A Lean Startup to Increase the Competitiveness of Russian Universities: Organizational and Managerial Aspects of Applied Results

Abstract

A lean (economical) startup as a new object of research for the implementation of lean management is considered as an opportunity to increase the competitiveness of universities, as a result of university technological entrepreneurship, the effectiveness of which is reflected in the Global Innovation Rating (at the global level), in the Interfax national university ranking, the activities of the Association of Lean Universities at the Russian level. Lean management in the digital economy is the smart management of university processes and project activities, involving all participants in the process of constant change to create a socially significant good. Object of research: lean management in higher education institutions as a source of increasing their competitiveness. Subject: lean startup as a component of lean management in universities, where the beneficiaries are “external” and “internal” participants in the educational process; reflecting the competitive advantages of the university in the fields of innovative entrepreneurship, social sphere. Research objectives: updating the development of lean management in universities; updating the achievements of lean universities in the Interfax ranking; drawing conclusions about the possible impact of lean management in Russian universities to increase their competitiveness. Methods include general scientific methods: quantitative and qualitative analysis, systematization, analysis, synthesis, methods of grouping, comparison; analysis of the websites’ content: project of the Interfax news agency; Association of Lean Universities. As a result, the evolution of lean management development in the Russian educational space has been clarified; an analysis of the activities of lean universities — members of the Association of Lean Universities has been carried out according to the results of the Interfax ranking 2024, with the identification of a leader; the hypothesis that the ability of the lean startup concept of a university to create a large number of ideas in the form of a minimally viable product based on university technology entrepreneurship projects was confirmed; the hypothesis that lean management in universities as a management philosophy is a source of constant transformation in the social sphere, has not been confirmed.