I analyzed merges and acquisitions’ transactions and their influence on strategy and development of oil company. For analyses the deal I chose acquisition by Rosneft of Bashneft, which took place in October 2016, applying both traditional and real option models. Real option model is more difficult, but better methodology, because it allows to valuate different scenarios of acquisition, choose more optimal scheme (acquisition time, amount of acquired shares). After building decision tree I calculated NPV of cash flows, which are generated in the deal (in scenarios of high and low oil prices, high and low synergy effects in two periods 2017–2018 and 2019–2020).

The main results are the following. Acquisition deals create value for shareholders, only if acquisitions correspond to strategy of bidder company and culture of target company. Under some hypotheses the acquisition of Bashneft creates additional value for Rosneft in most scenarios (except scenario with low oil price and low synergy). Postponing the decision about complete acquisition till 2019 increases probability of successful acquisition as well as maximizes NPV.

The article deals with the most frequently used means of stimulating employees to increase their productivity. The authors raise the actual question of how effective these methods are and how they influence the staff costs. The article points out that it is extremely important to study the stimulation of employees and to implement the method of analysis of motivation and productivity based on the employee’s life cycle for industrial enterprises. It explores modern research of existence of cyclicity both in organizational development and in employees’ labour activity. The submitted data about the changes in involvement and productivity of employees of the pharmaceutical company which depended on their work experience allowed assuming that an employee’s labour productivity and motivation must have a certain life cycle. The authors made a graph of how labour productivity varies at the different stages of the employee’s life cycle according to the period of work in the company. They adduce a detailed description of each stage of the life cycle, variations of the employee’s work behavior and the direction of his motivation. They suggest recommendations to reveal his professional potential and increase his labour productivity depending on the employee’s position on a certain stage of his life cycle. The authors point out that it is highly important for a company’s top manager to understand and define the stage of his employees’ life cycle correctly. Implementing the method of defining work potential will let top managers solve the key tasks in working with their staff: increasing labour productivity, employees’ involvement and work motivation, maintenance and enhancement of the most prospective employees, providing optimal conditions for realization of each employee’s abilities and potential and decreasing staff turnover in the company.

The article presents detailed analysis of iron and steel industrial production, assessment of the present state of labour costs in metallurgical companies with increase in production, and revealing the reserves emerging under the influence of expected and unexpected factors of the metallurgy consumer market. The authors assume that in the current circumstances it becomes especially significant to strengthen the position of a low-cost manufacturer in the world metallurgical industry by means of rapid introduction of best world’s practices and best available technologies, highly effective IT-based investment projects.

One of the most important tasks of innovative development of a country and its regions is building an innovative vector of development essential for reaching a competitive level and economic growth. The authors have explored tasks and issues and tasks connected with quantitative explanation of still unresolved dependence of export-oriented countries’ economic growth on export volumes and prices in the foreign market. They used a three- way model of innovative development to study the productivity of resources in different areas of development.

As a result of their research the authors introduced a different approach to the notion of innovative development. It allows researchers to view it as a system and integrity in three co-related directions: technique and technology, currency and finance, and society and politics. Thus, they have the opportunity to estimate how much each sector of national (regional) economy individually and all of them together contribute to the economic growth. This approach provides the opportunity to examine the basic holistically co-related directions which allow measuring the level of innovative development, estimating the economy’s innovativeness, determining and viewing differently the innovative paradigm. The authors used mathematical model to study and introduce productivities of major types of resources. They point out that effective functioning of economy (including financial) makes it possible to develop industries gradually and to smooth out economic development of the regions, to avoid structural shifts and disproportions in economy which finally results in the possibility of productive implementation of programs of the country’s innovative development.

The authors have systematically studied the correlation between the productivity of resources and the achievement of systematic multiplier effect (there is no wide research found on this problem, the authors dealt with individual indicators of multiplier effect)

The contemporary world market abounds in companies varying in their competitive behaviour which represents their objectives and specific activity. The article shows that among various types of economic activity connected with digitalization as the most important trend of economic development a special place belongs to high technology, and market conditions are determined by businesses which make use of such technologies. As a rule, these businesses have the best performance and take top positions of the ratings based on a wide range of parameters. The authors assume that use of artificial intelligence gradually becomes a significant factor determining a company’s success at the world market. They have also found out that market entities show the tendency to use different platforms in their business activities more frequently. Major market players take interest in external innovation purchasing it at the market or interacting with other companies and even competitors. They also are interested in processing and analyzing big data and internet of things (IoT). The authors point out that demand for business incubators tends to grow as well. They have analyzed the inner changes at different stages of development of Google and the corresponding changes of competitive behaviour pattern at the corresponding markets and defined major factors which influence stable position of the company at the market. Intellectualization of economic activity of business can be considered as ambivalent: on the one hand, companies’ more frequent exploration of digital economics becomes an essential part of their successful competitive behaviour at the market, and on the other hand it appears to be the factor which effects the development of exterritorial buseness environment connected with the world processes and formation of geoeconomic space.

Balanced development of all aspects of a company’s activity requires creating appropriate development strategies with economic potential as the basic category. The issue of efficient company management and its development is connected with the management of its economic potential development. Special attention should be drawn to Donbass coal mining enterprises which have been seriously affected by the political situation in the state environment of the Ukraine. Due to the abolition of subsidies and reduction of budget investments a huge number of unprofitable mines have been closed. Problems with supplies of utilities and sales of coal outside Donetsk region interfere with the smooth manufacturing process. Thus, development of coal mining industry is impeded by lack of market pricing mechanisms and appropriate railway traffic, poorly developed banking and other social, economic and environmental problems. Yet, mining is one of the most significant industries and occupies an important place in the economy of Donetsk region, and is very capable of increasing its production volumes. The authors have analized the research on the problem of management of economic potential development of economic entities of different levels. They introduce the notion of «potential development of coal mining entreprise». The authors have analized the macroenvironment of the region and used it to reveal limitations, threats and opportunities of development of coal industry. They present qualitative analysis of the internal environment of mining enterprises which identifies factors and parameters of their economic potential and suggest the most appropriate method for its assessment and prognosis. They have created a concept of management of economic potential development of a company adapted to the modern conditions and specific character of coal mining enterprises of Donbass. 

The authors of the article explore the problem of introducing process and risk-oriented thinking in national organizations. In 2000 the International Organization for Standartization, ISO, announced process approach as the basis principle of management in any organization. It became the embodiment of Deming’s postulate who recommended to consider any activity as a technological process. The authors show the practicability of transition from the functional structure of an organization to integrated process. New ISO 9000:2015 standards reflect presentday challenges and require that organizations should carry out risk assessment and accounting. One of the key objectives of the quality management system is to act as the prevention tool. Preventive action lies in using riskoriented thinking in formulating requirements to the quality management system. The authors introduce the system analysis method in risk management to reveal potential risks and plan preventive action.

During the transition to the postindustrial knowledge economy the world witnesses people’s increasing desire to spend their spare time in an interesting and quality way, to live an active lifestyle, to develop themselves and get new impressions. Consequently, there is an intense growth of new forms and types of economic, social and cultural activity aimed at satisfying the existing demand. One of the most impressive phenomena of the presentday economy is industrial tourism. It provides new visual impressions and satisfies people’s interest to complicated industrial process, to the evolution of technological development of modern civilization and also to the history of their families. For manufacturing companies industrial tourism means more intense exploitation of their facilities, additional income from tours, excursions and souvenirs. In terms of providing industrial touristic services Russia’s most attractive sites include metallurgical enterprises. Their peculiar features such as large scale of constructions and technological process, bright visual effects related to the transformations of metal find a ready market in the experience economy. Moreover, by means of industrial tourism metallurgical enterprises will be able to solve the important tasks of attracting new qualified employees, creating a positive corporate image and business reputation in the society and maintaining prestige and respect for workers and engineers.

The authors have studied the prospect for development of potential of potassium ore mining and sulfate fertilizer production in Kaliningrad region. The factors have been explored in the terms of world trends in the potassium sulfate (SOP) market including pricing, development of production facilities, supply and demand. Global tendencies support the actuality of the chosen topic. By 2050 the world population is expected to increase up to 10 billion people, so the demand for mineral fertilizers will go up due to expansion and growth of agricultural business and mineralization of sown areas. Russia has limited number of deposits which can be used to produce potassium sulfate, but Kaliningrad region is a raw material base of potassium-magnesium and polygallite salts including the Severo-Krasnoborskoye and the Nivenskoye deposits and the Poddubniy site. Thus, there is an opportunity of creating a cluster of mining and chemical enterprises in the area. The Nivenskoye deposit is the most explored and prepared for industrial exploitation. At present a mining and processing plant is being designed there. Developing the potential of manufacturing sulfate fertilizers in Kaliningrad region presupposes increasing export of the product which is generally made for the foreign markets. The authors consider the prospects for selling potassium sulfate as the result of developing mining enterprises and study the weaknesses in the regional infrastructure on the base of open resources. They estimate the impact of development of potential of potassium and magnesium ore mining on the regional economy and make SWOT-analysis of the impact of mining and chemical enterprises cluster on the development of Kaliningrad region.

The article presents the results of the study of pricing problems in the world oil market in terms of dependence of the oil supply on the state of oil production companies. The authors attempted to examine the degree of dependence of oil production on such factors as the number of enterprises in the industry, average annual number of staff in them, production drilling volume, average daily production rate per well, degree of wear of fixed assets of companies, the number of commissioned production facilities, renewal of fixed assents of companies, profitability level, business activity of the enterprises in the industry. The study is based on the data characterizing the development of oil market within a relatively steady period. The global oil market is a delicate exchange market mechanism sensitive to changes in pricing trends in global commodity and financial markets. World oil pricing trends depend on many political, economic, seasonal, regional factors as well as the situation with the tanker fleet, etc. The aggravation of the crisis and expectations of businesses about the future dynamics of global oil prices impact currency exchange rates, stock quotes, retail and wholesale prices. The COVID-19 pandemics caused decrease in manufacturing and other economic activity which determine oil export volumes. The current situation forces most of oil cartel countries to reduce quotes. The state of oil production industry, supply and demand relation, stabilization of oil prices remain the key aspects of pricing in the oil market.

The authors analyzed the environment protection measures and effectiveness of the environmental activities atCherepovetsiron and steel works which is situated vitally close to the specially protected natural area of international importance Darwin Nature Reserve. They show that the measures taken cover all essential issues to decrease the negative impact of the iron and steel works on the local ecosystems and human health according to the modern world practice. The measures include defining the basic pollutants and monitoring their release, modernizing manufacturing equipment to reduce contaminated wastewater discharges, air and soil pollution, safe disposal of industrial waste and diversified monitoring of the local environment. The above mentioned activities resulted in significant reduction of industrial waste, reduced water consumption and decrease in wastewater and soil pollution. After analyzing data of the independent monitoring of the environment the authors noted high efficiency of environment protection activity carried out in different years atCherepovetsiron and steel works. The results of the studies and the authors’ field research inDarwinnature resort showed improvements in the environmental conditions in the local area including improvement of the general state of the nature resort’s ecosystems. The state of the environment has basically improved, for example, in the past 5 years the air inCherepovetshas become cleaner, the pollutant content in soil and vegetation inDarwinnature resort area has also reduced.

The authors study the role and the place of the key enterprises of Russian fuel and energy complex in terms of their impact on the most important macroeconomic indicators of national economy development. The crisis of 2014 made significant changes in each company’s activity due to fluctuating ruble’s exchange rate, high inflation, ban on foreign investment, restrictions on international trade, etc. However, the largest companies of Russian fuel and energy complex were able to adjust to external conditions and reestablish their competitive position by the end of the second decade of the 21st century. The authors examined the period from 2014 to 2019 which is remarkable for a number of positive changes in the economic structure ofRussia. Yet, the fuel and energy complex still remains the driver of the economic development. Also, the article studies the role of fuel and energy complex in foreign economic activity in dynamics. The authors suggest the scheme of calculating the contribution of a certain legal entity into the country’s GDP. They made all the relevant calculations characterizing the degree of the mentioned companies’ participation in establishing the most important macroeconomical indicator of the national economy. The results obtained can be of great value in building a company’s strategy, planning taxes, creating investment policy as well as estimating the level of their social responsibility. The authors analyzed the structure of oil and gas income of Russia in 2018-2019 to view the nature of the process which has been going on in budgeting of Russia in recent years and point out the need for increasing the investment potential of fuel and energy complex and altering the degree of government’s participation in in creating the long-term investment strategy of developing national fuel and energy enterprises.