The paper determines the vector of influence of the “shale revolution” on international energy markets based on the analysis of volume and price dynamics of world oil and gas markets, as well as energy trade in the United States. The study contains a multilateral assessment of trends emerging from the development of shale technologies. Using regression models, the authors trace a statistically significant impact of the “shale revolution” on the price dynamics of the global energy market. Panel data analysis for the period from 2010 to 2019 shows a direct dependence between the decline in energy imports in the United States and global oil and gas prices, and the inverse dependence between the increase in exports from the United States and prices of oil (Brent) and European gas (NBP). Due to active use and continuous improvement of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques in the second decade of the twenty-first century the USA is decreasing its energy import dependency and transforming into a net exporter of hydrocarbons. It results in the supply disbalance on global energy markets. The ongoing changes in the US oil and gas production are leading to the transformation of geopolitical situation on world energy markets. If a decade ago, the US strategy was aimed at guaranteeing stable energy supplies, now it is the capture of markets and crowding out competitors by all possible means.

This article examines current e-Commerce platforms market. The subject of the research is the processes of market adaptation to the new conditions of digitalization and future development trends. The scope and structural aspects of digitalization of consumer markets, the new role, and prospects for the development of digital e-Commerce platforms have determined the purpose of this study.

Methodology and approach. To understand and evaluate the development, scope and structure of e-commerce markets in Russia in the context of the pandemic shock, we use methods of statistical analysis of the information collected by various Internet services. The calculations were carried out using data from Internet traffic analytics on digital statistical information resources.

Findings. The study shows that digital technologies create new mechanisms of consumer choice and modify the principles of competition. In this new reality, changes in the markets structure are already under way. As a result, there are incentives to consolidate e-Commerce platforms which can lead not only to positive but also to negative economic effects, for example, for small and medium-sized businesses, and will require the attention of the regulator to ensure the protection of their economic interests. This question should be the subject of further scientific research.

This article studies one of the most complicated and yet popular company management tools, the transfer pricing. The author considers the aims and purpose of transfer pricing, the formation of a transfer pricing system as a company management tool, popular viewpoints on transfer price calculation methodologies, strengths and weaknesses of the existing approaches, and offers a hypothesis on transforming transfer pricing methods. The paper systematizes transfer pricing methods with due regard to the experience of domestic and foreign companies, the development of the Russian Federation legislation, the recommendations of the OECD, and the studies of auditing and consulting companies. The author presents an overview of the most popular transfer pricing methods which serve as a basis for using one or another method, identifies the factors of efficient management mechanism. The article analyses the specific features of using a particular management mechanism in financial companies and companies operating in real economy, studies the methodology to deploy transfer pricing in a legal entity and within a vertically integrated holding. Taking into account the fact that regulation of transfer pricing is also a tax regulation tool used by the state, the author emphasizes that the problems of transfer pricing tools aimed at tax risk management are not the object of the article. The results of the study can be used by employees and executives of corporate financial divisions, analysts, consultants, and employees of state agencies and authorities while developing the methodology for using financial instruments in company management.

Customer orientation as one of the mainstream concepts of contemporary marketing has been actively developed since 1990s. The purpose of the article is to develop a conceptual model of customer orientation relationships in a company based on a systematic analysis of existing studies and their adaptation to practical use. As a result of the analysis, the approaches to determining customer orientation are systematized on the basis of two determinants: the level of customer orientation (personal, organizational) and the approach of customer orientation interpretation (value, process). To determine customer orientation, the author uses an integrated approach, which includes value and process characteristics of customer orientation, as it gives companies a more comprehensive understanding for the development of a customer-oriented approach. Within this approach, customer orientation is defined as activities of a company to collect information on existing and potential customers, disseminating this information in the company and developing actions to meet current and future customer needs by creating the highest value. The developed model reflects the relationship between customer orientation and various aspects of company's business and the prerequisites for its development. The data obtained show that customer orientation affects not only performance, but also employees, competitive advantage, customers and the choice of management strategies. The conceptual model allows to take an overall look at customer orientation in the company and devise a plan for its development.

Advertising in a social network has a number of characteristics that distinguish it from other types of advertising, and which may be of key importance in answering the question about its ability to serve as a signal of quality. In the game-theoretic model presented in this paper, the monopolist sends an advertising signal to bloggers who act as “opinion leaders” in the social network. The latter, in turn, make decisions about posting advertising messages on their blogs, taking into account the impact that this action may have on their reputation. The paper investigates the question of when advertising can serve as a reliable signal of quality in a separating equilibrium.

The article examines the changes in corporate governance bodies connected with financial performance dynamics in German, Austrian and Swiss companies. The main objective of the study is to trace the causal links between financial indicators and Board’s gender composition. The paper uses the reports of European companies to determine the Board composition and financial outcomes.

Using a sample of 177 corporations and data on their Board and management composition along with financial performance indicators in 2014–2019, the authors apply regressions to determine statistically relevant relations between Board compositions and financial results. The findings show no negative effect of female representation in the Board on corporate financial performance. The study identifies a visible positive correlation between an increasing female representation in the Board and financial outcomes in real estate and manufacturing sector. Austria shows negative dependence of financial outcomes on increasing female representation in the Board, with a reverse situation in Switzerland. The results also show no correlation between the number of female directors and female managers.

Digitalization changes the nature of work and the demands for competences of a modern employee, but the speed and volume of digitalization differ by type of economic activity. In the context of existing gender differentiation on the labor market, differences in the degree of digitalization lead to the fact that male and female types of employment change differently. The aim of the article is to determine the degree and features of digitalization of «women's» and «men's» spheres of employment and draw conclusions on the prospective impact of these differences on gender inequality. Data analysis concerning current gender differentiation on the labor market, the scale of occupational digitalization and the use of information technologies for various purposes allows us to conclude that both «male» and «female» professions are highly digitalized, but the nature of the changes is different. Data on the gender distribution in the areas of employment and the degree of digitalization of these areas allow us to distinguish 3 categories of women's participation in digital economy: 1. Household use of digital technologies; 2. Digital technologies use while performing labor functions; 3. Creation of digital technologies and direct participation in digitalization. The areas of women's primary employment (health care, information and communication, finance, education) are currently the leaders in employing digital technologies, so computer technologies penetrate more intensively into the professional activities of women than in «male» professions (for example, construction). However, in software development and digital technology management, women are less represented, acting as users of technologies created mainly by men. Since creation is primary related to usage, digitalization enhances gender inequality determining the innovative role for men and the user role for women, which should be taken into account while implementing policies aimed at overcoming inequality.

In this research we investigate the ecologization process of automotive market. It is a replacement of internal combustion engine (ICE) working on oil derivatives with hybrid or electric vehicles and automobiles on methane, hydrogen or biofuel. Growing demand for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) should trigger technology and infrastructure development, alternative energy elaboration and more environment- friendly means of hydrogen production. Besides, AFVs expansion should be an incentive to decrease hydrocarbons dependence in automotive industry, to diminish anthropogenic influence on environment, as well as to generate eco-friendly lifestyle and driving habits. In Russia’s climate and economic conditions, expansion of methane fuel automobiles maybe a priority. At an initial stage it will insignificantly reduce greenhouse gas emission, but later on will lower particulate matters emissions and raise public awareness of AFVs.

The aim of the study is to assess the innovative potential of housing construction through determining the purchasing power of citizens acquiring housing in the property. In terms of hypothesis the study offers the term of acquiring housing in property as a criterion for this assessment. This indicator displays the change in the purchasing power of citizens under the influence of various externalities. The analysis of this indicator allows us to determine the influence of these factors on the change in the purchasing power of population, to identify the reserves that contribute to its increase, and to identify the policies aimed at innovative development of construction industry. The article assesses the innovative development of housing through an in-depth analysis of factors affecting the change in the term of housing acquisition in the Russian Federation at large, as well as in the context of individual subjects of the Central and North-Western Federal Districts of Russia in the period from 2017 to 2018.

The article addresses the problem of identification and analysis of clusters chosen for state support programs. The goal of the paper is to test the possibilities of social network analysis method as a tool to identify and evaluate the activity of clusters supported by the state. To solve this issue, the authors have chosen an aircraft cluster of the Ulyanovsk region — the Consortium «Scientific, educational and production cluster» Ulyanovsk-Avia. The cluster was analyzed using social network analysis based on information collected in the SPARK database. The authors build cluster networks, perform homogeneity calculations, and identify the central nodes. The results obtained allows us to conclude that Ulyanovsk-Avia demonstrates active ties between its companies. However, this interaction cannot be unambiguously classified as a cluster one.

This article attempts to answer the question of what determines the choice of the method to provide one or another public good. Why is one good given as a private one, another one as a club good, the third one as a purely public good, and the fourth one as a mix of different forms. In fact, this question includes the question of what the state should (and should not) do. The main part of the article presents a review of the discussion concerning the good, which played a special role in economic theory — the lighthouses. Although the classics of political economy of XIX — early XX centuries considered them as a striking example of pure public goods, the famous article by R. Coase [Coase, 1974] concludes that the services of lighthouses in England and Wales were not funded from general taxes, that is, they were not provided as public goods until the second third of XIX century. Further development of this discussion, which is still incomplete and relevant, leads to the understanding that lighthouse services are provided in different countries and/ or at different times as goods of various types. The same applies to almost any other goods. The concrete way of providing this good depends not only on the country and time, but also on how to estimate the specific offenses it provides. We conclude that there exist no private, public, etc. benefits by themselves, and a socially effective way of delivering benefits depends on the technologies and institutions available in the society.

The article considers the industry estimates of the USSR of the late socialist period contained in the works of foreign economists. Particular attention is paid to the sovietological interpretations of the state of the USSR industrial sector as well as the economic policy of Soviet leadership in generating growth of industrial production, development of the Eastern regions of the country, innovation and modernization of fixed assets. The author concludes that the studies conducted by foreign scientists make it possible to clarify the assessment of the industrial sector of the Soviet Union before Perestroika and to adjust the estimates of economic development of the USSR of the “Brezhnev Era”.