It is obvious that the pace of international cooperation between SPbPU and the world leading universities is increasing, hence the next milestone in the history of the brand of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University was the date of May 8, 2020, when online negotiations were held with foreign partners on the issue of applying for research in conjunction with the Technological Institute of king Mongkut Ladkrabang (King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand.
The KMITL is a research Institute and academic institution in Thailand. Currently, it is recognized as one of the best universities of science and technology in Thailand. This meeting is a very important event, considering that the research relates to the promising trend of «Smart learning» (SmartLearning) within the new techno-economic paradigm of Industry 4.0 and tightly correlates with the current measures that counteract the spread of COVID-19.
SPbPU was represented by the director of the Graduate School of Service and Trade IIMET Irina Vasilievna Kapustina, professors of GSST Sergey Evgenievich Barykin and Elena Viktorovna Korchagina.
KMITL was represenred by Dr. Bilal Khalid, full-time lecturer of Business Administration Department, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)) and Dr. Sudaporn Sawmong, Dean of Administration and Management Faculty.
The prospects for joint scientific research in the field of digital transformation were put on the focus and discussed during the negotiations.The result of a fruitful scientific discussion was a joint application for conducting an empirical study aimed at studying the processes of digitalization of the service sector between the two countries in a difficult socio-economic situation in the world caused by a new coronavirus infection. The foreign partners firmly assured that the application for joint research was approved in advance. The formal outcome of the study is supposed to be a customer interaction model based on the digital transformation of customer service in a difficult economic situation, which allows to accumulate the most complete volume of information about the consumer in different interaction contexts and in various communication channels, establish a continuous dialogue with the client and personalize the service. In the narrow sense of considering joint scientific search, in a simpler language, our universities strive to study the problems of staff education, training, digital literacy and the acquisition of digital competence as much as possible, through the assimilation of new material based on digital technologies.
A decision was reached to continue negotiations and cooperation in the field of joint applications for various competitions, in particular for participation in the next competition for the best research projects, the joint research programme «Scientific and Innovative Space of East Asia» organized by participating organizations, on the theme «The impact of changes in international environmental factors on digital logistics ecosystems» funded by the international E-Asia JRP Program, one of the participants of which is the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR).
The Director of GSST I.V. Kapustina noted: «Participation in such international projects is an important stage for our Graduate School in terms of the international cooperation development which contributes to the expansion of the theory and methodology of digital logistics networks, including the field of international trade».
GSST Professor S.E. Barykin confirmed the intentions to maintain the further joint research projects in the field of digital economy and the global supply chains development together with higher educational institutions of Thailand. Dr. Bilal Khalid, a full-time lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at the King Mongkut Ladkrabang Institute of Technology, expressed a mutual opinion on the prospects for research in the field of digital transformation of economies, services and trade.
