National Industrial Economies
It is a well-known fact that the existing methods of continuous plow tillage are associated with high consumption of anthropogenic energy for plowing and with probability of occurrence of degradation in it. The alternative to the continuous plowing is non-inversion tillage systems related to resource-saving agriculture. At present, combined tillage implements are widely used. They are equipped with devices for applying fertilizers to plowed strips, and in spring the seeds of a certain row crop (sunflower or corn, for example) are sown there exactly in line with the upgraded seeder equipped with an agronavigator for precision farming. The task of the study is to make the preliminary economic justification of the expediency of using various implements for soil-loosening by strip conservation plowing and the need for industrial production of a combined unit for simultaneous application of fertilizers and strip plowing. The issues of implementation of modern foreign tillage technology and devices should primarily consider environmental and resource conditions for row crops cultivation in individual Russian regions. This is especially true for the strip tillage technology and the devices for its implementation. Therefore, further studies should be devoted to the economic component considering the terrain, landscape cover, climatic features, composition and type of soil, land reclamation condition. Due to the current situation, it is essential to gradually replace the imported tillage equipment by domestic developments that are not inferior in quality, reliability, performance and safety to foreign analogues. The authors mean the replacement and repair of expensive foreign produced combined units for strip plowing. To this end, it is suggested to use less expensive domestic technologically new products developed with the consideration of natural and climatic peculiarity of an individual region. The authors apply original methodology of the so-called simplified express analysis of key economic indicators. The methodology provides the opportunity to conduct accurate evaluation of the economic expediency of improving technical characteristics of the upgraded device at the beginning of the design before its production by means of a limited number of available parametric data of the machine sample under study. This eventually influences making a correct decision about the expediency of industrial production of a combined tillage device.
The article presents the study of conceptual directions of modernization of electric grids and innovative developments in the energy sector including evolutionary and breakthrough innovation. The author analyses the state of Russia’s market of the electric power industry and studies the experience and efficiency of research and development activities of the largest energy company PJSC ROSSETI. The priorities of innovative development in achieving energy efficiency are identified. The author of the article justifies the necessity of introduction of variant design during the implementation of investment projects of electric grid construction. Complex economic and technical assessment of the level of innovativeness and progressiveness of the project solutions which takes into account the scale of the manifestation of the economic effect should become the basis for this approach. The optimality of the engineering, technological and design solutions about the facility or building depends on both the level of qualification and experience of the designers and the quality of the software products used. Moreover, variant or exploratory design causes the need for the formation of innovative thinking among both developers and customers. The result of inventive creativity requires further assessment of the level of progressiveness and commercial feasibility of the created product. The author suggests principal and sectoral groups of criteria which allow recognizing new products or technologies resulting from R&D as progressive and/or innovative. The article also contains the analysis of the group of criteria characterizing the level of technical equipment of the developer company. On the other hand, both exploratory design of technological systems and variant construction design result in the prolongation of the term of performance of contractual works. In return, prolongation of the terms results in increasing the cost of implementing design solutions. The situation may be solved by creating an open library of uniform projects with innovative characteristics and implementation practice.
Rare earth metals and materials for electric power storage systems are one of strategically important categories of products whose availability will have key influence on sustainability of the functioning of electric power and transport systems in the world and support the process of “the fourth energy transfer” which involves decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization of the energy sector. The basic types of raw materials influencing the long-term prospects for the development of electric transport, distributed energy and renewable energy sources include cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite, manganese, molybdenum, as well as rare earth metals. High rates of development of the global industry of electric power storage systems for energy and transport purposes, geographical heterogeneity of distribution and consumption of these materials and their strategical significance for the functioning of innovative areas of economics and ensuring technological sovereignty determine the high importance of this industry for the Russian economy. The article deals with the key trends of development of the world market of rare earth metals and materials for electric power storage systems. The authors identify the long-term trends of development of the sector, analyse the main quantitative indicators of development of the sector in Russia, point out the factors influencing the long-term prospects for development of production of the above mentioned materials in the country. The article presents the analysis of the major market opportunities and perspective projects on increasing the production of materials for electric power storage systems. The authors formulate the key risks and threats for production of materials in terms of sanctions restrictions, establish suggestions on mitigation of these risks for the domestic economy in the medium term perspective including diversification of the foreign economic activity and increasing investments in this market niche.
Saturation of the economic development with innovation makes it strategically sustainable and provides the opportunity for efficient long-term management of economic growth. The COVID pandemic has triggered the transformations of business models, the process of their digitalization and innovative changes. The article deals with the changes of indicators of scientific innovative development of Russia and its regions during the first year of pandemic (2020) in the context of general indicators of economic and industrial growth and implementation of strategic priorities of scientific innovative spatial and regional development of Russia, connected with support of sustainable innovation system development in the regions as well as in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The author points out that the pandemic has not become a crisis impulse for increasing the intensity of scientific studies but it has resulted in growing expenses on innovation in the regions – the largest scientific innovative centers of the country where the main potential of this area is concentrated. Reducing the number of publications during the pandemic is characteristic for Russia, which can be connected with decrease in the scientific activity in the country. At the same time in the USA and, even at a larger scale, in China, the intensity of scientific research has been growing. At the same time, the scientific potential of Russia is highly aggregated in the largest cities, primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the life standard is significantly higher than that of the regions. The share of the organizations of regional subordination directly involved in the problems of the regions is extremely small. The pandemic has reinforced the tendency of centralization of the resource support and the research and development activity, especially in Moscow. This has become a challenge for the implementation of the strategy of regional scientific innovative systems’ growth essential for successful spatial development of Russia.
Regional economy
On the basis of the analysis and modelling of the return on assets of regional organizations and the profitability of the goods, products, works and services sold by them the author of the article has developed a new methodological approach to interregional industrial interaction of oil and gas regions. The predominating production factors of oil and gas regions including the volume of the shipped own products, works and services completed on their own, and indexes of industrial production by the type of economic activity (“Mining” and “Manufacturing”) are chosen as the relevant parameters of the study. The structure of the volume of the shipped products (works, services) by type of economic activity “Mining” is represented by coal mining, oil and natural gas extraction, metal ore extraction, mining of other minerals and by providing corresponding services. As for the shipped goods and products, as well as works and services within the “Manufacturing” segment, the author chose coke and petroleum products; rubber and plastic products, chemicals and products, medicines and materials, other non-metallic mineral products, machinery and equipment, vehicles. A comprehensive clustering of oil and gas regions has been carried out according to the profitability of the assets of organizations, as well as the profitability of products, goods, works and services of the types of economic activity “Mining” and “Manufacturing”. As a result, the variants of industrial interregional integration formed may serve as the solution of the problem of low return on assets (and even negative in the case of the Orenburg region and the Samara region) due to the synergistic effects of reducing capital intensity and increasing the net financial result of the manufacturing organizations. It has been stated that the main direction for improving state programs in the management of innovative industrial development of oil and gas regions is indicative stimulation of return on assets of the manufacturing organizations.
The present system of towns of Russia is of hierarchical structure: millionaire cities, big cities, cities, towns and small towns. The living standards and quality of life in the towns of different sizes have significant differences, the most critical of which are the accessibility of education, high healthcare technology and employment of the population. The study of the conditions and factors of the industrial development of the cities encourages making more efficient managerial decisions, which determines the topicality and the novelty of the work. The methodological basis of the study is presented by the author’s economic and statistics model where the resulting indicator is the volume of shipped products per capita in the city as the main criterion of the economic growth. The analyzed factor indicators include the volume of the investment in the main capital per capita, the average number of employees of organizations, income of local budget per capita, the proportion of illuminated parts of city streets. The method has been tested on the towns and cities of the Central Federal District within the period of 2001–2020. The empirical results obtained in the modelling process lead to the conclusion that the main factors of towns’ industrial development are the volume of the investment in the main capital (one per cent increase will facilitate the growth of the volume of shipped products by 0.5%) and the income into the local budget (one per cent increase will facilitate the growth of the volume of shipped products by 1.2%). Dynamic development of a town or a city is ensured by a system of interrelated conditions and factors as well as by favorable natural and geographical conditions: good climate and resource base determining the economic vector of the area. In case of lack of natural potential it is essential to create conditions for the implementation of social-oriented programs, modernization of the infrastructure, support of middle and small businesses, etc. Such conditions will ensure attractive climate for investment, which will act as a driver for migration of well qualified experts and further economic growth. Practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of use of the results by the researchers who deal with the issues of town and regional development as well as by the regional and municipal authorities.
To realize the potential of regional entrepreneurship as a system of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the region it is essential to develop a successful winning strategy oriented towards rapid exploitation of new opportunities. To this end, it is necessary to clarify the essence, boundaries, structure, and functions of the object of strategizing. The research is based on the general theory of strategy and methodology of strategizing, the theories of entrepreneurship, the systematic approach. The authors study approaches and theories that explain the essence, the functions and the structure of the system of regional entrepreneurship by applying systematization and content analysis methods. While analyzing the theories of entrepreneurship four components of the strategic mission of SMEs have been defined as follows: providing guarantees to partners, movement and productive use of factors of production, implementation of innovation, creation of gazelle companies (with the average annual increase in revenue or employment of more than 20% over 3 years). The study has shown that they are not fully implemented, and so the situation requires developing a new strategy or improving the old one. And the strategy of development of entrepreneurship in the region should contribute to the implementation of higher-level strategies (regional and sectoral). Moreover, the strategy should define the basic policies for strategizing the components of regional entrepreneurship – individual enterprises, clusters, different types of activities. The study offers a structural and logical scheme of relationship of the strategy of development of regional entrepreneurship (on the example of Kemerovo region – Kuzbass) with other strategic planning documents. Also, the authors justify the expediency of differentiation of strategic priorities of traditional and innovative entrepreneurship in the region. The analysis of theoretical foundations of exploring entrepreneurship as the object of strategizing has made it possible to clarify the basic components of its mission and justify the place of the corresponding strategy in the general system of strategic planning documents. Clarification of the boundaries and the content of the system under study ensures moving on to the strategic OTSW-analysis. The findings of the study can be used in justification of strategic decisions of entrepreneurs and regional authorities.
Business economics
The article presents a complex set of tools for evaluation and strategic development of logistics complexes of mining and chemical enterprises, created on the basis of the author’s systematization of external and internal factors. Currently, in terms of global turbulence and destabilization of both external and internal environments, it is essential to establish new approaches, requirements and methodological tools for reconstruction and development of the Russian economic model with the efficiency of logistics complexes of industrial enterprises as one of the main effectiveness criteria. Due to the fact that Russia’s economy is closely connected with the production of raw materials it is worth selecting export- oriented mining and chemical enterprises whose export and logistics activity in 2022 faced with the restrictions that arose as a result of the sanctions imposed. The article studies the specific features of development of the Russian logistics complexes of mining and chemical enterprises in the present terms of the economics’ functioning. The author defines the role of the Russian mining and chemical production in the world market by the level of the volume of products manufactured including potash, nitrogen and phosphorus mineral fertilizers. The study confirms the export-oriented and strategic importance of logistics complexes of Russian mining and chemical enterprises. It justifies the necessity and topicality of creating new methodological tools of development of logistics complexes of mining enterprises. The author introduces systematization of external and internal factors of influence on the development of mining and chemical enterprises. The process of the study involved practice-oriented set of tools of strategic analysis (OTSW-analysis) developed by Professor V.L. Kvint. The author suggests the algorithm of justification of the requirements to choosing the direction for strategic development of logistics complexes of mining and chemical enterprises.
Environmental economics
Currently, increasing the mass of carbon dioxide emissions is regarded as the main factor of increasing the greenhouse effect that is considered by the scientists to be the cause of the global warming. The problem has stimulated the development and implementation of various options of decarbonization including the sequestration technology (CCS – capture and storage) and carbon dioxide utilization (CC(U)S technology – carbon capture, utilization and storage). The technologies are aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by capturing the gas at the industrial premises (rarely from the atmosphere) and can be regarded as complementary and crucially essential for achieving carbon neutrality as they allow avoiding radical transformations of energy and industrial processes. The study is directed towards analyzing the world experience and the essence of CC(U)S initiatives to develop complex classification of sequestration projects and use of CO2 to systematize the existing knowledge and practical aspects on the subject. The authors suggest a variant of complex classification of the projects that involves grouping the features by basic, technological and organizational and economic characteristics and identifying different types of projects according to the suggested features. In order to test the classification the authors introduce a classification profile on the existing CC(U)S projects implemented in the USA, the UK and China. The findings can be used for planning the activities in the area of development of sequestration and carbon dioxide utilization technologies in Russia, for making decisions on these initiatives including those regarding financing and support of such projects at the government level.
Knowledge economy
The current paradigm of specific knowledge, its quintessence are essential for experts and researchers. The industrial development of the world economy in the first half of the 20th cen- tury and the emergence of management caused the need for establishing its paradigm as well. All the researchers of management implicitly turn to this issue. However, few of them pay due atten- tion to the management paradigm. Lack of formalized structuring of management as a knowledge prove that the management paradigm is still being formulated. That is the reason for writing this article. The article presents the justification of the topicality of establishing the management paradigm. The authors define the main cause of variety of approaches to this issue, list objective and specific factors that influence the management paradigm and its evolution. The core atten- tion of the study is paid to system-based structuring of the basic sections of management as a knowledge for its further unification as a scientific discipline. On this basis, the authors analyze the completeness of the management paradigm presented by a foreign expert Peter Drucker at the beginning of the 21st century. They justify the expediency of the management paradigm de- velopment and its adaptation to the specific features of different countries with the consideration of significant specificity of national economies and management practices. The article contains the characteristics of the basic concepts of management peculiar for the contemporary Russia. The presented authors’ viewpoint on the formulation and interpretation of the management paradigm as a scientific knowledge may become a basis for developing the national management paradigm and preparing a rubricator of textbooks on management. The necessity and significance of the work can be justified by the fact that Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg, two well-known researchers and authors, have opposite views on the concept of management as a knowledge.
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