BUILDING COMPETITIVENESS INDICES FOR INDUSTRY SEGMENTS OF THE RUSSIAN MACHINE BUILDING INDUSTRY

The purpose of this study is to develop a new approach to assessing the competitiveness of Russian enterprises in the field of mechanical engineering through the prism of the concept of industry anisotropy. The research uses methods of marking competitive niches and comparative analysis of indexes covering two or more segments of the industry. In the research methodology, a focus group of 105 leading Russian engineering companies (OKVED‑2 28.0) was formed, which provided 897 reports over the course of nine years. Each report is presented as coordinates in the RI-ROE system. These coordinates are analyzed in two main ways: 1) with their classification into different layers through layered Pareto optimization with the calculation of the competitiveness index SCI1, and 2) with the grouping of data by competitive niches determined by special marking of the industry R-lens with the calculation of the index SCI2. The cumulative strategic competitiveness index is formed as a linear convolution of the SCI1 and SCI2 indices. As a result of the study, segment index data was obtained for two subcategories all-Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activity 2: 28.1 and 28.3. Comparative analysis confirmed that segment 28.1 demonstrates lower competitiveness in relation to segment 28.3 in terms of intra-industry competition. The originality and significance of this study lies in the use of methods of fuzzy set theory and soft computing developed by the Russian scientific school Fuzzy Economics. A similar competitive analysis methodology can be successfully adapted for other industrial sectors.