Publications

In this research we analyze the demand for performing arts. Since the observed demand is limited by the capacity of house, one needs to account for demand censorship. The presence of consumer segments with different purposes of going to the theatre and willingness-to-pay for performance and ticket characteristics compels to account for heterogeneity in theatre demand. In this paper we propose an estimator for prediction of demand that accounts for both demand censorship and preferences heterogeneity. The estimator is based on the idea of classification and regression trees and bagging prediction aggregation. We extend the algorithm for censored data prediction problem. Our algorithm predicts and combines predictions from both discrete and continuous parts of censored data. We show that the estimator is better in prediction accuracy compared with estimators which account for censorship or heterogeneity of preferences only.

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of chief executive officers' overconfidence on corporate research and development (R&D). We analyze a sample of 766 firms from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands between 2008 and 2013. We use 3 measures of managerial overconfidence: the press coverage of chief executive officers, his/her age, and his/her experience in the industry. Our results show that the firms run by overconfident managers actually invest more in R&D expenditures, even after controlling for country, industry, and time factors. Overconfident managers not only spend more on R&D but also amplify the effect of financial determinants of R&D such as firm liquidity or profitability. Nevertheless, overconfident managers do not invest efficiently in R&D, and these expenditures can negatively affect the value of the firm.

This study provides readers with new information about key drivers of performance in the emerging area of eSports. Competitive computer gaming (eSports) is becoming increasingly popular, and the number of gamers and amount of prize money is growing. We therefore explore some key country-level characteristics that may contribute to players’ success, measured as money won. We use gamers’ prize earnings aggregated by country and a hurdle model to understand the determinants of performance. The results show that a 1% increase in GDP per capita leads to a 2.2% increase in prize money per capita. Country population is not statistically significant in the outcome model. This finding may indicate that eSports talents are not uniformly distributed across the world population. Surprisingly, post-Soviet and planned or post-planned economies are more likely to participate in eSports.

People are intent to make similar choices especially in consumer goods markets. To address both explanations of this persistence, i.e. state dependence and heterogeneity in preferences, we use random coefficient logit model based on scanner panel data on juice purchases. The product differentiation of the chosen category allows us to model three dimensions of state dependence on brand, size and flavor characteristics. We provide evidence that the persistence in brand choices is  positively correlated with persistence in size and flavor choices, thus the consumer pattern is prone to be inertial or variety seeking in every product characteristics. Simultaneously we show that the more sensitive to price and promotional activities consumers are, the less inertial is their behavior.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between export activity and firm performance for a positive impact of foreign direct investments. We also analyse two possible causes of the effect: technology transfer and financial support. The theoretical background is rooted in the resource-based approach taking into account multinational companies’ perspective and the specifics of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach - We propose testable hypotheses based on a review of the theory. To test the hypotheses, we build a sample of over 500 Russian public manufacturing firms covering the period from 2004 to 2014 and estimate regression models. Given concerns about endogeneity, the instrumental variable approach for panel data, using GMM-estimator, is implemented. Findings - Consistent with the view that foreign direct investments generate spillover effects, our results support the positive impact of foreign ownership on the link between exports and firms’ performance. Our results underline the importance of foreign ownership: shareholders from developed countries can provide benefits to exporting companies through transferring advanced technologies and loosening financial constraints by lowering interest and raising availability of bank loans.

Originality/value - We provide new insights on the relationship between exports and firm performance. Given our focus on Russia, a market with high potential to draw foreign investments, our research sheds some light on how emerging country firms can benefit from having foreign shareholders with paying attention to geographical distribution of such investments. Specifically, through the overcoming of technological barriers and loosening of financial constraints, we show empirically that foreign capital can make up for weak local institutional infrastructure and enhance the company’s’ returns from internationalization.

This paper investigates how the recent crisis of 2008 changed relations between innovation and firm performance in Western Europe. We apply a structural framework of CDM modelling, which incorporates different stages of the knowledge creation process and takes into account the complex nature of innovations. The study is based on a balanced panel data of 420 listed manufacturing firms from the U.K., Germany and France. All the information is gathered from common sources, thereby reducing subjectivity, a typical problem in the field. We found, the crisis resulted in appreciable changes in the model. The most important evidence is enhancement of the role of firm resources in the post-recession period. We also reveal larger barriers for innovations, increased uncertainty and lower state dependence in R&D engagement, product creation and economic performance. These results could indicate the ‘cleaning effect’ of the crisis, which has worsened the business environment and enhanced competition. 

This article explores consumers` acceptance and willingness to pay for genetically modified potatoes in Tajikistan. A binary-choice contingent valuation metholdolgy is applied as a primary research tool. Results indicate that more than half of respondents are not aware of this particular product. Yet, majority of consumers expressed their positive or neutral opinion. Findings highlight the relevance and possibility to introduce and market nonconventional potatoes in a Central Asian market of Tajkistan. 

According to behavioral economics, coaches may be unconsciously biased, and this could lead to deviations from rational behavior, which in turn affects team performance. We analyze the influence of a particular behavioral bias of coaches, overconfidence, on the performance of soccer teams. We use a sample of 63 coaches managing all the soccer clubs involved in the Russian Football Premier League during the four seasons between 2010 and 2013/2014. To measure overconfidence, we use a press-based metric that is generally accepted in corporate governance studies and complement it with an additional continuous measure. Coaches' overconfidence positively and significantly influences team average scores, both in the baseline regression and robustness checks. Additional testing allows us to draw conclusions regarding the inverse U-shaped relationship between overconfidence and performance. We cannot conclude that overconfidence has any effect on coaches' risk-taking that can be approximated by goals scored or allowed. We apply the well-studied methodology of overconfidence measurement to the new field of sport economics, thereby generating novel results. Although overconfidence is perceived negatively in corporate governance, we show that in sport, it is beneficial to be overconfident. The findings contribute to sport literature, more specifically to the field of performance in soccer, with results that support the importance of a coach's personal traits.

How do public-private partnerships (PPPs) differ from traditional public procurement and what role should governments play in them? This article views PPPs as collaborative projects with imperfect information between parties. Typical public procurement contracts tackle asymmetric information problems yet limit feasibility of projects: some are not profitable enough to ensure private party participation. Partnership improves feasibility; this justifies PPPs as a form of public good provision and demonstrates how they differ from procurement. Four UK and Russian cases of PPP projects are analyzed within the above framework, focusing on types of contracts, contributions of both partners, and specific partnership elements.

Addressing a gap in the literature on GM food preferences, we conducted a survey in Russia, where legislation forbids GM food production and importation. Based on in-person consumer surveys and choice experiments in Perm, Russia, we estimate the willingness to pay for bread containing GMOs. Our results indicate that information-seeking health conscious consumers are more likely to prurchase this particular product. Our findings are consistent with previous studies of Russian consumer preferences, who find that Russian consumerss' food prurchases are often motivated by health concerns and the naturalness of foods. 

This research focuses on parents’ participation in their children’s education via self-organizing through non-profit organizations (NPOs). The aim of this article is to uncover the factors which have an impact on Russian parenting organizations participating in collective coproduction in schooling. Quantitative analysis revealed three groups of explanatory variables: a) the “economic” variables, namely GRP per capita and poverty rate; b) a “high status” of a school; and c) variables capturing the “federal district effect” on the probability of collective coproduction. Results of the quantitative analysis highlight the significant discrepancies in regional conditions for emerging NPOs in coproduction in schooling.

This study uses a combination of multinational enterprises and dynamic capabilities perspectives to illustrate how the involvement of foreign investors is able to contribute to a company’s corporate performance. Using Russian companies as an empirical sample and applying PLS-SEM, we test hypotheses regarding the impact of dynamic capabilities in terms of absorptive, adaptive and communicative capabilities, on the relationship between foreign ownership and performance. Findings indicate that dynamic capabilities fully mediate the process of foreign direct investments transformation into firm’s results. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanism by which dynamic capabilities enhance the positive effects of foreign direct investments on business performance, and advance the theoretical understanding of how a dynamic capabilities concept could be incorporated into multinational enterprises theory in the framework of relationships between companies from economies with different knowledge endowment.

By adjusting their lending, banks can smooth or amplify the macroeconomic impact of deposit fluctuations. This may however lead to extended periods of disproportionately high lending relative to deposit intake, resulting in the accumulation of risk in the banking system. Using bank-level data for 8,477 banks in 129 countries for the 24-year period from 1992 to 2015, we examine how individual banks' market power and other characteristics may contribute to smoothing or amplification of shocks and to the accumulation of risk. We find that the higher their market power the lower is the growth rate of lending relative to deposits. As a result, in periods of falling deposits, higher market power for the average bank would be associated with a greater fall in lending resulting in amplification of adverse effects as deposits fall during relatively bad times. Strikingly, at very high levels of market power there is a threshold past which the effect of market power on the growth rate of lending relative to deposits turns positive so that "superpower" banks contribute to smoothing of adverse effects when deposits are falling. In periods of rising deposits, however, such banks lead to amplification and accumulation of risk in the economy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of efficiency of corporate universities. An efficiency is defined in relative terms: as having relatively better performance in comparison to other companies. Different indicators of performance were employed in order to analyze short-term and long-term efficiency. A comparative analysis of European companies and emerging Russian companies is performed in order to understand if there are country differences in the efficiency of corporate universities.   Design/methodology/approach To avoid potential omitted variable bias, fixed effect within estimator is employed. This estimator enables controlling for a firm-specific time-constant effect which conditions company’s performance and is responsible for other individual traits. The rest of the characteristics are controlled with a proxy, which are traditional for corporate finance studies.   Findings There are contradictory results for the efficiency of a corporate university; for the European companies, a corporate university brings positive effect for the short-term performance, nevertheless, as the authors have found that it destructs value in long term. A company with a corporate university has 70 percent less market value added than an average company. There is a negative short-term synergy while the long-term synergy is positive. The results for the Russian sample are very consistent: corporate universities have negative or neutral effect on the performance.   Originality/value This study contributes to the literature about strategic management and human resources management. It addresses the issue on efficiency of corporate universities in companies considering this as one of the key strategic investment in human resource policy. It appears that the corporate university is not a panacea for all companies to develop their human development policy.

The goal is to develop a regional innovation model for managing the redistribution of transport flows through their local deceleration. Achieving this goal implies justification of the innovative approach as a key development factor; specificity of the innovative approach for motor transport networks; developing model of organizational efficiency and traffic safety; application this model to the organization and safety of traffic on Perm regional highways. The following methods were used in the article: data analysis method, mathematical modeling method, design and survey method, statistical method. In this paper, we present an innovative automated traffic light system that allows you to redistribute the load on the transport network by applying technical means of organizing traffic without changing the basic parameters of the carriageway.

Government-subsidized theatres in Russia aim to increase both revenue and number of tickets sold. Achievement of such a goal is closely connected with study of theatre tickets demand function focusing on the estimation of price elasticity of demand. Previous papers studied price elasticity of demand for theatrical performances provide controversial results. Estimates of price elasticity varies with countries, theatres, segments of theatre audience and even with level of data aggregation. Ticket sales and price data aggregation at the national level or theatre level typically does not allow to control for the differences in produced cultural goods quality. Incorrect control or ignoring of a theatre, performances and seats quality leads to a problem of omitted variables and bias in price elasticity estimates. In this paper we employ disaggregated ticket sales data for four seasons of Perm opera and ballet theatre and estimate the price effect on the theatrical demand for various performance types and seats in the hall. We use censored quantile regression to estimate the parameters of theatre demand function. We reveal the weak elasticity of demand for Perm opera and ballet theatre. We also show that ignoring the limited capacity of the theatre hall, characteristics of performances and seats quality leads to biased estimates of demand function parameters.

State owned theatres are balancing between maximizing attendance and revenue. Using Perm opera data we reveal an effect of price on demand for various types of performances and places. Using censored quantile regression we estimate parameters of demand function. We reveal that demand is weakly elastic by price. Moreover, we prove that estimates of demand function parameters are biased if we not control for quality of performances and seats and for limited capacity of a house.

Russian book market is one of the largest in the world in terms of new titles in print. However, this market is  underexplored. There is no research dealing with an empirical demand or supply function estimation for this market. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the book demand function and to check whether this kind of demand is price and income elastic. On the basis of results retrieved, managerial recommendations are to be offered. For this purpose, the demand function for books is built and estimated both on the total sample and for particular literature genres. The peculiarity of the demand model estimation is the introduction in the model covariates indicating the book content quality such as the amount of people who gave rating on the website, average rating of the book from the website and the combined effect of these two variables. An empirical estimation of these factors influence has not been considered in the previous research yet. Model estimation was based on the data of one North-Western Federal District book retail chain. According to the estimation results, book demand is price inelastic; moreover, books are estimated to be luxury goods. The analysis of demand functions for separate genres suggests that the demand for each genre is price-insensitive. Only Russian and foreign prose, foreign fiction and poetry are luxury goods among all the genres analyzed. A foreign detective, Russian fiction and sentimental novel are normal goods, whereas Russian detective is an inferior goods. The results of the research might be of a particular interest for books retail chains and publishers

This paper explores the relationship between socioeconomic factors—particularly, the rate of time preferences and alcohol consumption in Russia. The rate of time preferences shows an individual’s willingness to delay the utility from consumption to future periods of time. The relationship between this rate and indicators of alcohol consumption is examined separately for men and women. We find significant differences in men’s and women’s patterns of consumption of alcohol. Our findings suggest that the rate of time preferences, along with age, educational level, income, place of residence, and health substantially, affects an individual’s decision to drink alcohol. We show that employment status is endogenous to alcohol consumption and that estimating a system of binary equations is necessary.

In the times of Soviet Union books were a luxury good. This paper examines whether books are still a luxury good in Russia. For this purpose data from one of the Russian book retail chains is used to empirically estimate a general book demand and separate demand models for genres. We focus on estimating income elasticity. For this reason we construct a covariate on the basis of monthly wages of working individuals that reveals consumer income. Moreover, this paper is one of the few which addresses in detail the influence of books content quality on book demand. The main result is that books on average are not luxury goods anymore in Russia. However two genres: foreign prose and poetry are exceptions and can be called luxury goods. We also conclude that quality control covariates (book rating and number of people who rated the book) are important determinants of book demand as they influence significantly the general book demand and the demand models for different genres as well.

This study estimates an attendance demand model in a reduced form, with uncertainty as one of the determinants of demand, to test the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis (UOH), using data from the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL). These data fit our requirements for two reasons. First, there are few sellout matches, so demand for tickets in the RFPL is not restricted by stadium capacity. Secondly, there have hitherto been no articles devoted to the study of outcome uncertainty in the RFPL. The results indicate that the UOH does not explain the behavioural pattern of attendees in the RFPL. The dependence between the attendance and uncertainty is found to be U-shaped or even declining. We explain the U-shaped dependence by the visiting team effect; an attendee’s utility in the RFPL depends more on seeing a top team coming to the city than on the uncertainty of the outcome of the match.