Диссертации, представленные на защиту и подготовленные в НИУ ВШЭ

This dissertation presents a comparative analysis of the impact of board characteristics and characteristics of board audit, strategy, and sustainability committees on financial performance and ESG transformation of largest Russian public non-financial companies from 2014 to 2023. The results demonstrate that board size, independence, tenure diversity, female and foreign directorship significantly affect Tobin’s Q and ESG rating of Russian public companies. The results prove that the existence of board strategy and sustainability committees significantly contributes to better performance of Russian public companies, while the effects of characteristics of these committees, including size, independence, and members’ educational and professional backgrounds differ significantly for financial performance and ESG transformation of Russian public companies. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) power deters the impact of board committees’ characteristics on Russian public companies’ financial performance. The dissertation contributes to academic literature by providing one with evidence on the impact of key board committees’ characteristics on corporate financial performance and ESG transformation, and assessment of moderating effect of powerful CEOs measured using a new index accounting for key sources of CEO power. The findings and methods of this research are applicable in the work of corporate governing bodies and consulting agencies.

The present PhD thesis aims to identify the digital dimensions of corporate intangibles, validate metrics for the components of digital intangibles, and consider them as inputs in companies' production function. The PhD thesis is grounded in the three-component framework of corporate intangibles, encompassing human, relational, and structural capital. The research questions are elaborated theoretically and empirically, using advanced data mining and econometric methods applied to extensive databases of Russian and European companies. As a result, we delve into the essence of digital corporate intangibles by providing detailed descriptions and quantifiable metrics for the digital aspects of the three corporate intangible components. Furthermore, the empirical results demonstrate evidence of both linear and nonlinear relationships between the digital dimensions of structural and relational capital and a company's performance. Additionally, we examine the implicit value of digital human capital as conveyed by companies in their job advertisements. From a theoretical point of view, the thesis extends current scientific knowledge about the digital dimensions of intangibles and their relationship with corporate performance. From a practical standpoint, the results of the empirical analysis within the thesis can serve as a foundation for data-driven decisions that enable companies to select and pursue strategies to enhance their value.

Array (Tensor) DBMSs strive to be the best systems for managing, processing, and even visualizing large multidimensional arrays (tensors). It is a young, fast-evolving, and inherently inter-disciplinary area: many core data types in diverse domains are naturally modeled by arrays (tensors). This dissertation presents fundamental theoretical, systems, and practical contributions to the area of Array (Tensor) DBMSs. Namely, we introduce two novel Research & Development directions: physical world simulations and tunable queries in Array (Tensor) DBMSs. We also propose a new formal Array (Tensor) DBMS data model, novel algorithms, approaches, architectural and implementation aspects for operating on multidimensional arrays (tensors), which can exceed the speed of state-of-the-art approaches and technologies by orders of magnitude. The significance of contributions is demonstrated across a wide variety of practical applications and real-world data. This dissertation is based on the results presented at premier international conferences in computer science: VLDB and SIGMOD.

Companies seeking to utilise IT and digital technologies and implement some organisational changes based on these technologies undergo a digital transformation. A comprehensive analysis of technology-enabled transformation revealed that an understanding of the context and external circumstances under which companies initiate technology adoption and overcome company inertia, one of the main factors that complicate the implementation of necessary changes, successfully, is one of the research streams that can be considered as very promising. Moreover, recent research has emphasised the role of environmental context in technology adoption. The relationship between technology adoption and firm performance with regard to the environmental context of a firm also attracts considerable interest; still, the number of studies considering different aspects companies found to be essential to overcome company inertia and/or taking into consideration the technological environment is limited. Based on the research background, this study seeks to profoundly explore the phenomenon of digital transformation and its effect on company performance under various contexts.