The Development of Small Entrepreneurship in Russia

Entrepreneurship, Private sector, SME, Transition

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated

Wie in Rußland Märkte entstehen: Vertragsdurchsetzung und Markteintritt

'Der Bericht untersucht die Entwicklung einer neuen Unternehmerschaft im Rußland der späten neunziger Jahre. Er behandelt die Beziehungen der Unternehmer zu ihren Geschäftspartnern und ihre Perzeption der Marktinfrastruktur. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird der Vertragsdurchsetzung und den Schwierigkeiten, die beim Markteintritt entstehen, gewidmet, darüber hinaus werden die von russischen Unternehmern entwickelten Geschäftsstrategien betrachtet. Die Studie basiert auf Datensätzen, die 1997-1998 in zwei Erhebungen unter Managern und Unternehmern in privaten Betrieben gesammelt wurden. Die Erhebungen wurden vom Autor und von einer Forschungsgruppe des Moskauer Zentrums für Politische Technologien (Leitung: I. Bunin) durchgeführt. Das amerikanische Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) hat die Studie finanziert.' (Textauszug)'The paper is aimed to delineate the main trends in the development of new Russian entrepreneurship in the late 1990s. It deals with the relationships of entrepreneurs with their business partners and the market infrastructure. Special attention is given to business contract enforcement and market entry problems. Relevant business strategies developed by Russian entrepreneurs are considered. The analysis is based an data collected in two surveys conducted in 1997-1998 of non-state enterprise managers and entrepreneurs. The surveys have been conducted by the author and research team of the Centre for Political-Technologies (Moscow) (head - I. Bunin). The U.S. Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) funded the research.' (extract

Izlazak iz sjene? Ruske tvrtke na putu prema legalizaciji

Širenje ruskoga domaćeg tržišta ozbiljno je ugroženo time što su brojne vodeće tvrtke još uvijek uključene u sivu ekonomiju. Poznato je da je rusko zakonodavstvo puno suprotnosti, a i previsoki su transakcijski troškovi legalizacije. Ono što je danas novo – a nije tako bilo 1990-ih – jest to što vlasnici tvrtki i vodeći menedžeri razmatraju mogućnosti postupne legalizacije ekonomskih aktivnosti. Istodobno se pojavljuje mišljenje da se legalizacija ne može uspješno postići pukim usvajanjem pozitivnih zakona i snižavanjem poreznih stopa. Ona podrazumijeva korjenite promjene u institucionalnim uvjetima. Ovaj je rad usredotočen na pitanja koji su glavni motivi vodećih tvrtki za legalizaciju, koliko iznose njihovi relativni troškovi poslovanja, kome će koristiti legalizacija u kratkoročnoj i dugoročnoj perspektivi, koje se prepreke moraju ukloniti i koje institucionalne uvjete treba ostvariti za poticanje procesa legalizacije. Posebna se pozornost pridaje odnosima tvrtki s carinskom upravom. Studija se zasniva na dvije serije opširnih razgovora s vlasnicima i najvišim menedžerima ruskih tvrtki koje se bave uvozom trajnih dobara. Prvo je istraživanje provedeno 2001. godine u 14 tvrtki, a drugo 2002. godine u 24 tvrtke. Sve ispitane tvrtke članice su novoosnovanih poslovnih udruženja RATEC i ACORT

THE METHODOLOGY FOR SUBSTANTIATING THE MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT OF A UNIT LOAD WAREHOUSING SYSTEM

The most important objectives of a warehouse system organization design's to substantiate the structure of the materials handling equipment fleet, which directly determines the quality of functioning of the warehouse system in the supply network of industrial enterprises. The complexity of the above objective's preconditioned not only by the existing variety of handling equipment models, but also by a large number of factors affecting the efficiency of the equipment fleet, being determined by the specifics of cargo flows and the space-planning solution of a warehouse. This paper studies the problem of substantiating the optimal number of materials handling equipment units in the composition of various technological groups in a unit load warehouse system. Methodology implies iterative optimization of the equipment quantity according to a criterion of minimization of total aggregate costs caused by equipment maintenance or downtime of transport vehicles with various values of the number of service channels for transport vehicles

How to Persuade the Students to Read Complicated Texts: An Experience Drawn from the Use of Digital Technologies

With the inflow of the new generations of students, university teachers in social sciences and humanities have been challenged by a crisis of textual culture given the students tend to increasingly avoid reading complicated academic texts. In these circumstances, traditional arrangements of seminars and students’ homework are becoming less effective. This paper is aimed at exploring the new capacities for coping with the new critical situation. We address the issue of why we should keep the practices of active reading and how examination of complicated academic texts contribute to the formation of the students’ critical thinking. Both the special literature and personal teaching experience of the author are attracted. Traditional forms of teaching arrangements are analyzed. Then we use an experience of a digital platform to demonstrate the potential ways of resolving the teaching problems. They include active reading dealing with the reflexive work, interactive discussions in the class and in the virtual environment. We also show that additional efforts associated with the use of digital technologies pay back enabling the teacher to control the students’ homework more effectively and provide a more adequate assessment of the educational outcomes

A rational approach to heavy-atom derivative screening

In order to overcome the difficulties associated with the ‘classical’ heavy-atom derivatization procedure, an attempt has been made to develop a rational crystal-free heavy-atom-derivative screening method and a quick-soak derivatization procedure which allows heavy-atom compound identification

Preliminary X-ray analysis of a new crystal form of the Escherichia coli KDO8P synthase

3-Deoxy-d-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate (KDO8P) synthase catalyzes the biosynthesis of an essential component of the lipopolysaccharide of all Gram-negative bacteria. The structure and mechanism of KDO8P synthase are being actively studied as this enzyme represents an important target for antibiotic therapy. The structure of the Escherichia coli KDO8P synthase in cubic crystals (space group I23) has recently been determined and the enzyme shown to be a tetramer of identical subunits. However, this information is challenged by biochemical studies, which suggest that the enzyme behaves in solution as a homotrimer. Here, the preparation and preliminary X-ray analysis of monoclinic crystals of KDO8P synthase are reported. The crystals belong to space group P21, with unit-cell parameters a≃ 50, b≃ 140, c≃ 74 Å, β≃ 105°. The structure of KDO8P synthase in the monoclinic crystal form was determined by molecular replacement, using as a search model one of the subunits of the enzyme in the cubic crystals. A tetramer of KDO8P synthase with 222 local symmetry is also present in the asymmetric unit of the P21 crystals, with a solvent content of 43%. The observation that the same quaternary structure of KDO8P synthase is observed in two different crystal forms belonging to distinct crystal systems (monoclinic and cubic) suggests that a tetramer is the native form of the enzyme

Determination of optimal values for the technical characteristics of construction machinery unit with application of fractional linear programming

Paper covers issues connected to the determination of the technical characteristics of construction machinery unit performing a certain category of work. On the basis of the results of the review and analysis of scientific works concerning the problem under consideration the key disadvantages have been identified for the existing techniques. Optimization model for determination of the technical characteristics of construction machinery unit has been created. Initial form of the model is not linear toward unknown variables but it can be transformed to the linear form that allows application of simplex method for efficient solution of the problem. The created model has been implemented on a practical case – the obtained results indicated the adequacy of the developed tool