The stability and growth rate of Russian economy depend on the effectiveness of strategic decisions, that are made by corporations, small and medium enterprises. The choice of production, sales and financial management models within the framework of strategic management system determines relationships between firms and the level of market competition. The growing diversity of business strategies results in the antitrust risks increase due to the modification of management decisions. In this context, it is necessary to identify ways to encourage companies to develop an intra-corporate mechanism for antitrust risks management and to choose pro-competitive business tools.

The present work is devoted to the description of the evolution of antimonopoly cases brought against Microsoft by the American, European and Russian antimonopoly authorities. The focus of this work is on assessing the ability of Microsoft as a manufacturer of an operating system that occupies a dominant position that can influence competition in the application software market, including the browser market, antivirus protection and media players. The position in the market of operating systems is closely related to the presence of direct and indirect network effects. It was found that in most cases Microsoft was accused of obtaining vertical restrictions and related sales in order to restrict competition. In addition, in later antitrust cases against Microsoft, there has been an increasing focus on behavioral aspects.

The Russian biotechnology industry today is funded mainly by public funds. However, against the backdrop of the economic crisis and budget cuts, the question of attracting private investment in the biotechnology sector has become acute. If in Western countries there is an increasing interest of private investors in biotechnological innovation projects, then Russian investors are not yet ready to invest in this segment of the innovation market. The article discusses the drivers and constraints of the development of biotech companies and the current state of the Russian biotechnology industry.

Solid waste management has become an issue of increasing global concern as urban population continues to rise and consumption patterns change. The paper accesses policy measures undertaken to overcome municipal waste crisis in Moscow. New waste management policy lacks sustainability due to prevalence of landfilling and combustion as well as extensive waste export. The article presents a brief description of the MSW management system in Moscow and proposes a comprehensive management strategy, which is based on the involvement of the participants in relations connected with MSW in the process of processing at all stages of the life cycle of the waste.

Despite the long-term economic and environmental benefits of introducing renewable energy sources (RES), they are associated with many obstacles, one of which is hindered access to finance. This article examines the impact of the level of financial development on the renewable energy industry. An econometric analysis of data for 270 countries for 1987–2016 revealed a significant positive effect of various indicators of the development of the financial sector on the total production of renewable energy sources. In particular, the important role of the size of the banking industry and the size of the private lending sector has been revealed. It also revealed a significant impact of the level of financial development on wind, solar and tidal energy, and this effect is different in developed and developing countries. This work is a logical continuation of other works on this topic. There has never been an assessment of the use of renewable energy for such a large number of countries. Significant results were obtained for various indicators of the development of the financial sector. We were able to assess the difference in the use of renewable energy sources for developed and developing countries.

The task of this article is to assess the effect of the health-care expenditures per capita on the life expectancy (LE). This paper hypothesizes that health-care expenditures lead to an increase in the life expectancy and that they affect LE in different ways depending on sex and age. For hypotheses testing the panel 6-year-data for 183 countries are used. Based on these data the authors build econometrical model, considering LE as a dependent variable. Other factors influencing LE are included as control variables, all independent variables are with taken with a 10-year lag. The hypotheses are partially confirmed. All other things being equal, health-care expenditures actually lead to an increase in the LE, but only for developing countries. The second hypothesis is also not fully confirmed: LE at old age is more quantitatively dependent on health-care expenditures then LE at birth is, however strong differences for men and women were not revealed.

Point-rating system including the component of teaching methods as well as quantitative and procedure indicators should be regarded as a pedagogical technology. As an educational technology the point-rating system forms the basis for the world-known credit system. Activity orientated point-rating system can be viewed as a pedagogical technology. As a pedagogical technology the point-rating system has an individual character and takes into account the specificity of the subject and specialization of the studies. The effective usage of the point-rating system depends on the approaches to its design.