Volume 4, Issue 2, 2024

The growing severity of global climate change increases public environmental awareness. As a result, green financing has become a prospective area of financial services that attracts attention of investors, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Green financing means using financial tools and mechanisms to provide financial support for a green and low-carbon economy, as well as to promote environmental protection, sustainable development, and resource efficiency. Green finance not only introduces social capital into the green industry and the green economy, but also optimizes the allocation of social resources and creates new points of economic growth. This article reviews the current state of green financing in China. The authors analyzed the related development processes, defined the key challenges, and proposed some policy ecommendations.

Local markets boost domestic production, encourage regional businesses, improve the local economy, and structure the local economy. They are responsible for property relations, interregional economic links, and distribution of goods and services, which is especially relevant under the current foreign sanctions. This article describes a number of socio-economic indicators that affect local markets in general and construction products in particular. The study sample included local markets for construction products in Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, and Tambov, i.e., the major cities in the Chernozem macroregion, also known as the Black Earth Region. Using the theory and methodology of strategizing, the authors analyzed data from the Federal State Statistics Service and revealed that construction work increased per capita in 2017–2021, which indicates a dynamic development of the local markets. The local markets in Belgorod, Voronezh, Lipetsk, and Kursk specialize in construction products and services. Their main strategic priorities include a prospective expansion of the range and quality of goods in order to meet the demand and satisfy the local communities and business. These local markets strive to overcome infrastructural constraints and increase the availability and quality of market infrastructure in different sectors. They level interregional differentiation, accelerate sustainable socio-economic development, and achieve local provision security. The research results contribute to urban and regional strategizing, as well as the construction industry.

Talent development is a strategic priority of talent management. It engages youth in the implementation of various strategies at different levels. The Kemerovo Region (Kuzbass) has created an entire ecosystem that raises young strategists. Kuzbass Governor Sergei Tsivilev set up the Department or Regional and Industrial Strategizing. Its goal is to promote the strategic guidelines stipulated in long-term plans of regional development, as well as to provide the region with strategic human resources. The Department is a joint project between the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Kemerovo State University. The cooperation agreement was signed on November 7, 2019. In 2020, the Kemerovo State University launched a Master’s Degree program in Economic and Financial Strategy. Along with the Moscow State University and The National University of Science and Technology (MISiS), the Kemerovo State University became one of the three domestic institutions that were the first to start training specialists in strategizing. Professor Vladimir Kvint’s School of Young Strategists is an international academic project that identifies strategically gifted children and develops their strategic thinking. The Kemerovo Region is the current leader in the number of schools that participate in Vladimir Kvint’s School of Young Strategists.

Even under the current foreign sanctions and external restrictions, Russia’s economic policy is aimed at industrial innovations. However, the ongoing digital transformation remains a serious challenge for timber enterprises: in fact, this industry demonstrates one of the lowest rates of digitalization. Digital transformation has both strategic advantages and strategic risks for such enterprises. If major business fails to consider these risks, the outcome can have long-term negative consequences. Effective strategizing of industrial enterprises needs special methods to identify, describe, and analyze strategic risks. The authors identified the strategic risks of digital transformation and summarized tools that could help timber and forestry enterprises to overcome them. The research relied on the theory and methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint. According to this approach, a strategy does not identify problems: its main purpose is to identify opportunities, and opportunities always come with risks. The analysis systematized the general and specific features of ERP-systems and digital platforms as key elements of digital transformation. The article introduces opportunities and risks of digital transformation for timber industry enterprises, which must be taken into account by strategists. It also describes an automated process management model as a means of overcoming the risks.

Professor A.G. Aganbegyan defines a new transport and logistics infrastructure as a key factor of economic growth, welfare, and transformation of Russia’s socio-economic system. This new infrastructure should include two-way highways, high-speed railways, regional airports, and major logistics centers in key transport hubs. Unfortunately, such projects have a very long payback cycle that may last up to 20–25 years. Moreover, the investments may be as high as 3 trillion rubles annually. As a result, transport and logistics suppliers alone cannot support such a large-scale initiative. Domestic logistics is currently going through all the stages from 1PL to 5PL, which places very high requirements on the multimodality of transport and logistics in physical infrastructure, software, and hardware. These processes encourage research cooperation between industries aimed at developing novel interoperable R&D solutions. Russian transport and logistics infrastructure depends heavily on the railway industry: its main operational task is to maintain passenger and cargo traffic, as well as to provide safety. Under the current sanctions, Russian railroads face the challenge of developing and scaling advanced scientific and technical reserves. Technological independence relies on end-to-end production technologies, e.g., artificial intelligence algorithms, digital twins, etc., which impose requirements on data interoperability. This article describes the potential that domestic railway enterprises have for improving commercialization of innovations and technology transfer. The authors used the theory of strategy and the methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint to design several recommendations on how railroad companies may increase their economic motivation to overcome various barriers.

As market competition and information glut keep increasing, effective brands are becoming a valuable intellectual capital. A company brand that conveys a certain meaning can bring the product it advertises to strategic leadership. A strong and competitive brand possesses emotional intelligence that provides it with individuality and exerts psychological impact on consumer behavior. Neuropsychology and neuromarketing are the most relevant strategic tools capable of increasing business sales. However, the emotional impact of commercial brands on customers’ minds and actions remains understudied. The authors used the theory and methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint to identify efficient emotion-affecting tools as part of a brand development strategy. Other methods included analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, and benchmarking. The article describes the key trends in the field of emotional response as a corporate strategic priority and gives some practical recommendations on brand strategizing via emotional impact solutions.

Strategic urbanization needs new theoretical and methodological tools at the current stage of Russia’s territorial development. This article identifies prerequisites for a new approach to urban development based on strategizing the urban competitiveness. Using the general theory of strategy and the methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint, the author studied the socio-economic phenomenon of urban competitiveness. The review of scientific publications involved a narrative bibliographic analysis, which made it possible to determine and classify the key factors of urban competitiveness. By strategizing the urban competitiveness, municipal authorities obtain scientifically based theoretical and methodological foundations for solving various issues of urban development. The review also highlighted urban competitiveness as a socio-economic phenomenon and revealed four groups of factors, i.e., social, economic, infrastructural, and institutional. The main prerequisites for strategizing the urban competitiveness should rely on a comprehensive analysis and forecast of endogenous and exogenous factors, while taking into account the dichotomy of the subject to be strategized. The main directions of strategizing should depend on the system of unique competitive advantages of the urban settlement in question. The approach and the basic strategizing principles introduced in this article do not complete urban competitiveness as a system: the matter needs further methodological research. However, the groundwork can be independently used to strategize urban development.

The author applied the methods of Professor L.V. Kvint’s scientific school of strategizing to the construction industry in the Russian Federation. Strategic threat is a set of adverse conditions and factors that affect the strategic results. This term belongs to the first stage of strategizing which analyzes external and internal environment and assesses new opportunities and threats. The research featured various strategizing issues in the domestic construction industry, in particular, those that increase labor performance. The factors that reduce labor productivity were divided into several groups as “an unstable contractor”, “an unstable team”, and “an unstable worker”. The article describes strategic threats to the development of the construction industry and introduces some ideas on how to strategize labor performance, e.g., by developing and implementing social and technological innovations. In this regard, the priority tasks should include the following measures. The best workers should be encouraged to develop their professional skills and paid as much as qualified engineers. Robotic complexes and technical systems are to replace heavy physical labor. Innovative construction technologies and products should cover a wide range of construction types.

The pace of metropolitan life is growing higher and higher. To keep up with it, Moscow residents have to abandon cars and public transport in favor of personal mobility devices, e.g., electric scooters. As a result, the state authorities are developing a unified strategy for urban public transport that would include personal mobility devices and their rent. An effective strategy should integrate all innovative public transport vehicles into a single urban transport system. Technopolis is a special economic zone of innovation clusters in Moscow that offers conditions for design and production of innovative electric individual mobility devices. New-generation vehicles that meet the needs of metropolitan residents will become a key strategic vector in the development of Moscow’s transport system. The key strategic goals are to improve the quality of urban life and to ensure the national technological sovereignty. Modernization and consistent implementation of production facilities can stimulate innovative technologies in the transport sector and its progressive transformation nationwide. Moscow’s innovation clusters produce innovative technologies, test them, and spread the most effective innovations onto all regions.