Published at : 27 Dec 2022
Volume : IJtech
Vol 13, No 7 (2022)
DOI : https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v13i7.6212
Nikolay Dmitriev | Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Polytechnicheskaya str., 29, 195251, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation |
Andrey Zaytsev | Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Polytechnicheskaya str., 29, 195251, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation |
Rinat Faizullin | MIREA – Russian Technological University, Vernadsky ave., 78, 119454, Moscow, Russian Federation |
Dmitry Bunkovsky | East Siberian institute of the Ministry of internal affairs of Russia, Lermontov str., 110, 664074, Irkutsk, Russian Federation |
Innovative development ensures high efficiency and competitiveness in production. However, project activities and sufficient investments are needed in order to encourage innovation. In this way, the relevance of studying the feasibility of project activities in the context of innovative development is growing. This study is aimed at developing tools for auditing the innovative potential of an enterprise, which could be used for investigating the relationships between the dynamics of the innovative potential and the project performance figures grouped by investment categories. The paper examines the impact of project activities on the innovative potential of an enterprise and its innovative position in the industry. The suggested instrumental approach was tested on some enterprises operating in the construction industry. The testing allowed us to rank the enterpris es in the industry using open data and to study the relationship between the types of investments made into projects by a particular enterprise and its innovative position. To identify the dependencies, we recommend using correlation and regression analysis. The significance of the approach is in its versatility, since it can be adapted to the conditions of operation in any industry, provided there is sufficient data.
Audit activities; Innovation audit; Innovative development; Innovative potential; Instrumental approach
Project activity (PA) is a high-risk field,
that entails many difficulties and may not always result in the effects that
have been originally planned. PA are intended to increase innovation.
Innovation makes it possible to enhance the efficiency of production and
economic activities and channel production capacities towards a predetermined
trajectory (Dvas & Dubolazova, 2018; Gargate, 2018). For an enterprise to be able to conduct PA in
the context of innovative development, auditing is needed for an independent
expert assessment of some elements of business using open data.
With audit activities, the strengths and weaknesses of innovation activities can be effectively evaluated. The analysis can provide sufficient and qualitative information about the potential opportunities and problems of long-term innovative development (Fedotovskaya et al., 2018; Yoon et al., 2015). Since the risk of PA is high, we cannot consider its effect on the innovative development of the subject in detail. In order to fulfill the key provisions of its innovative development strategy, an enterprise has to carry out PA and attract investments to maintain strategic sustainability (Zhu & Wang, 2018).
Thus, the enterprise's innovative potential (IP)
has to be evaluated and the “determinants of development efficiency” identified
in its composition. This identification will help us learn about the
problematic elements of corporate innovation (Kajander et al., 2012). The audit of the IP can be
used for developing approaches to complex problem-solving and improving the
company’s development strategy. Consequently, studying the feasibility of PA of
the enterprise by evaluating the effectiveness of its innovative activity is
extremely relevant. The development strategy determines the number of
opportunities to prevent the financing of expensive and potentially
unsuccessful projects that can be incorporated in the business entity's innovation policy.
The objective of the study is to develop tools for
auditing an enterprise IP, that can be used in the audit for identifying
the relationships between the dynamics of the IP and project performance
figures grouped by investment categories. To achieve this objective, the
authors examine the impact of PA on the IP, propose a system of
indicators based on open data that can be used for assessing the IP of
an enterprise, study the possibility of an audit of the IP to learn
about the relationships between its dynamics and the project performance
figures grouped by investment categories.
The research relies on the authors’ studies in the
fields of project activities, innovative development, investment analysis, and
enterprise economics. The researchers' worldviews and differing opinions ensure a comprehensive
look at an enterprise's IP formation processes and determine the trajectories
for its innovative growth. The research materials were chosen based on the statement that project
activities do not always result in consistent innovative growth, which necessitates
the rational use of financial resources through methods aimed at optimizing
investment activities and reducing potentially inefficient areas.
1.1. Role of project activities in
the formation of innovative potential (IP)
Enterprise management should focus on cost-effective
projects so that the strategic goals of the company can be attained.
Sustainable growth largely depends on PA. PA are expected to
result in intensive business development, with innovations being essential.
This is the way to maximize productivity and reduce costs with minimal capital
investment (Burova et al., 2021; Zaytsev
et al., 2020b; Donbesuur et al., 2020). At the same time, PA are
macroeconomically significant because an entity's IP, as well as that of
territories, industries, and clusters, is dependent on resource efficiency. The
scientific literature highlights that effective PA is grounded on
“innovative thinking”, whose quality affects the ability to stimulate
innovative activity (Kuzovleva et al., 2019).
Traditional
approaches to innovative business development define the structure of the IP
and highlight its individual elements that should be influenced by management
in order to achieve economic growth. Such elements should include human
capital, information, business reputation, technology, and other intangible
assets of an enterprise (Zheng et al., 2018; Christensen, 2001; Westley & Mintzberg, 1989). The instable innovation environment during the 4th
Industrial Revolution can have a negative impact on enterprises that ignore
social, institutional, and innovative factors. Low sustainability indicators
can keep multi-level structures in a trap of socio-economic failure ( Vlasova et al., 2021; Rakhmeeva & Animitsa, 2020;
Thoenig, 2016;). Such a threat is explicit for business structures
that lack a management system aimed at innovative growth or are not involved in
projects that contribute to such growth.
When investing in innovative projects, the rational use of financial resources is essential for maintaining the sustainability and competitiveness of enterprises in all industries. However, researchers note that traditional approaches to choosing innovative projects to be invested in have a number of serious assumptions due to their complexity and focus on classified data, which leads to building new economic and mathematical models