The article determines the conditions for knowledge economy formation in contemporary societies. The problems of its resource provision and assessment costs for the production of knowledge are revealed. The technique and different approaches to the measurement of the level of knowledge economy development are considered. The intellectual resources and their effective use in the conditions of innovative economy are closely studied. The requirements for knowledge economy development under the conditions of forming market economy in Russia are identified. The structure of the index of knowledge economy and its parameters in different countries are considered from the point of view of scientific and methodological approach.

The article studies the origins of financial instruments and techniques in early medieval Venice. These techniques turned out to be indispensable for the economic growth of Europe and hence were taken over and developed by other European merchants. The article deals with the convergence of Church dichotomy in terms of the doctrine of money interest. Using the data on Church activities in Medieval European the authors prove that once Church Fathers had earthly interests in selling indulgences, but the situation changed through the time.

The article considers the problems of formation and development of Russian business ethics and mentality. The authors argue the necessity of taking into account the economic studies of informal institutions that determine the features of the national economic mentality. The impact of national worldview on economic efficiency and development is investigated. The authors conclude that the features of market mentality (individualism, active behavior, negation of paternal bases) have come into being only in central Russia, whereas in other regions Soviet mentality remains.

This article focuses on the issues of financial globalization. A brief survey of financial market globalization is presented, the main trends of its development being identified. It is proved that financial markets have recently acted as a catalyst of global economic interdependence. The influence of globalization on Russia’s national economic system is revealed. A conclusion is made that this influence has both positive and negative effects on Russian economy. To positive effects the author refers the revival of Russia-China cooperation and the cooperation within the frameworks of the Eurasian Economic Union, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, whereas the negative effects include non-competitiveness of the national manufacturers, import-dependency, export-oriented model of development, exposure to world economic instability, and etc.

The paper examines the factors and risks necessary to consider in the process of medical business planning in present-day circumstances. It is shown that the plans need permanent tuning to both inner and outer changing conditions in order to operate effectively. The concept of “risk” is studied, the most significant risks of business planning being highlighted. The possibilities of risk accounting in business planning are identified.

The article tackles the problem of definition and calculation of an engineering rent. The authors give ground to the usage of the term “engineering rent” as an amount of the excess profit received by a customer using engineering company services. The main advantages of engineering company involvement in project implementation are highlighted. A technique is proposed to calculate an engineering rent considering project duration, risks, engineering decisions made, and the brand of an engineering company. The technique can be used both by customers of engineering services for decision-making and engineering companies for advertising the advantages of their services.

In order to effectively support the operation it is necessary to revise approaches to the maintenance and repair of military and special purpose equipment. The article analyzes the existing approach to supply chain management for rear service performance. The main groups of logistics costs are investigated and systematized. An economic and mathematical model of optimal cost minimizing supply chain is suggested.

The article presents a description of decision-making process in project management. The peculiarities of decision-making process in project management are highlighted. The causes and conditions for problem occurrence and their connection with task setting in decision-making are analyzed. The stages of decision-making (total 20) and their adaptation to project management are detailed. In conclusion the decision-making process feasible for project management is presented.

The article presents the main results of the research on the system of learning and job search motivation of graduates of aircraft engineering institutions of primary, secondary and higher levels conducted within a joint project of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The authors analyze such concepts as “motive”, “motivation”, “stimulation”, “remuneration” and others and conclude that an efficient system of labor motivation is influenced by a number of different external factors such as economy in crisis and inner mechanisms of stimulating effective activity.

The article describes some general shortcomings of separate power systems of the Eurasian Economic Union and the mutual benefits to be gained through the development of electricity trade between them. The author reveals the features of assessing the effectiveness of the Common Eurasian Economic Union Energy Market taking into account risks and uncertainty of the input data. An integrated model that includes a probability scenario tree and statistical method is suggested and exemplified with calculations.

The conducted empirical research elucidates the current state of social protection at Susaninskaya Poultry Factory in Kostroma Region where the employer-employee relationships lack both mutual legal commitments and any guarantee of employees’ rights. The study shows that trade unions as the only mediator between the employer and employees failed to adjust to labour market factors and did not cope with their main task to protect employees’ rights. Thus the transfer to market economy turned out to be a disaster for employed workers who did not only lose their habitual jobs and had to be re-qualified (as in other countries), but also were deprived of social protection at standard occupation. The roots of the problem are in a recently emerged mode of economy that makes employees completely dependent on employers.

The article highlights the features of the old and new management paradigms characterized by contradictions and the Russian model of corporate governance; formulates the basic directions of corporate governance reform in Russia which may promote the growth of the national economy and attract long-term investments to large domestic companies. The authors revise the approaches to the state control with the view of strengthening local investors’ confidence to economic policy. It is concluded that the basic problem of introducing complex information systems into integrated processing corporations is insufficient development of many projects. The informatization of a corporation should be complex, including first of all those kinds of economic activity that greatly contribute to the net cost of manufactured goods.

The article deals with the simulation-based methodological approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of various forms of financial support to mutual insurance companies (MIC) which provide an increase in the sustainability of MIC initial development. Such methodological approaches include crediting, subsidizing, and proportional reinsurance. A modified model of Cramer-Lundberg is used to assess the dynamics of the volume of MIC fund, taking into account the peculiarities of accumulation and its fund spending under specified probability distributions of insurance payments. On this basis the authors determine the conditions under which certain forms of support can bring economic benefits. Based on large-scale simulations certain regularities are revealed of the influence of the considered forms of support on MIC sustainability, with the parameter values at which each of the forms favors MIC stability being calculated.