Ideas and Ideals

The study of national economic and financial security in the context of sanctions and import substitution revealed the lack of a unified methodology in the economic block of the Russian Federation, manifested in the form of discrepancies in the methodological approaches of regulatory institutions of the ministerial level.

The presence of such theoretical and methodological discrepancies in the work of the regulatory institutions of Russia indicates the lack of a unified national state ideology for the formation of the development strategy of individual territories and the country as a whole. Effective and stable development of the country is impossible without strong science, the results of which are implemented in public practice.

Declaring a serious large-scale import substitution project, there is actually no task to develop an appropriate theoretical and methodological basis for it, to define a paradigm that is designed to reflect national interests. The presence of developed theories and methodology as the basis of the scientific foundation in the country’s economy, including economic security as an integral part of Russia’s national security, allows us to develop effective strategies that constitute a unique intellectual base for the development of the country’s economic sectors. If import substitution is based only on the initial level, without a scientific basis that takes into account the national interests of Russia, the preservation of the country’s sovereignty turns out to be an impossible task.

To verify the assertions made, letters were sent containing questions about the use by institutions of domestic or foreign theoretical and methodological tools in their work. The correspondence covered 7 ministries and the Bank of Russia, which form the economic bloc of the RF Government.

The analysis of the responses allows us to conclude: import substitution in Russia is defined narrowly, only in relation to groups of goods, technology and equipment without taking into account scientific domestic developments in theory and methodology; it is not clear what domestic/foreign tools are used in the economic block of Russia; there is no constructive interaction between representatives of the scientific and educational community and managerial practitioners.

Import substitution in Russia should start from the theoretical and methodological level, where the strategy is defined and the integrity in the activities of the institution and the relevant sector of the economy of the country is set.

The paper considers financial technologies that were used in the time of Peter the Great to organize non-cash payments abroad. The sources for the study were legislative documents, letters of Peter the Great’s contemporaries and mentions of historians about financial calculations in Peter the Great’s time. The author considers the use of promissory notes and bills of exchange that were used in the time of Peter the Great to organize non-cash payments abroad. Russian merchants used them in trade settlements in Arkhangelsk long before Peter I. During the reforms of the first quarter of the XVIII century notes and bills settlements were carried out by Russian people on the territory of Europe already. This explains the wider use of the notes and bills in both interstate and private settlements, including the purposes of obtaining scholarships for young people sent abroad by Peter to study. Peter himself and his pets used all the means of payment available at that time in Europe – both cash (gold and silver coins) and non-cash means (promissory notes and bills of exchange). An important issuer of bills of exchange for Russians was the Amsterdam bank, since Amsterdam was the center for the sale of Russian goods. Not only trade transactions, but also the payment of royal orders in different countries, and the issuance of stipends to scholarship holders, took place by transferring bills of exchange from the Amsterdam bank or Amsterdam merchants accepted to other European cities of Europe. In addition to mastering the ‘basic’ profession, those staying abroad needed to show some financial literacy (which could not be obtained at home), skills in handling modern (for that time) securities, and visit banks from time to time. Russian students were prevented from studying not only by the possible temptations and pastime of a beautiful life abroad, but also by serious life difficulties that arose in connection with the financial crisis in France in 1720-21.

The article summarizes the methodological foundations of pricing in the housing sector (with the allocation of prices of services for the management of apartment buildings). 

During the historical analysis of methodological approaches to pricing in the housing sector, the authors identified a directive and market approach. The directive approach describes the procedure for setting prices and its problems, manifested in the fact that attempts to centralize the pricing process on the part of the state have led to overestimation of the cost of services by management companies. Modern approaches with manifestations of a directive approach are described: sequential and compensatory-targeted. 

The pricing mechanism within the framework of the market approach and its problems are described. The main problem is that high transaction costs create unequal conditions for market participants, which leads to the absorption of small and medium-sized management companies with the subsequent formation of an oligopoly or monopoly in the market. 

The market approach also has a number of disadvantages in terms of the influence of individual consumer interests on the price. Housing services for the management of apartment buildings in the assessment of consumers of services have different utility, but the assessment of the usefulness of services by an individual consumer is suppressed by a collective assessment of utility.

The process approach to the management of the organization and the cluster approach to the organization of housing and communal services are considered as ways to reduce the cost of providing services for the management of apartment buildings.  It is proven that the process approach is applied in practice in the case of hotels, while the cluster approach remains a theoretical construct. 

A set of tools for online and offline marketing communication is offered for increasing the income of management companies (by increasing the number of houses they serve): development of the management company’s website and mobile application, creation of social networks and using messengers, launch of targeted advertising, introduction of autonomous communications. 

The authors substantiate the necessity of further specialized research and development of a methodological approach to pricing adapted to the modern conditions of the housing services market in Russia, based on standards, laws of production organization, marketing, firm economics, financial management and marginalism.

The article is devoted to the scientific expertise of human development projects in the North in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet periods of the institutional transformation of Russian society. Despite the fact that its official goal was the further development of the Soviet project among the peoples of the North, in essence, the researchers, in alliance with the authorities, searched for a balance between the mobilization (planned) and market strategies for the development of the Arctic and the North. The purpose of the article is to introduce into wide scientific circulation the results of research in the circumpolar zone of the RSFSR, carried out by ethnosociologists of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center (NSC) from 1982 to 1991 and later.

The relevance of this work is brought to life by the desire of the state that emerged in 2010 to use market institutions in the implementation of plans for the development of the polar zone of the Russian Federation. This paper presents materials on the activities of the Regional Interdepartmental Commission for the Coordination of Comprehensive Socio-Economic, Medical, Biological and Linguistic Research on the Problems of the Development of the Peoples of the North, established in 1981 on the basis of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The tasks and functions of the Commission are described in detail. Among the key issues of its activities were the problems of labor and employment of the peoples of Siberia, the preservation of the traditional economy and native language, mass education and access to social benefits, the development of transport infrastructure and quality housing. Although the focus of the Commission’s work remained the study of the situation of the indigenous peoples of the North and Siberia, these problems were considered in a wide range of issues of developing the national economy, gaining access to the social benefits of late socialism in the paradigm of ‘the flourishing and rapprochement of nations’.

With the liquidation of the Commission in the early post-Soviet period, researchers focused on studying the consequences of radical market reforms in the interethnic communities of the North of Siberia: the archaization of everyday practices, the decline in the living standards of the population, and the revitalization of ethnic self-organization structures. It is concluded that in future ‘northern’ projects, it is necessary to combine the mobilization and market strategies for the development of the Arctic.

The article presents some aspects of the implementation of regional policy in order to enhance the development of regions through the formation of strategies as tools for strategic management of the region. Special emphasis is placed on the specifics of strategic planning of tourism development in a regional context, which is based on a strategic analysis of the current socio-economic situation of the region using social and economic evaluation criteria. The groups are identified and the characteristics of the economic development indicators of the regions are given, the specific characteristics inherent in regional tourism in the context of its strategic planning process are determined. All of the above processes create a new configuration of the spatial development of the country, through the formation of zones of advanced economic growth, including using the sectoral specialization of the regions. At the same time, the competitive advantage of the regions of the South of Russia is determined by the tourist vector of their development as the most promising. The article describes the cycle of strategic planning of regional tourism development, which includes a number of stages: determining the goals of tourism development in the region; analysis of the external and internal environment of the development of the region; development of a concept and development strategy; development of an industry development plan; analysis of efficiency and effectiveness, adjustment of goals and methods to achieve them. The approaches to strategic planning of the development of socio-economic objects from foreign practice are presented, based on a system of indicators that allow an objective assessment of the development of its potential, which are understood as a set of characteristics formalizing the description of the main parameters that provide the choice of the optimal variant of the system functioning at different stages of the strategy implementation. In addition, the normative legal acts of various levels regulating modern socio-economic relations in the tourism sector of the regions are given; macro and micro tools for the development of regional tourism on the example of the Republic of Crimea are defined.

In modern economic literature, as well as regulatory documents, the concepts of ‘inputs’, ‘expenses’ and ‘costs’ are often used as identical to each other. At the same time, there are differences between them and their incorrect interpretation can lead to incorrect analytical conclusions and, as a result, erroneous conclusions and subsequent losses in the financial and economic activities of a commercial organization.

The problem of the theme in relation to ‘credit costs’ is also reflected in the fact that currently special regulatory documents regulating banking activities, such as     Federal Law “About the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)” and Federal Law “About Banks and Bank Activities” do not contain a decoding of the mentioned concepts of ‘expenses’ or ‘costs’. Moreover, another document that could clarify this issue – the Accounting Regulations “Expenses of the Organization” № 10/99 in paragraph 1 we read: ‘1. This Regulation establishes the rules for the formation in accounting of information on expenses of commercial organizations (except credit and insurance organizations) that are legal entities under the legislation of the Russian Federation.’

In the paper, the author aims to differentiate the concepts of ‘expenses’ and ‘costs’, as well as to clarify and formulate such a concept as ‘credit costs’.

The subjects raised by the author could be interesting for external investors, specialists of internal services of a commercial bank analyzing the effectiveness of a credit institution and, of course, the top management of the bank, most interested in both the profitability of its own investments and the formation of further policy of the bank led by them.

The theoretical significance of the study lies in the consideration of different approaches to the concept of ‘costs’, the definition of banking instruments that affect the amount of credit costs, their systematization and the allocation of those that, according to the author, can be optimized without reducing the profitability of the credit organization. The concept of ‘credit costs’ is systematized.

The global trend towards digital transformation opens up new opportunities for every economic entity, intensifies the transformation of business processes in the system of accounting and analytical support, and is not limited to the introduction of new technologies. In the current situation, scientific approaches to the study of accounting and analytical systems, such as evolutionary, institutional, structural, etc., are applied in isolation from each other, and do not take into account all the interrelations and conditions of the functioning of economic entities. The ecosystem approach is proposed as a new theoretical and methodological basis. The ecosystem approach in scientific research involves the consideration of the object of study as an ecosystem. The purpose of this article is a methodological analysis of the subject field associated with the concept of ‘ecosystems’.

In the course of the research a mixed methodology was used, which included the method of content analysis of publications of foreign and Russian authors, in-depth bibliographic analysis, study and synthesis of theoretical material devoted to the research topic, as well as systematization and grouping of the obtained data.

The analysis identified four main research discourses of the ecosystem approach: entrepreneurial ecosystem, business ecosystem, innovation ecosystem and platform ecosystem. Their underlying aspects, key components and the focus of research on the concepts are identified. It is revealed that the term ‘ecosystem’ is applied to various ontological units (environment, stakeholders, platforms, business models, universities, etc.) and focuses on analysis (ecosystem strategy, value proposition, etc.). It is concluded that when using the ecosystem approach in scientific work, it is necessary to specify within which discourse the study is conducted and what the level of analysis is focused on.

The article studies the historical and logical relationship of the transformational and transactional functions of economic activity: it determines the belonging of the abovementioned concepts to the categorical core of economic science; it specifies their characteristics and volume; examines the features of realization of the studied functions in various historical conditions. As the primary method, we used the structural-logical analysis of empirical and theoretical research results on the topics covered. Transformational activity, according to the author, expresses the dialectical unity of production and consumption. The transaction is analyzed as a technological (O. Williamson) and/or legal (J. Commons) link between these processes. The origin of transactions is associated with the emergence of a transformational surplus designed to meet rising needs. The available historical and ethnographic data allows us to trace this phenomenon retrospectively to the moment of the formation of social production. The economic content of transactions is derived from the dual nature of transformational activities aimed at (1) the creation of material products and (2) the objectification of technological information that determines distribution (transport, trade, housing and communal services, etc.). Their implementation is provided by administrative and legal services expressing ownership of the exchanged goods. It increased the efficiency of transactional support of human life with the use of money as a virtual bearer of economic information and a universal measure of the value of a commodity. In conclusion, the author raises a question about the nature of technological and economic shifts in the modern market economy, coinciding with the outstripping growth of transaction costs. Using the world-system approach of F. Braudel makes it possible to put forward a hypothesis about the transactional revolution that preceded the industrial revolution and is manifested in the rapid increase in financial assets. 

The paper examines the relationship between wealth, knowledge and digitalization as a source of growth in the wealth of countries and individuals. It analyses the interrelation of those factors at micro and macro levels. The study employs elements of logical, comparative, graphical, and correlation analysis. The study shows the links between the income gap, the knowledge gap and the digital divide, forming a poverty trap at the individual level. The author notes that on the micro level, it is necessary to have access to at least two of the three factors to increase wellbeing. The paper shows that all three of the above-mentioned factors are subject to the Matthew effect, and restrictions from major market players may increase the divergence of economic development. At the macro level, the relationship between GDP per capita, the knowledge index and the digital competitiveness index is shown. Two clusters of countries have been identified for the development of knowledge and digital competitiveness. The first cluster, with a high level of digital competitiveness and knowledge, consists mainly of developed countries with high per capita income and China, the second cluster includes mainly middle-income developing countries, as well as developed countries lacking a penetration of digital technologies and the development of knowledge. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was revealed that the dependence of GDP on the level of knowledge is greater than its dependence on the development of digital technologies. However, there is a noticeable relationship between the knowledge index and the digital competitiveness index. The author concludes with the indirect impact of digital technologies on well-being at the macro level through the development of knowledge. For the countries of the cluster, represented mainly by developing countries with average incomes, there is an increase in the interdependence between GDP per capita, the development of knowledge and digital technologies, which indicates the potential for the development of the countries of this cluster in the implementation of the policy of knowledge development and rational policy on digitalization. It is necessary to focus not on the use of borrowed technologies, but on the development of own digital solutions for which the advancement of the field of knowledge is critically necessary. The policy of the knowledge sphere development should focus on increasing the status of the scientist and teacher, strengthening the interaction between a scientist-teacher and student. It is necessary to shift the emphasis from simplifying the education system to developing the creative and research potential of the student and the subsequent implementation of the gained research skills in small and medium-sized businesses.

The paper poses the problem of the background as the conceptual apparatus of economic science, which is formed in the process of its historical development. The subject of the research is the study of fundamental works on the history and theory of scientific thought of the economic life of society; textbooks on the history of economic thought, economics and the economic way of thinking; scientific works that claim a notable contribution to the formation of a conceptual background. We have suggested that the diverse scope of ideas and concepts about the economic life of society needs to be aligned in a systematic approach that includes two basic options. In the traditional systemic-structural approach, the studied phenomena are derived from a single cause and a single foundation, which is most fully expressed in the Marxist labour theory of value. Difficulties arising in substantiating the key provisions of this theory have cast doubt on its scientific status and the possibility of practical application. General systems theory (GTS) has proven its heuristic potential in various fields of scientific knowledge, including modern microeconomic theory, which widely uses not only differential equations but also set theory, game theory, etc., and looks more promising for most representatives of the scientific community. The rejection of the cognitive potential of the systemic-structural approach seems premature. It makes it possible to analyze at the categorical level of scientific knowledge, starting from the foundations of Plato and Aristotle dialectics, using the logic of the scientific thought development presented in Hegel’s works, and its peak in the materialistic dialectics of Karl Marx. We should not forget what an important part of neoclassicism is the Austrian school, which ignores the calculus of infinitely small increments of utility and costs and gives preference to the systemic and structural vision of the subject. The authors advocate the synthesis of two fundamental directions of the systemic approach to the economic life of society, which will preserve the achievements of classical political economy as a background for modern economic thought.