The article offers an updated vision of interaction between business and society in Russia; it argues that the Russia’s current economic crisis is of systemic nature, and numerous international rankings have been asserting this fact. It offers insight into the main problem of modern Russia - the problem of national security - formulated in the new National Security Strategy (2016). “A social action triangle” for big business is considered as a possible solution to this problem. It includes: public-private partnerships (investment projects), “an innovative triple helix” (innovative projects) and corporate social responsibility (social projects carried out in line with the major activities. Realizing, shaping and implementing new business practices in Russia should be accomplished via support of civil society values by infrastructure monopolies. The highest level of philanthropy in CSR format is a turn of the business from charity to social, economic and infrastructure projects, i.e. establishing partnerships that focus on collaboration based on long-term national interests. To back this new trend, the format of socially oriented public- private investment projects is suggested.

The article deals with various issues associated with the adoption and execution of the regional budget. The deficit-free regional budget does not mean in modern Russia a full coverage of budgetary expenditures from its own budget revenues. Moreover, when the regional budget is adopted in a balanced form which does not mean achieving the full self-sufficiency due to certain restrictions, which are introduced on budgetary needs, and there are no grants, subsidies or subventions for them. It is a budgetary practice in Russia and its regions, it requires an appropriate study and consideration. Nowadays, while making decisions on expenditures funded by the regional budget, the authorities face many conflicting tasks needed to be solved. The most difficult problem is looking for new regional sources of budget revenues. However, there are also two kinds of restrictions in this area. First, the objective inability of the region’s economy to meet budget needs due to low rates of the financial balance of the economy. Second, the tax restrictions defined by all-Russian legislation and different tax regulatory regimes. Tax autonomy to the extent granted to the regions ‘cannot cope’ with such restrictions; it results in setting additional budget targets towards reducing costs or attracting financing in the form of grants, subventions and subsidies. The option of borrowing in the form of loans, has also its own pre-set restrictions.

As a rule, strategic decision-making is associated with a large number of factors to be taken into account, the availability of semi-structured and unstructured data as well as insufficient background information. In these circumstances, in order to evaluate and select strategic initiatives, it seems appropriate to use expert estimates in combination with traditional methods for management accounting and investment analysis. An important aspect of strategic decision-making is simulation of problem situations that are understood as a status of environment in the future. Given that there are different approaches to modeling problem situations and a variety of decision- making methods, the authors suggest a multi-version processing of expert estimates. To perform the necessary calculations, it is recommended to use a special decision support system. The article focuses on developing an approach to make strategic managerial decisions through simulation of problem situations and multi-version processing of expert estimates using proper methods for decision-making and information systems. When modeling problem situations, it is necessary to take into account environmental factors that are essential for decision-making, given that considered factors can be either independent or interdependent. A hierarchy analysis method is discussed as one of the methods for assessing the probabilities of problem situations.

The paper shows the changes in the behavior of a company under the influence of digital transformation processes, the benefits of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding as well as mechanisms of embedding the crowdsourcing into the company’s business model. It is proved that the additional demand for a crowdsourcing product/service is developed due to the fact that the “crowd” itself determines the desired properties of a product. This leads to a higher congruence of the expected and actual quality levels and promotes customer satisfaction; croudsourcers trigger the virus marketing. The paper is based on the content analysis of key crowdsourcing documents, records and information resources of companies implementing crowd projects, reports and presentations made at international congresses and forums in recent years, international research findings and benchmarking based on the systems approach. It is shown that the crowdsourcing does not change the business models of only commercial companies. In the future, changes are expected in the non-profit sphere to be followed by a transition to the labor organization based on the establishment of open societies not limited in time and space. The crowdsourcing can be viewed upon not only as the technology of creation and promotion of a product/service but also as a talent management technology.

Traditionally, the increase in life expectancy at the birth rate prevailing over the last decade is considered as a main argument for rising the retirement age in Russia. However, this demographic indicator either from methodological or practical position is not a parametric characteristic of modern pension system which operates on the basis of market mechanisms of insurance. The characteristics which are really important for the pension scheme and the implementation of government pension obligations include: mortality rates by age groups, duration of the period after granting of a non-contributory pension, healthy lifespan. Unfortunately, the supporters of “budget savings at the expense of retirees” fully ignore the mentioned indicators. The author carries out a comprehensive analysis of the impact of demographic factors on the retirement age under the non-contributory pension plan. Such indicator as the “retirement age” should be seen only in economic sense and act as an insurance standard which along with the above mentioned normative parameters of the non-contributory pension system would create conditions for state regulation of the actuarial balance between the pension rights of insured persons and government obligations to provide an adequate financial security of life for people who have left their work.

Defining the content and structure of the research (innovation) potential as part of the total economic potential of the national economy is a debatable issue. A careful study of different definitions allowed us to formulate a synthetic definition of the notion “scientific potential” as a set of resource (tangible) and intellectual (intangible) assets needed for developing innovation in various spheres of economic activities. The basic method applied for studying the research (innovation) potential was a systematic approach. The data presented in the information system of the state statistics were used as a basis for evaluation. In the conditions of intensification and structural modernization of production, the key task in developing the innovation potential is to attract investors who possess financial resources and can acquire advanced technologies to implement innovative projects. Innovative activity of organizations is directly linked to financing of R & D. In Russia, the main part of research spending is covered by the government while in the developed countries, the private sector takes a significant role in financing scientific research. The analysis carried out by the authors proves that there is a variety of ways of attracting financial resources in the field of science.

The article assesses the opportunities for developing credit relations between economic entities in conditions of import substitution industrial policy. The author concludes that there is a need to attract new lenders because of the increased demand for credit products from businesses. Some government agencies may act as lenders, for example, the Industrial Development Fund which activities and lending program are considered in detail in the article. In author’s opinion, the set of measures that necessary and sufficient to extend credit opportunities for business entities in the conditions of import substitution industrial policy, includes the following items: increased availability of credit products for business entities; open information and economic safety for the credit space participants; strategic and indicative planning of the credit policy; increased involvement of Russian banks in financing of the national economy; introducing by the Central Bank of Russia of measures to stimulate bank lending to business entities under co-financing conditions; expanded list of banking institutions engaged in the programs for business financial and credit support; transparency and control of lenders by the government authorities and Bank of Russia.

Many practical problems of economic activities and a number of important issues of economic theory are connected to the choice of optimal solution. An adequate economic theory should reflect the process of continuous development of the economic system; therefore, it is necessary to consider the economic models in which all economic variables depend on time, and to have a mathematical tool that allows to find optimal values of these variables. The theory of optimal control is a mathematical tool for just such a purpose. The classical theory of optimal control considers models in which the behavior of the system is described by a set of differential equations while the functional is given to define the purpose of control and a variety of the limited control actions is set. An important tool for solving such problems is the Pontryagin principle of maximum. However, the use of the maximum principle leads to many computational problems. That is why the concept of Pareto optimality is used to solve certain classes of computational problems. The broader concept is a L-optimality, its definition was introduced in P.L. Yu (Cone. Cone convexity, cone extreme points, and non-dominated solutions in decision problems with multi-objectives // Optim. Theory Appl. 1974. Vol. 14. № 3). It shows that a plurality of L-optimal decisions can be wider or narrower than the set of Pareto-optimalities. The article highlights the classes of problems that are easy to solve using the Pareto- and L-optimality. The solution of advertising management problem is given for illustration purposes.

An ever-increasing difficulty and complexity of projects in various fields of human activities makes it necessary to improve the project planning algorithms at enterprises. The article considers the algorithm and procedures for implementing the project planning process. The proposed algorithm uses a modified resource network model that allows using regular optimization algorithms in planning procedures, and provides flexibility in establishing criteria for planned decision. The suggested planning algorithm uses dimensionless intensity coefficients, their values are well interpreted and this fact greatly facilitates their use in planning procedures. The authors describes a modified resource network model as well as the main criteria to optimize the time parameters for both projects and resources. An iterative planning algorithm is also discussed in detail.

The hierarchy analysis method is advantageous when it is difficult to formalize the input data in either clear or unclear way. A fuzzy procedure of hierarchy analysis takes into account the interval variation in expert opinions. An alternative to this method is the fuzzy logic conclusion method. The advantage of fuzzy logic conclusion of intelligent system is the fact that at the input, the expert must only set the parameters in either a clear number or a linguistic value. The conclusions and suggestions allow to assess the factors affecting the efficiency of development of tourism industry. The paper identifies four key factors needed to analyze or build the effective tourism development model as follows: government policy; advertising; features of places of temporary stay; quality of tourism services. The impact and weight of factors and sub factors are discussed through studying literature and expert’s survey as well as the use of hierarchy analysis method and fuzzy logic conclusion model to analyze the effectiveness of mentioned factors.

The article studies the issue of a significant reduction in the purchasing power of European and US currencies in the period 2000-2016 against a gradual alignment of domestic prices in the US and Europe. It reveals that the main reason for alignment of the prices in developed countries is the gap between finance and the real sector; producer and consumer sectors prices are mainly correlated with the index move on the stock market, and inflation or deflation in developed economies has virtually no effect on price proportions in national economies. The author argues that current development in the financial sector of developed countries features high levels of accumulated derivatives which significantly affect the stock market and economic sustainability. At the same time, the author points out that futures trading in commodities has a negative impact on the sustainability of the economy as it provokes price fluctuations, and has absolutely no connection with the real needs of domestic producers. Lack of connection between prices and expenses in the real sector in developed economies leads to increased disproportion in income distribution, loss in social resilience of national economies, and lower real living standard in EU countries and the USA.

Although economic sanctions imposed by USA and EU have significantly limited access of the Russian state-owned banks and corporates to the international credit resources, nevertheless, there is a possibility for the private Russian banks and companies to tap the market. First of all this regards global syndicated loans market. The article is based on a thorough analysis of the statistics compiled by the leading international information agencies, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Bank for International Settlements and presents a picture of the current state and structural specifics of the global syndicated loans market. The author also analyzes its main development trends and the Russian borrowers’ part and prospects in this segment of the global debt market. The article has a conclusion that diversification of the global syndicated loans market strengthens due to an active participation of the borrowers from developing countries. Though USA still keeps the leading position in the global syndicated loans market, however one of the main trends is an equalization of the other countries’ shares. In the author’s opinion, in spite of the fact that in 2014-2015 the Russian share in the total volume of the global syndicated loans market reduced, the Russian corporates and banks having an access to the international syndicated loans market will continue to explore this source of funding.

Today the threat of sovereign defaults is relevant and severe enough not only to developing but also to developed countries. In the first half of the 1980s, the global crisis of emerging markets external debt demonstrated for the first time that the debt crisis, as well as currency, banking, securities and other financial crises, can be not only sovereign, but also global and lead to the need for restructuring the entire global financial and monetary system. In 2000-2010, it became evident that developed countries were subject to the debt crisis not only at sovereign level but also at the level of integrated monetary and financial groups. The problem of debt crisis is the most acute in the EU countries. In this context, the analysis of the current state of external debt of the EU countries and possible effects of sovereign defaults in peripheral countries on the euro area seems relevant both from the point of reforming the global financial architecture, as well as in view of the position of Russia in this reform. The article considers the following issues: classification of modern defaults, restructuring of the external debt, default dependence and exchange rate fluctuations. It also investigates the problems of debt restructuring and tightening of international credit conditions. The author examines the external debt indicators of EU countries and the probability of sovereign defaults in EU peripheral countries as well as considers the debt stability criteria for euro zone economies and analyzes potential consequences of defaults in the EU area for the global financial market.

The article sketches the history of the Malaysian financial system which is a unique two-component system combining conventional and Islamic financial institutions in the banking, insurance and stock market areas. Malaysia was the first state to adopt in 1983 the law “On Islamic Finance”, which allowed in a short time to create a complete financial system based on fair competition and interconnection of two financial models: the traditional loan model and the Islamic model. The author shows an important role of government bodies (in particular, of the Central Bank and the Securities Commission of Malaysia) in the establishment, management and development of the Islamic financial sector and monitoring the integrity of the entire financial system. The author briefly describes characteristics of Islamic finance and Islamic finance products. Currently, Malaysia is an acknowledged leader in Islamic finance, it occupies the first places in terms of number of operations on the Islamic capital markets, in the banking and insurance areas and it continues to set ambitious goals and achieve them; it shows to other states how function the two-component financial system.

The article highlights the basic principles of operation of management tools used today to administer the agglomerations in Brazil.The article considers the system to manage urban agglomerations in the state of Sao Paulo in view to use the positive experience while creating similar management systems to administer agglomerations in the Russian Federation. In addition, it shows the role of the state, regional and municipal authorities in the creation of metropolitan areas (agglomerations), and identifies the mechanisms for funding and inter-municipal cooperation between agglomerations. The institutional management system and implementation of planning functions by the public authorities in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo is of great interest in terms of application of best practice in the Russian conditions. A fundamentally important aspect of the experience of Brazil is the relations between the state and regional authorities and agglomerations. A rather valuable experience for Russia is the availability in the state of Sao Paulo of special governing bodies at both the level of agglomerations and the level of macro-region incorporating several agglomerations. The Brazilian experience can be used in Russia since its management bodies which are being created now will carry out planning, management, coordination, monitoring and control functions in the agglomeration integrating several municipalities.

The article focuses on theoretical issues of the government control in the financial sector, the trends in legislation development, as well as forms and methods of financial monitoring. The recent decade has seen the rapid development of scientific concepts exploring financial control issues. The authors and leading scholars discuss the essence of the concept of “financial monitoring”, its characteristics and classifications. The legal regulation for financial monitoring purposes is rapidly developing along with academic approaches. The article offers a comprehensive review of trends in the development of the financial monitoring institution and genesis of legal regulation. The author suggests ways to improve the financial monitoring legislation. The methodological basis of the article uses the latest achievements in the cognitive theory. The study employed the following methods: general philosophical, systematic, analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, as well as traditional legal methods (formal-logical, comparative legal) and expert estimates. The main conclusion drawn from the results of the study is that there is a need to harmonize the forms and methods of control activities; systematize and unify risk analysis tools applied in the process of government control in the financial sector; amend the regulatory legislation, since financial monitoring is just a kind of government control. The novelty of the paper is in developing proposals towards further development of the financial monitoring institution.

The article considers the problems arising in the course of tax administration. The article studies them with purpose to introduce relevant amendments to the law in the future, as the current tax administration mechanism does not fully meet the criteria of efficiency and the expectations of authorities. It isevident that there are obvious flaws in the existing mechanism of tax administration and they hinder a proper filling of the budget and hamper ensuring the social protection especially needed under crisis conditions. The authors considers the most important problems, i.e. the enforcement mechanism for tax payment, collection of tax arrears, fly-by-night companies, the non-indexing of some economic indicators for tax purposes, insufficient tax deductions, difficulties in the exchange of information between tax and other government bodies, some provisions of legal acts and different authors’ views related to the research topic. Amendments to tax law provisions would update the Russian tax system and result in more efficient filling of the budget and higher life quality in Russia.

The article considers theoretical issues related to government control (supervision) within public administration system, as well as trends in the development of legislation related to the concept of government control. The article analyzes the terms “government control”, “administrative supervision” and “state control (supervision)” in the context of public administration theory and administrative law. The article describes the purpose and stages of control and supervisory activities of government bodies based on the case study in the economic relations sphere. The author substantiates legislative recognition of the concept of “state control (supervision)” in the modern Russian supervisory legislation. The methodological basis of the article uses the latest achievements in the cognitive theory. The study employed general philosophical methods, theoretical methods (dialectics, comparative method, systematic analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, observation, and modeling), traditional legal methods (formal logic), as well as the method of expert estimates, etc. The main conclusion drawn from the results of study is the confirmation of legislative recognition of the concept of “state control (supervision)” which combines the external government control with elements of administrative supervision, particularly when concerning administrative coercive measures. The novelty of the paper is in introducing the model based on concepts, objectives and functions of government control (supervision) in view to further develop control and supervisory legislation within the system of public administration.

Based on the analysis of regulatory legal acts governing the activities of the Russian Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation, as well as on the information from the official websites of the mentioned agency and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the article considers the issues of cooperation between control and audit and law enforcement agencies in view to subject the offenders to administrative sanctions. The authors reveal the aspects related to the amount of damage and scope of administrative violations in the economic sphere, including the budgetary area. It is noted that currently such breaches cause significant material damage and account for about 7.5% of the budget expenditures. The authors stress that it is unacceptable in the situation of budget deficit and strict austerity. First, the main real problem in organization of cooperation and interaction between the control and audit and internal affairs agencies involved in prevention, suppression and detection of offenses is the lack of a regulatory legal act which would establish such an arrangement for cooperation. Second, there is a problem related to the fact that the employees of internal affairs bodies are not authorized for functions of revealing administrative violations in the economic sphere. The authors believe that a better use of the potential of interaction between the law enforcement bodies and the Audit Chamber of Russia may help solve the identified problems.

The author shares her experience of training the students of the law faculty on the theme “Agreement on uncompensated use (loan)”. Many lecturers do not pay due attention to this topic, considering it as archaic in the market relations conditions. Indeed, the loan agreements are often categorized as fiduciary transactions. Therefore, the lecturer must arrange activities in a way to show not only the relevance of loans for family or friendly relations but also to bring compelling arguments of its effectiveness while carrying out business or other income-generating activities. At the same time, it should be noted that the students already possess the basics of legal knowledge, but still have poorly competencies in analysis of special norms and their practical application. For this purpose, the article provides a brief historical investigation into the Agreement on the uncompensated use of property, reviews its concept and elements, shows its relationship with adjacent types of transactions, and identifies some problems linked to the use of the loan agreement under market conditions. In closing, the author formulates the questions to help students improve their skills. The article might be of interest to teachers, post-graduates and students studying the second part of the civil law.