Ideas and Ideals

In modern practice, the basis for setting prices for housing and communal services is the cost set by the municipal authorities, which takes into account only a minimum set of works and services. However, this method does not fully reflect the impact of internal factors, such as the age of buildings and the degree of wear and tear of structural elements, as well as external factors, such as the natural and climatic conditions of the region. The focus is on the number of structural elements, which leads to a simplified and often underestimated calculation of the cost of services. This methodology reduces the competitiveness of management companies (MCs), which take into account all relevant factors and set more reasonable and higher prices. At the same time, MCs that seek to increase their competitiveness in the market by underestimating the cost of services face an imbalance between their revenues and expenses, which negatively affects their fi nancial stability. Additionally, legal restrictions and difficulties in holding meetings of property owners complicate the process of adjusting prices. Therefore, there is a need to improve the pricing methodology by considering the complex impact of internal and external factors. The purpose of this study is to improve the pricing methodology in the housing sector by developing a two-stage approach that includes a theoretical analysis of factors and their mathematical modeling, as well as an expert assessment to enhance the objectivity and practical applicability of the results. The study implemented the second stage of the methodology, which involved the development of a questionnaire and an expert survey to assess the consistency of the theoretical concepts. Based on the obtained data, formulas were proposed for calculating the cost of current repairs in multiapartment buildings, taking into account the influence of internal (building age) and external factors (geological, hydrological, and climatic conditions)

The implementation of the improved methodology allows the management company to identify discrepancies between the cost and frequency of repair work determined based on technical documentation and the data obtained from actual engineering surveys. The results of the study contribute to improving the accuracy of the management company’s financial planning and lay the foundation for sustainable housing development in the long term.

One of the effective and affordable ways to organize recreation and leisure in modern conditions is considered to be mass tourism, which is infl uenced by global trends: globalization, informatization, geopolitics. In the article, based on generalizations of the approaches of domestic and foreign researchers, an attempt is made to give a detailed defi nition of the term “mass tourism” and to specify its phenomenon through the justifi cation of its distinctive features: the number of consumers (mass), motives and goals, the infl uence of technological progress, industrialization and scaling of the tourism business. The authors highlight factors contributing to the development of modern tourism, including: accessibility, globalization, marketing and advertising, political situation, economic stability, digitalization and conceptual approaches to the emergence and development of mass tourism: the theory of consumer society, the theory of mobile sociology, “quality tourism” and etc. Among the general principles of modern mass tourism, the authors highlight: the commercial principle of a balance of interests, taking into account the global problems facing humanity, the active socialization of tourism. Particular attention is paid to the issues of periodization of the formation of mass tourism in the historiography of various countries; description of the modern understanding of mass tourism, taking into account its infl uence on national socio-economic systems; determining the main directions for the development of mass tourism in the domestic market of tourism services, taking into account rapidly changing external conditions and factors, which made it possible to identify the main and most popular types of tourist activity.

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 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. 

Global polarization and linear economy models has for generations been the servant of ruthless capitalism and bourgeoisie ventures. In such ruthless circumstance there has been alarming situation both globally and locally to challenge prevailing linear economy structures to question and create a sustainable platform for protecting the resources and user structures of our future generations. Life cycle assessments globally has been a case study which has shown the minimal usage of products in value based propositions and bringing the environmental ecosystem in a balanced structure irrespective of political or governmental interventions. From the birth of the Paris Agreements on Climate changes, scientists and technologists globally has stressed upon the importance of sustainability and resilience on global food security as well as natural resource management. In such scenario resource allocations even in advanced countries like Europe and America has fallen prey to gross inequality, gender gaps and faulty resource transitions even in most advanced regions. Shocking Gini coefficient figures across boundaries have led scientists and economists globally to rethink and restrategise the way strategic business management hovers globally and to better revisualise globalization and utilize the resources our earth has endowed us upon. This paper challenges prevailing notions and even best practices in current management scenario and principles of economics of entrepreneurship to jump start a society based on values, tradition and value based usage proposition; in other terms from a linear based economy to a sustainable resilient circular economy model with greater emphasis on environmental protection, poverty eradication with better integration of triple line bottom of pyramid and better community disciplines to foster a vibrant shared economy model. There is a persistent gap lying across various parameters of a linear economy which has in turn been the causal effect of human impoverishment, poverty and vast scale ecological destructions. A case based approach and exploratory study in this research paper tries to answer rising question in addressing this burning topic of circular entrepreneurship which is quite different in structure and outcome to normative economical falsifications arising out of entrepreneurship models which has till now failed to create a functional economy devoid of hazards and wastes

The article examines the development of the Russian economy in its modern capitalist period. The authors emphasize that when analyzing the dynamics of GDP, there are five stages that have significant differences: growth rates, models that stimulate growth, sources of financing for economic growth, and other reasons, the totality of which determines the ‘face’ of each of the selected stages. The authors substantiate the necessity and possibility of using the potential of the financial market to stimulate economic growth. At the same time, considerable attention is paid to the justification of the impact of indicators that characterize the financial market within the framework of the institutional (financial institutions) and instrumental (financial instrument markets) approaches. The authors highlight five stages of Russia’s economic growth: economic (transformational) decline (1991-1998), rapid recovery economic growth (1999-2007), decaying recovery economic growth (2008-2012), stagnant economic growth (2013-2019). The article shows the importance of the financial market for the implementation of the main tasks at each stage from the standpoint of expert assessment of indicators of the development level of the financial market: depth (the importance of institutions and financial market instruments relative to macroeconomic indicators), availability of services provided by institutions and financial instrument markets, stability (the ability of financial institutions to continue providing services in the event of force majeure and financial market volatility), efficiency (the attractiveness of the market for business).

The authors of the article believe that in 2020, a new fifth stage of Russia’s economic growth began, the potential of which can be revealed through the use of financial boost tools. At present, Russia is in a unique situation of a combination of a crisis based on both a demand model and a supply model. The authors propose specific measures to use the potential of these models. The combination of the measures used will reveal new opportunities for the development of the economy and society. These opportunities can be obtained by using the ideology of the strategy of accelerated financial development of the economy – financial boost.

The article is devoted to the problem of the development of human capital in the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0 for the development of international trade of the Russian Federation. The authors consider the impact of human capital on improving the competitiveness of Russia in world markets in the digital economy. The development of the digital economy is directly related to the educational process. Great attention has to be paid to training personnel that will contribute to the development of infrastructure. Without quality staffing, development is impossible. The components of human capital were chosen as the object of study.

The article analyzes the dynamics of the level of development of human capital of the Russian Federation, relative to other countries. The authors describe the significance of investments in the components of human capital. The theoretical and methodological materials of this article are the legislative acts and normative documents of the Russian Federation, domestic and foreign publications and publications on the subject under study. HSE statistical compilations, data from the Federal State Statistics Service and the World Bank Data, information materials published in periodicals and posted on the Internet were used as a database.

The research results are based on the results of statistical analysis, which confirm the availability of an extensive review of the literature and a comparative analysis of international indicators and indices. Study period: 2000s –2018s.

The paper deals with social-cultural aspects of catching up modernisation in the newly industrialising countries (NICs) of East and South-East Asia in the 1960s-90s. The author treats this modernisation as a kind of conservative modernisation because it combined the local traditions and several elements of modernity, the “family-centred” attitudes of the East with the “self-centred” individualism of the West. In this connection, the author considers the role of Confucianism in East Asian modernisation and discusses the problem of compatibility of the Confucian doctrine with “the spirit of capitalism”. As it is known, Max Weber wrote about their incompatibility with each other but the practice of the last third of the XX Century disapproved the conception of Weber. This apparent paradox has been explained by the profound changes in capitalism since the times when Weber elaborated his conception. When the countries under scrutiny approached to their modernisation, they borrowed and implemented the model of managerial capitalism with the developmental state and economic bureaucracy. The state and its officialdom played the leading role in development of these countries, being much more important for modernisation than “the spirit of capitalism” with private initiatives. Meanwhile, the developmental state’s activity corresponded to some principles of the Confucian doctrine, so Confucianism that glorified the harmony and strong order appeared as well compatible with fast modernisation, particularly in Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. However, the Confucian heritage and the relics of communalism became the obstacles to transition towards a knowledge-based economy. A focus on learning instead of studying in education according to the old Confucian traditions restrains the students’ creativity and oppresses an endeavour to express individuality. Thus, the practice of conservative modernisation, which was very effective at the stage of imitative, catching up industrial development, succeeds in a blind alley because does not enable to begin implementing a knowledge-based, innovative model of development that presupposes a free creative activity of individuals. At the same time, liberalisation of economy, particularly after the Asian financial-economic crisis of 1997-1998, leads to deepening social differentiation and erodes the base of the previous developmental state. In the changing conditions, a set of the so-called “Asian values” has been used not for further modernisation but for justifying the conservative, authoritarian tendencies in politics and ideology. The main conclusion the author makes from his consideration concerns the debates about the global shift of the world economy’s core to the East (including China): in the nearest decades neither China nor East Asia as a whole will become the world economic hegemon. The West with the US domination will remain the global scientific-technological and, therefore, economic leader in the world.

The analysis of statistical data shows that in reality quite often in the bankruptcy of organizations there are signs of its premeditation. However, the subjects are brought to responsibility for this offense in isolated cases. According to most researchers, this situation is largely due to the imperfection of methods for identifying signs of deliberate bankruptcy of organizations. In turn, the methodological basis for identifying signs of deliberate bankruptcy of organizations, predicting the probability of bankruptcy and deliberate bankruptcy of organizations depend on the understanding of the nature of bankruptcy and deliberate bankruptcy of organizations. The concepts of bankruptcy and deliberate bankruptcy of organizations are enshrined in a number of legislative documents. In the economic aspect, the concept of bankruptcy of the organization in the Russian scientific and periodic literature is widely covered. The majority of researchers in their works consider the concepts of deliberate bankruptcy of the organization from the position of the legal aspect. The economic aspect of the concept of deliberate bankruptcy of the organization is mentioned in a few papers, which indicates underdevelopment of scientific research of the economic aspect of the phenomenon of intentional bankruptcies of organizations. The article puts forward and proves the hypothesis that on the basis of semantic analysis and definitions of the semantic core of the concepts “bankruptcy of the organization” and “deliberate bankruptcy of organizations”, it is possible to formulate the key characteristics of bankruptcy, deliberate bankruptcy of organizations, revealing the essence of these phenomena. According to the results of the semantic analysis and semantic core definition of the concept of “deliberate bankruptcy of the organization” the article suggests a definition of the concept of deliberate bankruptcy of the organization from the position of the subjects of demand for information in the market.