The transition to an innovative development path is impossible without a targeted industrial policy, which is a fundamental condition for the formation of an innovative type of economy. Regional industrial policy is the link between the federal industrial policy and the development strategy of a particular enterprise. The aim of the master's work is to develop a methodological approach to assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of regional industrial policy. Various points of view on the concept of industrial policy and the feasibility of its implementation for the Russian economy are considered. The analysis of the prospects and problems of the development of the industrial complex is carried out, the dynamics of the main indicators of industrial development are considered, the factors influencing the decrease in its competitiveness are identified. Sources of research include regulations, official documents of social and economic development, data from the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, articles from scientific journals, reviews and ratings of international organizations, and other sources. In the dissertation, a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of state industrial policy of the regions of the Russian Federation was developed and directions for increasing its effectiveness were formed. This methodology is based on a multicriteria approach, the assessment of the effectiveness of the functioning of the industrial complex of the region takes place in several areas and takes into account current trends in socio-economic development. / Переход на инновационный путь развития невозможен без проведения целенаправленной промышленной политики, которая является основополагающим условием формирования экономики инновационного типа. Региональная промышленная политика – это связующее звено между федеральной промышленной политикой и стратегией развития конкретного предприятия. Целью магистерской работы является разработка методического подхода к оценке эффективности реализации региональной промышленной политики. Рассмотрены различные точки зрения на понятие промышленной политики, и целесообразность ее проведения для российской экономики. Проведен анализ перспектив и проблем развития промышленного комплекса, рассмотрена динамика основных показателей промышленного развития, выделены факторы, влияющие на снижение его конкурентоспособности. Источники исследования включают в себя нормативные акты, официальные документы социально-экономического развития, данные Федеральной службы государственной статистики РФ, статьи научных журналов, обзоры и рейтинги международных организаций, и другие источники. В диссертации разработана методика оценки эффективности государственной промышленной политики регионов РФ и сформированы направления по повышению ее эффективности. В основе данной методики лежит многокритериальный подход, оценка эффективности функционирования промышленного комплекса региона происходит по нескольким направлениями и учитывает современные тенденции социально-экономического развития.

Актуальность данной работы заключается в поиске конкурентоспособ-ной стратегии развития отечественных авиакомпаний путем трансформации бизнес-модели для увеличения прибыли и снижения затрат. В результате, находясь в жесткой конкуренции, многие авиакомпании отходят от канонов классической и бюджетной бизнес-моделей. Объектом исследования является авиакомпания ПАО «Аэрофлот». Предметом исследования являются направления трансформация эле-ментов бизнес-модели авиаперевозчика для формирования конкурентоспо-способной стратегии развития. В связи с этим цель выпускной квалификационной работы – оценить, позволяет ли предпринимаемая трансформация бизнес-модели крупнейшей российской авиакомпании ПАО «Аэрофлот» создать конкурентоспособную стратегию развития в условиях глобальной конкуренции. Были получены следующие выводы: Представлена бизнес-модель как современный инструмент проектирования конкурентоспособной стратегии развития; Выявлены типы существующих бизнес-моделей, используемых авиакомпаниями, и определены ключевые аспекты каждой бизнес-модели; Типологизированы действующующая бизнес-модель авиакомпании ПАО «Аэрофлот»; Оценена эффективность бизнес-модели авиакомпании в средней и долгосрочной перспективе с точки зрения создания конкурентоспособной стратегии на разных промежутках планирования. / The relevance of this work lies in the search for a competitive strategy for the development of domestic airlines by transforming the business model to increase profits and reduce costs. As a result, being in fierce competition, many airlines are deviating from the canons of classic and low-cost business models. The object of the research is the airline PJSC "Aeroflot". The subject of the research is the direction of transformation of elements of the air carrier's business model to form a competitive development strategy. In this regard, the goal of the final qualification work is to assess whether the ongoing transformation of the business model of the largest Russian airline, PJSC Aeroflot, makes it possible to create a competitive development strategy in the context of global competition. The following conclusions were obtained: - The business model is presented as a modern tool for designing a competitive development strategy; - Identified types of existing business models used by airlines and identified key aspects of each business model; - The current business model of the airline PJSC Aeroflot was typologized; Evaluated the effectiveness of the airline's business model in the medium and long term in terms of creating a competitive strategy at different planning intervals.

Российская Федерация является одним из ведущих мировых производителей стали. Металлургическое производство в России выросло на 2,6%, занимала четвертое место млн т пропустив вперед Китай, Японию, Индию, опередила США по сравнению с 2019 годом. Цель магистерской диссертации состоит в поиске направлений повышения конкурентоспособности промышленного на внешнем рынке, на примере ПАО «Трубная Металлургическая Компания». В частности была проведена оценка финансово-экономической деятельности и анализ международная конкурентоспособность. Анализ финансово-экономической деятельности ПАО «ТМК» позволил выявить в контексте повышения конкурентоспособности сильные и слабые стороны предприятия. К сильным сторонам можно отнести: соответствие показателей ликвидности нормативным значениям, т. е. предприятие в состоянии в срок рассчитываться по краткосрочным обязательствам; хорошая финансовая устойчивость; рентабельность продукции. К слабым сторонам можно отнести: значительную зависимость от кредиторов по причине недостатка собственного капитала; отрицательную динамику изменения собственного капитала, при том, что активы существенно увеличились. Выявлены основные факторы, оказывающие влияние на деятельность компании в сравнении с основными конкурентами Tenaris LLC и Evraz, далее выделены проблемы и очерчены контуры их решения в контексте повышения конкурентоспособности компании. Для дальнейшего развития компании и повышения ее конкурентоспособности на российском и зарубежном рынках необходимо решения таких ключевых проблем, как: необходимость повышения степени доступа к внешним рынкам и производственной гибкости предприятия. Одним из направлений повышения конкурентоспособности для ПАО «ТМК» и повышения доступности внешних рынков может стать объединение усилий с одной из компаний-конкурентов. Другим направлением повышающее конкурентоспособность, является наращивание коммуникационной активности на внешнем рынке за счет улучшения интернет-магазина TMK eTrade. / The Russian Federation is one of the world's leading steel producers. Metallurgical production in Russia grew by 2.6%, ranked fourth in million tons, leaving China, Japan, India ahead, ahead of the United States compared to 2019. The purpose of the master's thesis is to find ways to increase the competitiveness of industrial in the foreign market, as exemplified by PJSC "Pipe Metallurgical Company". In particular, an assessment of financial and economic activities and an analysis of international competitiveness were carried out. Analysis of the financial and economic activities of PJSC "TMK" made it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise in the context of increasing competitiveness. The strengths include: compliance of liquidity indicators with standard values, ie, the company is able to settle on time for short-term liabilities; good financial stability; profitability of products. Weaknesses include: significant dependence on creditors due to lack of equity capital; negative dynamics of changes in equity capital, despite the fact that assets have increased significantly. The main factors influencing the company's activities in comparison with the main competitors Tenaris LLC and Evraz are identified, the problems are further highlighted and the contours of their solution in the context of increasing the company's competitiveness are outlined. For the further development of the company and increasing its competitiveness in the Russian and foreign markets, it is necessary to solve such key problems as: the need to increase the degree of access to foreign markets and the production flexibility of the enterprise. One of the ways to increase competitiveness for PJSC TMK and increase the accessibility of foreign markets may be joining efforts with one of the competing companies. Another area of increasing competitiveness is increasing communication activity in the foreign market by improving the TMK eTrade online store.

This study has conducted an OLS-regression to examine the relationship between gasoline and crude oil prices in the Swedish petroleum market, focusing on potential asymmetry, where gasoline prices respond more quickly to increases in crude oil prices compared to decreases. Additionally, we examine the impact of individual petroleum stations' competitiveness on this asymmetry, applying the distance to the nearest station as a measure of competitiveness. To explore this relationship, we utilise two datasets: one comprises unique user-generated data for individual gas stations spanning the period from 2019 to 2022, while the other includes recommended prices covering the period from 2001 to 2020. The findings provide some evidence supporting the existence of asymmetry, indicating the presence of inefficiencies within the market. However, no evidence suggesting larger asymmetry concerning individual competitiveness was discovered. Overall, this research offers novel insights into the dynamics of the Swedish fuel market in recent years.

This thesis examines the impact of environmental regulations on trade competitiveness for South Asian countries. The study further investigates whether South Asian countries have become a pollutive haven of industrial exports to OECD countries during 1984-2004. The thesis also analyses whether tariff walls created by the governments to offsets stringent environmental regulations negatively affect pollutive industrial trade flows. This study has identified gaps in the literature after critically reviewing both competing trade theories and empirical literature surrounding the subject. Firstly, most of the empirical literature on the subject has focused on developed countries while ignoring less developed regions like South Asia. Second, several studies concluded trade competitiveness impact of environmental policy following a single estimation method when results are sensitive to the choice of the method used. Hence, for robust results, cross-methods analysis was imperative. Thirdly, the empirical literature on the subject focused on most pollutive industries and ignored the research on somewhat pollutive and least pollutive sectors as well as comparative analysis between those industries. This study has contributed to the literature by filling these gaps. Following the neo-classical theory, the central hypothesis of this thesis is that environmental regulations negatively affect different categories of pollutive industrial export competitiveness. By using the highest dis-aggregated ISIC level trade data and incorporating other socio-economic variables, this study has deployed comparative advantage trade models by Balassa (1965), competitiveness indicator by XU (1999), and bilateral RCA model by Grether and de Melo (2004). The study used the gravity model to control for un-observed effects over time on trade flows while capturing environmental regulations impact on pollutive industrial trade competitiveness. Accordingly, to avert endogeneity/data sensitivity issues and to ascertain robust estimates, the present research has among others computed Random Effect and Newey-West standard error models. The statistical modeling results show that while India gained trade competitiveness in most pollutive industrial trade, Pakistan and Bangladesh lost their trade competitiveness in the same category. The research finds evidence of most pollutive industries of South Asian countries increasing their bilateral RCAs and exports with OECD countries and reset of the world. A comparative analysis between most pollutive to less pollutive industries showed a lack of support for any systematic specialization patterns of trade for South Asia during 1984-2004. Nonetheless, this study findings based on gravity modeling clearly depicted a statistically significant negative impact of environmental regulations on total exports, most pollutive exports, and less pollutive industrial exports for South Asia and OECD countries. This study rejected the pollution haven hypothesis between South Asian pollutive industrial exports with OECD. It further concluded that tariff barriers created by countries to offsets environmental regulation costs would prove counterproductive to competitiveness. At the policy level, instead of lobbing for protectionism to balance out environmental regulatory costs, the governments in both developed and developing countries need to focus on forming better environmental policies fostering both competitiveness and environmental quality. Also, trade-offs between environmental regulations and competitiveness are challenging situations for South Asia and OECD countries. Therefore, sustainable production and trade policies combined with innovative and cost-effective environmental policies are needed to accomplish environmental gains and competitiveness.

No description available.

Abstract Background: The rapid expansion of the service industry worldwide over the past decades has intensified competition among service providers. In response to this competition, service industries are increasingly turning to outsourcing decisions to leverage opportunities and gain a competitive edge. This includes outsourcing both core and non-core competencies to better position themselves against rivals. However, while outsourcing presents numerous opportunities within the service industry landscape, organizations also encounter significant challenges. Thus, there is a pressing need for a comprehensive framework to identify and address both the potential opportunities and challenges associated with outsourcing. This study aims to provide a thorough overview of how the opportunities and challenges of strategic outsourcing in Service Supply Chains influence the competitiveness of organizations across various service industries with a comprehensive framework and model to enhance the competitiveness within Service Supply Chains. Purpose: Fulfil the previous research gaps related to outsourcing within SSC domain by exploring how the opportunities and challenges of strategic outsourcing in Service Supply Chains influence the competitiveness within service industries in Sweden. Method: The research adopts inductive approaches, utilizing qualitative data collection methods, including open-ended interviews following a grounded theory approach. The empirical findings contribute to the development of a comprehensive model, offering insights into both mitigating challenges and capitalizing on opportunities in outsourcing within Service Supply Chains. Conclusion: The study addresses the organizational focus on outsourcing within Service Supply Chains, highlighting how strategic outsourcing in Service Supply Chains influences organizations' competitiveness across various service industries in Sweden. Organizations outsource both core and non-core competencies to meet customer demands and remain competitive. While outsourcing presents opportunities for revenue generation and other benefits such as access to resources, it also brings challenges such as additional costs, quality issues, and delivery delays, impacting competitiveness negatively. To align with organizational goals, approaches are employed to mitigate these challenges and capitalize on opportunities. The research provides a comprehensive framework, considering agency theory perspectives, to navigate outsourcing opportunities and challenges. It identifies organizational and supplierlevel factors that influence competitiveness in Service Supply Chains by mitigating challenges and capitalizing on opportunities.

The global economy is continually evolving, with new market trends constantly emerging. There appears to be one exception, globalization remains a dominant and consistent trend, even among SMEs. Numerous SMEs enter international markets, encountering diverse business standards and cultures, and must align their local strategies with global responsibilities. They need to consider their position in the global economy and their impact on all stakeholders, from actors in the supply chain to citizens in the countries where they operate. Corporate Social Responsibility has become an increasingly important approach for businesses to understand and improve their global impact and competitiveness by adapting both internal and external strategies. Therefore, this thesis investigates how internationalization impacts CSR initiatives for SMEs when expanding across European borders and how these practices contribute to companies' long-term success. Moreover, the emphasis on culture is investigated through Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the CAGE distance framework, to understand the challenges and opportunities related to cultural differences, along with other distances between countries encountered while internationalizing. Furthermore, CSR is investigated based on popular cluster definitions and approaches suggested by the EU and the UN. For the simplicity of this thesis, SMEs originating from Sweden and Germany have been the focal point of this research.  For this thesis, primary and secondary data have been collected and will be analyzed using a qualitative research approach. Secondary data comprising theoretical literature was collected and analyzed from numerous databases. Primary data was gathered through Semi-structured interviews with four specialists employed at SMEs and one expert working with local and global SMEs regularly. This data collection will be analyzed to suggest successful CSR approaches related to the internationalization within Europe.  This research concludes that SMEs must understand their global responsibilities to stay competitive in the international market as CSR will become an inevitable part of a company's business strategy. Companies prioritize different aspects of CSR based on their size and industry and adjust these strategies in line with market trends and the conditions of their respective industries. The extent to which companies can integrate CSR into their core values and business plans depends on the resources available to them.

Firm competitiveness is no longer an industry-specific or regional phenomenon, but it has evolved to have global impacts. The increase in intensity of regional and international competition, ineffectiveness of regional development policies and models has led to the focus on regional economic development. In particular, a focus on industrial cluster promotion, both in developed and developing countries has proliferated owing to their increased success as a sustainable source of economic growth and development. Industrial clusters are a geographically proximate group of inter-connected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities. In addition to industrial cluster formation, firms can also maintain competitiveness through internationalisation. Internationalisation ensures that firms are able to serve many markets from existing manufacturing bases without having to establish production plants in other markets. It reduces the over dependence on domestic markets and business risks associated with dependence on one market. This study identified industrial clusters for the North West Province (NWP) of South Africa using the Structural Path Analysis (SPA) method, as a strategy to enhance firm competitiveness. It contributes to the methods to identify industrial clusters by applying the Power of Pull (PoP) method to prioritise the number of clusters for the NWP. The ten identified industrial clusters and their respective PoP rankings were (i) communication; (ii) real estate; (iii) grain mill, bakery and animal feed products; (iv) building and other construction; (v) basic metal products; (vi) other food products; (vii) agriculture; (viii) non-metallic mineral products; (ix) trade; and (x) dairy products. This study identified the most important centres, in terms of the most contributions to output, employment and profit at the local municipal level across all the ten identified clusters. These centres were Madibeng, Rustenburg, City of Matlosana, Mafikeng and Ditsobotla. This indicates that efforts to stimulate cluster formation in this sector should be focused in these regions. This study also determined whether any association exists between the identified industrial clusters‟ products and services and the realistic export opportunities according to the DSM for products and the DSM for services. Four of the six product clusters were found to have REOs according to the DSM for products, namely grain mill, bakery and animal feeds products, agriculture, non-metallic mineral products and the basic metal products clusters. In terms of services, only two service clusters, namely communication and building and other construction services clusters, were found to have with REOs according to the DSM for services. This study further demonstrated the effects of industrial cluster formation on the regional economy, using social accounting matrix (SAM) multipliers. SAM multiplier analysis was used to demonstrate the output, employment, employment income and gross domestic product (GDP) supported by cluster formation for the NWP. The supported activity for the agriculture and trade clusters was less than the actual activity. The following clusters‟ supported activity was greater than the actual activity; communication; real estate; grain mill, bakery and animal feed products; building and other construction; basic metal products; other food products; non-metallic mineral products; and dairy products. The identified industrial clusters‟ REOs were explored further to provide more details on the products or services identified as having REOs. In addition, the countries to which the identified REOs (products and services) can be exported were discussed. In terms of product clusters identified to have REOs, the export potential values, cell classifications and market accessibility index scores were discussed. In terms of the service clusters identified as having REOs, countries, market access, market openness, import demand and cell classifications were discussed. / PhD (International Trade), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Firm competitiveness is no longer an industry-specific or regional phenomenon, but it has evolved to have global impacts. The increase in intensity of regional and international competition, ineffectiveness of regional development policies and models has led to the focus on regional economic development. In particular, a focus on industrial cluster promotion, both in developed and developing countries has proliferated owing to their increased success as a sustainable source of economic growth and development. Industrial clusters are a geographically proximate group of inter-connected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities. In addition to industrial cluster formation, firms can also maintain competitiveness through internationalisation. Internationalisation ensures that firms are able to serve many markets from existing manufacturing bases without having to establish production plants in other markets. It reduces the over dependence on domestic markets and business risks associated with dependence on one market. This study identified industrial clusters for the North West Province (NWP) of South Africa using the Structural Path Analysis (SPA) method, as a strategy to enhance firm competitiveness. It contributes to the methods to identify industrial clusters by applying the Power of Pull (PoP) method to prioritise the number of clusters for the NWP. The ten identified industrial clusters and their respective PoP rankings were (i) communication; (ii) real estate; (iii) grain mill, bakery and animal feed products; (iv) building and other construction; (v) basic metal products; (vi) other food products; (vii) agriculture; (viii) non-metallic mineral products; (ix) trade; and (x) dairy products. This study identified the most important centres, in terms of the most contributions to output, employment and profit at the local municipal level across all the ten identified clusters. These centres were Madibeng, Rustenburg, City of Matlosana, Mafikeng and Ditsobotla. This indicates that efforts to stimulate cluster formation in this sector should be focused in these regions. This study also determined whether any association exists between the identified industrial clusters‟ products and services and the realistic export opportunities according to the DSM for products and the DSM for services. Four of the six product clusters were found to have REOs according to the DSM for products, namely grain mill, bakery and animal feeds products, agriculture, non-metallic mineral products and the basic metal products clusters. In terms of services, only two service clusters, namely communication and building and other construction services clusters, were found to have with REOs according to the DSM for services. This study further demonstrated the effects of industrial cluster formation on the regional economy, using social accounting matrix (SAM) multipliers. SAM multiplier analysis was used to demonstrate the output, employment, employment income and gross domestic product (GDP) supported by cluster formation for the NWP. The supported activity for the agriculture and trade clusters was less than the actual activity. The following clusters‟ supported activity was greater than the actual activity; communication; real estate; grain mill, bakery and animal feed products; building and other construction; basic metal products; other food products; non-metallic mineral products; and dairy products. The identified industrial clusters‟ REOs were explored further to provide more details on the products or services identified as having REOs. In addition, the countries to which the identified REOs (products and services) can be exported were discussed. In terms of product clusters identified to have REOs, the export potential values, cell classifications and market accessibility index scores were discussed. In terms of the service clusters identified as having REOs, countries, market access, market openness, import demand and cell classifications were discussed. / PhD (International Trade), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014