Will Environmental Regulation Narrow the Gap in Regional Economic Growth?

Empirical studies have shown that China's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law (APPCL2000), as an environmental regulation, has significantly alleviated the air pollution problem and improved the TFP of air polluting enterprises. However, few scholars have studied the regional heterogeneity of this policy. To study this issue, this manuscript introduces the "Hu Line" from the perspective of regional resource endowment differences and divides China into a resource advantage area (A area) and a resource disadvantage area (B area). Subsequently, this manuscript uses the triple difference model and big data of Chinese industrial enterprises to verify. The results show that under environmental regulations, the TFP of air polluting enterprises in B area has increased more than in A area, and the rapid decline in the proportion of low-efficiency air polluting enterprises in B area is the main mechanism. It shows that environmental regulation is beneficial to narrow the gap of regional economic growth and realize economic catch-up in resource-disadvantaged areas.

Innovations in mentoring as part of the strategy to improve the quality of talent pool for the Russian mineral and raw material sector

In contemporary Russian practices, mentoring is a multifaceted innovative 'human resource technology' aimed at developing professional skills and corporate competencies, as well as systematic and targeted participation in professional development of employees who have insufficient work experience or have difficulties in mastering new technologies and work techniques. Today, the institution of mentoring is an open industrial, educational and social space where the mentor transfers not only readymade ways to solve production problems, but also teaches how to use available intellectual and material resources. Although the mentoring process in its traditional sense does not require large financial investments, most business entities, industrial enterprises and companies are more actively using training, coaching techniques and various forms of internships, which are valuable forms of professional development of employees, but, as our research has shown, they do not have the potential that the targeted on-the-job mentoring possesses. With all the variety of forms and programmes of mentoring activities, there is a clear lack of innovative ideas aimed at improving its efficiency, which fully applies to the mentoring of students who take their work placements during vocational education, which is the subject of the research presented in this article. The literature and research studies do not fully analyse the potential of the third mission of universities regarding the issue of targeted mentoring aimed at more proactive and advanced applied training of graduates, capable of responding to "the great challenges". The article highlights the mentoring models used in foreign companies, which are similar to the types of mentoring technologies successfully implemented by Russian enterprises.

Industrial analytics – An overview

The digital transformation generates huge amounts of heterogeneous data across the industrial value chain, from simulation data in engineering, over sensor data in manufacturing to telemetry data on product use. Extracting insights from these data constitutes a critical success factor for industrial enterprises, e. g., to optimize processes and enhance product features. This is referred to as industrial analytics, i. e., data analytics for industrial value creation. Industrial analytics is an interdisciplinary subject area between data science and industrial engineering and is at the core of Industry 4.0. Yet, existing literature on industrial analytics is fragmented and specialized. To address this issue, this paper presents a holistic overview of the field of industrial analytics integrating both current research as well as industry experiences on real-world industrial analytics projects. We define key terms, describe typical use cases and discuss characteristics of industrial analytics. Moreover, we present a conceptual framework for industrial analytics that structures essential elements, e. g., data platforms and data roles. Finally, we conclude and highlight future research directions.

Management by Development of Innovative Potential of Organization

This article explores the innovation potential of the staff at industrial enterprises. The relevance of the research is confirmed by the increasing interest of companies in innovation. This manifests itself both in the changing organizational structure of enterprises and a new approach to human resource management, for instance, the revision of the key performance indicators of employees. One of the main goals of the research was determining the factors that influence the development of the innovation potential of staff and assessment of their impact. The institutional approach formed the conceptual basis of the study. It allowed the authors to consider the management of innovation potential as a special mechanism for achieving sustainability, stable development of an enterprise, and its strategic success in general. The authors established that organizational and administrative factors have the greatest influence on the formation and development of the innovation potential of staff, while the constraining factors are the lack of an innovative strategy, authoritarian management style, and bureaucratization. Studying the techniques aimed at the development of staff’s innovation potential, the authors concluded that the most effective ones for industrial enterprises are consultations of subject matter specialists. A significant novelty of this work is the model of interaction of participants in the innovation process developed by the authors. The research findings enabled the authors to devise recommendations for the formation and development of the innovation potential of the company’s employees.

Critical analysis of factors determining sustainable development of territories in a strategic perspective

The main interpretations of terms, development trends, foreign and domestic experience within the concept of sustainable development of territories have been considered. The importance of cooperative interaction and cooperation between actors in the same area in the context of existing constraints, barriers and opportunities for the deployment of the processes under consideration, has been confirmed. A statistical comparative analysis of the dynamics of changing trends in the interaction between research organisations and industrial enterprises of the regions has been carried out in comparison with Russian and global trends. The interrelationships between the key factors relating to financial support processes, infrastructure capacity and the research and education component have been revealed and their impact on territorial development has been highlighted. Scientific research methods such as analysis and generalization and correlation analysis were used within the framework of the article.

Spatial Pattern of the Vitality of Chinese Characteristic Towns: A Perspective from Nighttime Lights

Nighttime light images are valuable indicators of regional economic development, and nighttime light data are now widely used in town monitoring and evaluation studies. Using the nighttime light data acquired through Luojia1-01 and the geographic information system spatial analysis method, this study analyzed the spatial vitality pattern of 402 characteristic towns in six geographic divisions of China. The average DN (Digital Number) value of Guzhen, having the highest vitality level, was 0.05665221, whereas that of Xin’an, having the lowest vitality level, was 0.00000186. A total of 89.5% of towns have a low level of vitality. The regional differences were significant; high vitality towns are concentrated in economically developed coastal areas, mainly in two large regions of east China and south central. The average lighting densities of the towns in east China and south central were 0.004838 and 0.003190, respectively. The lighting density of the towns in west central was low, and the vitality intensity was generally low. A spatially significant positive correlation of small-town vitality was observed, and “high–high” agglomeration was primarily distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Fujian coastal areas in east and south China. The towns with high vitality intensity had similarities in their geographical location, convenient transportation conditions, and profound historical heritage or cultural accumulation along with many industrial enterprises. This research empirically demonstrates the feasibility of using the 130-m-high resolution of the nighttime lighting data of Luojia1-01 to evaluate the vitality at the town scale, and the vitality evaluation focuses on the spatial attributes of the town, which is meaningful to guide the development of the town in each region given the vast area of China and the large differences in the development of different regions.

Managing the industrial enterprises development in ecosystem interaction

The article considers a new approach to managing the development of enterprises operating in a period of digital transformations and ecosystem interaction. The concepts of sustainability and development in an economic context have been analysed. The author’s interpretation of the concept of sustainable development has been outlined and the factors that ensure the development and sustainability of enterprises have been identified. The benefits and limitations of sustainable development management, and the specific of data analysis in the digital ecosystem of the industrial enterprise as a component of sustainability and security of actors, have been defined. The components of a sustainable development framework have been identified and the effects obtained at the ecosystem level of interaction have been highlighted. Guidelines for new management approaches to the organisation of modern business processes and management decisions have been given.

Regional Development: New Challenges for Engineering Education (SYNERGY-2021 Conference Results Review)

The article summarizes the results of the plenary session of the international network conference “Regional development: new challenges for engineering education – SYNERGY-2021”, held at Kazan National Research Technological University from October 19 to 20, 2021. The forum which brought together representatives of universities and industrial enterprises of Russia and abroad was devoted to the issue of training engineers for the petrochemical industry. Among the participants were representatives of international societies for engineering education, ten national research universities and seven supporting universities of PJSC Gazprom, state authorities and industrial enterprises of Tatarstan. It was possible to observe the work of the plenary session in real time via the Internet in all the supporting universities of Gazprom. The event was organized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP), the Association of Engineering Education of Russia (AIOR), as well as the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan and Kazan National Research Technological University. Gazprom PJSC became the general sponsor. In total, the conference gathered more than 450 participants (380 online and 85 in person) from 40 universities in Russia, the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Latvia, and Estonia. Representatives of 7 industrial enterprises spoke, 77 reports were made.