Defenses of Master's theses were held in the IEM

Students have defended their master's theses at the Institute of Economics and Management. Almost 100 people fr om Russia, China, Laos, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan will receive Master's diplomas. This year, they dedicated their work to knowledge management, lean manufacturing, market introduction of an import substitution product, business modeling, franchising, improved marketing management, and other topical issues of economics and management.

Chen Meiyin from China, a Master’s student in the program Management, defended her thesis “Marketing Strategy for the Entry of a Russian B2B E-commerce Company into the Chinese Market”.

- After graduation, I want to find a job in the B2B sphere, so I was interested in exploring this topic. In addition, this year I had an internship at Supl.biz (a B2B online platform for small and medium-sized businesses, wh ere entities can conduct transactions without any complicated documents, for example, an electronic digital signature or bank guarantee) and during Internship found that Supl.biz has problems with entering the Chinese market. Therefore, I decided to analyze in detail the marketing strategy of a Russian B2B e-commerce company in the Chinese market, - said Chen Meiyin.

As a result of the analysis, it became clear that the Russian B2B e-commerce platform could attract Chinese buyers and suppliers. However, in China there are some features that need attention.

- The level of English proficiency in China is below average, so Russian platforms find it difficult to enter the Chinese B2B market using only the English website. Further, people in China are more accustomed to chatting via Wechat or QQ than by email. They do not trust a site if it is not found in Baidu. In the future, when entering the Chinese market, this information will help Supl.biz to adjust its strategy, - the Master’s graduate said.

Sayabut Amphaivanh from Laos dedicated his work to the study of quality management in the hospitality industry in the city of Vientiane (Laos):

- My dissertation is devoted to the issues of hospitality and can serve as a guide for those who plan to conduct hotel business. The study focuses on the weaknesses of services, in particular, insufficient skills and qualifications of employees. This is due to the lack of a sufficient labor force with appropriate qualifications for the rapidly developing tourist market of Vientiane.

Sayabut surveyed about 100 respondents to find out the preferences of tourists. The analysis showed that the most important criterion for them is service, followed by the quality of food provided and the availability of entertainment.

- For success, a hotel in Vientiane should focus primarily on the quality of service. And this speaks to the need to transform the existing strategy in hospitality, said the Master’s graduate.

Ksenia Novosad defended in Finance and Credit:

- Today there is a global problem of waste disposal. Obviously, it can be resolved to a large extent with the participation of the government. I consider the situation on the example of a small rural settlement in the village of Krasny Yar and offer three options. The most profitable of them is a concession agreement between the administration of the settlement and the enterprise, which is engaged in sawmilling - said Ksenia.

The author of the work proposed a full-fledged plan for solving the problem; the administration of the Krasnoyarsk rural settlement has already read it.

-In addition to the economic justification, we have proposed a schedule for implementation with all deadlines, ranging from analyzing the supplier market and analyzing the internal capabilities and resources of the enterprise, to commissioning and purchasing equipment, - said Ksenia.