A new research in logistics, which will help enterprises to determine the effectiveness of supply chains based on the leasing process, has been conducted by specialists from South Ural State University and South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University (SUSHPU). They have proposed new methods that would become a versatile tool for process assessment and management. The research results have been published in the International Journal of Supply Chain Management (indexed in Scopus).
In the modern world, the work of commercial organisations is impossible without logistics. It is this science, which has appeared relatively recently, that ensures the movement and placement of goods within the economic system. The supply chain unites all business processes, thanks to which the goods reach the end user in accordance with the needs of the market with the optimal resources costs.
However, in the methodological aspect of supply chain management, there is a gap in the use of leasing when building efficient supply chains. Leasing is a complex of investment, rental, credit, trade and logistics relations, and it is also one of the elements of supply chain management.
A team of researchers led by a doctoral student from South Ural State University Pavel Riabchuk and his academic advisor, Doctor of Sciences (Economics), Professor, Head of the Department of Financial Technology of the School of Economics and Management Igor Baev decided to fill the gap in the methodological aspect. Scientists conducted a study, in which they described the methodology for assessing and managing the leasing process, taking into account the interests of a lessee and factors of the external and internal environment.
"The research was carried out in two directions. First of all, we presented our own theoretical findings based on modern scientific achievements. Then we started testing theoretical assumptions and concepts in practice. Thus, the proof of the new concepts we put forward was demonstrated: the concepts eliminate the shortcomings of the methods used in practice, described in scientific and specialized literature, and bring the methodological foundations for assessing the efficiency of the supply chain using leasing investment forms to a new level," said Professor Igor Baev.
The method proposed by the researchers is a versatile tool for assessing and managing the leasing process that incorporates the strengths of advanced methods for assessing the effectiveness of a leasing scheme. On its basis, each enterprise, taking into account the results of its activities, will be able to develop its own strategy for managing the leasing process. The method has been tested by modelling cash flows at industrial enterprises in the mechanical engineering sector participating in a big-scale leasing project.
"Industrial investments, including those on the basis of leasing process, are the basis of import substitution caused by the challenge of our times. Analysis of the leasing market of the Russian Federation over the past 15 years has contributed to a rethinking of the leasing process management system, which allows the management of the industrial sector to prioritize the concentration of resources within a given structure-forming space," added SUSU doctoral student, the SUSHPU Vice-Rector for Economics and Finance Pavel Riabchuk.
The proposed methodology will not only be useful for assessing the effectiveness of leasing in the supply chain, but will also form the basis for continuing research on this topic by economists.
In the following works on this topic, the researchers intend to identify effective forms of leasing. The preliminary studies will be presented during the defence of doctoral dissertation by Pavel Riabchuk, which will be held at the SUSU Dissertation Council.
South Ural State University is a university of digital transformations, where innovative research is carried out in most of the priority fields of development of science and technology. In accordance with the strategies of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university is focused on the development of big scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of Digital Industry, Materials Science, and Ecology. Within the framework of these fields, objects of metallurgy, mechanical engineering, power engineering, housing and communal services, safe urban infrastructure, and human comfort are studied.
SUSU is a participant of Project 5-100, which aims at enhancing competitiveness of Russian universities among global leading research and educational centres.