No 4 (2016)

Russia lags behind the developed countries in the share of small business in GDP and employment rate, which hinders its economic growth. Online surveys of business attitudes of small and medium-sized enterprises confirm negative expectations regarding the dynamics of demand for services and products, as well as the lack of resources support. Small businesses cannot operate in the aggressive market competition relying only upon entrepreneurial initiative and intuition. To identify prospective market niches, products, services and goods, they need professional marketing research, consulting in the selection of resources provision, tax and credit policies, opportunities for obtaining loans, benefits, etc. Marketing business services, according to the authors, should be aimed at helping entrepreneurs in identifying prospective market niches, services, products, goods and organization of business that promotes business activity, contributes to the growth of employment, an increase in contribution to GDP.

The analysis presented in the paper leads to the conclusion that to support small business enterprises they need business services in marketing and consulting provided by specialized non-profit organizations that are coordinated by state and local authorities.

The author analyzes and describes the domestic experience, including activities of GBU “Small business of Moscow”, in consulting on the issues of business establishment, its state registration, determining the forms of taxation and rent, registration of labor contracts, obtaining loans, credits, grants, etc. The work reveals the need for development of small business in the social sphere, particularly in the provision of social services, such as eldercare, disabled-care, and child-care, social transport services, etc., because the relevant market niches are not filled. The authors consider it necessary to intensify the implementation of the project of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation “Support for non-governmental organizations to get access to social services provision”.

The paper proves the feasibility of establishing an information-consulting agency to provide business services to small businesses.

Currently, the most important challenge facing the state and the society is the issue of import substitution of modern technologies, including the technologies in the sphere of telecommunications and communication tools. Communication speed, quality, and timely information transfer influence both the strategically important decisions made at the state level and the quality of people’s living. The relevance of the research is proved by the necessity of creating the competitive telecommunication equipment and communication tools in the conditions of current economic instability and within the import substitution policy. To implement the program of import substitution for Russian competitive products in the sphere of communications, telecommunications, data storage and transfer, the issue of fusion of strong domestic companies-manufacturers in one large corporation is considered.

Among the companies-manufacturers proposed for the fusion, it is necessary to select those companies that not only satisfy the owners and the employees in terms of the economic indicators and financial capabilities but take into account the needs of other major stakeholders: the state and the society as well. Possible fusion of core “United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation” of SC “Rostec” with each of the companies (a contender for the union) is considered as a project. To solve this issue and to model the uncertainty of input parameters and results of the projects, the authors used the fuzzy model of the formation of the projects portfolio.

The model is the task of fuzzy quadratic programming with the multiplicative objective utility function. Risks consideration is carried out within the theory of portfolio investment of G. Markovits using the scenario approach. The fuzzy task of optimization is reduced to the distinct validity for the objective function and constraints at a given level and is solved by standard numerical methods. Various confidence levels are set and the existing uncertainty is taken into account to a greater or lesser extent. It changes the portfolio structure. The developed technique allowed comparing projects and programs based on the utility function and, using the principle of domination, forming the optimal portfolio.

The paper proves the importance and the necessity of creation of the internal control system of the JSC “Russian Railways”. The internal control system contributes to the creation of conditions for the continuous operation of the economic data systems of the organizations, making timely and motivated managerial decisions by the managers of all levels, the improvement of transparency of the accounting (financial) statements, the creation of investment attractiveness. According to the Russian legislation, the internal control system should be created within business activity of the organization.

The internal control is performed by the organization’s staff for regular and effective economic management. The author considers the components, the procedures and the actors of the internal control system in the JSC “Russian Railways”, and shows that the organizational structure of a company determines the parties of the internal control system. The organization of the internal control system of the JSC “Russian Railways” holding is regulated by the order of the JSC “Russian Railways” dated the 23^rd of January, 2015 № 131р “Concerning the approval of the Regulations on the internal control system in the “Russian Railways” holding”. The operation efficiency of the internal control system is characterized by its strengths and weaknesses. The author notes the main strengths that indicates the existence of the streamlined and effective internal control system. At the same time, the author identifies the weaknesses of the internal control system, which reduce the reliability of financial reports and the validity of the applicable laws and regulations. In the author’s opinion, the internal control system should identify and correct promptly the divergences, errors and inefficiencies in work promoting the enhancing of the efficiency, achieving goals with minimal costs, as well as the discovering of the organization’s internal reserve.

The issues of the innovations diffusion at the enterprise are caused by the specific feature of the economic growth at the modern stage. The authors note that the creation and development of the innovative environment at an enterprise is aimed at the strategic objectives to improve its competitiveness in the market conditions. As the application of the research results in the main production and business processes is in line with the objective of getting economic benefit, the innovations become a significant element in the enterprise’s activity.

The paper presents the analysis of the models of the innovations diffusion to study the driving rate of the technologies introduction at the enterprises with complex management structure. The authors reveal the concept of “innovations diffusion” as the process that diffuses the innovations in the enterprise’s branches using the existing contacts and relations in public production. The authors pay special attention to the basic principles of diffusion of innovations at the enterprise. The velocity of the innovations diffusion at the enterprise’s units becomes the key factor. Based on the analysis of works of Russian and foreign researchers, the authors highlight the most important principles of creation of the innovations diffusion system.

The paper presents the analysis of the known economic-mathematical methods of description of the innovations diffusion and gives their interpretations. Based on the most common models, such as the model of diffusion of E. Rogers, the authors describe the process of the innovations diffusion at the enterprise and present the model of new products distribution of F. Bass, the model of diffusion of L. Fourth and D. Woodlock. The E. Mansfield’s model of diffusion justifies the state support of the innovative activity in the diffusion of innovations and the innovative activity of the enterprises. Using the models under consideration, the paper highlights the main factors determining the pace and the scale of the innovations diffusion of in at an enterprise.

The paper presents the issues related to the development of north-eastern provinces of China (NEC) that take a significant place in the territorial development of China. Strategically important geographical position and high resource potential determine the relevance of the research of NEC economic problems. The major scientific and practical issue of the study is the gap between NEC and the eastern provinces in terms of their economic development. The purpose of the study is to identify and describe the position and role of the north-eastern provinces (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang) in the economic development of modern China through analysis of the most important macroeconomic indicators, consideration of the country political interest in the development of these provinces, etc. The methodological basis of the study is the provisions of the modern theory of regional development and the concept of territorial differentiation used in system analysis and statistical data analysis. The paper studies historical background of NEC economic development; reflects the view of Chinese government in respect of NEC on the basis of policy documents issued by the government for the development of the north-eastern provinces; marks investment trends in the economy of NEC; identifies the structure of financial sources, including investment from abroad; presents the dynamics of the gross regional product and foreign trade; makes conclusions about the current development lag between NEC and the eastern provinces. The authors also consider the specificity of the resource potential and economic development of each of these provinces – Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, understanding Liaoning as the most developed and promising province. Special attention is given to prospects of the Russian neighbor – Heilongjiang with the structure of the economy, which is largely focused on the Russian and Eastern European markets, as well as other countries of Northeast Asia.

The paper considers the globalization processes, which, in recent decades, not only determined the vector of development of the world countries’ economies, the integration organizations and international organizations but also became the determinant of national economic reforms of each particular country. In this regard, in the context of the intensification of cooperation and expanding its horizons, the states, losing particular attributes of national economic sovereignty, tried to unify maximally their own economic systems according to the changing external conditions and the requirements of the world’s leaders. At the same time, China became one of the countries that increased their foreign trade and investment potential, and being guided by national interests, managed to preserve national identity of the economic reforms. The authors focused on the fact that the country with conflicting values, where the authoritarian management style and deep philosophy of harmonious development combine, has taken the leading position in the global economic space, and, according to the analysts, will be able to strengthen its influence on the world stage in the coming decades, provided that the certain strategic plans and the development benchmark programs are met. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of scientific knowledge. The authors used the general scientific and special methods, among which the essential are: the abstract-logical method used to formulate the conclusions of the study; the methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization used for the study of key investment and reforming trends of Chinese economy; the system approach used in the identification of the causes and factors of global instability; and the graphical method. In the result of the study, the causes and factors of global instability are identified and their negative impact on the world economy development is specified. The authors specified the peculiarities of economic reforms in the country, analyzed the current investment policy of China and justified its approaches to the foreign capital attraction into the country and to the export investment. Besides that, the priorities of the state investment policy are formulated.

The paper covers the important issue of macroeconomic development of Russia – the state of business in the real sector of production that currently suffers significant troubles. The major research and practice problem of the paper is the discrepancy between the current business position and the development potential that it contains as the main driver of economic growth of Russia. The purpose of the study is to analyze the general business position and its particular characteristics in Russia against the background of macroeconomic indicators deterioration. The methodological basis of the study includes the principles of modern macroeconomic theory used by the system analysis and the analysis of statistical data. The paper proves the relevance of the problems of business development, presents the major macroeconomic parameters of Russia in dynamics, analyzes the causes and factors of macroeconomic uncertainty. The paper considers the main barriers to the business development and highlights the discrepancy between the current business position and the resource, production and innovation potential of the country. Special attention is paid to the indicators of inventive and innovative activity. As the additional characteristics of the situation in Russian business, the authors give world rankings data evaluating business and the conditions for its implementation by a number of indicators. The world rankings reflect the occurrence of a number of issues related to the quality of the institutional environment, general instability and financial imbalance, low competitiveness of domestic companies and domestic Russian market. In the context of national economic recovery through the development of business, the authors speak of the necessity for series of measures, in particular: the transition from the resource model of the economic development to the neo-industrial model, the creation of the conditions for domestic investments and the infrastructure support of the economy, and special attention to the development of small businesses, and others.

The paper presents the results of the research of the methodology used to identify clusters on a macrolevel; the methodology was tested on the example of the Russian fisheries industry. The relevance of the research is proved by the fact that in a number of national regions the development of fisheries industry is currently initiated by the Russian government. In this regard, particularly important become the issues of selection of criteria and indicators to infer the existence of the prerequisites for the development of sectoral clusters in a certain area. The paper is focused on identification of the regions in Russia that have the most favorable conditions for the formation of fisheries clusters on their territory. The authors have developed the methodology which makes it possible to identify not only the sectoral cluster itself but also the level of its development. This algorithm involves calculation of location quotient by the level of employment, the volume of investments in the capital asset of the industry in the region, as well as the share of industry in gross value added for a few time periods and further shift-share analysis on these factors. The algorithm testing on the example of the fishing industry has resulted in the rating of cluster development of the Russian Federation. It has been found that the greatest potential for the development of fisheries industry is in Murmansk and Sakhalin regions, Primorye and Kamchatka Krai where the emerging clusters have been identified. The paper analyzes the factors that led these regions to the leadership among the Russian regions. The research shows that structural changes in the industry of a region significantly influence the clustering process in the territorial entities. The authors come to the conclusion that establishment of the Far East fishing industry cluster is economically viable.