Research into the motives and factors of investment activities of enterprises (by the example of companies in the Volga Federal District)

In the paper, the results of research into the determinants of the incremental investments of companies in the Volga Federal District (based on microeconomic data) are given. The paper is a continuation of the topic raised in the theoretical article of academician A.D. Nekipelov [1] on the motives of a company’s activities in a market economy. In this publication, the applied aspects of the problem are emphasized: on the one hand, the motivations and factors of a company’s activities (growth rates of the value of its fixed assets,noncurrent and total assets) and, on the other hand, an evaluation of the impact on the investment expenditures of factors, such as profitability, financial leverage, lag value of the growth in revenues, credit risk level, age, and the size and activity type of a company. Quantitative evaluations were obtained by using tobit models as applied to a sampling of panel data for 2001–2011 from the 500 largest nonfinancial companies in the Volga Federal District.     

Understanding Social Welfare Capitalism,Private Property,and the Government’s Duty to Create a Sustainable Environment

No one would deny that sustainability is necessary for individual, business, and national survival. How this goal is to be accomplished is a matter of great debate. In this article I will show that the United States and other developed countries have a duty to create sustainable cities, even if that is against a notion of private property rights considered as an absolute. Through eminent domain and regulation, developed countries can fulfill their obligations to current and future generations. To do so, the governments must reject perfectly competitive free market capitalism and the absolute right to private property, and more fully adopt social welfare capitalism as their economic system. The result will be a sustainable society that balances democracy, individual rights and individual flourishing with the community’s flourishing.     

Contracting With Wealth-Constrained Agents

We examine how a project owner optimally selects a project operator and motivates him to deliver an essential noncontractible input (e.g., effort) when potential operators are privately informed about their limited wealth. Truthful revelation of wealth is induced by promising a higher probability of operation and, if necessary, a greater share of realized profit the larger the nonrefundable bond that a potential operator posts. The project owner benefits when total wealth is widely dispersed among potential operators. Under plausible conditions, limited knowledge of wealth is not constraining for the project owner.     

DOCTORAL RESEARCH IN LOGISTICS AND LOGISTICS‐RELATED AREAS: 1992–1998

A total of 317 logistics and logistics‐related dissertations were published in Dissertation Abstracts between 1992 and 1998. Observations about these dissertation abstracts are offered and comparisons made with earlier research studies that examined dissertations published between 1970–1986 and 1987–1991. The number of dissertations published has plateaued although the number of colleges and universities granting doctoral degrees in the area have broadened, with several “new players” entering the arena. Some traditional topics within logistics are being researched to a lesser degree, while others such as supply chain management, general logistics, customer service/satisfaction, international logistics, and human resources/organizational issues, are being examined more frequently.     

The Japanese Crisis — A Case of Strategic Failure?

This paper provides an alternative insight into Japan's current economic problems. We concentrate upon the role played by the economy's central actors, namely Japan's transnational corporations. Since the early 1980's, Japan's transnationals have become dominant players in the global economy, and now have a higher rate of physical investment in new, overseas greenfield sites than their competitors. This has had detrimental consequences for Japan's domestic economy, particularly for small firms who operate in keiretsu networks. This has led to concerns about the 'hollowing out' of Japan's domestic industry raising the possibility of long-term industrial decline and 'strategic failure'.