well as customers, suppliers, contractors, partners in the field of research and development. (Chiucchi & Dumay, 2015) It includes relationships with interested parties, such as investors, customers, suppliers, contractors. Clients are given the opportunity to negotiate with financial institutions and environmental activities. (Martini, 2016)

· Organizational capital

Organizational capital is internal organizational procedures, corporate culture, and internal databases. (Chiucchi & Dumay, 2015) The reason may be the documentation service, the general use of information technology and the organizational learning potential.

Furthermore, there is another classification of intellectual capital by The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (IFAC, 1998).

Table 1

Classification of intellectual capital by IFAC

Classification of intellectual capital	Characteristics
Human capital	· know-how · education · vocational qualification · work-related knowledge · occupational assessments · psychometric assessments · work-related competencies · entrepreneurial plan, innovativeness, proactive and reactive abilities, changeability
Relational (customer) capital	· brands · customers · customer loyalty · company names · backlog orders · distribution channels · business collaborations · licensing agreements, · favorable contracts · franchising agreements
Organizational (structural) capital	Intellectual property · patents · copyrights · design rights · trade secrets · trademarks · service marks Infrastructure assets · management philosophy · corporate culture · management processes · information systems · networking systems · financial relations

intellectual capital development strategy

Intellectual capital management has the potential to become a successful strategy for the development of the company in the future if you understand and are able to work with both tangible and intangible components of intellectual capital. In order to begin effectively managing intellectual assets, it is necessary to understand that not all assets are the same. Some assets may require investments, some may require their withdrawals, and some may have no value at all.

Therefore, taking into account the subject of this work, it may be said that further concentration will be on human capital, with an emphasis on digitalization as a tool for the development of the company, using the knowledge of employees, their skills and competencies.

1.2 Development strategy

When people at all levels manage the process, it is more likely that the changes will be implemented well and sustainably over time. And we often watch leaders in organizations tired of months of the strategy process, losing valuable opportunities to stimulate execution, ensuring that each team member deeply understands not only the strategy itself, but more importantly, the implications of the strategy for this person's role in the organization. Effective implementation is the creation of your team's ability to understand, respond and adjust, rather than simply implement a static plan imposed from above.

The concept of "strategy" is quite broad and, therefore, can be perceived by a different circle of specialists in different ways. For instance, there is a classic definition by A. D. Chandler “Strategy can be defined as the determination of the long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals”. (Chandler, 1962)

Further, two classifications will be considered: the first classification reveals the classic types of strategy and includes a linear strategy, an adaptive strategy, an interpretative strategy; the second classification reveals the types of development strategies, namely an evolutionary development strategy, an incremental development strategy, a grand design development strategy.

1.2.1 The first classification: Linear, Adaptive, Interpretive strategy

Linear strategy

This type of model it denotes a methodical, directional, consistent action, focused on planning. You can also say that the linear model is inherent in the definition of Chandler's strategy. According to the linear representation, a strategy consists of integrated actions, plans and decisions that define and achieve organizational goals. Both goals and methods of achieving them are the results of a strategic decision. In the process of achieving specific goals, organizations try to adjust their product to the current state of the market. (Chaffe, 1985)

Adaptive strategy

The adaptive model differs from linear to model in that market changes are usually tracked and these changes are also taken into account when forming a product. Determining the strategic behavior of an adaptive model goes beyond the linear and includes not only significant changes in products and markets, but also subtle changes in style, marketing, quality, and other nuances (Hofer, 1976).

Interpretive Strategy

This model is based on a social contract, and not on an organic view of the organization, which is quite consistent with the adaptive model. The interpretive strategy sees the organization as a set of voluntary cooperation agreements. The action of an organization is directly dependent on its ability to attract enough people to cooperate in a mutually beneficial exchange. Consequently, this strategy model assumes that reality is defined through a process of social exchange, in which perception is confirmed, changed or replaced in accordance with their apparent correspondence with the perception of others (Keeley, 1980).

1.2.2 The second classification: Evolutionary, Grand Design, Incremental strategy

Evolutionary Development Strategy

An evolutionary development strategy is a strategy that is based on an evolutionary strategy for the development of a system or product. It is based on the premise that it is determined that it is possible to determine the levels of development of the product by the operational experience. (Wasson, 2005)

Grand Design Development Strategy

Grand Design Development Strategy is a development strategy that defines user needs, define requirements, design a system, implement a system, test, correct and deliver. (Wasson, 2005)

Since we have assumed that it is the Incremental Development Strategy that will work for PJCS Gazprom Neft under the conditions of digitization of production, let us consider it in more detail.

Incremental Development Strategy

This development strategy also determines the needs of users and determines the overall development strategy, but unlike the Grand Design Development Strategy, it further improves the system by collecting additional data and integrating them into activities. (Mihija, 2014)

For a better understanding, consider an example given in the Book of Charles Wasson: «Over the years automobile technology has evolved and increased in complexity. Today, we enjoy the benefits of new technologies such as fuel injection systems, anti-lock braking systems (ABS), front wheel drive, air bag safety restraint systems (SRS), crumple zones, GPS mapping, and so on. All facets of automobile design have changed over the years. However, for illustration purposes imagine for a moment that the fundamental automobile at higher levels of abstraction did not change drastically. It still has four doors, a passenger compartment, trunk, windshield, and steering. However, the maturation of the major technologies noted earlier required strategies such as spiral development that enabled them to mature and productize technologies such as ABS and SRS for application and integration into Evolutionary Development Model of the basic automobile.» (Wasson, 2005)

This strategy is quite popular, in view of the fact that it reduces the risk that radical innovations usually carry. Moreover, companies with developed human capital and resources see the following benefits from this strategy, such as (Bouncken, Fredrich, & Ritala, 2017):

* Competitiveness; the company has a stable profit from the product, and moreover has the ability to use these funds to develop further product developments

* Simple sales; the company provides the customer with a product that is familiar to him, but with the addition of innovation, which simplifies and even improves sales.

* Efficiency; For a company with capital and infrastructure, as well as popular, well-established products on the market, the process of developing an innovative product is not something difficult.

Next, we check whether the current strategy of Gazprom Neft is in line with the staff's opinion, as well as based on the current annual reports of recent years, of the incremental development strategy.

1.3 Digitalization

The disclosure of this section should begin to define the term digitalization itself. Or would it be more correct, to begin with, the term digitization? It is necessary to carry out a semantic limitation.

The first term "Digitization" is the process of transition from analog to digital form ( Gartner IT Glossary). The second term "digitalization" According to the Gartner dictionary, is «the use of digital technology to change business models and identify new opportunities for profit and value creation» (Gartner IT Glossary). Consequently, we can conclude that digitization is a more global manifestation of changes in the form of work of various processes in various fields, which is a fairly broad definition. In the context of this study, the term digitalization is more appropriate, since the purpose of the study is the effect of the introduction and application of digital technologies and their impact on the company's strategy.

1.3.1 Digital economy in Russia

Digitalization of any enterprise directly depends on the state of the digital economy of the country in which it is located. Since this work examines the digitalization of the oil and gas industry in Russia, for a start, we will look at the current state of the Russian digital economy, its prospects and limitations.

The digital economy is the use of digital technologies based on the Internet for the production and trade of goods and services (Radziwill, 2018). Digitalization changes the shape and structure of the economies of countries and entire regions. Some professions disappear, others arise. Intra-industry competition is growing, markets are expanding, and the competitiveness of individual industries in world markets is increasing. The result is the growth of national economies.

Today, Russia is not in the group of leaders in the development of the digital economy in many respects - the level of digitalization, the share of the digital economy in GDP, the average delay in the development of technologies used in the leading countries. The share of the digital economy in Russia's GDP is 3.9%, which is 2-3 times lower than that of the leading countries. (Leenders, 2018) However, a number of positive trends are already noticeable. One of the most important indicators - the volume of the digital economy - has been growing rapidly in recent years. For example, the country's GDP from 2014 to 2018 increased by 5.7% (Statista). Furthermore, the volume of investment in the digital economy from 2019 to 2024 equal more than 3,5 billion rubles. (Medvedev, 2017) Russia managed to create large digital companies almost from scratch, and some of them achieved international fame. It is the world's largest independent online bank Tinkoff Bank, which has no physical branches, digital portals and ecosystems of Yandex and Mail.ru services, a manufacturer of marine simulators and electronic navigation systems Transas, Avito electronic announcements, a social network VKontakte, the company for the production of digital solutions in the field of security, Kaspersky Lab and many others.

In terms of the digitalization of private companies, Russia is still lagging behind the leading countries. The private sector does not take advantage of the active adoption of digital technologies by consumers, invests little in the use of technological advances, in increasing productivity and creating new products and services. The volume of investments of private companies in digitalization is still only 2.2% of GDP, while in the USA it reaches 5%, in Western Europe - 3.9%, in Brazil - 3.6% (Leenders, 2018). As a result, the ability to support the competitiveness of Russian companies is lower not only internationally, but also domestically, in the form of crowding out of Russian companies by foreign companies. Moreover, the low level of investment from customers of digital solutions limits the development opportunities for Russian companies that provide digital solutions, since it is the domestic market that is the first step for the growth of future digital leaders.

Those who are actively developing digital opportunities, companies, and citizens, whose organic part are new methods and tools, achieve a lot and get tangible economic benefits. Thus, for example, the potential economic effect from the digitalization of the Russian economy will increase the country's GDP by 4.1-8.8 trillion rubles, which will be from 19 to 34% of the total expected GDP growth. These forecasts are associated not only with the effect of automating existing processes but also with the introduction of fundamentally new, breakthrough business models and technologies. (McKinsey, 2017) Among them are digital platforms, digital ecosystems, in-depth analytics of large data arrays, Industry 4.0 technologies, such as 3D printing, robotization, the Internet of things.

Now Russian companies have had a chance to reduce the technological gap from foreign leaders and step over one technological level, quickly using the most modern digital solutions. To overcome the backlog will help the concentration of resources and the development of common standards. To this end, Russian companies seeking to increase the level of digitalization can enter into strategic partnerships or create consortia for the joint development of standards and solutions, the sharing of infrastructure and the implementation of training programs. In addition, market participants need to closely interact with government agencies, educational and research organizations in the development and implementation of new digital technologies.

1.3.2 Digitalization in the oil industry

Most oil fields cover thousands of square kilometers, and some of them are in difficult local conditions (heat, permafrost, desert, deep water) or have hard-to-recover reserves. Due to these factors and a number of other problems related to ensuring technological safety, there are difficulties in developing oil fields (with a constant increase in demand for oil and gas). Therefore, oil companies, more than ever, need a digitalized infrastructure of high reliability, which would provide enhanced performance and safety and control the numerous devices used in oil and gas business throughout the field.

Digitalization in the oil industry can fundamentally change employees' perception of the process of extracting raw materials, processing them and supplying finished products. Today, the oil industry faces many issues that hinder the development of the industry, for instance, Russia has significant reserves of hydrocarbons on the Arctic shelf, but their development is complicated by the harsh environmental conditions. The need to overcome these difficulties is determined by factors not only economic and political expediency but also the technological possibility of implementing projects for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the region. (Neftegaz.ru, 2012) Extraction of raw materials in extremely harsh conditions requires additional costs and innovative solutions.

As a result, major oil companies around the world are switching to the use of “digital” technologies (Kravchenko, 2017): Shell and Total use robots, Chevron and Shell use drones, Statoil use 3D visualization, Chevron using video analytics detect leaks on oil pipelines, and BP implements large-scale a project related to the application of industrial Internet of Things on marine mining platforms. In addition, almost all the players in the global oil and gas industry are already using artificial intelligence and the capabilities of virtual and augmented reality in industrial oil technologies. In 2018, BP joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, whose activities (including the distribution of smart contracts in corporations). Even technology such as blockchain has not been ignored in the oil industry (Kravchenko, 2017).

For example, the company Gazprom Neft has already embarked on the path of facilitating production on the shelf. In 2017, they tested the possibility of using blockchain technology and the Internet of things in the implementation of logistics (transportation of stop valves). (Gazprom neft, 2018)

The main technological trends that are an integral part of digitalization include (Honore, Vorobev, & Vorobyev, 2018):

* “Internet of Things”;

* Machine-to-machine communications;

* Modeling and forecasting based on advanced analytics and big data technology;

* "Cloud" and "Foggy" calculations, as well as data storage;

* Production robotization;

* Additive production;

* Cognitive technologies;

* Advanced human-machine interfaces;

* Computer simulation of equipment, materials, and technologies;

* Augmented reality;

* "Smart" sensors;

* 3D-printing.

In general, the technology of the Internet of things, augmented reality, robotization, unmanned aerial vehicles are already being used in the oil industry, greatly facilitating the production procedure and making it safer. Moreover, digitalization of activity is able to produce the following effects: (DNV GL)

Using real-time production data allows oil and gas “digital” companies to achieve the following goals (CISCO, 2017):

* expanding the resource base of the enterprise;

* increasing recovery rates and oil production;

* reducing the number of all types of emergency incidents (including leaks and emissions);

* increase enterprise productivity and staff security;

* improvement of operating activities in the field of oil and gas production, transportation and processing, as well as at various drilling and oil refineries (both in stationary and field conditions).

Besides, the main indicators that determine the economic feasibility of all costs incurred in the development of oil fields, as well as the further implementation and subsequent operation of the "intellectual" technologies in the oil fields are (BCG, 2013):

* annual economic effect;

* profit increase;

* a payback period of capital investments.

1.3.3 PJCS “Gazprom neft”: digitalization strategy

According to the company's annual report (Gazprom neft, 2017), Gazprom Neft approved the digital business transformation as one of its priorities. The company decided to create a digital transformation unit. The key tasks of the digital transformation management will be the creation of a unified system of digital projects of the company for a radical increase in the operational efficiency of all business processes, as well as the development of its own intellectual services.

The new division has approved a roadmap Short-term or long-term plan of release by the manufacturer of a product for digitalization, evaluates the synergies of the best projects, and will also accelerate corporate changes and the development of digital competencies in all divisions of the company.

Gazprom Neft plans to develop its own IT platform, which will allow it to develop services for creating new streams and data arrays, to form tools for predictive analytics of digital information. The development of the platform prototype requirements and architecture is already underway. In the future, Gazprom Neft plans to start developing new products and services based on the introduction of modern digital technologies.

Over the past two years, Gazprom Neft has already implemented a number of successful projects in the implementation of blockchain technologies, systems with artificial intelligence, predictive analytics based on Big Data, and the industrial Internet of things. The high efficiency has been shown by the creation of “digital twins” of wells, drilling rigs, and oil refineries. The digital transformation unit will summarize the accumulated experience of projects on the introduction of advanced technologies, will determine the vector of their further development.

“Digital transformation creates additional competitive advantages for our company, strengthens its technological leadership in the industry. We are already using digital technologies at every stage of the production chain, both in exploration and production of hydrocarbons, and in processing, logistics, and the sale of products to the final consumer. Further development of this full-fledged activity of our company requires a unified strategy, as well as the search for new, including breakthrough opportunities for the use of digital technologies in all areas of our business,”said Alexander Dyukov, Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Neft.

2. Statement of the research question

A review of the literature has shown that today there is a tendency towards the development of digitalization both in the world and in Russia. Enterprises engaged in heavy industry are taking the first steps towards using digital tools, thereby raising the level of their indicators, overcoming industry problems and difficulties creating a new niche for development. All new knowledge of the company develops in its intellectual capital, which is operated by both the organization and its employees. In the future, intellectual capital can play an important role in shaping a successful company development strategy, since the two components are interconnected much more than it seems. In the future, intellectual capital may play an important role in shaping a successful company development strategy. However, in order for company employees to begin to understand the importance of intellectual capital components and strategies in the life of a modern company, it is necessary to understand their attitude to these elements, whether they are ready for their implementation and whether they consider them really important and relevant. In other words, it is necessary to check the base and in case of its absence, try to lay it down.

Consequently, in order to check whether employees have an understanding and what opinion they have regarding intellectual capital, digitalization and development strategies, an in-depth interview will be conducted, followed by processing of quantitative and qualitative data.

For this study, the in-depth interview method was chosen, since a rather specific oil industry is taken for analysis. In view of this, it is only possible to find out directly about the current state of this area, the tools and practices used, directly from company employees in various positions, of different ages and with different work experience. That is why the in-depth interview method is the most suitable for revealing the opinions of a representative of each department directly connected with structural and corporate changes in the company.

An in-depth interview is an informal personal conversation conducted according to a predetermined plan, with questions for the respondent formed and based on the use of methods that encourage respondents to long and detailed discussions on a range of questions that the researcher is interested in. An in-depth interview involves receiving detailed answers from the respondent; it is conducted in person in the absence of unauthorized persons, so that the respondent can concentrate and calmly, measuredly, thoughtfully give answers to the questions asked. An in-depth interview can last from 30 minutes to 3-4 hours; in the case of this interview, the respondent with the interviewer was busy interviewing for about 40 minutes.

With in-depth interviews, both video and audio recording of the interview is possible. The recording is processed, as a result of which the researcher receives the text of the entire interview (the “transcript”).

Unlike the focus group method, in-depth interviews are used in the following cases:

* When a topic is difficult to discuss and requires specific knowledge (interviews with experts / professionals);

* When a topic touches deeply personal, intimate experiences of respondents that are not possible to discuss in a wide range;

* When respondents are few and geographically distant from each other (for example, in the case of interviewing government officials in different regions);

* When respondents are very busy people. The topic of conversation, as a rule, is rational and is connected with the professional activity of the respondent or his company.

Further, after receiving materials from the in-depth interview, it is necessary to analyze the data obtained. As already mentioned above, both quantitative and qualitative data analysis will be used.

The analysis of quantitative data will be carried out by finding the associative coefficient in program for statistical data processing - R-Studio. The associative coefficient is a convenient indicator of the degree of interconnection between two variables. It is a dimensionless quantity that varies from ?1-1 to + 1 + 1. With independent variation of variables, when there is no connection between them, r = 0r = 0. The stronger the connection, the greater the magnitude of the associative coefficient. At the same time, positive rr values ??indicate a positive (= direct) relationship (i.e., with an increase in the values ??of one variable, the values ??of another variable increase, on average), and negative - to a negative (= feedback) relationship (as one variable increases, the other decreases)

Analysis of qualitative data will be carried out through clustering. Clustering is the task of breaking up a set of objects into groups called clusters. Inside each group there should be “similar” objects, and the objects of different groups should be as different as possible. The main difference between clustering and classification is that the list of groups is not clearly defined and is determined during the operation of the algorithm.

The use of cluster analysis in general is reduced to the following steps:

1. Selection of a sample of objects for clustering;

2. Determination of the set of variables by which the objects in the sample will be evaluated. If necessary, normalization of variable values;

3. Calculate the values ??of the similarity measure between objects;

4. Application of cluster analysis method to create groups of similar objects (clusters);

5. Presentation of analysis results.

After receiving and analyzing the results, it is possible to adjust the selected metric and the clustering method to an optimal result.

After determining the vector of characteristics, it is possible to carry out normalization so that all components give the same contribution when calculating the “distance”. In the normalization process, all values ??are reduced to a certain range, for example, [-1, -1] or [0, 1]. For each pair of objects, the “distance” between them is measured - the degree of similarity. There are many metrics, here are just the main ones:

1. Euclidean distance;

The most common function of distance. It is a geometric distance in multidimensional space.

2. Square Euclidean distance;

It is used to give more weight to more distant objects.

3. Distance of city blocks (Manhattan distance);

This distance is the average difference in coordinates. In most cases, this measure of distance leads to the same results as for the usual Euclidean distance. However, for this measure, the influence of individual large differences (emissions) is reduced (since they are not squared).

4. Chebyshev distance;

This distance can be useful when you need to define two objects as “different” if they differ in any one coordinate.

5. Power distance;

It is used when it is necessary to increase or decrease the weight related to the dimension for which the corresponding objects are very different.

As an example, having the data obtained from the in-depth interview, it will be possible to single out the degree of satisfaction with digitization among employees from 30 to 35 years old with 4-7 years experience.

Consequently, in order to achieve the goals of the work, it is necessary to carry out these actions, obtain results, draw appropriate conclusions, including confirmation or refutation of the set hypotheses. There are 4 main steps that have been completed during the study:

1. Studying the theoretical basis of intellectual capital and its components, the strategy of development and its components, the state of the digital economy in Russia and the state of digitalization in the oil industry in Russia;

2. Analysis of the information received and its integration to the methodological basis;

3. Conducting 12 in-depth interviews with employees of PJSC Gazprom Neft with different ages, work experience, and employment, with subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyzes;

4. Consolidation of the results, taking into account the existing limitations and gaps, the formation of conclusions.

3. Methodology

In this research, a deductive approach will be applied, which includes a review of existing research in the field of scientific interests, their basic definitions and practices regarding intellectual capital, its types, the company's development strategy, its types, as well as digitalization in the Russian digital economy and oil industry . The research strategy is as follows: it is necessary to develop and empirically test hypotheses by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from in-depth interviews.

To achieve the goal of the study, as already mentioned above, 4 basic steps have been taken. One of these steps involves the description of actions when working with an array of received data. So, first of all, the data will be obtained during the in-depth interview (Appendix A), consisting of 31 questions with 12 respondents of PJSC Gazprom Neft from various departments: Procurement, Capital Construction, Import Substitution, Marketing, Human Resources departments. These departments were chosen in view of the fact that they are primarily related to digitalization in business processes, and, therefore, have the most weighty expert opinion. The age and experience of the respondents was not limited, due to the fact that for the most relevant result it is necessary to understand the presence or absence of a association between the respondents' age, their experience and a positive or negative attitude towards digitalization. The age intervals of the respondents are divided into 8 groups:

- 18 - 23 years old;

- 24 - 29 years old;

- 30 - 35 years old;

- 36 - 41 years old;

- 42 - 47 years old;

- 48 - 53 years old;

- 54 - 59 years old;

- 60 years old or older.

The intervals of the respondent's work experience in the company are divided into 5 intervals, starting with less than a year experience:

- Less than 1 year;

- 1 - 3 years;

- 4 - 7 years;

- 8 - 11 years;

- More than 11 years.

The interview questions are divided into three blocks: digitalization, development strategy and digitalization in the company's business processes and its development strategy. The first block consists of 5 questions, the second of 11, and the third of 8. Each of these blocks is aimed at determining the attitude of an employee to a particular element, his opinion on the changes taking place in the external and internal environment, initiatives undertaken by the company, current barriers and future prospects. The interview will allow to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating the data obtained, identifying the presence or absence of a association between age, employee experience and his attitude towards digitalization, which influences the strategy and business processes in the company and also confirm or refute the following hypotheses:

1. The development strategy of the company is closely related to digitalization and digital economy;

2. The more time employees work in the company, the more negative the attitude they have towards digitalization;

3. Company employees see only the theoretical, non-practical development of the company's digital strategy;

4. The company has an Incremental development strategy, rather than Evolutionary or Grand design.

The sample of respondents is 12 people who occupy both primary and senior positions in the Corporate Center of PJSC Gazprom Neft in St. Petersburg. The quantity of respondents for in-depth interviews was selected based on the representativeness of data obtained from representatives of various blocks of the company, already working with digitalization and integrating it into current business processes.

Moreover, as mentioned above, respondents are of different age, work experience, and, as expected, different attitudes towards digitalization in the company, in the oil industry and in the industry as a whole.

It should also be added that the criteria for the selection of respondents was, first of all, their involvement in the work of the company, as well as in the ongoing changes in it. Moreover, employees had to have different work experience in the company and in general, different interests, age, work. Respondents have to work in various places and moreover, perform various functions in the unit.

Data was collected over three weeks through in-depth interviews with three representatives of the Human Recourse department, four representatives of the Procurement department, one representative of the Capital Construction department, two representatives of the department of Import substitution and two representatives of the Marketing department. The average time for one in-depth interview was 40 minutes.

These respondents and departments were selected because they are already working directly with the current version of digital strategies until 2025 and 2030. They conduct a kind of research on employee engagement, attract to existing and developing digital projects.

Draft sample of the current research work - sampling quota. First of all, information was taken from respondents with narrowed qualities, there was a strict quota: eight age groups, as well as obligatory work in the company and in one of the five departments indicated. In addition, the data collection process continued strictly until the required number of answers was received: the questionnaire was distributed until there were enough answers relevant to the study. Data analysis divides into two parts: analysis of qualitative and qualitative data.

Data for associative analysis was taken out of the several questions of in-depth interview, including:

A. Age of the respondent;

B. Respondent work experience;

C. Respondent's attitude to digitalization.

Aforementioned data is the basis for conducting associative analysis to identify the absence or presence (as well as strength) of association in the following cases:

1. Influence on the respondent's attitude to digitalization age of respondent;

2. Influence on the respondent's attitude to digitalization respondent work experience;

Comparison of the variables A, B, C with variables 1, 2 makes possible to test the second hypothesis.

The associative analysis will be carried out in 3 levels:

1. Conducting a test;

2. Revealing the trend and testing the hypothesis about the more amount of time employees work in the company, the more negative the attitude they have towards digitalization;

3. Conducting a test and associative linear analysis for identifying the presence, strength or weakness association between the variables.

All the above operations will be carried out through the application of program for statistical data processing - R-Studio.

Analysis of qualitative data will be carried out by applying clustering method in SPSS. This method is quite popular and allows getting a relevant result after.

Firstly, there should be highlighted the main features of clustering:

1. Digitalization improve business processes;

2. Digital strategy improve business processes;

3. Digitalization has favorable conditions for development;

4. Ability to directly affect on the company's strategy.

Secondly, there should be formed 2 clusters:

1. Positive attitude to digitalization;

2. Negative attitude to digitalization.

After that, the dendrogram will be show. As a result of the obtained data, a table “Characteristics of the obtained clusters” was compiled, which will be described in more detail in the “Description of the results” chapter. This table displays the clusters, the number of objects, the characteristics of the objects, the objects distributed over the clusters, as well as the indices of satisfaction we need according to the characteristics of clustering.

Further, after the clustering is obtained, a content analysis will be conducted to obtain the most accurate conclusions to confirm/disprove the hypotheses, as well as to answer research questions.

As a result, through diversified work with data, we must obtain relevant result that will be valuable and applicable not only for some of Gazprom Neft's business units, but also for the oil industry in Russia as a whole, since today activities and indicators major oil companies differ only in their involvement in innovative initiatives. Limitations of in-depth interviews are the most important, since the relevance and relevance of the data obtained depends on them. Firstly, despite the possibility of including an unlimited number of questions in an interview, in practice this is not possible, since the time and patience of the respondents is limited due to the large amount of work. As a result, the respondent can refuse to go through the interview or ask to finish it before completion. That is why the interview included the most important and relevant questions for obtaining information. Moreover, there are additional limitations of the in-depth interview method, including the influence of the personality and the nature of the respondent on his answer, the inability to interview the top management of the company, which directly affects the company's development strategy, and the lack of department representatives, which can lead to rather subjective answers one kind. The restriction for the associative analysis of data obtained from the in-depth interview is only the impossibility of analyzing the entire pool of information, which is completely solved by the fact that cluster analysis is carried out, which allows to get answers to all the questions posed, the main research, as well as additional:

* Does structural capital have a significant impact on the development strategy of a Russian company?

* Do strategies of development of other industrial enterprises in Russia influence the development strategy of oil producing companies?

* Is the Russian digital economy ready for the introduction of digital products into the activities of a Russian company?

* Does digitalization have barriers to development in Russian companies?

* Is digitalization, according to company employees, significant in terms of strategy for the next 5 years?

4. Description of the results

During the analytical part of the work, three quantitative and qualitative analyzes were performed:

1. Associative analysis in R-Studio in order to determine the presence or absence of an associative connection between variables;