Leadership for the Future Sustainable Development of Business and Education

Leadership (social, economic, and academic) is becoming a key element for the future sustainable development of business and education in the quickly globalizing world. This contribution contemplates on the origins and the sources of leadership and the essence of leadership both as the concept and the academic definition. We analyze the results of the debates, roundtables, and expert discussion in which the contributors examine the perspectives of leadership from the point of view of social sciences, business and economics, strategic and cross-cultural management, as well as educational and public policies. With a particular focus on the business and economic models, as well as economic theory and social sciences, we examine various aspects and ideas of leadership from the point of view of academic experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Overall, it becomes clear that leadership is a very complex concept and phenomenon that might be viewed and should be studied in the multidimensional and multi-angle perspective.

The leader is a key figure whose aspects of activity are studied from various standpoints: the social one, also covering the legal aspect, the economic one, the cultural one, and others. The versatility of the company leader’s status studying points at the relation and mutual influence of each of the aspects. This research analyzes the legal aspect of the company leader’s status that has a tremendous influence first of all on the company’ economic activity. The objective of the research is to give ground for a clear system of leadership in organizations from the legal standpoints. Both Russian and international laws and regulations and special literature have been analyzed, which has allowed making certain conclusions about the organization leadership problems existing and ways for solving them. First, this is recognizing the fact of two leaders available in an organization who have different rights and opposite interests: the head of the organization and the head of the primary trade-union organization. However, the organization has to have only one leader, both actually and under the law – its manager. Second, the minor quantity of trade-union leaders gives evidence about a low level of trust for them, poorly developed legislation about liability for violation of rights, and a certain extent of intervention from the state. Third, in order to implement the principle of independence for trade unions and their leaders, the system of organization and activity of the trade unions has to be changed, with the primary trade union to be brought beyond one organization and transformed into a branch or professional trade union at the municipality level. This will have a positive influence on economic activity of the organization, the head of which will exercise his coercive powers of a leader in reality.

In the paper presented, the questions of the general condition of the Russian youth as a special social and demographic group are posed, and the main features that are inherent in the young people and influence the social activity are identified. The technique used in the research is of a holistic nature and integrated approach; it includes the general, general-scientific, and specific methods: the activity-based one, the institutional one, the social and cultural one, the systemic one, and the interdisciplinary approach to analyzing the phenomenon of leadership. As a result of an in-depth analysis of the youth leadership phenomenon, the authors have made more precise the notion of youth leadership in the structures of state and municipal administration from the standpoints of the institutional and social and cultural approaches. The conclusion is made that youth leadership can be legitimated based on the interaction of youth, its leaders, and the power institutions by developing the promising forms of organized social activity of the young people (youth forums, volunteering).

The research focuses on the analysis of social marketing communicative tools used for positioning and promotion of products manufactured by sports brands Puma, Reebok, and Adidas Originals. Sportswear and equipment are connected with sports, being a system of social values. That is why PR and advertisement specialists pay much of their attention to the resources of social marketing, which allow combining commercial goals with socially oriented activities, thus decreasing a critical perception of brand positioning materials. The authors research genre specificity of sports brands’ accounts on Facebook to define the correlation of advertising and phatic genres of social support, aimed at broadcasting socially important priorities and guidelines. The research is carried out in the frameworks of communicative-pragmatic approach; the methodology used includes the methods of discourse analysis, linguistic description, and intent analysis. According to the results of the analysis, socially oriented messages posted on sports brands’ Facebook accounts amount to one third of all uploaded messages. It helps the companies to promote not only their products but also some socially important values, such as healthy lifestyle, a way in which people should perceive their bodies, themselves, and the whole world around them. The main trend of positioning activities on Facebook is hybridization of the genres used, which consists in combining advertising and socially oriented genres. It helps to camouflage the advertising message, making its manipulative character more obscure. As the result of such communication policy, social networks’ users become a sort of advertising agents distributing information about the company and its products.

In today’s world, the problem of le adership, primarily academic one, is highly relevant. Natural and social disruptions contribute to declining demographic indices of any country, while people make up one of the most important resources of the society. The problem of influence on the behavior of the community members and groups therefore becomes particularly relevant. Social transformations, primarily, are the processes of globalization. The globalization of the world means a process of worldwide economic, political, and cultural integration and unification. As a result of globalization, the world becomes more interconnected and more dependent on all its subjects. And at the same time, social group sovereignization processes are taking place. Globally, the examples are such processes as Brexit in Europe and republics striving for sovereignty in Russia in the last decade of the twentieth century, while personally, it is manifested in the need for self-actualization. The purpose of this article is to identify theoretical aspects of academic leadership in contemporary Russia. On the basis of social and philosophical approach to the issue under study, we conclude that in the context of the world community globalization and regionalization controversy, people and groups who can influence on others (for various reasons) become particularly important. These are, first of all, scientific and educational communities, as well as their charismatic leaders.

The article deals with one of the most popular theories of leadership – the theory of emotional leadership by Daniel Goleman. It reveals the essence of the concepts: “emotional intelligence” and “emotional competence”; it indicates the presence of correlation between the level of managers’ emotional intelligence and their businesses performance. The article considers the specific features of emotional leadership of various styles (resonant, dissonant, demagogue, and ignorant). The article is based on the real-world examples, which confirm the fact that in modern organizations leaders can be strongly marked by the representation of one of the abovementioned styles of emotional leadership or have the features of, for example, a resonant, dissonant, and demagogue leader representing a mixed style of emotional leadership. It proves that emotional competence is an important competence for a modern leader. It also describes the dependence of corporate climate on the leader’s behavior and actions. The article as well points to the link between the systematic hostility of the corporate leader and the increase in emotional tension among employees, often resulting in the accumulation of negative emotions and deterioration in the employees’ psychological health, which in turn affect the results of their activities.

Leadership as a scientific problem has received a wide coverage in scientific researches; however, the interdependence of the leadership and the moral authority needs further development. The idea of the possibility to attract as representatives of other cultures and the Eastern States in general only through the persuasion and the moral authority was presented in the arguments of E.E. Ukhtomsky. Moral aspects play a determinant role in the organization of the social system as in Buddhism and Confucianism. That’s why Ukhtomsky’s ideas of “vostochnichestvo” with a total apparent idealization of them actually had a real basis. Eastern value systems suggest the possibility of the leadership through the achievement of the moral authority. That is, the moral authority allows you to not only avoid conflicts, especially at the household level, but also to win the sympathy and respect in interstate and intercultural relationships. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to these problems in the education of youth in the modern Russian society and state propaganda.

The present review is an investigation of the ways in which public addresses of outstanding country leaders are analyzed by modern Russian and English-speaking linguists. Our analysis covers the time period between 2012 and 2017 and includes the review of scientific publications from peer-reviewed linguistic journals which have public speeches of presidents as their core subject of study. For our search we use such widely acknowledged online databases as Google Scholar, Web of Science, and e-library. An attempt is made to identify the major trends and key issues in these latest publications, followed by proposing suggestions for further international comparative research in this field. As we demonstrate in this review, political discourse and, specifically, the language of public addresses of American and Russian presidents have been thoroughly analyzed on multiple levels and according to different criteria over the last half-decade, but further analysis in this field still remains extremely relevant. Our paper contributes to the body of knowledge on this topic in two ways. Firstly, the literature is reviewed in order to provide an overview of the key characteristics in the public addresses of outstanding world politicians that scholars choose to analyze, as well as the levels of analysis (we divide all publications into four major streams). Secondly, possible future directions of research are identified in order to stimulate progress in this important area of study.

Due to the increased influence of knowledge on society, higher educational universities seek to transform through new leadership paradigms drawing on the learning, teaching, and research undertakings across all segments of academic communities. The paper concentrates on the necessity to shift the leadership focus from top-down to down-to-top propagation of leadership initiatives. The authors give weight to educational agents for leadership impact and emphasize university teachers’ capacity to transform fundamental knowledge into practical knowledge and then apply it to create new knowledge. The authors provide empirical insights into the ways of enhancing research activity through leadership transformations in the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. The paper suggests a new perspective on change leadership initiation and invites further research on its tangible embodiment.

Our paper suggests a new method of assessing income inequality which also allows estimating the contribution of each income decile group to the formation of shadow income. The authors identified the share of shadow incomes of individual population groups in its overall distribution with the assumption that the decile shadow income distribution corresponds to the structure of total expenditure breakdown by the respective population group. The paper normalises the expenditure structure and the availability of individual benefits on the basis of available data (official surveys of expenditure structure, self-assessment of household property and income) taking into account only those types of income and expenditure that have the most obvious signs of positive or negative impact on the opportunities of participation in the underground (or shadow) relations. The authors’ approach revealed significant differences in the estimates of the participation of different decile groups in the real income distribution, particularly in Ukraine, the Gini coefficient, as determined by official data, did not exceed 0.227 in 2015, adjusted by the income distribution indicators – from 0.248 to 0.266 depending on the source of data on the population inequality; a similar difference in the decile dispersion ratio was 4.5 versus 5.24–6.06. Thus, there is strong evidence that such differences should to be taken into account in analysing the real inequality of income distribution while choosing social policy alternatives.

Most economic studies regard periphery as something that has remained beyond development. Its role in the economy is reduced to serving as a resource base for a center represented by a set of more developed territories and a consumer of its products. In reality, the diversity of periphery’s participation in economic life often leads to the fact that it leaves the existing centers behind and takes their place instead. The article considers theoretical views on changing the position of peripheral territories in the “center-periphery” relations and turning them from outsiders into leaders. A system of indicators is presented, which can be used to assess the location of the territory in the “center-periphery” system. The center-peripheral processes in modern Russia are considered. Regions related to the center, semi-periphery, and periphery are identified. Taking subjects of the Russian Federation as an example, it is shown how peripheral regions became leaders and the centers became outsiders of economic development. A forecast of changes in the “center-periphery” system in Russia is made. The recommendations for the authorities on managing the country’s spatial development have been developed. The study is divided into three parts. The first part, theoretical, presents a brief overview of the scientific discussion on the periphery of territories and the interpretation of the concept of “peripheral region.” In the methodological part of the study, the authors develop a system of indicators for assessing the location of the territory in the “center-periphery” system; central and peripheral subjects of the Russian Federation are defined. The final, applied, part of the study contains recommendations for the authorities on managing the spatial development of the country.

The subject of the research is leadership in enterprise as a new phenomenon in the contemporary business world of Primorsky Region that is especially important for accelerated development of the Far East in the process of Russia’s integration into the Asia-Pacific Region. The theoretical basis and methodological approaches reflecting the standpoints of the modern historical knowledge concerning the research subject have been proposed. The scientific novelty of this work is determined by the results and conclusions on the specific features of the human factor in business of the border region that put forward a number of bright, talented organizers, which makes it possible to scientifically consider the problems of leadership in Primorsky Region, the most advanced region of the Russian Far East. For the first time, the current archives of the most successful business firms of various levels have been studied, typology and classification of their spheres of activity have been developed, and evaluation criteria have been determined for identifying the leaders.

The objective of the paper consists in forecasting further prospects of evolution of the Russian public administration system through the lens of the power relations that have formed in the country, in particular, the syncretism of power, property, and administration. The method of studying the problem is based on the theory of institutional matrices that was given ground in the works of Polanyi (1977, The livelihood of man (studies in social discontinuity). Academic, New York), North (1979, Explor Econ Hist 16:249–259; 1981, Structure and change in economic history. Northon, New York) and kirdina (1998, Russian sociology today. Institute of Sociology, Moscow). The results of the research reflect the main trends of the Russian public administration system that have become more pronounced against the background of aggravated economic crisis under the sanctions policy adopted by the leading Western countries. In conclusion it is pointed out that the stage of governmentalization of the economic and political sphere of the Russian society is close to its limit, so for increasing the efficiency of administration in the strategic prospect, the institutional management practices have to be introduced that are oriented to rendering the power non-sacral and rationalized in the interests of the civil society.

The article is aimed at revealing peculiarities of Russian journalism institutions as unique scientific and educational schools within polycentric paradigm of analysis. In this paradigm, differently appears the problem of leadership which is usually considered in one-centric coordinate system. Authors make comparison of scientific and educational schools in Russia and abroad and describe the main national traditions in journalism studies and teaching. The analysis shows that the Russian educational school has a long history, an extensive structure of institutions, and deep roots in the theory. It seems especially important that academia meets support in professional ideology and the current practice of the journalistic community. The last conclusion was done on the data of nationwide survey on the journalists’ representations on the profession and the professional community. The civilizational-cultural approach to journalism education, which is in use in the article, denies the center-peripheries hierarchy in the worldwide interaction and promotes the real internationalization and exchange of useful experience between countries.

The relevance of the research depends on the growing demand in social work specialists, initiative, and enterprising leaders as well as rising prestige of this profession in the society. In the article a special stress is put on revealing the obstacles for professional and personal growth and efficient functioning of social workers and leaders in different social service organizations. The research is based on the structural, functional, and interaction approaches that allow comprehensive analysis of the functions of social worker and leaders’ activities and behavior. The facts have been given to confirm the bureaucratization of the social service system in Russia. It is stated that nonprofit organizations provide a good ground for leaders’ promotion. The article is of practical value for social service administrators, social work specialists, and students.

The objective of the work was to find out any changes in the processes of migration in the subjects of Russia’s Far East and the priority level of the regional authorities’ actions for adapting and integrating migrants within the context of sustainable development of the receiving community. The objective has been conditioned using the qualitative method of the research – the expert survey of representatives of the state authorities and the public in nine regions of Russia’s Far East. In the paper, evaluation of dynamics of change of such important indicators of migration as ethnic identity, cultural assimilation, professional qualification of migrants, and the migrants’ knowledge of the Russian language is shown against the background of evaluating the integration capacity of the receiving community. As a result, the research gives evidence of a high level of multinational (interethnic) solidarity and tolerance maintained in the receiving community of the regions of Russia’s Far East, although the positive migrants’ quality growth is low. It has been found out that citizens of the Far Eastern regions feature a weak level of readiness for integration yet it is higher than that of the migrants. The high growth of ethnic identity of the external migrants introduces tension into the condition of multinational relations and tolerance. In spite of the trends revealed, the questions of managing the migrants’ adaptation are reported by representatives of both the regional authorities and the public as not high-priority ones for regional authorities of the subjects of Russia in the Far East. Special reinforcement for managing the questions of the migrants’ adaptation and integration is necessary in regions having a high external migration level.

The paper deals with the concept of leadership developed through informal learning as an object of scientific scrutiny in Great Britain and Russian Federation. The relevance of the study is to create awareness of the scope and character of existing research on informal leadership education within the framework of community development specific to both countries. The article aims at providing quantitative analysis of the British and Russian researchers’ publications on the issue and covers the papers available in ProQuest and the Russian State Library databases. The method of content analysis is used to obtain the data that give ground for further comparative interpretation. The dynamics of publication activity is being analysed chronologically, and the thematic fields are being specified for the research carried out in the countries under consideration. The findings of the study highlight the gaps in understanding of the phenomena and help identify opportunities for best practices promulgating.

The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of political leadership from the standpoint of morality and the dominant model of the political system in the developed countries of the world. Leadership is a necessary element of the management system of any organized human activity. The leader is the head of the team aimed at fulfilling the common goal. If the goal is directly related to the interests of society as a whole, then such a leader is a political leader. Political leadership becomes possible only if a person expresses the interests of certain groups (segments) of society. But since there is no unity of interests in the society, the leader has a risk of political leadership. Leaders often succeed each other in the course of an acute political struggle due to the organization of the country’s political system. Therefore, no continuity of their political goals is usually possible. The only exception is the political organization of the society in which the leader has the opportunity to remain in office for a period of 10–20 years. The realization of really meaningful social goals is possible only at such terms measured by the life expectancy of generations of people. Short-term performance of the political leader is a political reason for the fact that society develops spontaneously and randomly. Only the long-term functioning of the leader or the continuity of the political goals of successive leaders is the political basis for such social development when society itself manages its development.

This paper analyzes the global and local factors of constitutional operation and development of local communities and their leadership positions in the context of regional development. The authors prove that in the terms of formation and development of legal democratic state, the role and importance of collective rights that arise and operate on the territory of acquiring and creating its own legal status are growing which include territorial communities and residents of the respective areas – community. Its role is particularly evident in decentralized public authorities when local communities as primary subjects begin to act as local government, on the one hand, constitutional role as the phenomenon of local democracy and on the other – institutional role as an essential element of civil society. However, in the process of economic, political, and legal globalization, and especially in international interstate integration, they also begin to play a relevant international legal role and to acquire appropriate signs of international legal personality. In these circumstances, they form legal environment for their existence and their activity turns into an object of international legal regulation.

The purpose of the article is to present the results of the study, which included analysis of the peculiarities of implementing the strategy of leadership on the costs of the activities of Russian medical companies in the field of laboratory diagnosis. The urgency of the study is due to the need to find ways to improve the efficiency of healthcare in Russia. During the study, methods of comparative and statistical analysis were used. The study involved several stages. Firstly, the condition of the market for laboratory diagnostic research was studied. At the second stage, the structure of expenses for laboratory diagnostics and the formation of the cost of research by different types of laboratories were studied. At the third stage, the strategies inherent in these types of laboratories were considered. The result of the study was the consideration of the economic effect for the health system from the implementation of the strategy of leadership on the costs of medical companies in the field of laboratory diagnosis. Our study might as well be of a special interest for healthcare economy professionals.

This article reviews the empirical literature on leadership, charisma, and personality of the charismatic leader. Knowledge from the professional literature about leadership mostly talk about what a leader should be like or his personality traits and describe the different leadership styles and types of leadership. Leadership is a real phenomenon, which is about the performance of teams, groups, and organizations. Good leadership then promotes effective team and group performance; on the other side, bad leadership degrades the quality of life for whole team, practically for everyone associated with it. Personality and especially then charisma predict leadership, it means how we are able to lead, and this information can be used to select or to educate good future leaders or improve the performance of current incumbents.

The paper examines the impact of various factors on regional economic growth and the development of various countries in the long-term period. During the research, the system approach, the structural-functional method, the formalization method, the method of scientific abstraction, and the methods of stochastic modeling of economic activity, including correlation-regression analysis, were used. The basic factors of economic development of regions and increase of their competitiveness (such as financing of education and investments in research and development) are considered. Correlation-regression analysis of ten factors influencing the index of human development was carried out to identify the reasons for the uneven economic development of the regions. The studied countries were divided into four clusters according to the degree of influence of the investigated parameters. The regression equations for each cluster are constructed, and the features characterizing each cluster are revealed. The results of the analysis of the factors included in the model confirm that the level of the country’s competitiveness in a globalizing world is determined not only by the level of development of the economy but also by the competitiveness of the education system. The directions of the development of the system of higher education are proposed in order to strengthen innovative processes at universities and the formation of creative cadres for the country’s economy.

The objective of the work is to analyze the phenomenon of leadership potential in small and medium business companies and to identify its social components. The authors believe the problem is neglected in Russia. As a result, Russia has little experience in the sphere of leadership potential development. It is on the correct understanding of leadership potential components that making the relevant managerial decisions in a company depends to a large extent, which in its turn determines the company’s focus, growth rates, stability, and competitiveness. The topic of leadership is becoming increasingly popular in economics, as one of the paramount features of a successful company is the presence of a leader standing at the head of the company. As the research methods, the analysis of secondary research data is used and so is the data of sociological survey conducted by the authors in 2016 as a case study of company N where an important place is occupied by such leadership skills components as intellectual capacities, an ability to set goals, communicative and organizer capacities, an ability to act under risk, and the personal qualities that are essential for certain situations. During the studies, the authors succeeded at finding out the structure of personality of the company’s employees having the leadership potential. The results obtained in the work can be used as a basis for working out a system of actions aimed at the development of leadership potential in a company.

At present new financial mechanisms of interaction of wage labourers and employers are formed and improved in Russia in market relations situation. A determinative of productivity of labourers’ activity is their financial motivation and stimulation. A determinative of productivity of enterprises activity is remuneration efficiency as a base of labourers’ financial motivation and stimulation. Remuneration system as a leading motivational mechanism has been considered in the article. The remuneration is a flexible element of distributive relations, and it is impossible to create an effective motivational mechanism without the establishment of its communication with end results. A number of new indexes of an estimation of remuneration efficiency have been submitted for consideration in the article. These indexes of efficiency of wages fund use are based on such base indexes as wage ratio and yield of wage. The approbation of the proposed indexes has been carried out on the example of Russian regional dairy cluster.

The particularities of building the models for actuarial services in Russia have been considered for the purposes of optimizing the business of insurance companies, with evaluation and forecast of numerous statistical factors against regional differentiation taken into account. In order to economically justify the insurance company’s creation of a reserve fund for each personal life insurance contract, in the paper, an economic and mathematical model of calculation of the insurance contract cost is suggested that implies payment of insurance to a surviving spouse in the case of the other’s death before the spouse’s retirement age. The expression for the lump-sum net rate for such contracts has been obtained that depends on the interest rate, age of spouses, their remaining time to retirement, mortality rates, and maximum permissible ages. The calculations performed allow determining the rate of reduced redemption insurance sums, which enables insurance companies to adjust the insurance installments as soon as terms and conditions of life insurance contracts are amended. The suggested technique of calculation of insurance rates ensures the sustainable development of the insurance company in the market of insurance services, enhances its competitiveness, and provides for its achieving the leading positions in the segment of individual contracts of personal insurance. In the work, the actuarial insurance rate calculation technique is applied, using the methods of the theory of probabilities and mathematical statistics, as well as simulation modeling methods.

Our paper considers the peculiarities of personal voluntary pension insurance in the Russian Federation taking into account the regional specifics of its subjects. To assess the adequacy of the obligations of the insurance company, we construct an economic-mathematical model of personal joint insurance of several participants in the conditions of the national insurance system. Actuarial calculations are based on the study of financial schemes, taking into account the stochastic nature of insured events. Apart from the accidental component, the actuarial contract is a financial instrument where the invested money is invested to generate income. This study examines the duration of the contract for lifelong maintenance of partners (spouses) on the conditions of inheritance of their property. Inheritance rights arise at the time of the death of the second partner (spouse). The average lifetime of the contract of lifelong maintenance, concluded with partners (spouses) and allowing optimizing the conduct of insurance business, is calculated. The analytical expression is obtained for the mathematical expectation and variance of the validity of the contract. When performing the calculation, the actuarial method of computing insurance tariffs is used alongside the methods of probability theory, mathematical statistics, and simulation modeling.

Modern economic literature often raises questions about the state and problems of budget planning in certain regions of the Russian Federation, the introduction of new nationwide innovations into the budget planning of regions, and the update of budget legislation. It is worth studying the specifics of budget planning in certain groups of subjects of the Russian Federation, primarily in the regions-leaders and regions-outsiders in the context of the duality of budget planning in a federal state. The article presents the results of the analysis of the budget planning system in the regions-leaders and regions-outsiders of Russia in terms of social and economic development of the territories. It is proved that socioeconomic leadership of the region, first of all, affects the volume of inter-budgetary transfers from the federal budget in the form of subsidies. Subsidies from the federal budget can be received by a regions-leader on a smaller spectrum of directions than the regions-outsider, but with a certain interest of the federal center in the accelerated development of the regions-leaders, the situation can be the opposite. It is described that the leadership of the region in the economic space of the Russian Federation also influences the system of budget planning in terms of assessing the volume of tax revenues to the regional budget.

In modern conditions of global market transformations, the change of technological state of Ukraine’s self-awarenessas an independent country (which is a component of European integrational processes) assumed features of the state strategy and a key priority of the stable social and economic development. Herewith, one of the main tasks of Ukraine’s integration into the European area is the construction of the society-oriented economy and implementation into practice of the democratic state standards. The problem of unshadowing of economic relations, which have become the result of market transformation of the national economy due to the great extent and different forms of shadow process demonstration, essential influence on the economic dynamics, also demands immediate solution. An interesting fact is that unlike Ukraine the shadow economy is almost absent in the EU countries in such sectors as extraction of minerals, electric power industry, and finances. Herewith, shadow economy has become a certain balancer of the western countries’ economy, that is, the less is an incremental capacity in the official sector, the higher is the rise in the illegal one and vice versa. At the same time, it is rational to implement recommendations, which were introduced by the FATF, World Bank, and Тransparency International Ukraine, into national social and economic system not only because they are effective, complete each other, and are aimed at coping with immediate national economic problems but firstly because observance of the generally accepted world standards is an important step in acceleration of European integration processes. They increase the level of trust of the foreign partner countries toward Ukraine with the help of transformation of the national economy to the European standards.

The purpose of this paper is to study the theoretical and methodological issues of developing a marketing strategy for university leadership in the market of intellectual services and to develop recommendations for the achievement of leadership of Russian universities in the global market of intellectual services. The study was carried out according to the authors’ method, developed on the basis of the phased use of the following known methods: (1) monographic desk research and (2) field research (expert poll survey). Data processing was carried out in the program SPSS and Wortex-31. The authors considered it necessary to regard the problems stated in the article in the context of the study of the following main issues: (1) specificity of intellectual services in the innovation economy, (2) the concept of “leadership” and the strategy of leadership of universities in the market of intellectual services, and (3) marketing strategy of leadership of Russian universities in the market of intellectual services. The results of a long-term study (from 2000 to 2017) are presented, including an expert survey that allowed to (1) reveal the features of intellectual services, (2) position the features-leaders that make up the main content of the category “intellectual services,” (3) develop a complex of marketing of intellectual services offered by the university to the market, and (4) recommend Russian universities to implement the strategy of “expanding market share,” in which market leaders have the opportunity to increase profits by expanding their market share of intellectual services.

This paper is devoted to the research of the region’s competitiveness in the direction of determining its leading positions among other regions with the aim of determining the permissible scope of regional foreign trade flows in terms of economic security of the country. For conducting the analysis of regional export-import flows, regional trade indicators and their thresholds were introduced and considered. The economic-mathematical model of quantitative analysis of risk and discovering the boundary limits of foreign trade flows of the region are worked out. The foreign trade flows of the regional leader – Ivano-Frankivsk region of the Carpathian region – on the basis of two-dimensional normal distribution were designed, and the level of the threshold values of the indicators of foreign trade operations of the region from the point of view of economic risk was determined. The method of building an ellipse of scattering of foreign trade operations of the region – the region of regional foreign trade flows concerning the leading position of the region in the context of economic security for a comparative assessment of the competitiveness and economic security of the regions – is generalized.

This paper analyzes the relationship between leadership and the dimension of a company. The empirical study is based on data from 438 firms from the Czech Republic, the answers to questionnaires being provided by the managers of the firms. The results indicated significant differences in the managers’ opinions regarding the perception on leadership. Most of the managers in the sample considered professional knowledge as the most important feature of a successful leader. There are significant differences between managers regarding their opinion of the most important characteristic of a good leader. Almost half of the self-employed managers considered this characteristic as determinant for a good leader. Perseverance is considered the most important feature of a leader for most of the managers from microenterprise, small company, and medium-sized enterprise. Most of the managers of large companies indicated professional knowledge as determinant for a leader.

Negative demographic trends in Russia in the last quarter of a century and increasing demands on the quality of personnel have actualized the struggle of employers for professionals, and the winners are the companies with a strong and attractive HR brand. In this article, the authors consider the employer’s brand in a correlation with leadership positions in business. In this regard, the purpose of the study, which became the basis of this article, was the development of a management mechanism for maintaining HR brand. As a theoretical approach to the development of this mechanism, the concept of managing the employer value proposition has been adopted. The research methodology, which regards HR brand as an element of leadership, provided for a sociological study that included a semi-structured interview of managers and specialists of the HR services of Russian companies. The results of the study are presented in the form of a model of the management mechanism of HR brand and proposals for activities aimed at building a strong HR brand providing leadership in business for the company. The results obtained can be used in further scientific researches related to efficiency practices in the field of personnel marketing, as well as in the educational process. Besides, the developed model of HR brand management mechanism is recommended as a basis for the development of organizational structures and business processes for the company’s HR brand formation, and the proposed activities can be included in action plans for the implementation of HR strategies of the companies.

The rapid development of IT technology has led to a serious change in many spheres of economic life. The centuries-old order of financial and monetary transactions is changing. The role of the state and its institutions in the conduct of many payment, settlement, and investment operations is significantly and rapidly compressed. At the same time, there is no complete understanding of how to build the circulation of nonmonetary money and safe work in the conditions of crowd technologies development. The purpose of the study is to analyze the results of the development of crypto-currencies, history and mechanisms of their distribution, definition of economic essence, and stability of non-fiat money. The article discusses the role of crypto-currency in the evolution of money, reveals the main trends underlying this process, and justifies the inevitability of further development of circulation and payment instruments. The consequences of using virtual money for monetary regulation of the economy are analyzed. Additionally, the reaction of the monetary authorities to the undergoing changes is estimated.

The goal is to identify factors affecting the innovative development of oil and gas companies and, based on identified factors, to form a model for an integrated assessment of the financial potential of companies’ innovative development. The methodological basis of the work was general scientific principles and research methods: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, collection and generalization of the theoretical bases for the development of a balanced scorecard, and their comparison with the practice of application. Within the framework of the integrated approach, the methods of grouping and comparison and calculation and analytical methods were also used. The study used a comparative analysis of indicators and factor analysis of reporting data of oil and gas companies based on the integration of factor characteristics of current and fundamental performance indicators of companies; a system of financial indicators was formed to determine the position of the financial potential of company’s innovative development and to identify leading companies on the basis of innovative development. The ranks of indicators are determined, and weighted coefficients are assigned to them on the basis of the Fishburn rule (criterion). The initial and normalized indicators are determined, and on the basis of this, vector values are formed. An integrated assessment of the financial potential of innovative development of companies has been formed. The dependence between the volumes of financing R&D and indicators of the capital structure was revealed. It is determined that the company finances R&D, including through borrowed capital.

More and more attention is devoted in Russian universities to the development of entrepreneurship education, as well as entrepreneurial and leadership competencies of students. An analysis of entrepreneurship education problems and forming entrepreneurial competencies in Russian educational system was made within the framework of the project “READY for business: Integration and Evaluation of the Practical Entrepreneurial Skills in Engineering and ICT Sciences – Rebus”. Students’ and professors’ opinions regarding the importance of certain leadership and entrepreneurial competencies were also taken. Questionnaire method and document analysis were utilised in the investigation. Research results provided insight to the necessity of entrepreneurship education and effective methods of training. Comparison of the leadership and entrepreneurial competencies and differentiation of these depending on their significance for the students will enable one to make allowance for students’ educational needs when creating syllabi as well as define the criteria of maturity of the competencies in a better way.

This article is devoted to the leadership trends in production of soft drinks in Russia. Specifically, it provides a comprehensive study of the usage of raw materials for the development of recipes of Russian national drinks of an antioxidant orientation. Traditional Russian beverages which include natural ingredients (honey, spices, and herbs) take one of the leading places on the market of soft drinks. Therefore, the development of nonalcoholic beverages based on local plant raw materials is one of the promising directions for expanding the range and increasing the nutritional value of beverages. The aim of the work is scientific justification of the formulation and technology of sbitens of antioxidant orientation on the basis of vegetable raw materials in Sverdlovsk Region and their evaluation. The paper presents the composition of biologically active components of plant raw materials of the Ural region, used in the development of compositions of sbitens “Forest Fairy Tale.” The objects of the study are rose hips (lat. Frūctūs Rosae), nettle (lat. Urtíca dióica), raspberry leaf (lat. Folia Rubi idaei), oregano ordinary (lat. Oríganum vulgáre), yarrow (lat. Achilléa millefólium), thyme (lat. Thymus serpyllum L), a leaf of bearberry (lat. Arctostáphylos úva-úrsi), apples of Ural selection (lat. Málus), and the fruits of mountain ash (lat. Fructus Sorbi aucupariae). Sbitens with high antioxidant activity were scientifically proven. The determination of antioxidant activity of the beverages was carried out by the potentiometric method based on the “chemical interaction of antioxidants with a mediator system, which uses a mixture of K₃[Fe(CN)₆]/K₄[Fe(CN)₆]”. There was determined the dependence of the organoleptic and physicochemical parameters of sbitens from the quantity of vegetable raw materials, the optimal correlation of fruit, and medicinal and technical raw materials. The safety of biologically active substances in the developed sbitens was studied. High stability of bioactive compounds during storage (with the necessary margin of safety) was observed. By the end of the storage period, the content of ascorbic acid in the drink is 47% of the original, which allows meet the daily requirement of only 45.2%. The content of catechins is 69% of the original, which meets the daily requirement of 70%. This allows recommending sbitens as a restorative beverage of antioxidant orientation for all categories of consumers. The dynamics of changes in consumer properties during production and storage of products was studied, thus establishing the regulated quality parameters and determining the shelf life which is 6 months.

The article is aimed at identifying specific characteristics of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions involving BRICS countries as a factor of developing new international leader companies. Research approaches are used at macro- and microlevels. At the macro-level, new features of the world economy globalization, prospects for the emergence of a new business environment, and business models are summarized.The focus is on the Emerging Global Challengers of the BRICS countries (The Boston Consulting Group (2016a) Meet the new challengers. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/globalization-growth-meet-new-challengers.aspx. Accessed 22 Oct 2017; The Boston Consulting Group (2016b) The 2016 M&A Report. Masters of the Corporate Portfolio. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/strategy-corporate-development-m-a-report.aspx. Accessed 22 Oct 2017; The Boston Consulting Group (2016c) Global leaders, challengers, and champions. The engines of emerging markets. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/growth-global-leaders-challengers-champions.aspx Accessed 23 Oct 2017). The choice of this group of countries was made due to the fact that Chinese and Indian companies constitute the majority among the companies of rapidly developing economies (RDE). In addition, despite the negative assessments of the prospects for the development of cooperation in the BRICS format, in September 2017 another summit of this group was held. Based on the use of statistical methods and data from the Bloomberg terminal, it was revealed that for the period from 2000 to 2015, the number and value of M&A transactions involving BRICS countries increased by seven and two times, respectively. However, the bulk of transactions are either in-country (and the target company and the buyer company are registered in one country) or with the participation of companies outside the BRICS countries. Starting from 2007 (except for 2011), companies from the BRICS countries in monetary terms have been net buyers; before 2007, they had been net targets, with the greatest impact on this result being the dynamics of M&A transactions involving Chinese companies.

The objective of the paper is to focus the attention of the international academic community on one of the important aspects of development of Russia’s educational paradigm – a network of regional flagship universities being created in the multilevel system of higher professional education. Such universities are designed to efficiently meet the needs of today’s society and to generate a creative scientific, social, and professional climate in their home regions. They are also oriented to upbringing the competent and active specialists having leadership skills and being able to independently identify the goals of their productive activity, to solve various production tasks, to build relations with others correctly, and to work in a team. The authors of the paper note that a need of creating the regional flagship universities is first of all due to the drastic change in all spheres of life of the modern society; to the social and economic, political, and other reforms in Russia; and to fairly important developments of the Russians’ public life content and conscience. In the paper, objectives and tasks faced by the country’s regional flagship universities are viewed, and the contemporary challenges both to higher educational institutions and the entire system of higher professional education of Russia are analyzed. According to the authors, creation of regional flagship universities will allow the higher educational institutions to go on to a brand new quality level. The university will be more than just a place for students to get higher education at; first of all, it will be a leader in implementing the priority directions of development of Russia’s educational paradigm, a center for introducing various social programs and projects, and a basis for forming a new, cutting-edge, harmoniously developed personality having leadership skills. Flagship universities will also be the activation community for the creative and professional thought of all strata of the population in their home regions or macroregions.

The aim was to study the experience of Ekaterinburg Academy of Contemporary Art (EACA) allowing it to occupy the leading positions among universities of the Ural region and Russia in the quality of cultural and art projects and competencies and its contribution to the development and global competitiveness of Ekaterinburg, the Ural region, and Russia. We described the state policy in education for 2013–2017 aimed at providing new quality of education. We analyzed foreign studies concerning academic leadership and concluded that to become an academic leader, a local (municipal) university should avoid traditional systems of university development existing for decades and try to introduce modern organization strategies for all university activities, particularly to transfer from processing to projecting approach in education. We determined the general mechanisms to achieve strategic goals of EACA aimed at becoming one of the regional academic leaders.

Social networks have entered into everyday life; they are part of it. They are used not only for the private purposes of individuals but also for the business purposes of many companies. Because of effective and fast communication, they have become a part of marketing communication. In this paper authors will deal with the assessment of social networks usage in marketing communication at universities. The main goal of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of the use of sites by selected universities’ faculties on Facebook social network as a communication channel for marketing purposes. For this purpose, the Social Scorecard analyses of selected universities and their Facebook pages and their assessment within Slovakia and Czech Republic will be used. In addition, a questionnaire survey regarding the social networks usage by the universities’ faculties has been conducted. The issue is to have a leader being active in the social networking area, in particular creative, making up and being in charge of actions that are attractive to young people.

The article analyzes the way students perceive leadership and leader’s personality qualities at the modern international university. The article provides the results of the author’s original questionnaire survey of students in the Economics Faculty of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) on the perception of leader’s personal qualities, the key characteristics of the modern leader, and the priorities for training leaders in the institution of higher professional education. For example, students consider self-confidence, independent nature, willingness to risk, public speaking skills, and a good sense of humor as the most important leader’s merits. The students indicated the lectures delivered by the well-known heads of companies, practical trainings provided by training companies, and specialized courses in leadership within the university curriculum as the basic necessary measures to develop leadership skills at the university. The respondents described the following as the leadership skills, which need to be developed: self-confidence, independent nature, public speaking skills, willingness to risk, and good intuition. The survey resulted in conclusion that most students consider it advisable to purposefully develop leadership skills and demonstrated their willingness to participate in the process of their leadership formation within the framework of higher professional education.

The article examines the leadership of universities on the world educational platform and the ways for Russian universities to join the scope of world-class leaders. The study reveals the structural elements of the system of Russian higher education and analyzes the state methods of impact on it, prospective projects, and development programs. Finally, it is proved in the article that financial and project assistance of the state does not mean an immediate and unconditional “breakthrough” for the university: historical factors of the development of the Russian higher education system, successful management, qualifications of teachers, and established image and reputation of the university have a significant impact on the representation of Russian universities in world rankings, constantly monitored by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and, as a consequence, their reorganization in the form of accession to the United Nations educational organizations. As a result, over a thousand universities have been closed out for several years of optimization, which, on the one hand, slows the progressive development of higher education institutions that had absorbed “inefficient” higher education institutions and on the other marked prospects for growth, due to enlargement of the structure, international cooperation, and growth of human and scientific potential.

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of the condition of the Russian scientific sphere. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, science was in stagnation because of numerous problems such as lack of systematization, bad conditions for scientists’ work, and many others. To solve those problems nowadays, funding has been increased, additional motivational factors have been added, and measures have been implemented to decrease corruption in scientific sphere. According to forecast, in 2019–2020 condition of science will improve, and Russia will strengthen its positions in the global ratings. This article covers the issues of establishment of the Russian science and presents generalized data in graph forms. These data concern global rating, expenditure, budget, and position of Russia in comparison with other developed countries. The analysis is an inseparable part of a scientific article as it allows to follow the dynamics of the development of the Russian science. It is essential that this paper has a very clear focus and practical importance strengthened by target setting, analysis of the problem, and marked directions of its problem-solving in order to improve indicators of statistic data as well as indicators connected with leadership and dominance implied in real life.

The relevance of the research is associated with the Russian education being included into the world educational space, the creative activity of teachers, and their leadership skills gaining importance. Due to this, in the paper, qualification enhancement of geography teachers is viewed in conditions of transformation of the contemporary education. The leading approach to studying the problem is the systemic and didactic approach that allows the integrated consideration of the process of transformation of the system of qualification enhancement for geography teachers taking place at Kazan Federal University. In the paper, the materials on testing out the online- and classroom-based organization forms of the geography teachers’ qualification enhancement process are presented. The components of transformation of the teachers’ qualification enhancement are described – the education itself, the pedagogical education, a teacher as a subject of professional activity, and a teacher in the role of a course training participant. The formal logical associations of the key notions “creativity – task (solving a problem) – competencies” have been found out, and the systemic layout of qualification enhancement process has been given ground. The conceptual research of transformation of qualification enhancement for geography teachers relied on accepting the universal values of holism, development of creative and leadership potential, and the competency-based approach. Hence the materials of the paper are of practical value for a wide range of teachers specializing on andragogy.

The article discusses collaborative leadership in early childhood education, which is aimed at fostering development of children and facilitating their learning of skills in a way that is sensitive to their personal aptitudes. Educational institutions must ensure continuous and comprehensive learning within which children will be brought up in moral, social, and cultural values. Educational organizations where instructors’ teamwork is supported demonstrate improved efficiency and better conditions for professional and personal development of their staff. We conducted interviews with teachers of municipal institutions of early childhood education (n = 30) in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The majority of interviewed teachers expressed their unwillingness to assume leadership roles. According to the interviewees, a leader in the educational environment should possess such qualities as organizational abilities, social skills, confidence, proactivity, energy, and creativity. Our analysis has revealed certain structural tensions that impede the realization of teachers’ leadership potential: on the one hand, the teachers recognize the importance of professional leadership, but on the other hand, they lack means and mechanisms for development of their own leadership competences. Another contradiction exists between the new requirements for children’s development formulated in the Russian federal standard and the reproduction of traditional patterns of educational relations that prevail in most educational institutions.

In December 2016, there were interviewed students of the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs of the Institute of World Economy and Business (IWEB) of RUDN University. The goal was to study the generation Y, its worldview, the life values and priorities, the stereotypes, and various behavioral models for designing the system of internal and external communications of the organization. One of the research tasks was the identification of social models of this target audience, its ideas about future activities in the field of communications and its place in the profession, and the degree of readiness of the respondents to the new economic realities. The students were asked to answer anonymously the questions of the questionnaire, which included several content modules, including the aspects of leadership and creativity. Following the results of the study, we not only received general conceptual results that give a detailed description of the study of the target audience in a wide range of parameters but also formulated recommendations for the optimization of educational process, the improvement of educational programs, and the development of a corporate communications strategy of the organization to improve the reputation among the consumers of educational products.

The intention of this paper is to raise and study some questions connected with shaping leadership skills in graduate teachers. The results of the survey showed how well the teacher graduates acquired both hard and soft skills that will enable them to become educational leaders and which they are called upon to form in schoolchildren. The authors looked into the factors which contribute to the establishment and development of a new type of educational leaders that are able to make creative, theoretical, and practical contributions in the innovative processes in education. The study reveals that graduates have a fairly clear idea of the essence of leadership. They understand leadership not only as a process of formal management of social communities but also as a high level of professionalism. The image of a teacher-leader the students shaped has the potential of a researcher and a knowledge translator. The majority of students believe that a modern teacher should implement a learner-centered approach, helping them to deal with the challenges and developing their personalities. On the whole, students are aware of the current trends in education and its main hardships. Professional qualities and skills together with the personal qualities are the constituents of a leader in education.

In the research, particularities of ideas of the higher educational institution employees about leadership skills and professional successfulness of their managers (chairpersons, deans, and deputy deans) were found out. Among the key leadership skills of the managers of higher educational institutions, the following were noted: resistance to stress, an ability to manipulate others, sociability, an ability to communicate, responsibility, fairness, a positive attitude toward others, friendliness, confidence, and consistency. The following qualities were named as ones which the higher educational institution managers lack: honesty, relevant self-rating, decency, consistency, an ability to resolve conflict situations, and belief in one’s collective. According to the survey, 35% of all managers are professionally successful while others are not – due to their professional incompetence, inability to build efficient communication, communicative incompetence, lack of personal growth and self-development, and new research in science and practice. The methodologists of higher educational institutions chose communicative and professional incompetence as the main criteria for the professional unsuccessfulness, while for teachers of higher educational institutions, they were the professional incompetence and lack of new research in science and practice. The data obtained imply further studies of the problem outlined and working out of recommendations for the development of leadership skills in managers of the sphere of education.

This contribution analyzes the main characteristics of realization control of educational process in the Russian and foreign higher education institutions with the purpose of identifying the leaders in higher education. Representing a process of integration of educational institutions, network form of education helps along harmonization of educational institutions. Important aspect of this activity is the quality of education and improving of education systems in different countries. It is worth to take into account that education can be viewed as a process of getting knowledge or as benefit on modern economic commodity market and services. An important condition of the development of the harmonious relations between educational institutions is the balance of educational process, availability of education, and rendering of high-quality educational services. Comparison of educational process in various higher education institutions makes possible the optimization of educational system and identification of the most unique educational technologies. In order to achieve the required degree and status of leadership, science and education have to be an essential part of any educational system. Our comparative analysis of educational process in higher education institutions in Europe, the USA, and the Russian Federation shows their uniqueness, originality, achievement of optimal results of a research, advance of science, self-learning activity, and the improvement in the quality of the provided educational services.

Effective leadership in education, especially in high school education, plays a major role in making a difference to improve learning and increase the value added of educational process. In the recent years, there have been tremendous changes in virtually all fields of education, and these changes have led to the development of positive outcomes. Some of these changes include technological innovation in education and changes in leadership styles. Various reforms have been carried out in the field of education, and these reforms aim at changing the management in learning institutions, so as to make it effective and engaging. These reforms and changes have been conveyed in the transition from the supervision of schoolwork to empower staff members in schools, with a change in the roles of principals (or head teachers) and teachers. To achieve success in this transformation, it calls for accountability on the side of principals and staff members to provide results of teaching and effective operation of the school. Our contribution provides a comprehensive and concise global overview of the issue of leadership in high and secondary schools. We are evaluating the issue of leadership in schools and focus on the figure of the school principal as the key element in shaping up and forming the concept of leadership for the young individuals who are creating their sets of values to be followed in their further lives.

The article deals with the higher education internationalization process in order to increase its prospects in leadership. The theoretical foundations of internationalization were summarized in the article. The quantitative assessment of the internationalization of higher education by the students’ academic mobility criteria confirmed a worldwide positive trend. At the same time, the share of foreign students differs greatly in specific countries. It is proved that the degree of internationalization is influenced by the student’s choice of the country and the university. The article proves empirically the hypothesis that the language of teaching is one of the important factors determining the choice of the country and university of study by foreign students. The authors concluded that Russian universities have a low degree of internationalization and Russian students are not involved enough into exchange processes. The offer of educational programs in English implemented by the leading Russian universities, included in the prestigious academic QS rating, was examined using such methods as deduction, comparative analysis, questionnaires, and focus groups. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion was made that Russian universities need to consider the linguistic factor in strategic development programs oriented in integration into the global educational environment.

The paper deals with the search for new mechanisms of formation and development of the human leadership skills in today’s Russia. Proceeding from the theoretical analysis of key leadership skills as interpreted by different schools, the approaches to the formation thereof are described (leadership is only a manifestation of an inherited talent; a leader can be brought up by the relevant training or creation of certain situations). The social and cultural particularities of the phenomenon of leadership in Russia are discussed. The work presents commercial and authors’ tools based on the modern information and communication technologies that allow forming and developing the human leadership skills. Advantages and disadvantages of using the Russian commercial software, iSpring Suite, are discussed, as well as those of the authors’ information system for creating a virtual social educational environment with preset features and the authors’ specialized social network in the Internet. The virtual social environments created are easily scalable and invariant as for their content, which opens up new opportunities in terms of fast adaptation of the content suggested to social and cultural particularities of a certain person as well as creation of individual upbringing paths. As the research methods, the analysis of secondary research data and own research results using the authors’ developments is used.

The article addresses the following issues: development of the methods for calculating the effectiveness of the investment process, taking into account the delay in putting the assets into operation; creation of a program for the development of а subsidized region and determination of the necessary volume of investment in the innovative development of industries by the method of simulation modeling; building of macroeconomic models, taking into account the innovative component for estimating and forecasting the GDP of the Russian Federation and the GRP of Federal Regions and the Russian Federation regions on the basis of multiplicative production functions, considering the delay in putting the assets into operation; economic analysis of the statistical estimates of the parameters of the built models; and the most widespread R. Solow’s model in which the rate of the labor force size growth is an exogenous magnitude, the technological level is unchanged, and the return from the two factors of production – labor and capital – is constant. An algorithm for choosing an optimal macroeconomic model for a particular region has been developed. It is planned to build macroeconomic models, taking into account the innovative component for estimating and forecasting the GDP of the Russian Federation and GRP over Federal Regions and the Russian Federation regions on the basis of multiplicative production functions, taking into consideration the delay in putting the assets into operation; it is also planned to analyze the statistical estimates of the built models.

The fourth industrial era (or Industry 4.0) refers to the recent trend of massive data collection, analysis and communication with intense process automation. Massive studies have been conducted in this field, though with the main focus on technical details, hardware and software. There still remains a considerable gap in the analysis of potential effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on economies and management. According to recent studies, from 45% to 60% of jobs around the globe are at risk of being automated or computerised. Despite the fact the new jobs such as automation engineers, programmers, data analysts and others are being created, the economies would get significant amount of workforce lacking necessary qualifications. A casual model that shows the effect of the increasing automation on economies has been developed and discusses potential implications. The paper suggests that economies and organisations would have to adopt “Algorithmic Management” to remain competitive in the new digital environment.

The article explains the significance of the nanoeconomic approach in the study of the socioeconomic leadership of a separate economic agent (individual) and why it may be reasonable to consider the nanolevel to be the initial level of economic relations. It is proved that in the information economy based on knowledge, the role of the person who is the bearer and creator of new knowledge increases, which creates prerequisites for individual socioeconomic leadership. The multifunctional roles of an individual as a consumer, as the saving agent and investor, as an owner of a microenterprise, as a free agent, as a person, as a creator, and as a disseminator of ideas and innovations are revealed using the nanoeconomic approach to the analysis of consumer, financial, labor, entrepreneurial, and innovative behavior. In conclusion, the main principles of the space-temporal model are for the development of socioeconomic leadership of modern man in the new economy.

Conservation of Lake Baikal for the present and future generations is a historical mission of the nations of the Baikal region. In order to tackle this global challenge, it is crucial to implement an environmental-ethical model of sustainable development. Such model of sustainable development envisages (a) development of a concept, strategy, and program of regional sustainable development; (b) development of a set of legal documents regulating the process of institutionalizing the sustainable development model; and (c) creation of a system of public and state environmental monitoring and control over practical implementation of sustainable development principles.Prospects of the Baikal region as an environmental-ethical model of sustainable development are attributable to the following factors. First, the Baikal region displays a huge potential of environmental-ethical and cultural-historical traditions relevant to the moral imperative of sustainable development. Second, these prospects are related to the necessity of environmental protection of Lake Baikal as a “global well” and a particular “developmental site” on the globe. An all-Russian project under the title “Baikal – the Great Lake of the Great Country” will be launched in early 2018. This project will be efficient only if it becomes a common cause for all citizens, institutions, and authorities of the Russian Federation. The problem is to build a morally and legally substantiated strategy of nationwide mutual responsibility for the protection of Lake Baikal and sustainable development of the Baikal region and an equally substantiated strategy of environmental responsibility of every dweller of the Baikal region.

The relevance of the research is conditioned by a higher role of transformational leadership in education in conditions of ever-increasing complexity and pace of social and cultural change. Due to this, the paper is aimed at finding out the set of organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of competencies of transformational leadership in the future teachers in the polycultural educational space. The leading method for studying this problem is the contrastive and comparative analysis of literature that allows viewing the transformational leadership in an integrated way as the subject of interdisciplinary reflection; the systemization and generalization of the data obtained has allowed making more certain the essential features of the future teachers’ transformational leadership competencies. In the paper, the following are the results of a pedagogical experiment of justifying and testing out the organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of the future teachers’ transformational leadership competencies in the polycultural educational space of the North Caucasus: the development of special tasks in formation of the abilities of consistent change management in education, with the complicated ethnic and cultural context borne in mind; the use of educational resource of experiential learning as student-centered and reflexive learning approach for the future teachers; and the use of various ethnic sport forms as a means for practical acquisition of the transformational leadership competencies. The materials of the paper are of practical value for various categories of education workers developing and implementing the programs of priority development of the pedagogical staff as the transformational change leaders, for teachers of pedagogical higher educational institutions when designing the content and technologies of development of leadership competencies in students as the agents of development of educational systems under the complicated and rapidly changing social and cultural conditions.

In the crisis conditions of the development of the national economy of Ukraine, a vitaland and urgent vital problem is the definition of strategic prospects and the improvement of mechanisms for achieving the leading positions of the region in the field of energy efficiency of agro-industrial production. Using the method of estimating energy efficiency according to the criterion “energy efficiency” that synthetically combines the indicators of gross regional product, the amount of energy consumption, and the number of population of the region, the results have been obtained, which in general show the dependence of energy efficiency of the production on the specialization of the regions. Clear distribution by groups according to the indicators of energy efficiency testifies to the high energy intensity and inefficiency of the economy of those areas specializing in the chemical, mining, and metallurgical industries. The regions with significant agro-industrial and recreational specialization in the short-term perspective have very optimistic results. The problems and perspectives of the output of the agrosphere of the Kherson region of Ukraine on the leading positions in energy efficiency were determined. A regional mechanism for managing the energy efficiency of agro-industrial production is proposed. The proposals on the organization and implementation of the complex monitoring of energy efficiency of agro-industrial production in the regions and its analysis at the national level are formulated. The work on monitoring and evaluation is proposed to be carried out in stages: planning analytical work, compilation of informative data, calculating work, development of proposals, and reporting of the results of research to relevant structures. It is proved that the implementation of the energy efficiency policy will help to overcome the crisis, as well as to achieve significant growth and stabilization of the economy of the region and the country.

In contemporary complex and insecure environment, leadership obtains a new additional role. Directions and ultimate goal of leadership emerges as topical field of practice and theory. Focus gradually shifts from a question “what leadership” to another question “leadership for what ultimate aim.” In the presented research, we will tackle one facet of broad area – leadership for sustainable development. Our aim is to discuss what results could be achieved via such important driving force as leadership for energy efficiency. In order to provide insights, the following approach will be adopted. Long-term energy intensity (until the year 2050) in selected countries will be forecasted, ceteris paribus assumption applied. Selection of countries will correspond the aim to compare long-term energy intensity tendencies in currently better developed and less developed European countries. Since the forecasting is based on current technological level of development, we assume that energy intensity change will be determined on behavioral patterns of energy consumption, which are basically determined by strength and efficiency of leadership in energy consumption area. Provided insights will let us generalize on role of leadership in such area as efficient energy use.

This paper assesses the current state and prospects of the leadership and development of the energy sector of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Georgia in the context of historical experience, factors that influence the international specialization of these states, integration processes which take place within the framework of the EAEU and CIS, policies of the leading Western countries in the region, and conjugation of the EAEU and SREB. The authors believe that currently there is an objective need for the countries of Transcaucasia (the participants of the EAEU/CIS) to harmonize positions in the frameworks of development and implementation of energy policy in order to counter the modern challenges and threats and to enter the path of sustainable development. Authors’ generalizations, suggestions, and recommendations can be used by the governmental agencies and other institutions and scientific, expert, and business community in the frameworks of the development of analytical and conceptual documents.

This paper contains the analysis and discussions of the latest trends of the tourism development in Russian Federation. The country with an enormous tourism potential and vast natural and man-made wonders and beauties, Russia, still struggles with pathways how to attract the incoming tourism and make the country attractive for foreign visitors. Our research findings identified the main reasons for low or weak tourist attractiveness of selected regions in Russian Federation. Moreover, we proposed the methodology for estimating regional capacity and test it in practice. Furthermore, we come up with a number of useful recommendations about how to develop the region’s potential for enhancing its tourist and investment attractiveness while marketing tools. In addition, we design and define a comprehensive set of indicators that reflect the effectiveness of regional capacity management.

The article makes a scientific substantiation of the component options of agricultural enterprises’ material and technical resources on the basis of the author’s economic mathematic model. It foresees income obtainment from operational activity by the business entities and assurance of leadership positions of agricultural sphere upon such conditions as compliance with optimal dimensions and structure of agricultural lands and crop areas; increase of natural soil fertility at the expense of the improvement of the crop areas structure, planting expansion of bean cultures and perennial grass, and use of green manures; increase of livestock and poultry; compliance with scientifically grounded diet of livestock and poultry in animal industry; balanced use of mineral and organic fertilizers; use of the definite quantity of technical means; and definition of the costs, which represent the price of the existing and new technique, which should be purchased in order to fulfil certain operational processes and demands according to realized technologies. Optimization of the material and technical resource structure of the agricultural enterprises was conducted on the basis of Odessa region. Its aim is to satisfy population needs and industry demands in agro-food and primary production in order to assure an expanded reproduction of material and technical resources on the basis of flourishing management of agricultural enterprises. An economic mathematical model has been constructed according to the maximum of income from agricultural activity.

Market demand and consumer preferences are formed on the basis of decisions that are made by individual consumers in accordance with their desires, needs, and financial resources. Currently, one of the competitive advantages of Russian consumer market is a stable supply of high-quality chilled meat raw materials and meat products from chilled meat. Today, the needs of the RF (Russian Federation) population in pork and poultry meat are fully covered. The largest share in total production is taken by chilled products: beef (80.9%), pork (94.1%), and poultry (64.1%). In this regard, the improvement of traditional ways and the introduction of new ways to extend the shelf life (storage term) of chilled meat are urgent areas of scientific research. Along with the well-known methods of preventing the growth of microorganisms and the development of oxidative processes in meat, the processing of ionizing radiation of poultry meat, beef, lamb, and pork is officially authorized. On the territory of the Russian Federation, radiation treatment of meat (except for poultry meat, rabbit meat, and horse meat) has been allowed only since July 2017, but at the same time, rational dose of radiation for each type of meat has not yet been determined. Studies on the processing of cooled beef through ionizing radiation were conducted in order to determine the rational radiation doses. It is established that the exposition of chilled beef to ionizing radiation hampers the development of microbiological damage and does not adversely affect the organoleptic characteristics and nutritional value of meat raw materials. The processing of chilled meat raw materials allows to increase their shelf life by three or more times, which makes it possible to consider the exposition to ionizing radiation of meat as the world’s leading technology of preserving it. A rational dose of irradiation of chilled beef was determined depending on the fat content.

Russia’s crisis recovery and the transition to a new industrialization model and a regime of sustainable development require new approaches in national, regional, and urban development. In the solution of this complex task, an important role belongs to the cities with over a million people, which concentrate huge economic, intellectual, innovative, management, and other potentials. This turns them into the poles (or cores) of growth not only of the regional but also of the national economy. The purpose of this article is to examine trends in the retrospective change in the socioeconomic situation of the Ural macroregion and to assess the possibility of their increment into positive ones through the prism of the development of the Ural cities as the nuclei of the growth of Russia’s new economy on the way of a new industrialization.

The transport infrastructure has long been considered as a link in the socioeconomic process of the territory formation and development. In spite of the fact that the transport infrastructure does not create the product itself, it participates in every system-forming process. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to consider “new opportunities” for the development of transport in Russia and in the world as a whole. The study is based on the document developed in Germany on Industry 4.0 and the emerging Industry 5.0. In our paper, we make an attempt with the purpose to forecast and model the level of development of the transport industry of the future for short- and medium-term periods. The paper is therefore focused on the leadership aspect of technology related to the transport economics. Our results might be of special interest for researchers as well as for state planners, stakeholders, and politicians responsible for the transport and transport infrastructure.

This conclusion focuses on one important question that goes like as follows: “Is leadership for the sustainable development of business and education a paradox or rather a necessity?”. We contemplate on the issues of leadership, sustainable development, education, as well as business and economics and provides our concluding thoughts and remarks on the topic.