SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR’S REFERENCE  Program:	Master in Management (MIM) Student:	Gabriel Gretener Title of thesis:	THE COUNTRY-SPECIFIC INFLUENCES ON SUPPLY CHAIN DIGITALISATION IN RUSSIA 	 Justification of the topic choice. Accuracy in defining the aim and objectives of the thesis. Justification of the topic choice; accuracy in defining the aim and tasks of the thesis; originality of the topic and the extent to which it was covered; alignment of the thesis’ topic, aim and objectives. The idea of digitalization disrupts many industries and businesses. Supply chain is one of the areas that was disrupted by digitalization. Thus, the topic on this issue is right on time and deserves attention.   Structure and logic of the text flow. Logic of research; full scope of the thesis; alignment of thesis’ structural parts, i.e. theoretical and empirical parts. The paper is composed of 7 parts, including introduction and conclusion. Following academic traditions, the introduction is followed by literature review. Third part describes methodology. Forth includes discussion of the findings. Fifth part devoted to managerial implication and sixths to limitations of the results and conclusions. The stricture is logical (is more “article-type of structure” than “master thesis” which is a sign of mature point of view of the author). The text itself is well-written, easy to read, author is clear in his conclusions.                                                                Quality of analytical approach and quality of offered solution to the research objectives. Adequacy of objectives coverage; ability to formulate and convey the research problem; ability to offer options for its solution; application of the latest trends in relevant research are for the set objectives. The paper demonstrates quite good analytical skills of the student. First, having very limited access to the companies Gabriel was able to get maximum information and made reasonable conclusions basing on this information. Second, he was able to compare Switzerland and Russia in a very good way and provided recommendations. I suppose this proves his ability for analysis and conclusions.   Quality of data gathering and description. Quality of selecting research tools and methods; data validity adequacy; adequacy of used data for chosen research tools and methods; completeness and relevance of the list of references. As it was mentioned, Gabriel had limited access, but he found the solution to enrich his survey and conducted several interviews. These cases helped him to accomplish his research and write appropriate recommendation.   Scientific aspect of the thesis. Independent scientific thinking in solving the set problem/objectives; the extent to which the student contributed to selecting and justifying the research model (conceptual  and/or quantitative), developing methodology/approach to set objectives. Paper is written am extended research article and Gabriel use most of scientific approaches in his paper. Even the part with limitations of application of the results shows that he is fully aware of what are the limitation, how scientific approach works, etc.   Practical/applied nature of research. Extent to which the theoretical background is related to the international or Russian managerial practice; development of applied recommendations; justification and interpretation of the empirical/applied results. The cases that Gabriel included in his paper link theoretical paper with practice. I suppose he achieved the goal to create practical valuable recommendations.   Quality of thesis layout. Layout fulfils the requirements of the Regulations for master thesis preparation and defence, correct layout of tables, figures, references. Layout is beautiful and is done according to the standards    Originality of the text. All sources of match identified by the Safe Assign system follow the allowed cases, the paper does not contain any elements of plagiarism.  The thesis text is original and does not contain elements of plagiarism   The Master thesis of Gabriel Gretener meets for master thesis of Master in Management program thus the author of the thesis can be awarded the required degree.   Date: 04.06.2018  Scientific Advisor: Konstantin Krotov, Associate Professor