Corporate resilience, financial strategies and patterns of inclusive growth for companies in BRICS+ countries
National models of corporate finance in BRICS+ under uncertainty, 2026–2028. The 2026 stage maps patterns of corporate resilience across comparable industries.
Objective for 2026
To identify patterns of economic resilience among companies (corporate resilience) and their specific characteristics within comparable industries in the countries of the BRICS+.
What we study · flagship 2026
Six interlocking directions, one shared database
Resilience classes give the frame; governance, digital, investor and Islamic-finance lenses explain who moves into stronger classes — and why; the BRICS+ database makes the answers comparable across countries.
01Resilience classes — the framework
We sort firms into classes by financial resilience and non-financial factors via a composite index, then read the investment, financing and M&A decisions typical of each pattern.
resilience index · ML · corporate classes · financial decisions
Project task. To assess corporate classes in terms of financial sustainability and a set of non-financial factors, as well as patterns of financial decision-making in samples of companies from countries within the BRICS+.
In focus
M&A deal strategies
The effects of M&A deals on the financial performance and corporate resilience of companies in BRICS+ countries, with a particular focus on the role of deal strategy variations.
M&A · deal strategies · performance · resilience
02Governance & resilience
We identify the governance characteristics and board practices that help companies move into more resilient classes under structural uncertainty, while accounting for institutional differences across BRICS+ countries:
- Identify the corporate governance characteristics associated with different patterns of corporate resilience across BRICS+ economies.
- Determine which board structures, governance mechanisms and board practices contribute most to firms’ resilience and performance under structural crises and heightened uncertainty.
- Examine how Islamic approaches to environmental risk management are reflected in corporate governance systems and board practices.
Analyzing the patterns and specifics of national corporate governance models in BRICS+ countries, assessing the effects of board and CEO attributes on corporate performance, resilience and ESG transformation.
governance · boards · corporate resilience · Islamic environmental risk
Project task. To identify the features of corporate governance specific for different patterns of companies within BRICS+.
In focus
Owners & decision-makers — three dimensions
- Individual decision-makers and their horizons. How CEO characteristics, personal incentives, and managerial time horizons interact with board composition to drive corporate investment, risk-taking, and strategic choices — our behavioral lens: who sits at the top and how they think forward.
- Owners as strategic forces. How families, institutional investors, and the state not only hold stakes but actively interact — sometimes aligning, sometimes conflicting — in ways that shape firm policies. Ownership is not a static label but a dynamic ecosystem of actors with different logics and time preferences.
- Firm performance vs. resilience. Which configurations of people and organizations deliver strong financial performance today — and which help firms absorb and adapt to structural shocks: regulatory shifts, crises, or technological disruptions?
The central question: what mix of owners and decision-makers makes an emerging-market firm both high-performing in the short run and resilient over the long horizon?
CEOs · families · institutional investors · the state · CEO horizon
03Digital transformation & the China node
An ML-based measure of digital maturity that classifies firms across BRICS+, testing whether the strongest resilience patterns coincide with digital practices.
The China node — new quality productivity & green innovation: first-hand Chinese evidence in the BRICS+ program — how digital transformation, ESG and AI shape green innovation and “new quality productivity” in Chinese listed firms; an ML lens on Chinese resilience, mirrored against Russian patterns.
digital maturity · ML · China · new quality productivity
Project task. To develop a methodology for identifying corporate classes based on the criterion of digital transformation.
04Retail investors (grant)
ruBERT and LLMs read Russian retail-investor texts — Telegram, Smart-Lab, MFD, T-Bank — classifying value / growth / momentum / reversal preferences month by month since February 2022 and linking them to resilience.
The direction also studies how retail investors discuss financial markets and how their ways of reasoning shape the views they express. The first part examines whether investors’ reasoning styles are more stable than their short-term market opinions. The next part links these reasoning styles to broader market conditions and investment factors, asking when different types of arguments become more important for understanding retail investor behavior.
ruBERT / LLM · value · growth · momentum · reversal · reasoning styles
Project task. To analyze the investment preferences of Russian private investors through the use of machine learning techniques (within the scope of the grant).
05Islamic finance
The resilience patterns of firms applying Islamic finance and the digital transformation of Islamic (partner) finance in Russia.
Islamic finance · partner finance · digital
Project task. To organize and systematize the specific aspects of addressing the sustainability challenges of companies when applying Islamic management techniques.
06BRICS+ database · the foundation
The backbone of all five directions: the BRICS+ company database, extended with financials to 2025 plus governance, digital and ESG data, automated collection from open sources, and surveys and deep-dive interviews in large Russian firms.
2004–2026 · automated collection · surveys & interviews
Project task. To enrich the database of BRICS+ companies.
Every direction feeds and draws on the shared BRICS+ database.
Expected results
What the project delivers
Theoretical results
- A theoretical framework for classifying and analyzing companies based on their economic sustainability has been established.
- Financial decisions made within different corporate classes of large public companies have been systematized.
- Contributions to the development of a national model for corporate finance in Russia have been made.
- The characteristics of sustainability patterns for companies that apply an Islamic approach to management and financing have been systematized.
Methodological findings
- A composite index of business economic resilience to structural crises and high levels of uncertainty has been developed for companies operating in emerging markets.
- A methodological framework has been established to analyze patterns of transition toward more efficient corporate classes based on the criteria of resilience and patterns balance in the context of uncertainty and the challenges induced by new globalization trends.
Applied results
- The original empirical findings have been obtained, revealing the features of corporate financial decision-making and its relationship to the economic resilience of companies operating in emerging capital markets.
- Contributions have been made to the development of international research collaborations between the Laboratory for Corporate Finance of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University, and research institutions from BRICS+.
- International scientific workshops have been organized and conducted, bringing together researchers from the Central University of Economics and Finance (CUEF) in Beijing, with potential joint project proposals and publication topics being discussed.
- Presentations have been prepared for international conferences on corporate finance.
- A detailed program for the 4th International Conference “ESG Corporate Dynamics in Emerging Capital Markets” has been developed.
- Analytical materials have been prepared on the practices of financial decisions and sustainability of companies in BRICS+ countries in a sectoral and temporal context, for discussion at expert roundtables at HSE University and further promotion of the results for practical implementation in Russian companies.
- Materials on financial practices in emerging capital markets have been prepared for the development of cases and for discussion with potential partner organizations on establishing the Case Center at the School of Finance. They cover practices that increase the resilience of companies facing new geopolitical challenges and digital and ESG transformations in BRICS+ countries, and are intended for master’s programs at HSE University and partner universities, as well as for Continuing Professional Education programs at HSE.
- A repository of up-to-date data on risks, sustainability, corporate financial decisions, corporate governance and boards of directors in Russian companies from 2004 to 2026 is maintained.
The program
Five years of one research line
| 2021 – 2022 | How the people at the top — their horizons, incentives and confidence — shape corporate financial decisions. |
| 2023 – 2024 | Financial architecture, M&A and payout policy in emerging capital markets. |
| 2025 | National governance models and business sustainability: the program moves to a BRICS+ scale. |
| 2026 | Corporate resilience & inclusive growth Patterns of corporate resilience across comparable industries, on one shared BRICS+ database. |
Go on from here
| Where this work is discussed, stage by stage | The annual international conference of the Center | Papers produced within the program |
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