Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Innovative Management

of Corporate Interactions in Transport

V. S. Parshina and A. A. Gusev

Ural State University of Railway Transport, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Keywords: System of intra-corporate interaction, sustainable development of the corporation, coordination structure,

organizational inertia, strategic management, organizational ecology, organizational systematics, adaptation

of the corporation, relational contract, cooperative interaction.

Abstract: The article suggests the use of new theoretical and methodological approaches in building long-term

cooperative relationships in the "Russian Railways Corporation – Transport Universities" system. The

historical context of intra and inter–corporate interaction is analysed, the objective function of strategic

corporate governance is identified and the conditions for its implementation are outlined the formation of

business competencies and innovations. The main approaches in the problem field of implementing adaptive

capabilities of corporations are highlighted, methodological contradictions between strategic management,

organizational ecology and organizational systematics are revealed. The basis for eliminating contradictions

within the framework of building a model of long-term cooperative relationships based on a relational contract

is proposed. As an illustrative example, the system of relations "Russian Railways Corporation – Transport

Universities" is considered, the framework possibilities of cooperative relationships are named, the directions

of development of these relationships in the direction of the balance of innovative changes and organizational

inertia are highlighted.

1 INTRODUCTION

Current trends in the development of intra- and inter-

corporate relationships show that the Russian

economy has not yet developed a systematic vision of

the need to build cooperative relationships aimed at

long-term sustainable development. Meanwhile, in

recent years, the volume of work considering the

factors of adaptation of corporations to changing

environmental conditions has been increasing.

Approaches from the point of view of strategic

management, organizational ecology, organizational

systematics (Baum, J.A.C., 1990; Hannan, 1989;

McKelvey, 1982) enrich the understanding of the

realities in which modern corporations operate, and

form the desire to develop mutually beneficial

contracts on a pragmatic basis to increase the

synergetic effect of joint activities of the subjects of

relations.

Defining the concept of "corporation", we

proceed from understanding it as a large association

created for the purpose of economic activity in a

certain area of the market and aimed at improving

efficiency through the rational use of resources.

Today, the target function of the system of corporate

interactions can be considered sustainable

development based on business competencies and

competitive advantages that allow adapting to

constantly changing environmental conditions. The

product of the functioning of corporations should be

innovative in nature, which reflects its focus on

following the trends of the time with the

comprehensive development of all participants in

corporate relationships and society as a whole.

2 MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

The paradigm of corporate governance is deeply

rooted in modern scientific approaches to

determining the essence of intra and

interorganizational relations. At the same time, the

historical context makes it possible to identify a

serious methodological shift in understanding the

essence and objectives of such interaction. Our earlier

analysis of this context (Gusev, 2018) allowed us to

identify several fundamental stages in the evolution

of the system of corporate interactions (see Figure 1).

114

Parshina, V. and Gusev, A.

Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Innovative Management of Corporate Interactions in Transport.

DOI: 10.5220/0011579900003527

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Transport: Logistics, Construction, Maintenance, Management (TLC2M 2022), pages 114-119

ISBN: 978-989-758-606-4

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Figure 1: Evolution of the corporate interaction system.

The resourceoriented approach of the corporation

limits the potential prospects for its development to

the scope of controlled assets, which does not allow

to go beyond this asset register and build a long-term

perspective for the development of the corporation.

The principle of orientation to the external

environment, characteristic of the second stage of

evolution, allows us to overcome this problem, but at

the same time often blocks the breadth of predictive

potential by a tendency to extrapolate current and

retrospective achievements for the long term. Finally,

the third stage increases the emphasis on the

creativity of newly made managerial decisions and

the activation of the creative potential of human

resources, which makes it possible to overcome the

predictive isolation of previous approaches, but

creates a problem of personnel involvement, which

does not always correspond to organizational

hierarchical subordination and meets organizational

opportunism.

In this regard, we consider a well-founded

systematic approach to the implementation of the

positions stated in each individual approach, only in

the framework of strategic management, combining

three levels of actualization of the business

competencies of the organization. Under the key

business competence, we will further understand the

specific factors of the functioning and development

of the corporation, which are recognized as basic. The

the following types:

– internal corporate business competencies

determined by technological, innovative, resource,

information potential and implemented in the form of

business processes, knowhow, staff competencies,

experience, etc.;

– business competencies external to the

corporation, formed by a system of long-term

relationships and sustainable interactions, access to

limited market resources, the ability to promote,

lobby and defend the interests of corporations in free

markets;

– finally, the dynamic capabilities of business as

an integral characteristic of the ability to create new

business competencies based on the actualization of

the corporation's human capital and the capital of

existing intra and intercorporate interactions.

As a target function of strategic corporate

governance, it is possible to name the adaptation of

the corporation to constantly changing, sometimes

turbulent conditions and processes occurring in the

external environment. This function fits into the logic

of sustainable development (Hill, 1992) , aimed at

strengthening the current and future potential to meet

corporate needs and interests, taking into account the

development of human quality of life. The

mechanism for implementing the strategy of long-

term sustainable development is built on the basis of

managing the formation and implementation of

innovations, which make it possible to develop

business competencies.

It is worth noting a pronounced trend towards an

increase in the number of agents interested in such a

sustainable development of corporations and society.

We agree with C. Hill and T. Johnson (Freeman,

2010; Popkov, 2007), defining the modern essence of

corporate interactions as a constant search for a

balance of all interested parties (stakeholders). Note

that if in the initial versions of the agency stakeholder

theory, these stakeholders were understood as

primarily financial internal stakeholders, today this

list includes a large number of nonfinancial agents

and external players. In this configuration, the logic

of sustainable development of the corporation

increasingly corresponds to the orientation and

problems of sustainable development of society as a

whole.

Turning from the issues of the strategic

orientation of the corporation to the aspects of

organizational support for such development, we note

that the methodological basis of corporate interaction

is a mutually beneficial exchange of resources

between individuals and divisions of the corporation.

In this regard, the sustainability of a corporation can

be understood as a variable depending on the

purposeful exchange of a set of resources. The

only material and financial levers of development, but

also information, social, intellectual, organizational

resources.

The accumulation of these resources leads to the

capitalization of the company, i.e., an increase in its

Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Innovative Management of Corporate Interactions in Transport

115

value, the formation of an image, the development of

a brand. As part of the company's value management,

it is possible to form the maximum liquidation value

of the company (Alexandrova, 2013), which is

understood as the capitalization of the corporation

recognized by the market. The capital structure of the

corporation is also undergoing significant changes: so

in the 1970s, most of the company's capital was

formed on the basis of intangible values, physical and

working capital accounted for about 8090% of the

capital structure of the largest corporations from the

Fortune 500 list. In the 2000s, the emphasis shifted

dramatically: today 90% of the capital of corporations

from the same list is formed at the expense of

intangible capital, i.e. human capital, intellectual

property and brand capital. The revealed trend

supports the assumption of expanding the list of

resources of the corporation to be capitalized.

The modern organizational paradigm is largely

based on the ideas formulated within the framework

of the managerial theory of the organization, in which

the corporation is considered in a field of

opportunities, which often turns into a field of

competition for resources and survival. This attitude

largely shifts the emphasis of classical economic

theory, which reduces the problems of market

relations to interactions between producers and

consumers. The managerial approach, in contrast,

focuses on natural selection at the corporate level.

Thus, the contours of two fundamental approaches to

assessing the activities of corporations as economic

agents are formed (see Figure 2).

At the same time, it is possible to fix a clear

tendency to disagreements arising within the

framework of the managerial approach to the adaptive

capabilities of the corporation. With the apparent

unity of the target settings for the adaptation of the

corporation to the changing conditions of the external

environment, the nature and possibilities of this

adaptation are determined by fundamentally different

features of corporate external interactions:

1. The concept of strategic management, the

theoretical principles of which were disclosed above,

considers the flexibility of corporate interactions as

the main factor of adaptation that sets the conditions

for corporate training.

2. Theories within the framework of

organizational ecology, on the contrary, consider the

inertia of organizational structures as a factor of long-

term survival due to accumulated potential, the

transfer of valuable experience, which is formed in

the long term and depends on previous development.

3. Finally, organizational systematics defines the

class of organizational systems in terms of the stage

of their life cycle – corporations accumulate

experience in resolving structural crises related to the

dynamics of corporate relations, gradually

approaching the stage of their heyday and sustainable

development, which allows them to form competitive

advantages.

Figure 2: Approaches to the implementation of adaptive

capabilities of the corporation.

We point out that each of the presented alternative

approaches has serious problems with their unilateral

use. Thus, strategic management focuses only on the

flexibility and variability of corporate structures and

relationships, which is fraught with the loss of

valuable experience of structural and dynamic inertia.

Focusing only on structural conservatism deprives

corporations of innovative developments, personnel

development and leads to stagnation.

Taking into account exclusively the factor of the

life cycle of a corporation can lead to complacency of

the leaders of a corporation that has reached the peak

of development and lead to a stability trap when

successful corporations quickly lost the achieved

level of development and market niche without

developing organizational relations.

We consider it fundamentally necessary in the

further development of the theoretical and

methodological field of corporate relations research

and their refraction as organizational and

methodological models for the development of real

corporations to take into account the application of

these approaches only in their joint use.

When assessing the corporate relations of the

participants and economic agents of these relations, it

is necessary to analyze the nature of these relations.

The formed internal corporate strategy, the

implementation of a system of partnership and the

exchange of resources and knowledge allow you to

gain access to limited market opportunities, adapt to

negative environmental factors, as well as actively

influence market factors, increasing the efficiency of

your activities, taking your place in the chain of

innovation formation. Long-term survival and

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sustainable development of the corporation is

possible with the implementation of a system of long-

term sustainable interactions.

It is advisable to transfer the logic of building

intra-corporate relations to the formation of

intercorporate relations. Within the framework of

neo-institutional theory, a clear understanding of the

forms of coordination of economic activities and

business processes has developed, which made it

possible to distinguish polar forms of relations

("hierarchical relations market relations") and a large

number of hybrid forms (network relationships,

strategic alliances, franchises, business ecosystems,

etc.) based on cooperative relationships. A

comparative analysis of these coordination structures

is presented in Table 1.

The market is a coordinating structure where

many symmetrical selective exchanges arise, the

proportions of which are regulated by the price

system (Gusev, 2018), which implies the regulation

of the interaction of economic agents by the formal

terms of rigid contracts, their economic and

organizational independence outside of transactions.

An alternative to market integration is interaction

within hierarchical structures with complete

corporate isolation. Relations in such structures can

vary in terms of authoritarianism – democracy,

autocracy – participativeness, limitation –

transparency, but in any case they are regulated by

formalized relations, regulated by a system of

commands.

Finally, the forms of hybrid relations are built on

the basis of cooperative interactions. A confidential,

often informal form of interaction allows minimizing

the risks associated with market uncertainty and

reducing transaction costs arising during negotiation

processes, agent searches, quality assessment, etc. On

the other hand, excessive inertia, bureaucracy, and

static nature of large hierarchical structures can also

be compensated by mutually beneficial relationships,

finding points of contact and sharing resources, and

replicating valuable experience during such

interactions.

An important problem area here is the building of

a common system of vision of goals, strategies,

mechanisms and structures that arise in the sphere of

intersection of interests of participants in the process.

The initial setting of the theory of management of

meanings is aimed at the formation of a common

perception of reality, the realization of unity of views,

which makes it possible to form a single mental

model that motivates transparency of information,

replication of best practices, exchange of opinions.

All this is ultimately aimed at reducing the

opportunism characteristic of large corporations.

We conclude that the diverse activities of

corporations require different approaches to the

management of its structural elements (divisions) in

accordance with their goals, objectives and

performance indicators of their functioning. Within

the framework of cooperative relationships, there

may be relationships with both greater and lesser

dependence of their participants, but the freedom of

informal relations is always limited to interests

determined on mutually beneficial terms and

Table 1: Comparative analysis of coordinating structures in the economy.

Parameter Coordinating structure

market relations

hierarchical relations hybrid relations

(cooperation)

Management system price system command system (scalar

chain)

trust relational contract

Relationship structure independence outside the

terms of transactions

mechanistic, bureaucratic project

Relations between

(counter) agents

independent dependent, contractual interdependent, mutually

beneficial

Relationship coordination contractual relations formalized relations formalized relations and

informal agreements developed

within the framework of the

negotiation process

Principles of interaction Competitive relations,

contracts within the

framework of ongoing

transactions

mutual subordination,

subordination when

delegating authority

leadership, finding points of

contact, sharing resources

Degree of integration disintegration full formal integration quasi-integration

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implemented with the help of a coordination center of

such a structure.

Ultimately, the nature of the relationships being

built takes the form of a game with a nonzero sum

(Vasin, 2005), when in the course of mutually

beneficial relationships, the effect is achieved by all

participants in the interactions.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

As an illustrative model example of a system of

cooperative relationships within the management of a

corporation, we have considered the relationship

"Russian Railways Corporation – Transport

Universities". As part of the socioeconomic paradigm

shift in the 1990s, the nature of relations underwent

serious changes: the planned departmental model of

university management in a single hierarchical

system gave way to a quasimarket model of

Customer–Contractor (executor) interactions.

Meanwhile, the structural and dynamic inertia of

relations that have been developing for decades has

not allowed to completely destroy the stable ties

between the divisions of Russian Railways (traction

directorates, traffic control, railway stations, track

repair, heat supply, social sphere, territorial and

corporate service centers and many others) and

universities. It is these stable ties that will allow us to

form an updated pragmatic format of relations, taking

into account the accumulated capital of relations.

The objective function of such relations is to meet

the needs of certain fields of activity among qualified

specialists. Studies (Parshina, 2021)

show that the

business processes of forming the composition of

applicants during the admission campaign to

universities, organizing internships by students,

performing R&D, distributing graduate students are

end-to-end and achieve a positive result only during

the joint interaction of responsible parties.

It can be concluded that the formation of unique

interspecific human resources is possible only in the

course of building long-term corporate relationships

based on the exchange of resources and knowledge.

The system of these exchanges needs

institutionalization, the formation of a common

vision and coordination of processes. We also point

out that these processes are not included in the current

economic activities of the Russian Railways

Corporation, which reduces direct involvement in the

course of these processes and requires the allocation

of special coordinating structures.

We consider it fundamentally necessary to

organize such elements in the structure of relations

for the intensification, institutionalization and

personalization of responsibility within the

framework of the coordination of these business

processes. The nature of the relationship should be

implemented in the form of a trust relational contract.

The institute of cooperative relations must comply

with the following contractual framework:

– the quality of the formal component of an

institutionalized contract is set by a system of legal

Table 2: Directions of development of relations "Russian Railways Corporation – Transport universities".

Type of interaction Direction of development

Organization of a sustainable process of professional

personnel formation

Formation of a risk-oriented approach to the analysis of the internal

and external environment of interaction between the participants o

the relationship

Passing of production practices Introduction of a system of organizational training and financial

compensation for mentoring

Development of basic educational programs of higher

education taking into account the models of

professional and corporate competencies of Russian

Railways JSC

Inclusion in the approval process, development of the competence

matrix, development of requirements for the level of training o

graduates

Coordination of the topics of the graduate qualification

works with teachers in all areas of training

Systematic participation in the development and updating of the

named topics

Quality control of education by representatives of

enterprises

Development of a system of formalized assessment of the quality o

education (a system of criteria, scales, areas of development)

Conducting training sessions Participation in the development of educational and methodological

complexes of disciplines

Reasonable amount of funding Development of a transparent decision-making system on the

allocation of targeted funding and distribution in areas of training

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requirements, as well as departmental, industry, etc.

specific regulatory legal acts;

– the development of informal relations and

arrangements is rooted in the corporate business

culture and the culture of relationships;

– the individualization of unique exchange

systems creates opportunities for the implementation

of the relational component of contracting.

Thus, in the course of building cooperative

relationships at a high level, both short-term changes

in the framework of strategic management and long-

term innovations based on the structural and dynamic

inertia of stable relationships can be manifested. The

the "Russian Railways Corporation – Transport

Universities" system is presented in Table 2.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive and can be

supplemented with other points of contact. The

formation and implementation of a relational trust

contract should lead to the formation of a full-fledged

management system for industry education and

interactions in the "Russian Railways Corporation

Transport Universities" system, based on a mutually

beneficial resource exchange.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The analysis of modern theoretical and

methodological approaches to the system of

cooperative relationships made it possible to identify

as the basic theories of strategic management,

organizational ecology and organizational

systematics. These theories are relatively new,

mutually contradictory, which requires the formation

of a common problem field. Within the framework of

building common corporate priorities for long-term

sustainable development, we propose that

corporations focus on cooperative relationships on a

pragmatic basis. Prolonged stagnation, as well as

constant variability, is not evolutionarily justified.

The analysis of the relationship system "Russian

Railways Corporation – Transport Universities"

made it possible to see the possibility of resource

exchange, cooperative relationships based on both

innovative changes and the potential of

organizational inertia, equally aimed at increasing the

synergetic effect. Actualization of both the identified

development directions and many other points of

contact, institutionalization and coordination of

existing and potentially possible exchange processes

will allow achieving the goals of sustainable

development of corporations and society.

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