The article focuses on the existing gap between theoretically optimal (often close to zero) and empirically observed (targeted by central banks, explicitly positive) rate of inflation. In order to reduce this gap, the article proposes some theoretical explanations of a positive rate of optimal inflation, the main cause of which are labor market frictions, financial market frictions and risk of achieving zero lower bound of nominal interest rates in the economy (also known as ZLB problem). Using a case-study approach, the article shows that ZLB factor contributes to a significant increase of optimal inflation rate in the countries with relevant experience. Consequently, ZLB factor provides a necessary, though not sufficient, argument in central banks’ discussion concerning inflation target.

Non-credit financial organizations (microfinance organizations, credit cooperatives and others) occupy a significant share in the market of financing of the population and small and medium-sized businesses. In recent years, microfinance institutions have been frequently mentioned in connection with scandals related to their activities. Part of the scandals associated with violations in their work, including consumer complaints about illegal actions of individuals, recovered debts of microfinance organizations, some associated with fraudulent schemes for the construction and formation of financial pyramids. A number of other violations in the activities of microfinance organizations have been identified, which requires a more careful approach to the regulation of their activities, both to protect consumer rights and to ensure stable development of the financial sector. The current situation in the global financial market poses new challenges for the Central Bank of Russia to improve the tools to identify and suppress the illegal actions of microfinance organizations. The article provides recommendations for improving the mechanisms of regulation and suppression of violations of microfinance organizations and credit and consumer cooperatives at an early stage.

The choice of stock as a method of payment in M&A deals is usually considered by researchers as a signal of acquirer’s stock overvaluation that is proved by its negative impact on M&A performance. However, this view doesn’t take into account information asymmetry faced by the acquirer. The choice of stock payment may be used by the acquirer as a mechanism to reduce risks caused by information asymmetry, and thereby send a positive signal to the market. In this paper, drawing on evidence from 713 and 468 cross-border M&As, initiated by companies from US and BRIC respectively, over 2002-2017, we show that stock payment may be beneficial when target firm is a high-tech company and when the cultural distance between acquirers and targets is large. For M&As, initiated by US firms, stock payment may be also beneficial in deals with private targets, and for acquirers from BRIC — in deals with targets located in a weaker political environment.

This article contains a new approach to working capital management which influences significantly the profitability and liquidity of companies. The impact of working capital management on financial results is regarded mostly theoretically in Russian literature, while in numerous foreign articles empirical results are controversial. The article presents the empirical research on the basis of 8890 Russian wholesale trade companies over the period of 2014– 2018, which reveals a non-linear relation between the profitability and cash conversion cycle. Similar relation is also revealed for 2290 Russian retail companies, 2320 Russian metal production companies and 1760 construction companies. As a result, we proved the existence of such a cash conversion cycle which provides maximum profitability for different economic sectors. This cash conversion cycle equals 19 days for wholesale trade, 9 days for retail trade, 38 days for construction and 43 for metal production. Moreover, the formula of cash conversion cycle is modified to show how the desired cash conversion cycle may be achieved. This formula demonstrates a strong impact of working capital policy on cash conversion cycle and proves the importance of coherent working capital policy. The results may be useful in the working capital management to provide an increase in profitability combined with maintenance of chosen liquidity level.

At the end of the past century, a new type of anomaly associated with a higher return on high-yield shares was discovered on the American stock market. Since then the effectivenes of high-dividend strategies has been investigated by many authors based not only on US market, but also on other markets. The results of the studies were contradictory, that’s why it would be interesting to test the strategy over a longer time period taking into account the largest possible number of national indexes. We made a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of high-dividend strategies based on 38 indexes from 32 countries and economies and find some new factors affecting the profitability of high-dividend portfolios.

The article presents the author’s classification of the “catching-up modernization” models typical for Russia and Japan at the initial stage of acceleration of industrial development. The common features of the “state-national” model (Japan) and the “least resistance” model (Russia) are identified and characterized, and their comparative analysis is carried out. Particular attention is paid to the country features that have had a huge impact on the formation of national types of “catch-up modernization” model and their practical implementation. The role of the state, traditionally strong in Russia and Japan, is noted, and its change in the process of “catching up modernization” is traced. The degree of influence of endogenous and exogenous factors on the implementation of large-scale transformation of Russian and Japanese economic systems is analyzed. It is concluded that the development of national economies of the countries under consideration was a natural result and reflection of their types of the model of “catching-up modernization”.

Export determinants and their interconnection with technological sophistication and exchange rates are a popular topic in foreign articles. This paper is devoted to relation between export sophistication and exchange rate, including disaggregation of the used data to the country level. Main hypothesis of the research can be formulated as follows: export sophistication moderates the influence of exchange rate risks on export volume. First of all, analytical review of literature over the period of 2009–2019 has been carried out. It includes such topics as influence of trade policy on wages and employment in developing countries, main determinants of export diversification, role of foreign direct investments in export sophistication, etc. Furthermore, articles devoted to experience of China, Korea, Singapore, Japan, ASEAN and Latin America countries have been studied. Second part of the research focuses on statistical and regression analysis of Japanese export partners’ data, and also evaluation of ESI and PSI according to R. Hausmann methodology. Moreover, three clusters of countries were outlined: first — the leader — the USA, second — countries with growing exports — China and Korea, third — other countries. The structure of Japanese exports inclines the focus on high and middle-high technological goods. This trend is more evident in case of ESI and PSI: middle and high technological goods retain minimal fluctuations in volumes since 2014. Finally, regression coefficients indicate that yen deflation stimulates export, this result can be explained by Japanese policy of division between internal and external markets.

The paper offers an overview of the trends and patterns behind researchers’ focus shifting from strategies to business models in the sphere of management. Methodologically, the study rests on the set of traditional theories included in the strategic management paradigm, as well as the concepts of business models and platform economy. The authors examine various standpoints on the correlation between the terms “strategy” and “business model” in management and trace the genesis and prerequisites for the emergence of theoretical foundations that underlied business management in the 20th-21st centuries. We identify a number of factors behind the transition to a short-term model of company management. The paper demonstrates that a shift in the basic analytical management construct is due to heterogeneous elements of organization management, transformation of management logic “from the present to the future”, the inclusion of microenvironment in the business ecosystem, etc. The research results can be of use in further empirical studies and in devising the methodological approaches to the development of relevant management tools based on the concept of business models.

Social entrepreneurship is a developing economic and social phenomenon that needs scientific interpretation and solid legal framework. Russian and foreign researchers are actively discussing the content, boundaries, determinants of social entrepreneurship. The article examines modern approaches to the definition of social entrepreneurship, summarizes the typology of social enterprises, analyzes the characteristics of socially oriented non-profit organizations. The author gives a description of socially oriented non-profit organizations in the Russian Federation, points to the legitimacy of these organizations as a public service and recipients of government preferences and presents the reflections on the exclusion of government institutions from social entrepreneurship.

The author considers the concept of «pensionary good» and the specifics of its production at the state and non-state levels. The purpose of the study is to analyze the actions aimed at creating a «pensionary good» under the influence of incentives and coercion. Drawing on the theory of goods, the author comes to conclusion that the elements of pensionary good can be produced in the form of public goods, merit goods, club goods and private goods. The author identifies the specifics of pensionary good structure at the analyzed levels and shows that national pension in the Russian Federation is based on coercion, with stimulation being of secondary importance. Non-state-funded retirement also uses the coercion and incentives. It has been established that coercion and incentives provide contradictory results as mechanisms used in the process of producing a pensionary good. While preparing the article, the author used the data from the Federal Statistic Service, the Pension Fund of Russia and various sociological surveys and scientific works on pensions and insurance. The conclusions of the study may be useful for further research on the development of Russian pension system.

The subject of the research is management systems used in construction organizations and methods of decision support while choosing the system of management. The purpose of the work is to offer a method of decision support for managing a construction organization when choosing a transition to a process management approach or a project-oriented management approach. The article emphasizes the relevance of improving the quality of enterprise management in construction industry, and provides an overview of domestic and foreign literature on improving management methods. The study substantiates the need for a method to support decision-making while shifting to a new management system. The authors propose a method based on the evaluation criteria obtained through a survey of the company’s management. The proposed method helps managers and founders to make a decision concerning the choice of management system and warns against erroneous decisions and losses associated with the introduction of a management system “inefficient” for the construction company.

This article addresses the development of an integrated approach to assessing the effectiveness of state projects for all types of accessibility (physical, transport, time, information) of environment for the disabled in all directions from the point of view of citizens (rendering state and municipal services and vital activity, categories of disability). The work presents theoretical foundations of the concepts “efficiency of state projects”, “accessible environment”; the analysis of theoretical approaches to the evaluation of state projects’ effectiveness; the practice of implementing state projects on an accessible environment in the Perm region; the efficiency indicators of the realized state projects of an accessible environment for low-mobility groups in the Perm region; problems of assessing the success of state projects; the integrated approach to assessing the effectiveness of state projects; the comparative analysis of the evaluation of state projects implementation by public authorities on the one hand, and organizations of the disabled, on the other. Drawing on the results of the analysis, we may conclude that there are significant differences in evaluating the implementation of state accessibility projects due to functional and organizational reasons. The authors have developed the directions of improving the organization of an accessible environment for low-mobility citizens, such as provision of direct interaction between public organizations of the disabled and public authorities, development of a unified construction concept of accessibility formation, improving the mechanisms for conducting inspections, monitoring and regulatory and legal frameworks in the field of accessibility of the environment.