On January 31, Anastasiia K. Laskovaia has presented her candidate dissertation on the topic: "Approaches to Managerial Decision-Making and Performance of Russian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises During the Economic Crisis".

 

Dissertation of A.K. Laskovaia is devoted to the analysis of the association between approaches to managerial decision-making and performance of Russian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the 2014-2016 economic crisis.

During decision-making process, managers face various obstacles, the key of which is uncertainty. Under conditions of high uncertainty, the principles of planning and forecasting cannot provide an effective outcome, since they impede the firm's flexibility and adaptation to unexpected changes in a turbulent external environment. Under such conditions there is a need to address alternative flexible and adaptive decision-making models.

1. Effectuation is an alternative transformational approach to decision-making, which is based on certain principles of behavior. 
2. The planning-oriented approach (causation) to decision-making, in turn, brings certain benefits in stable and predictable conditions.

To conduct this research, the author participated in data collection on Russian small and medium-sized enterprises, from September 2015 to February 2016, in collaboration with researchers from GSOM SPbU and Far Eastern Federal University. The author made a theoretical justification and an empirical assessment of the relationship between approaches to managerial decision-making and performance of SMEs in the conditions of economic crisis accounting for factors of external environment.

The research advisor is Galina V. Shirokova, Doctor of Science (Economics), Professor, Strategic and International Management Department, St. Petersburg University. Discussants of the dissertation research by A.K. Laskovaia are:

• Andrey Y. Panibratov — Doctor of Science (Economics), Professor of the Department of Strategic and International Management at St. Petersburg State University;
• Nikolay A. Zenkevich — Candidate of Science in Applied Mathematics, Associate Professor of the Department of Operations Management at St. Petersburg State University;
• Marina O. Latukha — Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Personnel Management Department at St. Petersburg State University.
• Anastasiia K. Laskovaia is graduate of GSOM SPbU Doctoral Program in Economics and Management, Assistant professor of Strategic and International Management Department, researcher at the Center for Entrepreneurship at GSOM SPbU. Anastasiia Laskovaia is a co-author and researcher of the international project "Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey" (GUESSS), participant of International conferences in the field of management and entrepreneurship and the author of articles in Russian and international peer-reviewed academic journals, chapters in a collective monograph and “Working papers” series.