Sustainability Management of Business Projects in Large Russian Companies

Abstract

Large companies implement their business activities in the form of projects. The problem of implementing business projects based on the concept of sustainable development is becoming more urgent. The concept assumes management of business projects in such a way that allows a balance to be struck between the economic, social and environmental interests of groups of stakeholders on an institutional basis at the current time and over the long term. However, there are currently no universal and generally accepted developments in sustainability management. This study aims to develop and test a methodology for assessing and managing the sustainability of business projects that includes values, motives, and the level of maturity of sustainability. The novelty and originality of the methodology lies in the fact that it takes into account four sustainability criteria at once – economic, social, environmental and institutional. It allows the user to identify the level of sustainability, both on the basis of individual criteria and an integral indicator. It also corresponds to the current trend of studying the motives and values of implementing the concept of sustainability in projects. The proposed methodology and the test results from 36 large companies in Russia will help business project managers cope with the growing complexity of the social, environmental and economic environments.