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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of blockchain as an institutional technology, defend the idea of National Innovation Systems as institutional systems, and then make use of the theory of institutional competition to characterise challenges posed by innovation public policy by blockchain technology.

The approach is to consider the nature of blockchain technology as an institutional technology, and to consider the nature of National Innovation Systems as institutional systems. The author then applies a theory of institutional competition developed elsewhere to appraise the interaction of the two.

The author expects for there to emerge sustained competition for National Innovation Systems from innovation systems implemented using blockchains. There will be pressure exerted by the latter upon the former to become more integrated, secure, usable and to greater support profit expectations for entrepreneurs.

The theory of institutional competition upon which this work is based makes use of cutting-edge behavioural and institutional economics. It has hitherto only been applied at a general level and has not been applied to a specific set of institutions such as National Innovation Systems.

The purpose of this research paper is a theoretical understanding of the most general trends of Russian economic development during the country's pre‐Soviet, Soviet and post‐Soviet time frames.

The objectives are designed in such a way as to include a historical aspect in the research. An attempt is made to grasp (rather cursorily) a logical internal progression in all stages of the Russian development for the last 150 years. In this, the paper shows no need for so‐called great historical personalities to explain the great historical events.

In the course of the work, it was found that Russia had experienced alternatively five different socioeconomic systems of: late mixed feudalism which was on its way to democratic mixed capitalism (the 1850s‐October 1917); state feudalism which was pregnant with authoritarian mixed capitalism (1918‐1921); authoritarian mixed capitalism in whose womb there was ripening totalitarian state capitalism (1921‐1928); totalitarian state capitalism which was carrying within itself the seeds of authoritarian state capitalism (1928‐1990); finally, authoritarian state capitalism which was moving toward authoritarian mixed capitalism (1991‐present).

The original value of the paper is in its fresh approach to the great events that have been taking place in Russia since the 1850s. The events have been analyzed not as they should be according or despite some theory but as they were and are. The paper, therefore, will be valuable to those who are interested in the socioeconomic development of Russia and who would like, one way or another, to attempt to predict the country's nearest future.

This chapter aims to conceptualize the general framework of policies to support entrepreneurship and competitiveness by indicating a move from a dispersive comprehension of competitiveness towards an integrated macro-meso-micro perspective, by taking as a case study the European South. First, it presents theoretical contributions to entrepreneurship enhancement policies, which mostly suggest that intervention can be effective in a fragmentary and relatively incoherent way. Then, it counter-proposes the ‘competitiveness web’ approach, which gives an integrated policy framework for the competitive strengthening and evolution of a socioeconomic system. In the framework of competitiveness web, we analyze and propose a meso-micro level policy via the Institutes of Local Development and Innovation (ILDI), which is a policy for empowering the local and regional business ecosystems through the enhancement of business innovation. Finally, by using the competitiveness web filter, we propose the structuration of a mechanism that could identify the level at which the socioeconomic entities in different spatial levels can articulate their policies for entrepreneurship enhancement in the macro-meso-micro integrated approach.

The People’s Republic of China, as a progressively developing economy, is subject to dynamic structural changes, which are potentially de‐stabilizing in nature. Since the end of the 1970s China had abandoned Mao Zedong’s socioeconomic theories and policies and instituted profound socioeconomic reforms. Her more pragmatic approach has increasingly emphasized economic freedom and individualism. The pursued “pragmatism” involves a revolutionary mixture of both a planned and a market economy with greater economic but not political freedom. Essential socioeconomic reforms were not complemented by requisite political reforms. According to Walter Eucken’s “instability thesis,” this may de‐stabilize China’s socioeconomic and political structures. The challenge which China continues to face is how to reconcile two sets of conflicting principles, economic freedom and Marxist‐Leninist‐Maoist control of politics and society, resolving Eucken’s hypothesis of potential long‐term instability. This paper addresses this challenge in terms of ethical and economic perspectives.

The purpose of this chapter is to determine the main stages in the formation of information economy.

The authors use the method of noosphere research, a bifurcation approach to studying dynamic systems, which is related to systemic approach, the method of structural and functional analysis, the method of dialectical materialism, and the methodology of the institutional economic theory, abstraction, and formalization.

As a result of complex application of totality of the aforementioned methods and approaches to study the formation of information economy, the authors determine the essence and the main stages of information economy: formation of technosphere (technological foundation), formation of sociosphere (social core), and formation of economic sphere (economic pinnacle). At each of these stages, economic system faces serious socioeconomic changes that first face opposition from society and business, but then – with accumulation of practical experience – are accepted, opening the possibility for transition to the next stage of this process.

The authors conclude that while the influence of the global financial crisis in the early twenty-first century is common for all modern economic systems, it stimulated them to begin the formation of information economy. Furthermore, socioeconomic changes that followed this phenomenon are diverse and are largely predetermined by the context such as readiness of economic systems for continuation of their evolution, their reaction to crisis, susceptibility to changes, and other national peculiarities. That’s why the speed of passing the various stages in different economic systems varies.

We commence answering the above questions first with an extension of the definition of Economy given by Gerard Debreu (1959). Choudhury (1999a) has extended Debreu's formulation by introducing the learning parameter of unity of knowledge. The ethically induced economy in the light of conscious oneness is a complex relational universe of its micro-parts. These comprise prices, quantities, incomes, resources, preferences and production menus, and technological choices. These are studied in relation to multimarkets and their agents represented by vector-variables of each of the above-mentioned categories. All of these categories of the representing variables are mutually interactive according to the interactive, integrative, and evolutionary (IIE)-learning processes (explained earlier) by the medium of knowledge-flows that emanate from the episteme of conscious oneness.¹

Eucken′s paradigm of a “social market economy” provides a framework for a functional free‐market mechanism, which not only accommodates development and change, but which also assures human dignity and freedom. Eucken places special emphasis on the integration of economics with “order” and “justice”. He holds that an unconstrained laissez‐faire economy does not assure a competitive economy but that it will degenerate into monopolistic practices. Eucken formulates his “structural” and “regulating” principles to facilitate a functionally competitive economy with a compatible social policy, to assure greater efficiency and to reduce poverty.

This study examines the effects of market orientation on the performance of retail outlets in Zimbabwe, a low-income country (LIC). LIC retailers operate at the nexus of subsistence marketplaces and the market economy. Socioeconomic, cultural and regulative institutions are more dynamic and differ substantially from the industrialized West. This provides an interesting context in which to test the generalizability of market orientation theory. A covariance structure model of the hypothesized relations indicates that market orientation improves performance. Reward systems have a positive effect on market orientation and a positive indirect effect on performance through market orientation. However, consistent with the characteristics of Zimbabwe, which are not unexpected in the LIC institutional context, interdepartmental conflict, centralization, and formalization do not have significant effects on market orientation. The results suggest that the market orientation–performance link generalizes but that some antecedents of market orientation identified in previous research may not apply in LICs.