Ceremonial science: The state of Russian economics seen through the lens of the work of ‘Doctor of Science’ candidates

The paper investigates the current status of economic research in Russia using a previously unexplored dataset of Russian ‘Doctor of Science’ (Dr.Sc.) theses. The Dr.Sc. degree is a postdoctoral qualification necessary for career advancement at most Russian universities. By examining the Dr.Sc. theses, we are able to provide a systematic overview of ‘average’ scientific standards in Russia, particularly at mass universities, at which most administrators and bureaucrats are trained. We show that the level of integration into the international scientific community in Russian economics remains low. Moreover, we obtain a picture of mostly ‘ceremonial’ science. The researchers combine references to ‘classical’ research, formal methods, and practical application merely as an instrument for presenting the argument in a more ‘scientific’ way.     

Identifying influential user communities on the social network

Nowadays social network services have been popularly used in electronic commerce systems. Users on the social network can develop different relationships based on their common interests and activities. In order to promote the business, it is interesting to explore hidden relationships among users developed on the social network. Such knowledge can be used to locate target users for different advertisements and to provide effective product recommendations. In this paper, we define and study a novel community detection problem that is to discover the hidden community structure in large social networks based on their common interests. We observe that the users typically pay more attention to those users who share similar interests, which enable a way to partition the users into different communities according to their common interests. We propose two algorithms to detect influential communities using common interests in large social networks efficiently and effectively. We conduct our experimental evaluation using a data set from Epinions, which demonstrates that our method achieves 4–11.8% accuracy improvement over the state-of-the-art method.     

俄罗斯标准化改革历程引发的思考

本论文对俄罗斯在标准化改革进程中发布的《俄联邦标准化法》、《俄联邦技术调节法》、《全国标准化体制发展构想》等几个法律文件的产生背景及其主要内容进行了分析研究,总结了俄罗斯标准化政策改革产生的影响及其经验教训,并提出俄罗斯标准化改革历程对我国的启示。     

Corruption: Theory and evidence from the Russian Federation

In this paper, we provide theory and evidence on the problem of corruption in the Russian Federation. Our theoretical model indicates that in the presence of official corruption, the numbers of tax inspection (collection) employees could be inversely related to per capita tax collection. Our empirical analysis supports our theoretical model, shedding light on one of the most intractable problems in the Russian Federation.     

Exploring the social influence of the Kaggle virtual community on the M5 competition

One of the most significant differences of M5 over previous forecasting competitions is that it was held on Kaggle, an online platform for data scientists and machine learning practitioners. Kaggle provides a gathering place, or virtual community, for web users who are interested in the M5 competition. Users can share code, models, features, and loss functions through online notebooks and discussion forums. Here, we study the social influence of this virtual community on user behavior in the M5 competition. We first research the content of the M5 virtual community by topic modeling and trend analysis. Further, we perform social media analysis to identify the potential relationship network of the virtual community. We study the roles and characteristics of some key participants who promoted the diffusion of information within the M5 virtual community. Overall, this study provides in-depth insights into the mechanism of the virtual community’s influence on the participants and has potential implications for future online competitions.     

New models for exhaustible resource development

Minerals sector firms have joined other industries in going green, and some have used the language of sustainable development in the context of the relationship between industry, environment and community. Because of its historical practices of causing severe land disturbance, water pollution and ecosystem disruption, many have thought the concept of ‘sustainable mining’ an oxymoron. Within the context of trying to find the ‘best’ models for minerals development in the fledgling Russian democracy (specifically in Western Siberia), however, we discovered a number of possibilities for creating at least a more sustainable mining sector. This paper presents in summary form some interim results from our work on sustainable development in the extractive hydrocarbon economies of Western Siberia. We identify practices along three dimensions of sustainability – environment, community and labor – and briefly discuss the implications of these practices for Western Siberia.     

Business at the margins? Business interests in edge urban politics

The issue of the organization, role and influence of business interests in urban politics at the edge of major cities is one that is overdue for investigation. This article provides an initial and empirically oriented investigation of the organization, role and influence of business interests in edge urban politics in Europe. We present findings from five members of a European network of self‐styled ‘edge cities’. Following the now extensive debate in academic literature regarding the applicability of US concepts such as growth machines and urban regimes to the European setting, we draw attention to a diversity of business involvement in urban politics at the edge of Europe’s capital cities. This diversity does include instances that, despite the very different ‘macro‐necessities’ structuring edge urban politics in Europe, approximate to these concepts. Moreover, the diversity apparent in edge urban business politics raises several important questions for future research on urban governance. Namely, the complex connection between the local dependence of business and the organization of its interests; the ‘jumping of scales’ by locally dependent edge urban actors, and the sometimes neglected articulation of business interests with party political organization.     

Capacity utilization of the Kazakhstani firms and the Russian financial crisis: A panel data analysis

This paper examines the evolution of capacity utilization for Kazakhstani enterprises over a 7 year period. Three main theoretical propositions are tested through panel data regressions. The results show that the Russian financial crisis (August 1998) substantially reduced capacity utilization throughout 1999 and that only from 2000 onwards did enterprises recover from the crisis. Moreover, the Russian financial crisis led to a permanent change in enterprises’ behavior, in that only after the crisis enterprises became responsive to market signals. Finally, we also find evidence of a differential impact of the Russian financial crisis for different enterprise characteristics, including ownership, size, sector and location.     

The success and failure of policy-implanted inter-firm network initiatives: motivations,processes and structure

This paper examines the processes and causes of inter-firm network success and failure, defined in terms of the ability of networks to become a sustained and valued form of business activity for their members. The paper examines four different case study network initiatives: (1) a failed informal ‘new entrepreneurs' network’ (2) a successful informal ‘local cluster group’ (3) a failed formal ‘defence contractors' network’ and (4) a successful formal ‘small-firm technology group’. It is shown that networks in business are often consciously developed and maintained by those managing directors who have recognized the importance of cooperative activities for achieving competitive advantage for their companies. The best network support consisted of brokers who are able to mix and overlap the ‘hard’ business and ‘softer’ social interests of participants. The case studies indicate that it is formal groups that are the most potent form of inter-firm network, but that it is through an initially informal structure that they are best facilitated. It is concluded that both economic and social rationalities are at play in the motivation of firms to join networks, and that their success is closely connected to pre-existing commonality between members.     

Multivariate subset autoregressive modelling with zero constraints for detecting ‘overall causality’

The necessary and sufficient condition to test for ‘overall causality’, i.e., the presence of Granger- causality and instantaneous causal relations, in a bivariate and trivariate autoregressive model with recursive form is discussed. It is argued that the conventional AR model (the reduced form AR) is a more straightforward and effective means of testing for ‘overall causality’. To detect instanta- neous causality it is proposed to select the best subset system in a residual regression system in conjunction with model selection criteria. The Canadian money-income-bank rate system is re-examined in this way and by using a previously proposed algorithm we identify the optimum multivariate subset AR with constraints to detect whether there is ‘overall causality’ in that system.     

Talent management in Russian companies: domestic challenges and international experience

The study investigates talent management practices in Russian and foreign companies and their influence on a company's performance. In our work, foreign companies are foreign-owned companies (multinational or global) that operate in the Russian market and their headquarters are located outside the Russian Federation. Attention is paid to the analysis of the factors that support talent management implementation. As the results of the research are based on a comparative analysis of differences and peculiarities in talent practices in Russian and foreign companies, the paper explores and provides a number of ideas and conclusions about talent management elaboration, realization and talent practices improvement in the Russian context. Our data show that talent management practices are influenced by a number of factors that are different, in parts, in Russian and foreign companies. Supplementary analysis also suggests that the positive connection between talent management efforts and a company's performance can be found.     

A dominant archetype of the HRM system in Russian industrial companies in post-recession times

Russian human resource management (HRM) practices remain durable even with the onslaught of economic change and exposure to global HRM practices and international competition. Based on survey results of 201 CEOs of domestic industrial companies located in central regions of Russia we identify the resilient archetype of Russian HRM system. Even companies that have achieved high levels of profitability or those that engage in innovations continue to practice retrograde HRM techniques left over from an earlier era. We are able to identify strategic misfits that are a direct result of the continuation of rigid HRM system that prevents the development of an organizational climate to support innovative or dynamic firms.     

浅析对俄矿产资源开发领域俄语译员应具备的基本能力和素质

为实施国家"走出去"战略,许多中国公司到俄罗斯境内寻找矿产资源开发项目,为了提高该领域内从业的俄语译员的能力和素质,本文从夯实语言基础、学习专业知识、了解俄联邦法律法规等诸方面做了简要的分析。     

A game-theoretic approach to the division of profits from economic land development

The present paper analyzes a very simple class of land-development games in which m developers individually seek to rent k contiguous land units from a set of n contiguous landowners. A notion of ‘admissible allocations’ is introduced to uniquely identify the set of ‘positive-profit participants’. Due to the contiguity of land, some land rents are seen to be positive even though the ‘bid rent’ for the land is zero.     

Weird Exoskeletons: Propositional Politics and the Making of Home in Underground Bucharest

The article explores the politics of life underground in Bucharest, Romania. It focuses on a tunnel passing under Bucharest's central train station, where a community of drug users and so‐called ‘homeless’ have made a long‐standing home, using a space that many others considered uninhabitable. Relying on extensive ethnographic observations and interviews undertaken within the tunnels, the article traces and illustrates the socio‐material entanglements characterizing life underground. It frames this assemblage of bodies, veins, syringes, substances and various relationships of power and affect, as a ‘propositional politics’ of home and life at the margins. Such a politics speaks of drug addiction and extreme marginalization, but also of a sense of belonging, reciprocal trust and care. In tracing such a politics, the article does not aim to romanticize the status of home in the underground or to treat it as the marginal antithesis of normative homeliness, but to reveal the ways in which an affirmative, self‐grounding politics of home emerges from the immanence of tunnel life within the fabric of the city. As such, the article contributes to debates around homing practices in conditions of uninhabitability and proposes a radical approach to the politics of life at the margins in the contemporary urban.     

Whither the Japanese employment system? The position of the Japan Employers’ Federation

This article analyses a policy of the Japanese Employers’ Federation regarding the ‘desired direction’ of the Japanese employment system. The analysis shows that the Federation in a number of respects advocates radical change, but also that the overall position regarding the relationship between continuity and change is of an ambiguous or unresolved character.     

What is the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work?

The ongoing confusion about the meaning of ‘talent’ within the world of work is hindering the establishment of widely accepted talent management theories and practices. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on talent management by offering an in-depth review of the talent concept within the specific context of the world of work, and proposing a framework for its conceptualization. We group different theoretical approaches to talent into ‘object’ (i.e., talent as natural ability; talent as mastery; talent as commitment; talent as fit) versus ‘subject’ approaches (i.e., talent as all people; talent as some people) and identify dynamics existing within and between them, as well as implications for talent management theory and practice. Finally, we discuss different avenues for further research aimed at developing the talent—and consequently, the talent management—construct further.     

Good Analytical Research

The purpose of this commentary is to address the issues raised by Ohlson from the point of view of analytical accounting research. The aim is not only to provide some input to young researchers who are going to publish good research using analytical methods, but also to give some hints to help users of analytical accounting research to understand and interpret the findings of this type of research. Ohlson has taken on a task of identifying a set of critical factors which are likely to lead to successful research. Good research is defined as research that makes an impression. Thus, it is not enough to get the research published – not even in a premier journal. The research should have an impact, the community should learn something. As Ohlson notes, there is enough ‘ordinary’ research. In my view this is the right attitude. Short-term optimization is also widespread in the research community and that is not what we should strive for. With the objective in place, I will continue to analyze the question in relation to analytical research. I start out discussing the aim of analytical research by providing a few examples of good models. The first is the Feltham-Ohlson model and the second is the agency model. Both are simple and elegant models dealing with difficult issues. The analysis proceeds to characterize good models. A good model is a simple model that zooms in on the problem under scrutiny. It is a ‘minimal’ model that contains the problem and nothing outside the problem. I then proceed to characterize good research in an analytical framework. This is research that tackles a problem that is of interest to the users and the researcher. In this process I also identify current notable analytical research. Finally, I contrast this to the recommendations of Ohlson.     

Listen carefully: transgender voices in the workplace

Abstract

We find that only 17% of FTSE 100 company websites refer directly to transgender (‘trans’) individuals, illustrating the extent to which trans voices are unheard in the workplace. We propose that these voices are missing for a number of reasons: voluntary silence to protect oneself from adverse circumstances; the subsumption of trans voices within the larger ‘LGBT’ community; assimilation, wherein many trans voices become affiliated with those of their post-transition gender; multiple trans voices arising from diversity within the transgender community; and limited access to voice mechanisms for transgender employees. We identify the negative implications of being unheard for individual trans employees, for organizational outcomes, and for business and management scholarship, and propose ways in which organizations can listen more carefully to trans voices. Finally, we introduce an agenda for future research that tests the applicability of the theoretical framework of invisible stigma disclosure to transgender individuals, and calls for new theoretical and empirical developments to identify HRM challenges and best practices for respecting trans employees and their choices to remain silent or be heard.     

Critical social science and emancipation: II,development and application

How can industrial relations scholars engage with practice while remaining critical? Part I argued that a notion of real interests establishes the grounds for action. This notion can be developed in terms of differing dimensions of interests. These dimensions are illustrated using concrete examples. The dimensions do not provide direct answers in specific instances; personal judgement remains essential. But they provide some tools for thinking about these issues. They also help to identify the conditions under which intervention is unproblematic and hence where institutional reform in industrial relations and ‘uncritical management studies’ more generally can be acceptable from a critical point of view.