DOI: 10.33917/es-8.166.2019.76-82

Analyzing development of the global industry for servicing agricultural production and formation of international value chains around it, the article substantiates the thesis on formation of exploitation relations within the chains. To this end, the most important innovations in the field of biotechnology, development of their patent-licensed protection system and structural regrouping of the most important companies — players in the global agrochemical market are examined in interrelation with one another over a period of the last forty years. On this basis, formation of oligopolistic structure of international companies, controlling the key links of the chain, which are infrastructural in relation to the others, is shown. Combined with the synergistic effect of the batch sale of technologically heterogeneous goods and services, this creates conditions for monopolistic exploitation of agricultural producers. The latter do not have access to alternative sources of similar goods and services that are competitive in comparison with the “packages” offered by oligopolists. As a result, for each unit of invested capital, the income of the latter is greater than that of agricultural producers, that is, within the chain the income is redistributed in their favour, including funds from end-consumers. The given monopoly is bilateral in nature, as technology companies also transfer part of their income to market leaders, who buy these technologies, for the right of access to their marketing opportunities.

DOI: 10.33917/es-6.164.2019.78-89

The purpose of the study is to assess the dynamics of the manufacturing industries in Russia. According to the “structural formula”, the contribution of innovations in various types of activities to the overall dynamics of innovations in manufacturing industries is assessed, which makes it possible to identify the dominant innovations in economic sectors. This approach is useful in order to differentiate the methods of industrial (sectoral) policy, including national projects as an institutional tool for managing the development of the Russian economy, since it identifies those areas that require special incentives for the innovation process. The structure of innovation is heterogeneous, the contribution by different types of activity varies significantly, which indicates the instability of the process of innovative development. Two strategies are considered for the functioning of processing industries: the export of machinery and the substitution of machinery imports. It is shown that these strategies can not be reduced to one another, except for special cases and suggest different possibilities. The parameter of structural independence for the Russian engineering industry has steadily decreased and its dynamics has been stabilized at low values, as shown by the method of phase portraits of the change in this indicator. This suggests that the domestic economy and engineering remain highly dependent on imports of machinery, equipment and technology, and leads to the conclusion that the import substitution policy is not, firstly, sufficient, and secondly, structural internal changes are required in the economy, so that import substitution and the development of export manufacturing industries give a positive systemic result. On the basis of quantitative assessments, a fundamental conclusion was obtained that the import substitution policy itself will certainly not have a high performance (locally limited effect), which it could potentially have when the internal flow of resources changes towards the processing sectors

DOI: 10.33917/es-5.163.2019.90-99

Innovative development is a strategy for creating a new technological and social structure. The implementation of this agenda requires the solution of a complex of problems created by the phenomenon of innovation. The article identifies seven problem areas that impede the formation of a sustainable innovation system in modern Russia. The problem of definitions is associated with a lack of understanding of the deep essence of the innovation culture, which gives rise to a superficial understanding of innovation only as a commercialized innovation, and not as a way of life. The problem of operationalization and evaluation of innovations is associated with the dominance of technocratic and statistical approaches, which leads to linear conclusions and forms a biased picture of the development potential of Russia. The problem of spontaneity of innovation and the focus solely on the investment aspects of innovation policy can turn into significant financial losses and a decrease in the creative potential of people involved in certain branches of science and economics. The problem of the subject forms the wrong idea of innovation as an exclusive product of individual creativity, while they are the result of complex social interaction. The problem of the institutional environment is associated not so much with incubators, venture funds, technology parks and research laboratories, as with the indispensable role of the school and basic science. Last but not least, are the problems of the socio-cultural environment of innovations and their unpredictable consequences. The efficiency and sustainability of the innovation system is directly dependent on the prevailing attitude in society towards unsuccessful attempts to introduce innovations. Negative perception can generate apathy towards innovation at best, and aggression at worst. A calm assessment of failures can be the key to success. The solution of the identified problems – the constraining factors of innovation – is possible with the unidirectional energy of political, economic and research subjects

Military operations in the Syrian Arab Republic affect foreign investment in the country. Despite this, Russia continues to cooperate with Syria in the investment field. Judging by Syria’s internal potential, peculiarities of its geopolitical situation in the region, as well as international trends and strategies of Russia’s foreign policy, the Syrian Arab Republic maintains its relations with the Russian Federation within the framework of the forces center policy and against the background of the prestige policy. At the same time, towards Russia Syria pursues completely different foreign policy than in relation to other countries. Exploring investment activities in Syria and Russia’s participation in the Syrian economy through investments, the author draws up a conclusion that Russian enterprises’ entry into the Syrian market after the conflict stabilization should be based on the principles of leasing. The most interesting form of cooperation from the Russian point of view will be interaction in the mining industry (oil, phosphates) and agriculture.

The paper defines the essence of economic modernization, pinpoints its main types, reveals the causes of objective necessity for modernization of the Russian economy, analyses the key modernization problems and gives he author’s view on the considered issues.

The creation of fertile innovative ecological environment in the country is constrained by barriers of a conceptual nature. The article identifies four groups of such barriers. The authors propose a strategy for overcoming them based on a comparison of functions necessary for the innovative development of social practices and the natural mechanisms of a new life birth. This allows us to formulate a number of pragmatic recommendations for creating an innovative eco-environment for a wide range of industries. By analogy with natural dynamics of obstetrics, the approach is called placental.

The article dwells on the basic principles and problems of technological development that arise from the specifics of certain technologies. The choice of technological capabilities at the individual and firm level cannot comply solely with the investment logic of decision-making, as the technologies life cycle includes unpredictable effects that can significantly improve the return, which cannot be anticipated at the initial point of transition from one technological opportunity to another. Technologies are characterized by special properties, which have a decisive influence on the course of technological development. And these properties are not characteristic for other types of goods, this fact fundamentally distinguishes formation of demand for new technologies and affects the options for their use. Any technology consists of a kind of nucleus and variable periphery, is characterized by various kinds of animation effects and can also be an integral element of the combinatorial effect in the sphere of technologies. Owing to this “frame” that defines the structure of technology, it acts as a kind of a rule that determines the behavior of agents and conditions for developing the service infrastructure. Existing models of economic growth do not fully take into account the microeconomic institutional properties of technology, creating a pseudo-correct image of technologies’ impact on the system’s growth. In this regard, formation of the theory framework for the economic system processability will provide the necessary guidance in describing and investigating technological and institutional changes and economic growth, which are highly dependent on them. The aggregate productivity of factors also becomes to a significant degree a system parameter, dependent on overall technological applicability and institutional changes. The article describes the main characteristics of functioning of the fundamental research sector, which acts as the generator of all subsequent technological changes in a long range of economic development.

Recently, with development of globalization processes, both the object of accounting and its subject have become more complicated, which has caused the need to change methods of providing and reflecting information on economic entities’ activities. In addition, the concepts of financial management, complex fundamental analysis, corporate responsibility, business ethics and sustainable development have transformed. The purpose of this article is to consider integrated reporting as the basis of ethical management thinking and a new paradigm of management activity.

The article discusses two approaches to assessing the relationship between Science (grasping principles of nature) →Engineering (application of science) →Technology and Innovation (making engineering useful for public good and/or commercial gain) and their role in formation of economy. It is considered in relation to the Soviet history and economic development as well as in conjunction with planning, social policy and education. The philosophy of the process is at attempt to be analysed the achievement of the status of the superpower.

Today the problems of efficient innovation development are in the spotlight of government bodies. Obviously, only in this way it is possible to succeed in improving the national economy competitiveness in the medium and especially in the long term. This understanding was formed as a result of evaluating the existing resource constraints, consequences and prospects of wide spread of information and computer technologies, biotechnology, alternative energy sources, automation of production processes and so on. It has become even more prominent on the background of the global financial crisis, hardly predictable high volatility in commodity markets and environmental problems aggravation caused by the use of technologies hostile to environment.