A Framework for Adopting Collaboration 2.0 Tools for Virtual Group Decision Making

Decision making in virtual teams is gaining momentum due to globalization, mobility of employees, and the need for collective and rapid decision making by members who are in different locations. These factors resulted in a proliferation of virtual team software support tools for decision making, the latest of which is social software (also known as collaboration 2.0), which includes tools such as wikis, blogs, microblogs, discussion forums, and social networking platforms. This paper describes the potential use of collaboration 2.0 software for improving the process and the specific tasks in virtual group decision making. The paper proposes a framework for exploring the fitness between social software and the major activities in the group decision making process and how such tools can be successfully adopted. Specifically, we use a fit-viability model to help assessing whether social software fit a decision task and what organizational factors are important for such tools to be effective. Representative research issues related to the use of such tools are also presented.     

Lending technologies,lending specialization,and minority access to small-business loans

We investigate minority access to small-business loans using a probit model of loan application denial that recognizes two loan types (line-of-credit loans and non-line-of-credit loans) made by two lender types (commercial banks and nonbank financial institutions). We estimate our model on data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. We find evidence consistent with minority equal access to bank credit lines and nonbank non-line-of-credit loans in highly competitive loan markets; in less competitive markets we find evidence consistent with unequal access to these loans. We also find evidence consistent with unequal minority access to bank non-line-of-credit loans, regardless of loan market competitiveness. Our findings differ from previous research which treats small-business loans as a homogenous product and finds evidence consistent with unequal minority access to small-business loans generally. We argue that the existence of multiple small-business lending technologies and loan specialization by lenders account for our findings and demonstrate the need to treat small-business loans as a heterogeneous product when investigating equal access to small-business credit.     

Pricing multi-class network services using the Shapley Value

This paper investigates pricing issues in class-based networks. Classes of packets having lower impatience and longer average delay receive monetary compensations. The inter-class price differential is determined by the inter-class compensations. The paper also presents rules for allocating network resource to each class. The corresponding payoff (disutility share) for each class is driven by the Shapley Value of the associated cooperative game.     

Consequences of the inertial development of the labor potential in the Russian Federation

The inertial trends of the dynamics of balance indices of labor force of the Russian Federation are considered in this article, and their characteristics are given. The main trends behind the increase in the labor potential of the country and the increase in the efficiency of its usage are proposed here. The deficit values of the national labor power at different ratios of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate and labor capacity that can be interpreted as values describing Russia’s economy’s need for international labor power are evaluated.     

Problems of eurozone expansion to the East: Example of Poland

This article presents real and nominal convergence, which defines the conditions of expansion of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union; on the basis of an analysis of the financial and economic problems of Poland, the prospects of its accession to the eurozone are estimated.     

Problems in the creation of an optimal currency zone in the Commonwealth of Independent States

The paper evaluates the features of the Commonwealth of Independent States as a regional economic union of states on the territory of the former Soviet Union. It examines the most noticeable conceptual approaches to the definition of strategy, the directions of CIS development, and the monetary and credit mechanisms of interactions among member states, as well as the feasibility of CIS transformation into an efficient economic union of states.     

Economic analysis of development prospects for air transport in Russia’s sparsely populated regions

This article analyzes the prospects for the development of air transport in remote and inaccessible regions of Russia with a low population density. The influence of the economic and geographical specificity of such regions on the duration and cost of air travel is studied. A complex of organizational and technological solutions and government support measures aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of air carriages for the population of sparsely populated regions is suggested.     

Interregional exchange as a development factor of the cluster structure of a regional economy

This article considers theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the formation of the cluster structure of a regional economy, shows the role of interregional exchange in this process and presents parameter estimates of interregional exchange on the basis of a gravity model (on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan).     

Role of large companies in Russia’s oil and gas complex

The purpose of this article is to reconsider the interaction between major oil and gas companies and the state, which is especially important for modern Russia given its current conditions. General theoretical approaches are presented, as well as calculations of price and financial indicators reflecting the performance of these companies.     

Regional differentiation of coefficients of direct expenditures in input-output symmetric tables

The necessity to develop input-output regional tables on the basis of analysis of available regional technological coefficients and unit costs in physical and monetary terms is argued in this article.