The use of smart metering systems for electricity is one of the key components of the digital transition in the power industry. Smart metering systems are equipped with modules for collecting, processing, storing, sending and receiving data, and their implementation generates a wide range of effects for electricity companies, electricity consumers, as well as authorities and industry regulators. The functionality of smart metering systems can be significantly expanded when using non-intrusive load monitoring meters.

 The purpose of this work is to develop a list of factors that have both a positive and a negative impact on the perception of intelligent metering systems technologies both among power companies and end consumers - participants in retail electricity markets.

At the first stage of the study, based on the models of E. Rogers and F. Davis, a list of factors influencing the adoption of smart metering technologies by both energy companies and end consumers of electricity was developed. Based on in-depth interviews with experts, the factors were verified and questionnaires were developed for the next stage of the study.

At the second stage, a quantitative study was carried out, which made it possible to determine the degree of influence of factors on the adoption of smart metering technology by users.

At the end of the work, recommendations were developed to accelerate the distribution of smart metering systems and quickly achieve positive effects from their implementation.

The increasing concern of citizens, nations and businesses on natural environment protection and respect lead companies to re-invent new ways of business activities and models. In that sense, new paradigms as the Circular Economy and stakeholders’ pressures move companies towards corporate environmentalism, which supposes to modify company’s aim, mission and strategy. The formulation and implementation of effective proactive environmental strategies implies the reconfiguration and development of new environmental organizational capabilities, especially those linked to business operations and market-related ones. In this new competitive arena, environmental innovations, green marketing and corporate image, environmental legitimacy and reputation are analyzed as main drivers of proactive environmental strategies and key decisions of new and sustainable business models.

This paper develops an integrative review of previous concepts intimately related to corporate environmentalism and proposes some fruitfully avenues of future research for those, both academics and business practitioners, focused on how to fit firm’s activities and competitiveness and the respect and preservation of the natural environment.

Smart City is the basic concept of urban development; it is based on technological solutions and intellectual capital. The universities are the principal structures developing the intellectual capital in the modern society. They often have the necessary technologies, but there is a significant gap between the existing solutions at the universities and their implementation in smart city. The origin of this problem is in the improper procedure of transferring these solutions from university to the city, business, state. The goal of this research is to present the existing possibilities of the universities in creating, developing, transferring and implementing the intellectual capital for the development of smart city. There presented the models of intellectual capital, intellectual capital is considered as an intellectual asset and its management is considered in accordance with the different types of the university. This procedure becomes possible due to the proper narrative literature review. Therefore, the described methodology of the literature review, integrating the various options of writing the systematic and the narrative reviews, is of special value.

This research is aimed  to analyze the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on professional football clubs, identify the problems they face and propose strategic anti-crisis measures. The work is based on the analysis of the mapping study on measuring the economic impact of COVID-19 on the sport sector in the EU, provided by European Commission; analytical reports from Deloitte and KPMG containing empirical data on European football, academic research by foreign scientists examining the impact of the pandemic on the football industry. The study resulted in the author's strategic measures to improve the efficiency of football clubs in the face of restrictions caused by the spread of coronavirus, and a system of performance indicators (KPI), concerning the business developments during a pandemic. These results can be used in the strategic management of football clubs, as well as in the development strategies of federations, leagues and individual clubs, and can lead to an increase in the overall efficiency of their activities and the achievement of economic and social results. For the first time, the work carried out a comprehensive study of the consequences of the pandemic for the development of the football industry and offered the author’s view of solving current problems and finding new ways to develop the football business.

This paper aims to assess the feasibility of a meta-organizational approach to implementing and incentivizing innovations in professional sports organizations.

The author adopts a case study method approach. Data collection was conducted via semi-structured interviews with representatives of Russian professional sports organizations. The results of the interviews were codified using a manual content analysis framework.

This study reviews the case of creating a ‘Unified supporter base’ in the Kontinental Hockey League in partnership with SAP. The project was implemented in five phases. This approach helped ensure a gradual innovation adoption process within the meta-organization. Among the key success factors the author highlights the high relevance of the proposed innovative solution as well the league’s role in minimizing resource barriers by implementing a financial incentive scheme.

This is the first attempt in the Russian academic literature to conduct an empirical analysis on innovation in professional sports organizations. The author also proposes a novel approach to studying innovation using meta-organization theory.

The economic crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic has acted as an accelerator for the digital transformation of almost all economic entities, as a result of which it has become a massive phenomenon. However, this situation has shown that the practical development of digital transformation as a tool for business management in the digital economy requires its theoretical understanding, the formation of a theoretical basis and a scientific definition of the essence of digital transformation of companies. In particular, one of the key problems in the implementation of digital transformation at the present time is the assessment of its effectiveness, since in most cases it does not always end successfully. At the same time, knowledge of approaches and criteria for the effectiveness of digital transformation can improve the quality of its implementation. The purpose of the study is to study approaches to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation, to determine its nature and essence at a theoretical level, as well as to conduct an econometric analysis of the contribution of digital transformation to achieving the company's efficiency.

In the course of the study the existing approaches to defining the essence of digital transformation were studied, its key elements that make up the basis were established, and the existing approaches to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation of a company and its impact on business efficiency were studied. The absence of a unified approach to assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation and the main reasons for this problem have been established. Based on the results of the regression analysis of a sample of the largest companies of the pre-digital era, implementing digital transformation, the formulated hypothesis about the impact of digital transformation on the short-term performance of the company (profitability) was refuted, which allowed us to assume the strategic nature of this tool, the results of which are formed over a lag of time.

When writing the article, various scientific research methods were used: deduction and induction when conducting empirical analysis of the activities of companies implementing digital transformation, analytical methods and regression analysis.

The obtained results of the study contribute to the development of the theory of assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation of business, anti-crisis management and determine the directions for further theoretical developments.

In the article, a review of Russian and foreign literature was carried out, which allowed to consider the main standards of risk management and quantitative methods of risk assessment. The correlation-regression analysis of risks revealed the most significant risks affecting the efficiency of corporate innovation implementation in industrial companies. These include: misunderstanding the importance of innovation for the company; lack of financial resources for innovation; low level of support for the company’s top management for the introduction of innovative processes. A regression model of the impact of risks on the effectiveness of corporate innovation was built, which will predict the degree of impact of risks on the effectiveness of corporate innovation. Recommendations on improving the risk management system for various levels of innovative development of industrial companies are proposed, which are aimed at increasing the efficiency of introducing corporate innovations in industrial companies and ensuring a high level of competitiveness of companies.

The development of social entrepreneurship has required new effective management approaches and tools. The authors refer to European experience and standards in the field of project management in order to develop a methodological approach to organizing project management for achieving the outstanding results in social entrepreneurship projects.

The article presents the results of the quasi-experiment aimed to identify differences in the achieved results among projects using the European PM2 methodology and projects carried out within the PMI methodology. The assessment technique developed by the authors is based on EFQM model.

No significant difference among the project results in the experimental and control groups has been found, which indicates the importance of applying the project management methodology, regardless of its origin. By clustering project results, it was found that projects adapted the European methodology were more focused on strategic development and integration into the ecosystem on the principles of long-term cooperation, while the projects of the control group paid more attention to the effective organization and coordination of processes, resources and activities.