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The energy efficiency policy is a priority component of the overall economic policy of different countries striving to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of national economic development. The improvement of energy efficiency represents an important economic task for the post-Soviet countries, characterized by excessive energy intensity of the economy, and the solution of this task requires proper information and analytical support: a system for accounting and analyzing energy consumption indicators. The present research is aimed at developing the tools to support decision-making in the sphere of evaluation and estimation of performance of the State energy efficiency policy of territories and testing these tools on the example of Russian regions. The study has been carried out using the methods of statistics, economic, mathematical and econometric modeling, structural, dynamic and comparative analyses. The following tools have been proposed: the method for differentiated accounting of various factors’ influence on the dynamics of energy consumption in the regions and for estimating the index of technological efficiency of electricity consumption; the method for the empirical classification of territories by types of their energy and economic development. We’ve revealed the general trend and typological features in the dynamics of electricity consumption efficiency indicators in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and carried out the decomposition factor and comparative analysis of energy consumption patterns of the Volgograd region over 2005–2014 on the basis of the proposed tools.

The aim of the study is to systematize scientific knowledge regarding the content, identify current trends, and develop tools and mechanisms to ensure the sustainable development of socio-economic systems based on the coordination of activities of business entities with the processes occurring in the national economy. The main productive unit of the national macroeconomic system is the regional economic system, in the process of functioning of which the reproduction of the goods necessary for the region is carried out, and the economic and environmental needs are satisfied. Sustainable development and capacity building of socio-economic systems, being a strategic goal of development, largely depends on the unity and integrity of its constituent elements. At the regional level, the effectiveness of the system of relations between producers and consumers of tangible and intangible goods and services is largely determined by the presence of large businesses. Large business structures operate in a significant number of regions, implement all stages of the reproduction process in almost all sectors of the economy, and are an important component of modern economic development. The study of the influence of the activities of large business structures on regional social and economic systems is extremely important from the point of view of analyzing the consequences of the activities of large business structures on the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the development of both a specific region and the national economy as a whole.

This chapter examines the effects of financial deepening on the sources of economic growth in Russia. Previous empirical literature based on cross-country studies presented the evidence that in developing countries financial development affects capital accumulation more than productivity growth. We tested this proposition with panel data from 75 regions of Russia’s regions between 2008 and 2015 using system generalized method of moments techniques. Our results are not consistent with this proposition: the effect of finance on output growth occurs primarily through productivity; the positive influence of finance on capital accumulation is less significant, which is more typical for developed countries. This outcome can be explained by the fact that structural problems in Russia and developed countries are somewhat similar. More helpful for Russian economy are tools that would help business get a more profound effect from efforts to promote innovation and boost productivity than from increasing investment by expanding credit.

The study reveals how the role of the largest cities – regional capitals in the urban settlement system – and the economy of the country changed during the period of social and economic transformations at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The object of the study is the largest cities with a population of over 1 million people, the administrative centers of the regions. Unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg, these are administrative centers or “capitals” of large territories that have the status of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The authors emphasize the special role of cities – regional capitals in post-socialist and developing countries – where there are significant and rapid changes in the distribution of functions between the center and the regions. At the same time, cities – regional capitals – are not considered as isolated objects, but as elements of a national settlement system, the leaders among Russian second-tier cities. The common features of the evolution of the largest regional capitals, the continuity of the factors of city formation, are revealed. Considerable attention is paid to assessing the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union for the development of the urban settlement system. It was concluded that the “compensatory” nature of the accelerated growth of the largest regional capitals in post-Soviet Russia. “Compensatory” growth is considered as a form of adaptation of the urban settlement system to the weakening of links between its essential links. A methodical approach is proposed that allows a comparative analysis of the role of the largest regional capitals and the capital of the state in the economy of the country. In the process of testing it, an assessment was made of population dynamics, as well as key economic indicators, such as the volume of products shipped, retail turnover, investments, the volume of work in the construction of major regional pages, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg. The evaluation results allowed the classification of the largest regional capitals in terms of their role in the economic development of the country, as well as in terms of the extent of the gap between the indicators; on the one hand, the largest regional capitals, and on the other, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

This chapter examines the experience of Russia's cities in the implementation of smart solutions. Previous theoretical and empirical studies cover a variety of dimensions, involved in the concept of a smart city, and practical issues concerning technologies, urban management, business models which improve urban residents' quality of life through digital technologies, artificial intellect under the conditions of creating appropriate infrastructure. In this chapter, we present the results of the analysis of some significant information about smart solutions deployed in Russian cities nowadays. We show how smart solutions get allocated among Russian cities and among different domains of this kind of solutions. Unlike most of other countries, smart solutions in Russia are less concentrated in such domains such as sustainable development or transport. Instead, a large number of relevant projects in Russia are concentrated in the field of informatization of urban life and energy efficiency. This feature is associated with budget centralization, the implementation of national programs by the Russian Federal Government. Consequently, in general, the Russian model of a smart city is less focused on demand, but to a greater extent it can be classified as supply-driven.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the present state of employee ownership in Russia and reasons for its decline due to the drawbacks of economic reforms on the country.

The design of the article includes the analysis of the Russian model of ESOP and its differences from the U.S. analog. The author also describes the practical experience of the Russian people’s enterprises and the drawbacks in the legal foundations of their work.

The key finding of this work is that the correction of these drawbacks would lead to broader development of employee owned companies in Russia.

The author’s ideas of changing focus of the market reforms in Russia and facilitating the development of economic democracy in the country constitute the major social implication of her research.

It may have practical implications both for developed market economies and economies in transition.

The originality of the paper is determined by drawing a logical link between the development of employee ownership and overall market reform in Russia, as well as by presenting a comparative analysis of the U.S. and Russian models of ESOP.

The volatile and ambiguous state of the global economy is changing prerequisites in the corporate environment paradigm. Contemporary small- and medium-sized businesses fill in the gaps in the value chains originally created by big businesses. Such a change in the global environment is calling for a completely new system of values bringing on new challenges for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The smart solution to overcome the barriers might be found in the course of sustainable development. The idea of sustainable development of the world economy was originally developed by large corporations and governments of different countries based on scarcity and irresponsible use of natural resources. The corporate approach is to gain positive economic effect through implementation of large-scale projects to transform business models. The society, as the main recipient of the ‘products’ of business and state activities, represents its interests in a heterogeneous way; In fact, there is ample evidence this is due to a number of social, economic, political and cross-cultural factors. In correlation with the above-mentioned vectors of interests of global stakeholders, the implementation of sustainable development policies includes the development of new products; the reorganization of production, incentive and process assessment systems; as well as leading cross-functional organizational changes. Despite the commitment of senior management and institutional efforts to spread the concept of sustainable development via global corporations, practical cases are often characterized by organizational resistance and inertia. According to some authors, cultural, structural and routine communications – emerging at different corporate levels – become agents of influence on large, medium and small firms (Banerjee, 2008). Such a combination of economic and social processes forms a special environment for the development of contemporary SMEs in Europe. The chapter pinpoints the challenges and drivers for SMEs’ development in an ambiguous environment, as well as the prerequisites for the formation of sustainable development of the business as a state of art.

Purpose – In this chapter, we compare the cases of India and Russia as they address the spread of HIV-AIDS in their respective countries. The countries, former Cold War allies, have embarked upon a path toward economic liberalization in the past decade and a half. In Russia's case, this came with political upheaval. In India's case, liberalization started with tentative steps and reached more full-blown economic and social liberalization in recent times. Both have also had to deal with the rapid spread of HIV-AIDS within their societies which brings with it the threat of derailing recent economic progress.

Methodology – A comparative case-study method is used to make comparisons between these countries which are facing similar challenges but whose approaches to them differ.

Findings – The chapter looks at how the government and a tradition-bound society in both cases have addressed the crisis. While both governments are recently becoming more serious about sustainable responses to the spread of the disease, in India's case this response has been buttressed by social liberalization unleashed by recent economic success.

Contributions to the field – We argue that social liberalization, as in the case of India, has made an impact in terms of the spread and acceptance of prevention education. This has positive implications for those countries where liberalization has changed traditional societies and where these changes are being used to battle the HIV-AIDS crisis.