The article discusses the theory and practice of the implementation and development of transport and transit potential (TTP) of Russia. This could be an effective way to replace the natural resource rent as the main source of income for the state and economic actors. For the modernization of national economic system the key importance are innovative technologies in the development of transport and transit potential through the organization of the production of goods and services with the highest added value in Russia. We proposed and substantiated the hypothesis about the necessity of creation of a Federal company responsible for the financing and implementation of Russia’s transport and transit potential development projects on the principles of public-private partnership (PPP). The authors have revealed the economic, institutional and organizational prerequisites for the establishment of such a public-private partnership company. We have provided the opinions of scientists and experts showing the urgent need to create in one form or another a single operator to transport goods on the territory of Russia and the Eurasian economic Union. To prove the hypothesis, we presented a description and analysis of the factors affecting the value of transit freight transport on Euro-Asian routes. We paid the special attention to identify the reasons of the increasing competitive advantage of Maritime transport in the world’s goods movement system. The authors based the main conclusion that, first of all, the created publicprivate partnership company should be large due to tough competition of developing transit freight by land routes with the global Maritime container services. Secondly, it needs a significant state participation since the management of the world’s cargo flows requires the effort of foreign policy and geo-economic nature. We emphasized that this business entity would become an active proponent and lobbyist of the most effective projects for the development of transport infrastructure of the country. The research is based on the methods of system analysis, theory of structural and technological balance of economics, organization theory, evolution and institutional theory and utilizes historical approach. The results of the study can be used for the development of the state economic sectoral programmes of structural reforms; indicative plans of innovative development of rail, sea, road infrastructure and transport machine building; as well as for the preparation and implementation of specific projects of financing the development of transport and transit potential on a public-private partnership basis.

This article covers the basic principles and methodological, economic and mathematical tools for solving the problem of modernization of Russian enterprises. The paper shows that the solution of this problem affects a wide range of topical issues of the modern economic science: effective structuring of the socio-economic aspect of society; concepts and definitions of ‘enterprise’; theory of the firm; theory of production functions and associated models; methods of organization and of the evolution management of the development of the economy at the micro level. The article proposes the concept of the enterprise as a system of institutional and organizational, social and labour, property and technological, business and model sectors interacting both among themselves and with the authorities, population, economic and business structures of regional and federal levels. This concept allows not only formulating a correct definition of the ‘enterprise’ concept, but also indicating the ways of the implementation of enterprise modernization projects. The concept of system modernization as a method of the transformation of economic entities, occupying an intermediate position between the administrative modernization and organic evolution has been developed. The author classifies the risks and advantages of both methods of transformation. The resource-based and competence-based theory of the firm highlighting the interaction of enterprise resources with its capabilities (ambitions, aspirations, competencies) can be the basis for describing the functioning of the enterprise under modernization. The nonconformity of the amount of resources to the level of capabilities of the enterprise is a powerful stimulus of its transformation. The article has developed a small-size model of the functioning of an enterprise under modernization, including the resource-based and competence-based production function, as well as the functions of costs, dynamics of resources and capabilities of the firm. The author presents the key elements of the strategy of the massive modernization of enterprises at the regional and federal levels.

The destabilization processes of the Russian Federation’s budget system, primarily at the regional level, are becoming longterm in their nature. It is necessary to find ways to overcome these processes. The current measures by the authorities are aimed at reducing budget expenditures and will not solve the existing problems. In the authors’ opinion, these are, first of all, the failures of tax policy concerning the major taxpayers. The main purpose of the article is to provide the selected research results of the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the taxation of major oil and metals corporations, their relations with both federal and regional budgets. The analysis of regulatory acts allowed to conclude that the standard practice of major taxpayers’ tax administration hardly corresponds to the basic principles of taxation. As a result, in recent years, revenues from the main income source of the territories — income tax steadily decline; industrial production development is limited by the inefficient tax concession system and the increasing costs, corporate management imbalances. These imbalances suppose that the interests of private capital owners and the management of state corporations prevail over the solution of the issues of social development. The paper proposes some measures to improve the profit taxation and increase the fiscal function of income tax. We have developed a differentiated scale of refunds from the budget of valueadded tax paid by large commodity exporters with a view to provide incentives for increasing exports of competitive products. The article also suggests that with continued centralization of the system of tax distribution across government levels, a part of additional revenues generated through the implementation of a selective approach to the provision of tax incentives could be used to increase financial support of the regions.

At present, the Russian economic situation is characterized by significant imbalances in regional development. So, the forecasting of the indexes of regional social and economic development has become especially relevant. The authors offer a technique of the forecasting of regional social and economic development, it consists of two blocks. The first one is the estimation and forecasting of the level of regional social and economic development. For the purposes of this block, we applied a method of development level and some adaptive methods. The informative basis is the data on the social and economic development of the Republic of Crimea. The change of the integrated index’s growth rate, which is used for the inertial and realistic scenarios, defined the conclusions on the regional socio-economic development. The second block of this technique includes the estimation and forecasting of the social and economic state of considered region. This block is based on the methods of cluster, discriminate and adaptive analyses. The information basis is the data of the social and economic situation of 79 Russian regions for the last 14 years. On the basis of cluster analysis, we divide all Russian regions into two clusters according to their social and economic position. Discriminate models allowed to determine the prospective rate of the Republic of Crimea. The adaptive methods made possible the identification of the researched region to a certain cluster. In the article, the presented models support a complex estimation of the level of regional socio-economic development in the current forecast period and can be considered as a tool of decision-making support at the multivariate scenario analysis of the regional development strategy.

The paper aims at analyzing the differences in the level of Russian regions social well-being in 2004–2014. The objectives of the research are the assessment of the regional social well-being; evaluation of the interregional inequality and the degree of regions convergence/divergence in social well-being; estimation of the factors contributed to it. The social well-being is presented as a four-factor multiplicative model, based on the A. Sen extended function, which includes GDP per capita, share of personal incomes in GRP, cost of living index in the region and intra-regional income inequality. We evaluate the degree of interregional inequality in social well-being on the basis of generalized entropy indices (Theil index and Theil-Bernoulli index). The authors determined a contribution of factors to the interregional inequality according to the Duro-Esteban inequality decomposition technique. According to our hypothesis, the interregional differences decrease as we go from GRP per capita towards nominal and real income and social well-being of regions due to three compensation effects: distributive one, cost of living and intraregional inequality. The dynamics of these effects defines the character and extent of convergence. As a result of the research, we constructed the map of Russian Federation regions by social well-being, and discovered interregional differences in dynamics. Weighted entropy indices allowed to reveal the turning point in the tendency of the accelerated convergence of the Russian regions in 2009, and according to the unweighted entropy indices, there is a smooth turn to divergence in 2011. We determined the contribution of four factors and three crossings of the model in the formation of interregional differences by social well-being in statics. In dynamics, we revealed the positive impact on the convergence by production and distribution factors and the negative impact on it by the factors of cost of life and intraregional inequality. The obtained results are applicable to the assessment of the effectiveness of the regional policy and interbudgetary equalization and to the development of the measures to improve it.

Equivalence scales have a crucial role in poverty measurement. For Turkey, there are no available up-todate equivalence scales, representing Turkish data. There were no efforts for calculation of equivalence scales at the regional level. The aim of the paper is to calculate and propose an equivalence scale for Turkey and estimate regional differences. Besides the models with Engel method, different equivalence scales were estimated by Almost Ideal Demand System. The results of the first model of AIDS approach composed of 5 age groups, is proposed for Turkey, but for simplicity the results of the second AIDS model could be used as well. In this model, the equivalence scale for Turkey is calculated as 0.65 for each additional adult after the first one and 0.35 for each child. For regional equivalence scales, we use two methods and comare the results. In the first one, regressions were run for each region separately and in the second one, dummy variables introduced. The highest difference in the results of the two methods was observed in Istanbul region. The findings for the regional scales are less reliable as the household size is bigger. This limitation is due to the relatively small size of the data sets. Having surveys with higher sample sizes would enable better results. After getting the results some conclusions could be drawn especially with regard to child cost differences among regions. It was expected to have higher costs for children in poorer regions and the regional results have confirmed this hypothesis.

The article is devoted to the urgent problem related to the development of the region, namely, the creation of tools for the assessment of the level of social dissatisfaction in the region. The assessment of the level of social dissatisfaction is one of the most important tasks of state organizations in political and social spheres. The article considers the concept of "social dissatisfaction" and associated terms, it substantiates the author's position on the content of this notion. The authors have investigated the existing national and international approaches to the assessing of social tensions of the population. The system of socio-economic development indicators doesn’t contain indicators allowing to assess the level of social dissatisfaction without the results of public polls. We propose two models in the article. In the first model, the assessment is basedon the single factor (the index of social dissatisfaction based on income differentiation). The second complex model takes into account a number of factors (the index of social dissatisfaction based on complex assessment). For the calculation of the proposed indicators, the authors use the statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service. The methodological research tools include the mathematical methods of statistical data processing. We have evaluated the methodological tools on the example of the Republic of Ingushetia. The assessment has showed the dynamics of a decline in the level of social-economic dissatisfaction in the region (1995–2011). The models of social dissatisfaction constitute a tool for rapid and up-to-date assessment of socio-economic system sustainability, and of the willingness of the population to participate in protests. The application of the results of this study is the support of decision-making regions and state structures in working out plans of the socio-economic development of the regions.

The article presents the results of the survey assessing the satisfaction level of small and medium businesses of the Sverdlovsk region with the factors of the institutional environment created in the area. Modern economics identifies four economic benefits of entrepreneurship development: job generation; productivity growth; innovation and economic growth. Governments, however, can exert either a positive or a negative influence on the extent to which in practice these benefits materialize. The positive result of Government policy is the investment appeal of the territory. We suppose, that the investment appeal of the territory depends on the correlation of the indicator of satisfaction and objective parameters of the institutional environment. Data for the subjective view was the survey of the satisfaction level of small and medium businesses of the Sverdlovsk region with the factors of the institutional environment at the year 2015 (more than 1000 respondents in 72 territories). Data for the objective view was Reports of the Heads of Sverdlovsk region municipalities about the efficiency in the municipal management, made public in 2015. The results of the research allow to develop a series of recommendations to improve the institutional environment for small and medium businesses. The basis for the selection of priority measures to improve the satisfaction of entrepreneurs is the correlation of the indicator of satisfaction and objective parameters of the institutional environment. The recommendations of the paper can be used by State and Municipal Governments in the policy of the increase of territory investment appeal. The scientific results of the research can become the base for further investigations of the correlation between subjective and objective factors of territorial development.

For many countries and regions (both in Russia and abroad), natural resources are the crucial factor for socio-economic development. The role and significance of natural resources in the economy of different areas substantially depend on the institutional environment, including the resource regime. Today, we have a qualitative complication of conditions for mineral resources exploitation, we start to develop new, non-traditional types of resources, which haven’t been available (or demanded) earlier for the economic and technological reasons. The changes in the characteristics of natural objects, as well as the increasing of uncertainty in the resource sector, actualize the search for alternatives of the development of resource-type regions and for the elaboration of appropriate strategies. In new conditions of resource regions, it is necessary to place emphasis on the aspects of expanded specific understanding of inclusiveness. It implies the possibility of active participation of regional authorities in the management and regulation of the mineral complex, as well as their involvement in the development of the association of a wide range of communities. These communities consist of the organizations representing the interests of indigenous peoples as well as professional communities: industry associations, environmental organizations, representatives of the innovation industry. Modern approaches to the elaboration of strategic directions for the resource regions development (primarily based on the development of the mineral industry) should be based on sustainable development principles, the principles of inclusiveness and the need for innovations. As a result of the convergence of these characteristics, a new socio-economic concept is formed. This concept can be defined as the harmonious development that is extremely important for the Russian regions. The proposed approach can be used for the elaboration of strategic alternatives of the development of resource regions.

The Publisher and Editor retract this paper because it contains the translation in English of parts of the thesis for the Candidate degree by Rudenko M.N. “Methodology of forming and developing the strategies for the integration of entrepreneur structures in the conditions of post-industrial economics” (2015), published in Russian, which in turn contains parts (table 2 in the Results section) of the thesis for the Candidate degree by Feoktistov A.A. “Forming and developing of the competences and the effectiveness of the system of brands management” (2009). According to COPE standards and the journal policies, the Editor and Publisher consider plagiarism and self-plagiarism as an unethical practice. The journal guidelines for authors make it clear that articles must be original. The integration of companies is crucially important in the ongoing globalization processes. Companies must unify the material assets and optimize property. The integration of the company, incrementally, and competency development is also essential in order to expand the competitiveness of the company’s integrated structure. Identification and management of competencies are especially important for the enterprise structures, which carry out the integration processes. The level of competency development and the types of competencies may or may not be similar. The aim of this research is to specify and develop an organizational competency structure, which groups individual competencies of an organization into various segments based on their similarity. This research is relevant due to the need to systematize and streamline competencies in order to better identify them and develop a set of measures for their monitoring. The theoretical literature analysis allowed us to create a model that characterizes the assumed impact of the competencies on the successful integration of companies. Based on the data, we divided the organizational competencies into five major categories are. An empirical assessment of the impact of the competencies on the market success of the integration of enterprise structures is provided. This research indicates that the success of such integration is substantially determined by the formation and development of the competencies. The authors interviewed top managers of 225 medium and large-sized companies from all over the country were (the questionnaire was created by Rudenko M.N.) The time lag is 5 years. Thereby, the results can be used in the process of regional policy formation.

The article discusses the economy of Arctic «islands». These territories of the Russian Arctic are unavailable by transport all the year round and have considerable specificity in comparison with the other regions of the Russian and North European Arctic. The authors consider the economy of Arctic «islands» on the example of the Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Areas. Despite the significant similarity in the economic and social parameters, after careful study, two regions show considerable internal differences. In order to identify dissimilarity, in the comparative analysis, we use the theoretical idea of the Arctic economy as a unity of three sectors — the traditional one, corporate (market) one and transfer (state) one. Each sector has the key contradictions, structures and its trajectory of evolution. The comparison of traditional sectors reveals significant landscape diversity of Chukotka in comparison with the Nenets tundra. The corporate sector of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug economy is significantly younger than in Chukotka, due to the fact that oil and gas development is relatively new practice for the region. On the other hand, because of the mining development of Chukotka gold, which started in 1960-s, it can be considered as an old industrial region. The level of the profitability of gold production is significantly lower than of the Nenets oil production. Therefore, we propose to include the economy of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug to the rental model, and Chukotka economy to the transfer model. The difference of transfer sectors of two areas is the result of not only the difference in the power of the regional budgets, but also of the urban settlement structure which is centralized in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and polycentric in Chukotka. It means that the public health and culture in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug are dated generally for the capital of Naryan-Mar, and social facilities in Chukotka are significantly decentralized and concentrated in Okrug’s and regional centres.

The article explores the problem of interregional migration flows modelling. As a rule, the existing models of interregional migration flows use the aggregated data and do not take into consideration the fact that a decision to relocate is formed and taken at the micro-level, at the level of households. The purpose of the present research is to develop the forecasting method for interregional migration flows of the region taking into consideration the behaviour of households at the micro-level. The research tests the hypothesis that the modelling of household behaviours at the local level as regards taking a decision to relocate to other regions, which takes into account the existing interactions with relatives and other communities, allows to obtain adequate forecasts of interregional migration flows. To forecast the interregional migration flows of the region, we develop a methodological approach and software solution, based on cellular automaton model modification proposed in the current work and on econometric models of birth and death processes, which have been tested on the Primorsky Krai data. The authors’ model of the cellular automaton is a kind of the combined probabilistic cellular automaton in which the condition of each cell changes depending on a condition of four closest neighbours (von Neumann vicinity) and four cells chosen in a random way. The article builds a mid-term forecast of Primorsky Krai interregional migration flows. The research demonstrates the possibility and reasonability of modelling the interregional migration flows by cellular automatons. The highly perspective direction of the research is the modelling of other macroeconomic processes based on modelling by cellular automatons of a behaviour of households, companies and other economic entities at the local level.

In the article, the authors consider the quality of life as an objective and its indicators as the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of balanced spatial development. The problem of measuring the quality of life has a complex and integrated nature, therefore, we should develop the practice of ratings in its spatial comparisons. The article demonstrates the possibility of using the rating lists of the quality of life of Russian regions by the rating agency “RIA Rating” for 2013–2015 as an information tool for the analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of the public development of the regional administration. The authors have concluded that with a consecutive growth of an average value of the integrated rating index of quality of life, the different ways of assessing the degree of differentiation of the regions according to the quality of life provide conflicting results. It is necessary to pay attention not so much to ranging and grading of regions as to their classification depending on to the nature of typical problems. Therefore, the rating scale is structured on the basis of the “problematic principle of regional grouping”. The authors have proposed the method of the gradation of the rating scale, allowing to take into account the direction of change of the region’s position in the ranking. The relevance of the rating as a key information tool to reduce the regional differentiation of the life quality of the population among the regulatory bodies and civil society will increase if: it is also used for other subnational entities of the Russian Federation; there is the use of econometric and computational capabilities of high-tech software systems for a posteriori analysis and models for strategic forecasting of the rankings; there is the search of a synergistic effect from a variety of estimates of the degree of spatial development.

Consumer behavior is perceived as an investment which does not yield results in the short run. The traditional economic theory of customer preferences is based on four main elements: customer income, the market price of goods, customer preferences, and behavioral assumption about the maximum of achievable benefits. Even though it sometimes might seem that equalizing energy consumption with behavior is not possible, it can often be described as consequences of behavior, such as turning off the lights or thermostat level reduction for saving power. Our paper demonstrates how the psychological concept of consumer behavior effects energy consumption. It provides recommendations about the incorporation of the idea of uncomplicated information availability for consumers taking into consideration their long-term habits. The novelty of this study is that psychological concept of consumer behavior effects energy consumption in each of the region, therefore, it is recommended to incorporate the idea of uncomplicated information availability for consumers taking into consideration long-term habits. The problem analyzed in the article is how consumer behavior influences energy consumption. The aim of the article is to analyze the consumer behavior in energy consumption. The objectives of the study are two-fold: i) to analyze the element of consumer behavior from the theoretical point of view, and ii) to investigate the patterns of energy consumption. The methods of the study are a logical and comparative analysis of literature, graphics, synthesis, and deduction. Our results and findings can be used by the stakeholders and policy-makers in preparing regional development economic policies and in designing the energy consumption strategies in the framework of the regional development.

Investigation of the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental responsibility on the economic performance over the past decades has shown that the implementation of CSR is one of the key drivers of value creation. Disclosure of social policy is one of the key CSR areas, it reduces information asymmetry and also contributes to the company’s reputation, decreasing uncertainty and risk in the assessment of the internal environment. This study shows that the disclosure of CSR information is able to increase the investment attractiveness of companies, and reduce the cost of equity. In the last decade, Russian industry has accumulated considerable positive experience in the implementing and positioning of corporate social responsibility (CSR) technologies, which has yet to be assessed. In this paper, we used the sample of social reports of 18 Russian companies in the period from 2004 to 2014. The authors provided content-analysis of information disclosure dimensions including staff training, social policy, charity and environmental responsibility. In contrast to other studies, the results show a comparatively moderate impact of disclosure on the cost of equity capital. Also, we found that different dimensions of the disclosure have an ambiguous impact on the investment attractiveness of companies. Our results allow formulating practical recommendations for the management of metallurgical, oil and gas Russian companies to increase their investment attractiveness, in particular, a prudent choice of CSR information for disclosure. The study is unique for the Russian practice of evaluating the effectiveness of CSR, as it is based on a sample of the largest industrial enterprises.

The article discusses the relevant problem of iron-and-steel companies saving on purchasing the scrap metal. The analysis of the current state of the ferrous scrap market in the Russian Federation, trends of its development, led the authors to an opportunity to reduce the cost for purchasing scrap trough the optimal distribution of the regions between Russian iron-and-steel companies where they purchase ferrous scrap. The optimization of the regional structure of the scrap procurement taking into account the regional volumes of its generation and consumption results from using the linear programming methods applying three variants of the problem statement: minimizing the total cost of the scrap delivery to the factory, minimizing the total cost of the scrap at the “export parity” price with delivery, minimizing the total cost of the scrap at the actual prices with delivery. The authors have developed software for performing the calculations. The source are the database of the JSC Russian Railways, which provides information about the transportation of the ferrous scrap between stations of the Russian Federation by railroad; railway rates guide between railway stations of the Russian Federation; statistical data on the prices for scrap metal of the type 3A in “export windows”; actual purchasing prices for the scrap of the 3A type for the range of separate companies of the Russian Federation for several years. As a result, the authors have obtained the optimal regional structure of scrap purchasing for customers in the Russian Federation. We have formulated the recommendations for individual companies regarding the optimal routes of the procurement with scrap. The study has confirmed the possibility to decrease expanses for purchasing the scrap metal for all iron-and-steel factories of the Russian Federation through the optimization of the regional structure of procurement. It is also has allowed to estimate the possibility to cut expenses by using the optimal strategies allowing to choose the region of procurement.

The paper examines the improvement of the energy-efficiency in Russian regions as one of the leading directions of Russia’s response to the new global challenges and the implementation of Paris climate agreement (2015) on reducing of greenhouse gases emissions. The research aims at the justification of differentiated strategies and instruments to control energy-efficiency in Russian regions with respect to its key drivers. We focuse on a regional aspect as there are essential reserves and distinctions of regions by energy efficiency level, the need of problem areas’ identification, generalization and systematization of positive experience. Based on actual data, we verify the hypothesis that the energy-intensity level of the gross regional product depends on the share of energy-intensive industries, on the region’s land area and on climate characteristics. Institutional factors having positive or negative influence have to be regarded as well. We have untilized comparative method, correlation and cluster analyse, conceptions of new public government and control by results, applied to problems of energy-efficiency and climate risks. As a result, we have identified three groups of regions. In one of them, was no statistically significant dependence of the energy intensity from the applicable standard factors proved. The two other groups confirm this dependence, but with significant differences in the level of energy efficiency. Furthermore, the study shows the significance of regional sector structure factor and justifies differentiated strategies to reduce energy consumption by regional and federal regulators and their consideration in the Energy strategy 2035. The measures to improve the energy efficiency in the regions are to be integrated into the long-term strategy of the Russian Federation to reduce greenhouse gases emissions (2050); and the innovation activities and the quality of regional energy-efficiency management are to be considered and analised.

Using general practices of management is management philosophy; many organizations practice these tools that endeavor to improve their efficiency and competitiveness in the business markets. It is an integrated approach to reaching and maintaining high-quality production and services focusing on the maintenance and continuous improvement of operations in order to satisfy or exceed the customer satisfaction. Many researchers have done a lot of work on other management practices; total quality management is an important one of them in this competitive era, which has rarely studied especially in small and medium size entrepreneurial companies in Pakistan. This quantitative research study tried to determine the impact of Total Quality Management practices on job satisfaction level of the employees of those small and medium size companies based on new and creative ideas in the capital city. The conducted survey among 550 employees of small and medium size entrepreneurial companies in the capital of Pakistan got 200 employees response properly in filling out the questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed after applying software (version 20) Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Multiple regression was applied to test the proposed model, which was found satisfied. Leadership and top management support were founded the most dominant practice among the selected Total Quality Management practices which has a significant effect on employee job satisfaction. The findings of this study prove that the implementation of Total Quality Management practices can help in increasing employees’ job satisfaction which intern would increase Productivity of small and medium size entrepreneurial companies.

The article presents the results of the authors’ study based on the hypothesis that aaddressing the multidimensional highly complex tasks of technological modernization and new industry against the background of a wave of breakthrough innovations is only possible within the framework of proactive management. Its methodological, instrumental and competence basis results from «smart» partnership of regional science, education, and business. In this case, the management ñconsulting of a new type, being fundamentally different from the traditional one, plays the role of the partnership coordinator. These differences are expressed in specific intellectual logistics and organizational architecture of consulting projects, close connection to universities, innovation centres and various research structures of the region as well as the high specialization, which is reached by the involvement of the virtual teams of cross-disciplinary experts in the developments, the flexible products designed on the basis of the modular principle. In this regard, the study presents a number of new scientific results proving the hypothesis. The paper substantiates the approach to the organization and methodology of consulting activities for complex, rapidly developing systems which requires expanding the range of competencies and scope of the interaction of various actors — carriers of interdisciplinary knowledge. In accordance with this approach, the authors introduce the concept of integratory consulting for advanced development that offers a package of intellectual services for addressing challenges of the future. We have developed the methodology of the integrated system of research, consultations, training and transforming action that makes it possible to generate pre-emptive actions amid crisis, risk and threats. The article has proposed and tested an organizational mechanism of cooperation between parties (science, education, business) involved in smart partnership and consulting. The mechanism employs a cutting-edge forward-looking business model that meets contemporary requirements and tasks.

The article discusses the forecasting method based on the research of the behaviour of the line of total production of the companies-competitors in the product area, first of all, what products and how much to produce. Therefore, if to monitor developments in multi-dimensional space, whose coordinates are the volumes of production and demand for all types of products from the range, now mastered, then this picture will reflect the major events taking place in the market and determine the location of the enterprise. Naturally, it is very convenient, on the basis of the multidimensional space, to predict the main trends and strategize the behaviour of the enterprise. The aim of this study is to search for the forecasting method in this multidimensional product area and its substantiation. Every company in this area can be represented by a multidimensional parallelepiped, whose diagonal in an integrated manner displays the capabilities of the enterprise for the production of the whole range. If in this area, we consistently combine the angles of parallelepipeds for all competitors, the corner of the last parallelepiped will indicate the total capacity of all competing companies for filling the market with products. Accordingly, the “missing” vector drawn to the point reflecting the market needs, determines a parallelepiped for the selected enterprise, for which the prognosis is being made. Changing the coordinate system with the transfer of its start point to the point showing the market allows to narrow the forecasting to the study of the point on the curve in the new area. The main characteristics of the proposed forecasting method is a visual geometric representation of the developed strategy of enterprise management. It considerably simplifies the forecasting process. The experimental research has confirmed the efficiency of this forecasting method and revealed the superiority of active management strategies.

The article presents a new approach to the efficiency analysis of state macroeconomic policy. Effectuation concept serves as a theoretical basis. The concept was first introduced by S. Sarasvathy and has been used as an alternative or a complementary instrument for business construction. The authors transfer both the effectuation concept and causation one at the macro level by the adoption of qualitative type of methodology — case study at country’s level. Five principles of effectuation are described in brief and applied in parallel to the Chinese government macroeconomic policy in the period of rapid changes (starting in 1978 and to the end of XX century). For further support of conclusions, the article presents a microeconomic analysis of both concepts on the example of China: we tested the features of traditional Chinese management at the organization level on their compliance with effectuation and/or causation principles. Our main conclusion stands to support the one by Sarasvathy et al. Meaning that the most effect (at the country’s level in our case) may be achieved solely by a complementary application of effectuation and causation. Reasonable integration of causation and effectuation principles promotes successful micro- and macroeconomic results. The case of China also serves to prove the possibility for effective management strategies on macro- and micro-levels emerging out of conflicting concepts and based on rather conservative cultural issues. The conclusions and results of this research may be used for state macroeconomic policy construction if certain conditions are satisfied.

The relevance of the topic is due to the need to use of such category as “co-opetition” by public and local government authorities when implementing their powers in the tourism sphere. We divide the term “co-opetition” into two categories: “coexisting competition” and “competitive coexistence”. The problem field of the study is that in the conditions of crisis development, it is difficult to choose and implement new measures and approaches aimed at improving the economic situation in Russia and its regions, diversify the economy. In modern conditions, it is important and effective to develop domestic tourism and incoming tourism in Russia as well as its effective functioning. Russia has considerable natural and ecological, cultural and historical resources. However, the imperfection of the authorities operation and a mechanism of combined implementation of projects by different territories prevent the transformation of tourism industry into the economic powerhouse. In this regard, on the example of Siberian regions, we offer to the authorities to use co-opetition (in both of its meanings) in the combined development of tourism and to establish on this basis the tourist mega-cluster “Fairy Siberia”. The study of foreign experience has allowed revealing the positions, in which Russia falls behind other countries-leaders in the tourism industry. The proposed approach is promising, and it is based on joint efforts of regions and saving money due to the economies of scale. At the same time, it allows the regions to develop their competitive advantages. The practical significance of the received results consists in the possibility of their use by the public and local authorities in the implementation of effective policy for the development of tourism industry.

The research topic is relevant due to a high rate of the implementation of milking robots (automatic milking system, AMS) in Western Europe and in the Middle Urals. As of January 1, 2016, 21 milking robot systems of six different brands of foreign production were installed in the region. Milking robotics is used in small, medium and large enterprises (by the number of personnel), in contrast to Western Europe, where it is mainly used on the farms of family type. The article examines the socioeconomic causes of the introduction of robotics, as well as the impact of the use of robots to the economic indicators of milk production. The expert survey has revealed as the main reasons for the introduction of robotics, a desire to reduce the risks of personnel (45.5 %) and a shortage of staff (18.2 %). The analysis of the utilization efficiency of fixed assets in all organizations introduced robots has shown both a decrease of capital productivity after the introduction of milking robots for 15–60 % or more, and the reduce of the profit rate in 9 out of 11 of the analysed organizations because of the high capital intensity of robotics projects. The analysis of labour indicators and the net cost of milk is carried out in 45.5 % of organizations, where we have obtained the consistent results of the use of robotics. The authors have analysed the direct costs for the production of 1 quintal of milk. In a group of 5 companies, on a robotic farm, it is 5.1 % lower than in a conventional farm. The complexity of the production of milk on a robotic farm is lower by 48.7 %, and labour productivity per person is higher on 95.3 % than on conventional farms. The results of the study can be used as the recommendations for agricultural organizations to use robotics milking to reduce the deficit of staff and to minimize the impact of personnel risks on production results. The growth of the importance of the reasons for the introduction of milking robots and a high capital intensity of import robotics can justify the need for a national milking robotics.

This paper studies different functions and relations between 45 agglomerated municipalities in southern Switzerland (Ticino), using a territorial agent-based model. Our research adopts a bottom-up approach to urban systems, considering the agglomeration mechanism and effects of different regional and urban policies, and simulates the individual actions of diverse agents on a real city using an Agent-based model (ABM). Simulating the individual actions of diverse agents on a real city and measuring the resulting system behaviour and outcomes over time, they effectively provide a good test bed for evaluating the impact of different policies. The database is created merging the Swiss official secondary data for one reference year (2011) with Eurostat and OECD-Regpat. The results highlight that the understanding of municipalities’ functions on the territory appears to be essential for designing a solid institutional agglomeration (or city). From a methodological point of view, we contribute to improve the application of territorial ABM. Finally, our results provide a robust base to evaluate in a dynamic way various political interventions, in order to ensure a sustainable development of the agglomeration and the surrounding territories. Applying the analyses and the model on a larger scale, including further regions and conurbations, and including more indicators and variables, to obtain a more detailed and characteristic model, will constitute a further step of the research.

The article emphasizes the importance of the concept of «technical and economic paradigm», which characterizes the certain stage of the world economy development associated with the corresponding technological revolution. The paper reveals the feature of the modern technical and economic paradigm development connected with new concepts determining a priority of general values. The author states the hypothesis that in the conditions of the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution elements (so-called 4.0 industry), it is fair to consider the innovation paradigm of development as the foundation of the new industrialization which preceds this revolution. The author considers new industrialization as the process contributing to the global technological parity of Russia and the countries-technological leaders. The most significant statements from this post of view are allocated: consideration of new industrialization as a process of continuous innovations and distribution of breakthrough technologies, computerization of production, robotization, cross-disciplinary nature of high technologies, the ecology of technologies, intellectualization of the potential of all persons occupied in industrial production, etc. The author analyses strategic documents connected with the development of innovative activities in Russia. The paper emphasizes that the indicators characterizing these activities do not allow to rank Russia as a country having the developed innovative economy. The article reveals the possibilities of the activation of innovative activities in Russia connected to the development of the approved private priorities in the main spheres of activity with the state priorities of social development; with construction of integrated strategy of a scientific and technological, institutional and industrial development of the country; with creation of the system of scientific monitoring allowing to adjust the necessary corrective actions in time. The article emphasizes a dominant nature of the institutional environment predetermining a success of socio-economic and innovative development of national economy. New integrated world economic way is forming in the conditions of the increasing importance of an innovation paradigm. The successfulness of its implementation is determined by a ratio of the inclusive (involving) and extractive (taking out) economic and political institutes.

In recent years, the study of the research capacity of the country and regions has become more active not only from the point of view of their leading components (personnel, financial, information, organizational, material-and-technical ones) but also from the perspective of the assessment of productivity and effectiveness of researchers’ work. In the cross-country analysis, the certain highly aggregative parameters, which values, as a rule, are not in favour of Russia, are used. At the same time, at profound studying of this topic, these estimates cannot represent correctly the real trends of inventive activity in the scientific and technological sphere of the country and its regions. Moreover, the measurement of the researchers’ creative potential realization is carried out mainly through the assessment systems of their printing activity. Little attention is paid to the problem of the rating assessments of the researchers’ inventive and patent activity and its products from a cross-country perspective (especially to the detailed ones) as well as to its institutional determinants. Therefore, the authors have chosen this subject-matter of the research. Its empirical basis is the statistical materials of both the national database and those which are recognized by the world scientific community. This research has both theoretical and methodological orientations. The purpose is the development of methodological and methodical tools of the research and assessment of researchers’ inventive activity including methodological support of cross-country comparative assessments. The authors have based the hypothesis on their previous research: in the conditions of the decreasing level of financial security, continuous reduction of a number of researchers, institutional restrictions and contradictions, the inventive activity of national researchers is still exist, and in a number of its leading parameters is implemented at the level of the advanced countries of the world. From the point of view of the purpose and objectives of the research, we have used the parametrical model with the allocation and assessment of such parameters, methods and indicators, which provide the integrated assessment of the dynamics of inventive and patent productivity and effectiveness allowing to reach the high level of reliability. The authors have applied the following methods: dialectic and gnoseological one, structural and logical one, structurally functional one, the method of decomposition, the method of statistical groups and index method. A transition from the traditional analysis with parameters and indicators of the high aggregated level to the level of their expedient specification has been carried out. The authors have introduced the specified new key indicators grouped by the criteria: inventive activity; patent activity and effectiveness. The article proves the rationale for a dialectic combination of the process oriented estimates, efficiency evaluations and vector (reflecting development trends) estimates. The results of this research can be considered in the case of the development of management decisions by the relevant structures, which are responsible for scientific and technological, and innovation policy at all levels of the power and management.

The article gives a comparative analysis of the innovation and technological development in Russia and foreign countries. The paper shows that in the innovation sector, Russia lags behind most of the developed and developing countries: Russia has almost left the market of high technologies; main costs for innovations are implemented in the sectors of low and medium technology industries. Self-sufficiency of Russian economy for a number of the major types of production equipment is significantly below than the threshold marks determined by the requirements of national security. The article demonstrated the differentiation in the innovative development of the Russian regions. The study of the Russian innovation space has shown that in the periphery, there are sufficiently intense processes of the attenuation of science, which creates serious problems for the growth of innovative impulses across the country. The authors present the methodology for integrated assessment of regional innovative security. The appropriate calculations for regions of the Ural Federal District are performed. The article identifies the most critical factors for innovative sustainability of these regions. The authors have made a forecast as well as built the projected trajectories of the innovative security level of the Ural Federal District using the modernized method of Hurst. We have formulated the main barriers to the innovative development of the Russian regions. The article presents the methodological approaches to the substantiation of the priorities for the formation of the innovative system of regions including the specific features of their science and industry. The authors propose the methodology for the formal evaluation of the creation of a regional innovation activity centers aimed at supporting the competitiveness of the enterprises of different technological level. The paper presents calculation results for the priority of the formation of the centers of innovation activity aimed at supporting the development of industries of different technological level on the example of the regions of the Ural Federal District which is one of the leading Russian regions in the innovative and productive potentials.

The main purpose of the study, the results of which are reflected in this article, is the theoretical and methodological substantiation of possibilities to build a regional balance model of financial flows consistent with the principles of the construction of the System of National Accounts (SNA). The paper summarizes the international experience of building regional accounts in the SNA as well as reflects the advantages and disadvantages of the existing techniques for constructing Social Accounting Matrix. The authors have proposed an approach to build the regional balance model of financial flows, which is based on the disaggregated tables of the formation, distribution and use of the added value of territory in the framework of institutional sectors of SNA (corporations, public administration, households). Within the problem resolution of the transition of value added from industries to sectors, the authors have offered an approach to the accounting of development, distribution and use of value added within the institutional sectors of the territories. The methods of calculation are based on the publicly available information base of statistics agencies and federal services. The authors provide the scheme of the interrelations of the indicators of the regional balance model of financial flows. It allows to coordinate mutually the movement of regional resources by the sectors of «corporation», «public administration» and «households» among themselves, and cash flows of the region — by the sectors and directions of use. As a result, they form a single account of the formation and distribution of territorial financial resources, which is a regional balance model of financial flows. This matrix shows the distribution of financial resources by income sources and sectors, where the components of the formation (compensation, taxes and gross profit), distribution (transfers and payments) and use (final consumption, accumulation) of value added are mutually linked by sectors (corporations, public administration, households) on the principle of double entry. The balancing indicators of financial resources movement are the balance of net lending/borrowing of institutional sectors, which shows the excess of (lack of) financial resources of individual sectors in their use.