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Economics of Contemporary Russia

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No 4 (2019)
https://doi.org/10.33293/1609-1442-2019-4(87)

ACTUAL PROBLEMS OF ECONOMICS

7-20 952
Abstract

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the problem of theoretical substantiation of transnational differences in the forms of capitalist relations became the subject of a broad scientific discussion. Given article deals with the ideas about the causes and consequences of the differentiation of the principles of capitalist society organization, and the authors consciously limit its geographical coverage to developed countries. It was the states of the Core of World economy that were in the focus of publications of the second half of the 20th centurywhich used the methods of comparative analysis within the framework of the theories of regulation, developmentalism, dependent capitalism, neo-corporatism, post-Fordism, etc. Modern concepts of comparative capitalism, especially focusing on emerging markets, are based on a variety of approaches to distinguish national models of capitalist relations. Despite the pluralism of typological criteria, many of these approaches basically contain provisions of the “varieties of capitalism” theory (VoC) developed in the early 2000s. Relying on its key postulate on the existence of various types of institutional complementarity, the authors of given article explain the principles of divergence of liberal and coordinated market economies, as well as analyze the groundings for identifying a mixed type of capitalism. It should be noted that the prospects for the adaptation of provisions of “varieties of capitalism” binary theory to analyze the experience of countries with emerging markets, including post-socialist states, remain vague. It’s noteworthy, that during the post-crisis recovery period of the late 2000s the VoC approach has undergone a certain transformation under the influence of new conditions of global economy functioning, having opposed its own methodological flexibility to the spread of alternative theories of the organization of capitalist systems.

21-38 1185
Abstract

The paper is devoted to the economic analysis of rationality in the tradition of Harvey Leibenstein: the authors perceive rationality as “calculatedness” when making decisions, while the degree of this “calculatedness” is interpreted as a variable. Thus, this approach does not correspond to the generally accepted neoclassical interpretation of rationality, according to which rationality is both full and constant. The authors believe that such a neoclassical approach makes too stringent requirements for the abilities of people. In real life, people do not behave like calculating machines. The paper discusses various factors limiting the degree of rationality of individuals. One group of factors is associated with external information constraints such as the complexity and extensiveness of information, as well as the uncertainty of the future. Another group of factors is related to informal institutions. In particular, the paper states that the system of planned socialism contributes to less rationality than the system of market capitalism. Thus, in the post-socialist countries, including contemporary Russia, one should not expect a high degree of rationality of the behavior of economic entities. The paper mentions, in particular, the factors of rationality caused by informal institutions, such as the propensity to calculate, the propensity to be independent when making decisions and the propensity to set goals. The authors also believe that people who live on their own are usually more rational than people who share a common household with someone else. This assumption is verified econometrically based on data on young urban residents collected by the authors. It turned out that the behavior of people included in this database, in general, corresponds to what the authors believed.

39-52 890
Abstract

Cooperative relationships between rival firms, which engage in interfirm strategic alliances, assume active transfer, reception and recombination of competencies and co-production of novel knowledge. These processes facilitate joint technological development and improve the participating firms’ competitiveness. Nevertheless, competitive interactions between the partners can impede the achievement of the alliance’s cooperative objectives. This paper investigates the impact of trusting attitudes developed between the partners on the effectiveness of interfirm collaboration under conditions of competitive rivalry in the broader industrial environment and similarity of initial knowledge at the partners’ disposal. It offers a number of hypotheses, which determine the interrelationships between the levels of interfirm trust, transaction costs associated with transferring knowledge and the successful attainment of alliance goals. The paper pays specific attention to the effects arising from the commonality of knowledge possessed by cooperating rivals. It also analyzes the influence of particular types of coopetitive strategic alliances on the success of collaborative  arrangements under the conditions of knowledge commonality among the partners.

53-69 864
Abstract
At present, when changes in all areas are accelerated, the effective innovative development of the national economy requires the use of innovative mechanisms for managing the economies of industries and regions that contribute to an increase in the rate of economic growth. It is important to understand and use the mutual influence of industries on each other and on overall development in order to create an integrated mechanism for ensuring the productivity of the economy, limiting the growth of prices and the interest of industries in reducing costs and prices for their products. A necessary condition for the stability of the economy is financial productivity, i.e. the exclusion of price increases, since even their growth in products of at least one sector of the economy (especially systemically important), causes an avalanche-like, uncontrolled rise in prices in other sectors. The objectives of this article were to consider precisely these issues and reflect the results of scientific research in this direction. The methods of system analysis, economic and mathematical modeling, the concept of managing the financial productivity of the economy based on research and analysis of inter-industry relations are used. The article examines the systemic problems of a developing economy (raw material orientation), analyzes the state and potential of the regional economies, their contribution to the development of the national economy, examines and analyzes the model of financial productivity using the two-sector model of Kazakhstan's intersectoral balance, proposes control mechanisms for achieving financial productivity: cost-effective mechanisms pricing and taxation; It is shown that their use leads to the interest of industries in lowering costs and prices for products of industries. Recommendations on the use of the considered models are formulated.

ECONOMICAL POLICY AND ECONOMICAL PRACTICE

70-84 1324
Abstract

The article is devoted to analyze the digitalization process in the development of public-private partnership mechanism in informational healthcare infrastructure. The importance of information asymmetry problem is shown in the health insurance market, and the mechanisms that can minimize it are analyzed: public-private partnership and concession. Based on the analysis of report “The Development of Digital Economy in Russia”, the importance of the digitalization process was identified for the social sphere, and the main directions were outlined for the development of the digital economy in Russia. Aim of the article is to analyze the features of public private partnership mechanism in healthcare related to the process of digitalization of the economy. The object of study is the public-private partnership mechanism. Subject of the study include economical, organizational and social relations arising in the process of applying the PPP mechanism for the development of digitalization. The analysis method made it possible to comprehend the main trends of the digitalization process in relation to the healthcare sector. The method of synthesis helped to find the relationship between these trends. Comparative analysis allowed comparing two key models of health insurance. The article allows understanding the key trends of the digitalization process in health care. Аs a result, it will be useful for experts involved in the development of healthcare infrastructure based on the PPP mechanism.

85-99 840
Abstract

The work is devoted to the improvement of the existing system of strategic management of the Russian oil and gas complex using the program-target method, which is one of the most effective tools of world management practice. The directions for improving the management system of the oil and gas complex of Russia were determined on the basis of the analysis and identified shortcomings of the existing hierarchy of documents of the strategic planning of the development of the oil and gas complex. It was found that the current system of strategic planning of the oil and gas sector is characterized by a large number of documents of various levels, often outdated, adopted with a significant time lag, which are not coordinated with each other in time, goals, objectives, indicators, activities and resources. Documents of the industry level are developed only within the framework of goal-setting, in the absence of the specification of these documents in the forecasts, programs and plans, consistent with budget projections. The system of target indicators used in industry documents does not fully describe the tasks that have been set, which makes it difficult to monitor the development of the oil and gas complex. The article proposes an approach to strategic planning and monitoring of the development of the oil and gas complex using a programtarget method that will allow solving the problems outlined above. The levels and stages of the strategic planning of the development of the oil and gas complex are considered, for each of which an optimized list of strategic planning documents is given. In relation to the oil industry of Russia, a strategic goal, tactical tasks and a set of target indicators characterizing the degree of solving the corresponding tasks have been proposed. In addition, the requirements for sectoral forecasts, programs and plans were considered, and a procedure was proposed for monitoring the implementation of strategic planning documents for the development of the oil and gas complex.

99-112 855
Abstract

The article analyzes the issues of environmental management in the Russian agro-industrial complex. It is shown that the current lack of economic interest of the agricultural producers in the development of nature-saving production technologies, in preservation of their own resource potential hinders the implementation of measures for the greening of agricultural production. The reason for this is the use of imperfect technologies for saving natural resources for industrial purposes. The known nonlinear dependence of economic efficiency on the volume of investment in production, manifested in varying degrees of return at different intervals of the scale of investments, is also characteristic of the processes of economic nature management. We propose to expand the list of economic regulators of resource and environmental conservation in agriculture, which increases the interest of enterprises in the use of new methods of conservation of resources, contributes to the economically justified productivity of their use. The recommended measures to stimulate this process are partly similar to the practice of  subsidizing unprofitable production, but have the significant difference that funds intended for the development of advanced technologies of environmental management should be allocated from the regional and Federal budgets only for farms using environmentally oriented methods of production.

112-125 857
Abstract

Situation and value of the African continent on the economic and social cardmap of the world dynamically changes and will continue to change throughout all the 21st century with strengthening of the Africa positions in the world. In Russia all the complex of threats and problems which arise owing to political and economic transformation of Africa is not adequately estimated. The scientific literature on economic security issues presents an expanded set of internal and external threats to the national economy that goes beyond the traditional areas of the shadow economy, corruption, economic crime and related segments, including the internal economic stability of the national economy and inter-country competition, the quality of state strategic management, studies of the specifics of ensuring economic security in the conditions of the sixth technological order, intercultural communication and their impact on the economic relations between countries, etc. Incomplete use of such approach to strategy for the countries of Africa creates additional threats and risks for Russia. An analysis of security problems in Africa revealed that studies of economic security in the context of African development trends in Russia are conducted in an unsatisfactory volume, not always taking into account the results of new developments in the field of ensuring economic security. Even the large shifts happening on the African continent, forecasts of this dynamics sometimes are poorly known to experts of a profile of economic security, and many experts of an economic profile including working in the African subject often do not accurately distinguish problems of “economic cooperation” and “the Russian – African relations”, on the one hand, and “economic security of Russia” – with another. In this regard the new scientific problem is proved: need for deeper analysis of trends of economic and social development in Africa as an important component of a system of ensuring national economic security of Russia in the current period and in the future into account the new developments in the sphere of economic security. The main directions of activating scientific research and concentration of practical efforts to increase national economic security, neutralize threats and reduce risk for Russia in the designated context are formulated.

126-136 1296
Abstract

The article discusses ecosystem companies. This is a set of enterprises that produce a wide range of goods and services in various industries and under a single brand. The development of an ecosystem forms an attitude towards it as a brand, and not as a legal entity or a group of companies. This brand is represented as a set of goods and services from different industries. This study clarified the boundaries of the concept of socio-economic ecosystem and the target properties of its elements. These elements are harmony, complementarity, universality, seamlessness and connectedness. The article formulates the sequence of transformations of the company into an ecosystem. Transformation occurs through micro-, meso- and industrial levels of activity. This allowed us to structure the levels of ecosystem development. The initial level is a separate enterprise, then to the industry structure and, as a result, to the industrial structure. Ecosystem companies form a new approach to managing large and complex structures. Its main difference is a set of cyclic and point solutions. Such control is characterized by milder effects. Ecosystem management is a set of unique non-cyclic solutions that form the concept of ecosystem development. There are three ways ecosystems interact with each other. The first is an explicit partnership, the second is secretive in a parasitic form, and the third is indirectly through an intermediary ecosystem. Similar ways of interaction in the future will lead to integration processes of merging and absorption of ecosystems. These processes require a particular managerial staff, taking into account large and complex structures.

136-152 862
Abstract

The purpose of this work is a comparative analysis of existing approaches to the management of the company’s assortment policy (traditional approach and category management), determining their main differences, advantages and disadvantages, as well as identifying the amount of each of them. The article gives a brief description and definitions of existing approaches to the management of the company’s assortment policy. On the basis of 17 criteria the comparative analysis of approaches allowing to reveal their main differences is carried. According to the survey of 18 category managers of the retailers of the Urals Federal district revealed that at present category management is actively implemented in the commercial networks of the Ural Federal district; it is gradually substituting the traditional approach. However, the trading network of the Ural Federal district did not take the traditional approach or category management, demonstrating the predominance of mixed forms of management of the assortment policy of trade networks. The degree distribution of these approaches in various retailers varies significantly between the research allowed to identify a large potential for further development and growth of the trade networks of the Ural Federal district, which will allow them to get better financial results from the trading activities.

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ISSN 1609-1442 (Print)
ISSN 2618-8996 (Online)