2014 Issue №3

This article considers the tariff policy issues serving as the focus of economic discussions, since their solution has a profound effect on the opportunities of the country’s economic development. The tariff policy problems impair the efficiency and competitiveness of national business and lower living standards. The government declares its readiness to limit the growth of tariffs, which, however, suggests “manual operation” and stopgap measures. The author emphasizes the need to reconsider the methodology and principles of public tariff policy.

This article argues that the globalisation of markets and the transition to the information society requires the management of modern organisations to develop new solutions and approaches to management. The development of network society suggests a transition to management in the conditions of growing market turbulence and interdependence of market actors. Therefore, the ability of managers to align the diverse interests of stakeholders — groups, organizations, and individuals that affect or may be affected by the organization's actions — appears to be crucial for its success. It raises a number of management issues, which require resolution both in theory and practice. One of the most urging and acute problems is that of aligning stakeholders' interests in interfirm networking.

This article considers the issues of trust in banks in terms of the rationality of clients’ behavior and behavioural economy. The author’s empirical study of 370 owners of small and microfirms located in the Warmian-Masurian voivodeship suggests that approximately 69 % of the respondents prefer the services of Polish banks (or those dominated by Polish capital) and 10.1 % prefer banks with foreign capital. The rest of the respondents (20.9 %) have no particular opinion on the subject.

The authors present a methodology for assessing the competitiveness of municipalities on the basis of an integrated approach. The validity of the method of integrated assessment of the competitiveness of municipalities is demonstrated in the case of the Kaliningrad region. The authors use a complex of statistical data on the condition of economy and major spheres of human activity in municipalities. The results of the assessment can be applied by the authorities in solving the urgent problems of development of subregional entities.

This article analyses the need for, and barriers to, the replacement of fixed assets for enterprises. The author presents a business model of renovation funds for the replacement of enterprises’ fixed assets based on the optimal ratio between an increase in depreciation expense and growth in the expected revenue from an opportune technological upgrade. Special attention is paid to the integration of the innovative mechanism of depreciation charges and savings in regulating the depreciation policy in Russian enterprises

An entrepreneur is regularly faced with the problem of reducing potential economic risks; however, the assessment of risk hedging effect is often complicated. This article presents a typology of economic risks and a methodology for commodity risk hedging. The author proposes a model of open position hedging and introduces the problem of presenting hedging results