Development of Strategic Competitive Advantages of Russian Companies Entering Foreign Markets: The Case of Heedbook Cloud Ltd

Today, there are increased expectations of the company's flexibility and its ability to adapt to new and rapidly changing conditions in order to be able to constantly maintain its competitiveness. Moreover, in the context of globalization and the internationalization of many companies, there is a need to consider the competitiveness of companies in global markets. However, most competitive advantage studies have been based on the experience of companies from developed economies (primarily Western European and American companies), which determines the relevance of research into the strategic competitive advantages of companies from emerging economies, in particular, Russian companies. Keywords: competitive advantage, strategic capability, core competency, unique resources, internationalization, Russian IT companies. The master's thesis objective is to develop recommendations on forming strategic competitive advantages for Heedbook Cloud Ltd entering foreign markets. In order to achieve this objective, the following tasks were defined: 1) to develop theoretical statements of strategic competitive advantages and competitiveness building for the company; 2) to characterize the Heedbook Cloud Ltd and describe the product with the statement of the solving problem; 3) to analyze external and internal environment of Heedbook Cloud Ltd, to define strategic competitive advantages of the company and its strategic capabilities; 4) identify leaders among Russian IT companies and their strategic competitive advantages; 5) describe the specification of the company's strategies for entering foreign markets and identify Heedbook Cloud Ltd's problems in developing its strategic competitive advantages; 6) give recommendations on forming strategic competitive advantages of Heedbook Cloud Ltd entering foreign markets. The subject of the study is the IT company Heedbook Cloud Ltd. The scope is the process of forming strategic competitive advantages of the organization entering foreign markets. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work was formed by the works of domestic and foreign researchers such as M. Porter, E. Penrose, H. Hamel and D. Prahalad, B. Wernelfelt, J. Barney, R. Ramamurti, A. Cuervo-Cazurra, W. Newburry, S. Park, M. Genc. The empirical basis of the research was made up of primary data obtained from an in-depth interview with the technical director of Heedbook Cloud, internal data, collected feedback from experts and clients about the company and its product, data about Heedbook Cloud, its competitors and the leaders of Russian IT companies under review, presented on official websites of companies, published in news publications and interviews with experts or management of companies that are publicly available. As well as Russian ratings of IT companies in four different categories. The master's thesis refers to the work of the project type, so it includes an analysis of the impact of the external environment on the company, its positioning and analysis of the characteristics of the internal environment of the company, which allows to identify its competitive advantages. However, the novelty of the thesis is that recommendations for Heedbook Cloud on developing strategic competitive advantages entering foreign markets, aimed at improving the competitiveness of the company, will be formed through the development of strategic capabilities. Today, this is a topical topic, which has been one of the main research topics within management over the last twenty years. The practical significance of the Master's thesis results is explained by the fact that the main theoretical conclusions contained in the recommendations and its novelty components can be developed into concrete practical recommendations on forming strategic competitive advantages of Heedbook Cloud depending on the market, which will be chosen by the company to start its international expansion.