RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF CORPORATE GR: RESEARCH PROGRAM

Abstract

The national character of corporate GR has been formed in Russia. The relevance of the development of the theoretical foundations and methodology of GR as a set of terminology systems, approaches and techniques for communication between the business and state authorities (B2G and G2B) lies in the increasing role of state, the desire of business to maximize the value of assets through preferences, to promote their requests and defend rights. The need to divide the directions of communication with the state into corporate, political and power GR is caused by the continuous format of the first and the episodic format of the last two. The authors identify a relatively short period of formation of the institutional environment and an insufficient amount of analytical and scientific research as key constraining factors in the development of the domestic school of corporate GR in Russia. The heterogeneous nature of the regional economic structures and regulatory environments is an additional barrier. Objective of the paper is the formation of a corporate GR research program for the medium term. The methods are structural-systemic, historical-logical, comparative and content analysis, classification, archival research of literary sources. The authors present the definition of corporate GR and its structure, the classification of communication directions, the research program of corporate GR for the medium term. The predominance of formal relations and the dominance of the evidence-based approach on both sides are key features of Russian GR. The findings based on the author's GR-rating of the maturity level of the GR-function include: 1) the level of openness of GR is gaining momentum; 2) a higher level of maturity of GR is manifested in industries with the largest regulatory and distributive activities of the state; 3) GR in large business still has blurred boundaries in corporate design and is poorly supported by internal acts, except for the total presence of an anti-corruption policy.