Socio-technological system of sharing economy

Sharing economy is a system which functions successfully provided that technological and social subsystems complement each other forming an indivisibly combined cohesive structure. The premise of balancing social and technological aspects is proposed in the socio-technological theory. Social issues call for social innovation to fulfil the needs and requirements of the society as well as individual citizens. The goal of this paper is to fill the gap in the extant literature by proposing a comprehensive framework of sharing economy based on the socio-technological theory. This study carried out a systematic literature review of works on sharing economy and socio-technological theory in order to develop a conceptual framework. There were identified different social motives associated with each of the subsystems; interplay between them was established. This study contributes to the increasing research by presenting a holistic view of sharing economy through the theoretical lens of socio-technology keeping society as well as consumer needs and requirements at its focal point.

Ensuring the right to education by state university’s funding programs

In the article "Unity of the system of state universities in today’s Russia", published in August 2020, it was proved that the constitutional right to education implies the need to support not only the leading universities of the country with the help of "academic leadership" programs, but all universities established by the state. Firstly, the creation of a university by the state presupposes responsibility on the part of the state as the founder for ensuring the conditions of its activity; secondly, students of all state universities equally have the right to demand from the state the creation of conditions for obtaining high-quality and modern education. In the development of the concept of unity of the higher education system, this article discusses specific practical steps to implement the approaches indicated in the article in terms of the use of public resources. The authors formulated a number of proposals regarding the state policy in the field of science and higher education in relation to the distribution of financial resources and other resources between institutions of higher education, and also proposed specific measures for their implementation, described by examples from practice.

Influence of collaborations with visual art on luxury brand identity: Pilot study

The article examines the collaborations of luxury brands with visual arts and its impact on the ingredients of brand identity using the example of Louis Vuitton. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of collaborations with visual art on luxury brand identity and find out what elements of identity are enhanced by collaborations. An online survey was conducted among luxury brand consumers. Both closed and open questions were included in the questionnaire. Totally 443 responses were received, and 295 of them were included in a representative sample of the study. The Louis Vuitton brand which systematically uses the collaborations with visual art and is one of the leaders in the application of brand artification was selected for this study. In the paper the main attention is focused on the Louis Vuitton products from the limited collections with the designs created in collaboration with the Japanese artists Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama, and the American artist Jeff Koons. The modification in the Louis Vuitton brand identity caused by the collaborations was estimated on the basis of the Kapferer’s brand identity prism elements: physique, personality, culture, relationship, self-image, reflection. In accordance with the Kapferer’s brand identity prism, six hypotheses were formulated where three of them were fully confirmed and one hypothesis is partially verified. The research has demonstrated that the art collaborations with visual art enhance the intangible elements of the luxury brand identity — personality, culture and relationships but do not augment physique and self-image. This study has shown a partial impact of visual art collaboration on the luxury brand identity, however, the authors have not estimated the influence of other forms of art, for example, music. The impact of the other forms of arts may be considered in further research.

Human resource management in times of crises 2008–2009 and 2020–2021: Comparative analysis

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of human resource management (HRM) in the context of the crises (2008–2009 and 2020–2021). A review of secondary sources on HRM during both crises revealed five HRM practices necessary to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the organization and its employees: optimization of the organization's work; maintaining transparency of communications between employees; recruiting; training and development; retention and motivation. The implementation of these practices was considered for each of the crises and a comparative analysis was done. The study showed that HRM has been transformed: the key features of HRM in the crisis of 2008–2009 was a decrease in personnel costs, while in the crisis of 2020–2021 the main issue for HRM was the transfer of employees to a remote work, the introduction of digital technologies to maintain the functioning of all business processes, actions aimed to combat the stress of employees and to maintain their well-being as well as physical and psychological health. The scientific novelty lies in the comparative analysis of HRM in Russian companies during the crises of 2008–2009 and 2020–2021 and identifying aspects of HRM transformation over this period. The results of this study can be used by modern organizations as an agenda to improve the effectiveness of HRM practices during a crisis as well as to plan further HRM development, and prepare a crisis management plan.

Stakeholder analysis as a tool for improving strategic planning of the urban environment

Contemporary urban governance increasingly involves the participation of various groups of stakeholders in the strategic planning and development of urban environment. Coordination of actions of city authorities and stakeholders becomes one of the most important issues of the governmental effectiveness, while the search for interested groups and cooperation with them is an important direction of both research and governmental activities. In this study, we aim to identify stakeholders in smart city development process and test the effectiveness of the stakeholderanalysis method as a tool for improving strategic planning of the urban environment, using the case of Moscow. We demonstrate how the use of the tools of social network analysis allows to focus strategic documents on stakeholder groups that play an important role in the development of the city, although not an obvious one. The object of empirical study is social relations between the main stakeholders of urban environment that influence strategic management. We use the centrality measures analysis to identify the main stakeholders that have the strongest and weakest impact on the development of a smart city of Moscow, and the edge betweenness method to identify the existing communities of urban actors. The paper discusses the problems of communication strategizing in large cities, and also concludes that the use of stakeholder analysis in the context of the urban environment can improve the quality of strategy development and implementation.

Factors of the fintech market development in the global economy (the case of the alternative lending)

Alternative lending is one of the largest segments of the financial technology market in the world which is represented by online platforms specializing in organizing the lending process. The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of key factors on the dynamics of venture capital investments in alternative lending platforms. The objectives of this study are to define the concept of alternative lending, build an econometric model to analyze the factors of development of alternative lending in the world, and interpret the results from the point of view of the prospects for the development of alternative lending. Alternative lending has been defined as a segment of the fintech market that can be characterized as parallel financing of economic activities based on digital platforms through the provision of syndicated loans after decentralized business models. To test the hypotheses of the study, an econometric model was built on the analysis of 5,234 investment transactions completed in the period from 2013 to 2019 in 35 countries of the world and included in the CrunchBase database. According to the model, such factors as the availability of venture capital, the number of workforce, the digital competitiveness of the economy (the factor of future readiness), and the availability of credit information have a significant impact on the dynamics of direct and venture capital investments in alternative lending companies. The obtained results can be considered when improving the national strategy for regulating the alternative lending market, which is especially important for Russia, where the segment of alternative lending is at the stage of stagnation.

Development of regional market of corporate voluntary health insurance: The case of St. Petersburg

The paper discusses a pilot study aimed to identify the factors of development of the regional market for corporate voluntary health insurance in St. Petersburg during the period from 2015 to 2018. Based on the review of scientific works of Russian and foreign authors as well as the analysis of international experience, the key factors influencing the functioning of the corporate voluntary health insurance market are identified including the economic development of the region, demographic situation, changes in the labor market, accessibility of medical care, and personal characteristics of the insured. The results of quantitative modeling showed that the development of the corporate voluntary health insurance market in St. Petersburg is influenced by the factors related to the economic well-being of the region and the state of labor market. Such factors as the average per capita income of the population, the unemployment rate as well as the index of prices and tariffs for paid medical services turned out to be significant. In addition, a qualitative analysis of the demand for corporate voluntary health insurance was carried out. The analysis of a structured survey Russian and international companies managers proved the following assumptions: voluntary health insurance policies are more often offered to employees of large and medium-sized organizations operating mainly in Moscow and the Moscow region compared to companies whose main number of employees work in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region; international companies are more likely to provide voluntary health insurance policies to their employees than Russian ones. The study offers practical recommendations to stakeholders — the authorities, insurers and employers.

Nation brand and competitiveness of companies: Alternative approach to nation branding

The purpose of this study is to identify factors by which the nation brand builds a competitive advantage for various activities implemented in the country and to develop an alternative approach to nation branding, which allows to increase the competitiveness of companies operating in the country. The analysis of the previous research reveals that the nation brand image is formed by nation branding, which is aimed to communicate the nation brand identity. It is also determined that during the implementation of nation branding, three types of gaps can take place between nation brand image and identity and prevent the formation of competitive advantages. The research intended to identify the factors that form competitive advantages through the nation branding was performed in two steps: first, the analysis of the main approaches to nation branding on what forms a competitive advantage and then the identification of the factors based on the analysis of the functions and goals of nation branding. In addition to political, socio-cultural, and geographical factors, the research reveals the following factors: communication, uniqueness, relevance, management, and brand unity. With consideration to identified factors and the information about gaps, there was developed an alternative approach to nation branding with the goal to enhance the competitiveness of companies operating in the country. 11 characteristics underlying the alternative approach were defined. The significant role of the national priorities of the country in the formation of the nation brand is emphasized. In the framework of an alternative approach, nation brand education is marked as a key task of nation branding. The team which is responsible for nation branding will trains representatives of different fields of the state activities how to use the nation brand in order to enhance competitiveness.

Small and medium enterprises in public procurement: Factors affecting the decisions of public bodies

The study assesses factors influencing public bodies’decisions to conduct purchases with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Mechanisms supporting SMEs are enshrined in the laws governing the system of state and state-corporate procurement in Russia and are mandatory for Russian contracting authorities. The inclusion of these mechanisms in the public procurement legislation implies their direct (explicit) impact, which applies equally to all regulated organizations. However, despite some similarities in the mechanisms for supporting SMEs in the laws on public procurement (both laws dictate to conduct set-aside procedures for SMEs), the frequency of procurement with SMEs participation differs between 44 FL and 223 FL. The study revealed that the choice of contracting authorities is influenced by the type of law, the position in the public power hierarchy, and the form of ownership of the organisation. The decision to purchase from SMEs is also related to the subject of the procurement and the method of identifying a supplier. The results of the study demonstrate heterogeneity in the behaviour of contracting authorities when purchasing from SMEs and explain the reasons of heterogeneity by differences in the regulatory pressure.

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”? The influence of dark triad personality traits on formation of entrepreneurial intentions

This article examines the influence of the “dark triad” personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy — on the development of entrepreneurial intentions through the prism of the theory of planned behavior. The theory explains entrepreneurial intentions formation trough emergence and development of the attitude towards entrepreneurship, relevant subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These personality traits are considered in the study in their non-clinical manifestations. The proposed theoretical model has been tested on a sample of 191 students and graduates from 13 Russian universities. The empirical data were collected through an online survey. The analysis was carried out with OLS estimation. To assess the mediation effects, the PROCESS macro for the SPSS data analysis package was employed. The study identifies the key role of narcissism as an antecedent of intention to start one’s own business, while the main element of the theory of planned behavior mediating psychological effects is the attitude towards entrepreneurship. In addition, a negative relationship between psychopathy and subjective norms as well as perceived behavioral control has been established. With this study, we contribute to the theory of personality traits in the context of entrepreneurship and expand knowledge about the role of negatively perceived individual psychological characteristics in the entrepreneurial process. In addition, this work details the theory of planned behavior in terms of identifying possible antecedents of attitudes towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The results of this study can be used by entrepreneurship educators, especially in courses and trainings on the psychology of entrepreneurship.