Vol 29, No 1 (2021)

The housing and communal conditions of the city of Sevastopol are examining. The purpose is to determine the level of development of the housing and communal services of the city based on the study of housing conditions and the regulatory framework in this area. In particular, the analysis showed that there are positive trends in this industry, such as an increase in the total housing stock, major repairs in most of the apartment buildings, a decline in the proportion of emergency housing and an increase in the improvement of housing stock with water and gas pipelines, and heating. There is also a positive trend in the actual and planned indicators, which reflect the level of development of the housing and communal services of the city of Sevastopol. It was revealed that a fairly large number of the population needs to be provided with residential premises, but, on average, only 2% of the population of the city receive it annually.

Digital transformation is a way of doing business that uses information and digital technologies. Readiness of companies for internal and external changes related to digitalization is called digital maturity. The research is devoted to the dynamics of growth of digital maturity of organizations in the Russian Federation and current methods of its assessment. The concept of assessing the digital maturity of economic systems as a stage in the implementation of digital transformation of the economy is revealed. The main directions of digital transformation in the country are highlighted and characterized. The dynamics of the level of digitalization and innovation implementation in Russian business in 2018-2020 are evaluated. A comparative analysis of methods for assessing digital maturity is carried out. Based on the results of the study, the prospects for further research in the field of digital maturity assessment are identified, and the main directions and obstacles to the digital transformation of the economy are formulated.

The relevance of the research is associated with the increasing competition in the global educational market, where Russian universities enter and pretend to the status of a global university due to the Project 5-100. Today an academic institution needs to form a brand in the actual international infosphere. This process based on many factors, one of which is the corporate culture (CC) of the university, and the study is concerned with the exploration of its features. The main characteristics of the concept of “global university” and the description of the features of the CC of the university are given. The results of the study of CC of the RUDN University, that were received in 2019 through a survey of teachers, staff and students of the university, are presented. In conclusion, the recommendations on how to transform the CC of a university so that it allows to form its brand in the global educational space are formulated. These recommendations will be useful to any university that works in Russia or enters the global education market.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden form a group of the Nordic countries, considered welfare states and the global leaders in innovative development. The link between the growth rate of total factor productivity and innovative development, controlling such factors as trade openness and prices volatility in commodity markets, is examined. The econometric analysis results show that the relationship between the level of innovative development and the rate of productivity growth is more robust for the Nordic countries than for the EU countries on average. Features of the national innovation systems and financing of R&D in the Nordic countries and factors contributing to the impact of innovation activity on productivity are highlighted.

Intellectual resources, in the form of human (labor) and information resources are increasingly important in an economic environment wherein firms’ limited resource potential impedes innovation. Their assessment, analysis, accounting and distribution are necessary for the effective implementation of innovation activities. However, Russia’s regions differ in the number of staff engaged in research and development and firm innovativeness. Furthermore, geography can present barriers to innovation that undermine firm competitiveness, which ultimately aggravates the socio-economic development of Russia. This problem can be solved by transforming the methodological tools used in the regional development strategy. Whilst each region is distinctive, the authors propose a methodology for assessing the minimum acceptable levels of available intellectual resources necessary for the implementation of an innovative project. This methodology considers activity at different project stages and can be scaled to any economic level and innovative project. The proposed method evaluates the minimum optimal distribution of intellectual resources necessary for the successful implementation of innovative activities, which are considered necessary for transforming the Russian economy and building resource potential. This methodology also allows to assess the sufficiency of available intellectual resources, create a system of metrics for their accounting and replenishment, and utilize intellectual resources across multiple innovative projects simultaneously.

Food security is an issue of critical importance for GCC countries. The share of domestic agricultural production remains low, because water supplies and arable land are an extremely scarce resource in the region. These countries currently import most of what they consume and will continue to do so, since national food production is not a viable option. The study reveals the specific characteristics of the food problem of GCC countries and the ways to solve it, which can be used to ensure more optimal food imports. Special attention is paid to investment projects in the food sector of the GCC countries.

The currently used methods of optimizing the management of diversification activities are insufficiently theoretically substantiated. The available tools for this optimization do not allow quantitatively taking into account many factors affecting this process in today's difficult economic conditions, which gives rise to many problems. Among them, an important and still unsolved problem is a scientifically grounded quantitative assessment of risks for the implementation of diversification measures. It is especially relevant now for the enterprises of the military-industrial complex. The authors propose an approach to the study of the theoretical foundations of optimization of production diversification management as a form of systemic transformation of enterprises and a new toolkit for solving the problem under consideration based on the use of the expert assessment method and economic and mathematical modeling of risk analysis of diversification measures. Significance of the research is determined by the need to optimize the management of production diversification at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex.

This is the first article of a series, devoted to a comprehensive problem of economic and geopolitical rivalry of the leading global powers in energy sector. It is dedicated to a number of topical issues of world economy and Russian economic environment. A systematic analysis of long-term world energy economy development trends is performed. For this purpose, a cause-and-effect relationship between international supply chains and energy procurement, on one hand, and revolutionary changes of international economic relations, caused by USA - China and Russia - USA, EU sanctions exchange, on the other, is derived. It is concluded that a developed gas industry is to play a decisive role in insuring global energy leadership of the major global powers on a mid- and long-term basis. A scenario analysis of further European gas market developments is provided. The external effects of developing gas industry are contemplated for Russian economic environment. In this framework most efficient options of action by Russian state are observed.

The research aimed to identifies the risks for the development of the gas industry in Russia in the context of the emerging common gas market of the EAEU. The state of the gas industry in Russia and Russia’s cooperation with the EAEU member states in the gas sector are considered. The development of the Russian gas industry is determined both by the dominant position of the vertically integrated natural monopoly PJSC “Gazprom”, and by the characteristics of the global hydrocarbon energy market. Based on empirical data, it is concluded that the creation of a common gas market in the EAEU is not only a challenge to the development of the Russian gas industry, but also a measure to strengthen and expand its positions in the global energy market, increase the efficiency of participation in the global energy agenda, as well as an incentive for improving the domestic gas market in Russia.

The modern dynamics of the global processes unfolding in the financial and economic sphere is currently experiencing a wide range of crises of different profiles (which forms the crisis-generating nature of global development), requiring the development of new approaches to overcome them. This determines the relevance of the description of a crisis dynamic, specific examples of its evolution and growth. The purpose of the study is to identify the main contours of the transformation of the world financial and economic architecture (WFEA) in such conditions. For this, the methodology of systems analysis, the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, methods of historical, logical and comparative analysis were used. As a result, it was concluded that the monetary methods used only make it possible to stop the spread of the crisis, but do not remove its root causes, since the crisis dynamics has a steady growing nature, which occurs with a parallel increase in emission volumes. The comparison of two world economic structures of the established imperial and new integral ones is carried out. The issue of the process of gradual renewal of the entire world system, WFEA, its reboot with elements of transformation, but in the general outlines of evolution, is considered. The revolutionary nature of development will be associated only with technological leaps, including due to the manifestation of the sixth wave of technological development, which will also adjust the transformation of the entire WFEA to itself.