Keywords

1 Socio-economic Problems in the Arctic

1.1 Arctic in Russia Federation

Considering the current situation on the world stage and the sanctions principle of global economic relations, the importance of territories, which are rich in oil, gas, and other mineral resources, is steadily increasing. The dependence of industry, including Russian Federation, on energy resources, the increasing role of the globalization of the national economy, and the acute unresolved issues of any country’s geopolitical activities bring the development of the circumpolar regions to the fore.

The active work of the Government of Russian Federation on the law: “On the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” and adoption of the strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation makes us understand that the development of the Arctic zone is one of the main vectors of development in the modern economy.

Of course, the development of the Arctic is a priority and will contribute to the enormous economic growth of the country, as well as absolute fuel independence.

However, at the same time, there remain unresolved issues related to the livelihood of the population concerning its social and infrastructural needs.

Since the basic things for the development of the Arctic are population, labor resources, and human capital, it is necessary to have special measures of state regulation, which take into account the specific features of economic management and the completely uncomfortable living conditions of the population, and which are aimed at developing socio-economic sphere, taking into account the rational use of unique natural resources [1].

1.2 Social Development in North Region

Social development should be an evolutionary process, that is, meet the law of elevation of needs and promote the reproduction of human capital. Overall, it means that the policy of sustainable regional development through the rational use of all resources available in the region should ensure a continuous increase in the level and quality of life, positive natural population growth, and the improvement of its quality characteristics [2].

Regional policy of sustainable regional development, on the one hand, should not be an isolated field of concern of Russian social institutions (since it integrates certain elements of various regional policies), and on the other hand, it should be formed and implemented as an independent direction of regional policy, thus ensuring the imperative of taking into account the interests of the population, and ensuring in the future balanced regional social development.

Based on the foregoing, it can be argued that a regional policy for sustainable regional development can be viewed as a combination of a federal policy for sustainable regional development (taking into account regional specifics) and an independent regional socio-economic policy aimed at achieving balanced sustainable development [3].

As for the regions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, there is problem of regulating the social sphere was always the most acute, especially in the context of reforming the economy of the entire state.

On the other hand, the Arctic economy is, above all, the resource sectors of the fuel and energy complex; therefore the activity of natural monopolies is also a major factor in the formation of a life support system and the social environment of the regions of the north.

Characterized by a combination of extreme natural and socio-economic conditions, the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation has a high level of economic development, which is the main factor determining the specifics of regional policy. In the overwhelming majority of the Arctic regions, the share of the mining industry occupies a large part in the share of GRP, and as a rule, exceeds the socially oriented sectors.

In addition, the strategic obstacles to the socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation fall within:

  • Social and industrial heterogeneity of the development of the economic space (this is due to the destruction of the planned economy and the system of the Soviet Arctic legislation that influenced the industrial potential of the Arctic regions);

  • Aggravation of regional divergence between the development of the Western (Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts) and the depressed Eastern (Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts) sectors, with their congruence;

  • Expansion blocking confrontation of the bipolar regions of the Russian Federation along the line “East–West” and “North–South”;

  • The growing conflict between large industrial corporations and political actors in connection with the prospect of bifurcation and the redistribution of resources for the development of the Arctic [4].

All these obstacles shift the main vector of attention from human capital, because, despite the insignificant share of the resident population in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, its contribution to the spatial and economic development of the country is more than significant.

That is why the main score and strategic task of the state socio-economic policy in the Arctic should be positive dynamics of the development of complementary geopolitical conditions and improving the quality of life of the Arctic population for comfortable living conditions for people.

2 Cluster

2.1 Cluster in Arctic

To solve such a complex, from the macroeconomic point of view, task for the circumpolar regions will help the cluster approach of economic development.

The cluster concept is a relatively new approach to the territorial organization of the economic system, focusing on the links between firms, economic diffusion, and the presence of interconnected industries.

The effectiveness of cluster formation in various sectors of the economy is achieved through the use of geographical localization of inter-related companies and joint efforts of business, government, and science. As practice has shown, the cluster form of the territorial organization of the economy can increase the labor productivity and production efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and stimulate innovation.

A cluster’s roots can often be traced to historical circumstances. In Massachusetts, for example, several clusters had their beginnings in research done at MIT or Harvard. The Dutch transportation cluster owes much to Holland’s central location within Europe, an extensive network of waterways, the efficiency of the port of Rotterdam, and the skills accumulated by the Dutch through Holland’s long maritime history [5].

In many foreign countries, different industries already formed clusters that are successful function and allow to judge not just about the need to form clusters but also about their effectiveness at work.

Analysis development by overseas theorists revealed the significance of state structures and scientific institutions affiliated to formation-clustered strategies development territories and allowed defining the main industry economic clustering directions of foreign countries (Table 26.1).

Table 26.1 The main industry areas of clusters in foreign countries
Full size table

According to the Government Resolution of the Russian Federation#366 21.04.2014 “On approval of the state program of the Russian Federation Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” and the draft strategy of socio-economic development of the Murmansk region for the period up to 2025, the Murmansk region plays a decisive role in the implementation of national interests in the Arctic.

In addition, the Government of the Russian Federation in 2017 announced that the development of the Arctic zone will not use the regional sectoral principle of economic development (the Union of sectoral projects at the Federal level), but a fundamentally new approach—the development of support zones.

From the point of view of macroeconomics, this approach is considered to be more effective, because it provides that the support zones will be formed as complex projects, that is, all activities aimed at the socio-economic development of the Arctic zone will be interconnected at all stages.

Hence, the specificity and typology of clusters in the Arctic region is due to the specialization and profile of the regional economy, which, as a rule compiled around the exploitation of natural resources or vast undeveloped spaces. It is here the main competitive sectors of the economy were built, in direct dependence on cluster types.

2.2 Cluster Types in the Arctic Zone in Russia Federation

In order to make full use of the high-tech potential strategic projects, to scale the momentum of development set by them in the Arctic space, in the regions of this zone, these types of clusters are popular:

  • Mining and chemical cluster;

  • Production cluster;

  • Petroleum industry cluster;

  • Chemical technology cluster;

  • Transport and logistics cluster;

  • Technology cluster for offshore production in the Arctic;

  • Fisheries cluster;

  • Regional marine service cluster;

  • Arctic technology innovation cluster;

  • Export-oriented food cluster;

  • A cluster of new energy;

  • Cluster of Northern design and traditional crafts.

Considering the impact of the cluster approach on the socio-economic development of the Arctic, we identified the following positive aspects. The cluster development model implies a spatial organization of production, distributed in the territory of one or several regions, which entail a lot of advantages, for example, in terms of exports for small and medium-sized businesses.

This effect of diffusion (spatial distribution) has been used for a long time in the world practice, in particular in Europe, where the scheme of distributed industrial production has long crossed the boundaries of individual countries.

In addition, the leading industrial enterprises of the Arctic region will be able to provide work not only for their employees but also dozens of small and medium-sized companies—suppliers, customers, carriers, various industry associations, educational institutions of secondary and higher professional education, scientific laboratories, expert consulting firms, information and analytical and marketing centers, and so on.

All of this as a result has a synergy effect—when the development of the companies’ participants of the cluster leads to the growth of their partners and counterparties, including in adjacent regions.

3 Cluster Efficiency Analysis

3.1 Socio-economic Cluster Analysis

The effectiveness of cluster formation in various sectors of the economy is achieved using geographic localization of interconnected companies and combining the efforts of business, government, and science. As practice has shown, the cluster form of the territorial organization of the economy can increase labor productivity and production efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and stimulate innovation [6].

Of course, the final stage in the formation of cluster initiatives is their assessment and monitoring. Within this stage, regional authorities annually, through the analysis of statistical indicators provided by the cluster management and expert assessments, identify indicators characterizing the economic performance of cluster enterprises and their impact on the growth of the regional economy.

In the modern methodology of the regional economy, there are many systems of statistical indicators to assess the performance of the cluster participants. However, despite the fact that many works are devoted to this kind of analysis, a system of indicators reflecting the socio-economic efficiency of these structures has not been developed yet.

For example, in Lisa Corrado article “Identifying and Interpreting Regional Convergence Clusters across Europe” in “The Economic Journal”, she tested a regional convergence clusters across the EU. She utilized a methodology that allows for the endogenous selection of regional clusters using a multivariate test for stationarity, where the number and composition of clusters are determined by the application of pairwise tests. To interpret the composition of the resulting convergence clusters, the latter is tested against a number of possible groupings suggested by recent theories and hypotheses of regional growth and convergence. Further, her method allows regional convergence clusters to vary over time [7].

Given the costs that will be required to incur in the formation and implementation of cluster structures in the Arctic zone, the feasibility of creating such structures must be confirmed by economic calculations.

Statistical research includes in-depth research using specific statistical data and sources to identify the number of employees and enterprises of the proposed cluster, and the growth rate of enterprises, including the number of new enterprises over a certain period of time, as well as an increase in turnover and export sales [8].

The classic approach of the regional economic school for assessing the effectiveness of cluster structures involves the calculation of indicators such as:

  1. 1.

    The coefficient of localization (investment (to track the dynamics of fixed assets), profits, revenues, the number of cluster members);

  2. 2.

    The index of the level of specialization (the ratio of the proportion of the industry in the region in the volume of output of the industry of the country, to the proportion in the economy of the country);

  3. 3.

    The ratio of the level of development of the industry (the ratio of the volume of production of the industry in the region, to the volume of consumption in the region);

  4. 4.

    The coefficient of production efficiency;

  5. 5.

    Lurker index.

As we can see, a calculation of the assessment of the impact of the cluster on the socio-economic component of the region is missing.

In a related way, researchers of the business management department of Orenburg State University also intend to go. In their opinion, for the economic efficiency of the cluster strategy of regional development it is proposed to use indicator.

The coefficient of investment attractiveness, in the modification of which it is proposed to use the indicator of the amount of investments attracted to all structures of regional clusters:

(26.1)

where \(\mathop \sum \nolimits SI\)—is the amount of investment in fixed capital attributable to the components of regional clusters;

\(I_{SMRI}\)—the total investment in fixed assets attracted to the region.

A scientist from the Ukrainian University, Onishchenko K., in his research, suggests calculating the economic efficiency of the functioning of the cluster, calculated as the ratio of total profit to the total used potential (costs of fixed and circulating assets and human capital) [9].

In this method, the main financial component of the functioning of enterprises and cluster members is clearly traced, and the social component is not taken into account in principle.

It becomes quite obvious that the problem of determining the effectiveness of cluster initiatives in terms of socio-economic effect is highly debatable. There is a need for an indicator that will be able to reflect not only the economic effect of clustering but also will allow reflecting the positive dynamics and contribution to the social sphere of the region, affecting demographic indicators.

In our opinion, at the moment, the most complete indicator, which reflects the degree of integration of the productive forces, the volume of the product created by integrated structures, the level of innovation of products and services provided by such economic entities, is the cluster power factor proposed by the researcher Bochkova E.V.

It includes the calculation of six coefficients, which in turn consist of two or three partial coefficients:

(26.2)

where КE—the integral employment rate of the cluster (employment rate). This indicator characterizes the share of employed cluster in the total mass of the employed population of the region.

КPA—integral coefficient of cluster production activity (rate of production activity).

This indicator characterizes the share of cluster production (both material and non-material) in the total volume of production in the region.

КEO—integral coefficient of the export orientation of the cluster (rate of export orientation). The coefficient shows the share of cluster production in the total mass of export products of the region.

KIA—integral coefficient of investment attractiveness of the cluster (rate of investment attractiveness). The indicator characterizes the share of investments in the cluster in the total investment in the region’s economy.

KSRA—the rate of cluster research activity (rate of scientific research activity). This indicator characterizes the share of cluster costs for innovation and R&D in the total mass of such costs in the region.

KTR—the rate of tax revenue (rate of tax revenue). The indicator characterizes the share of tax revenues to the regional budget from the cluster structure in the total volume of tax revenues to the regional budget.

4 Results and Conclusions

However, in our opinion, we consider it expedient to modify this formula and supplement it with a coefficient of economic development, using the production volume of economic entities that make up the cluster structure:

(26.3)

where \(I^{pk}\)—the volume of production of subjects of regional clusters;

GRP—gross regional product.

We suggest calling the resulting figure \(\varvec{P}_{{\varvec{css}}}\)—Power of cluster in social sphere:

(26.4)

The value of each of these coefficients varies from 0 to 1 (0 < K < 1); therefore, the cluster power indicator itself will be in the range from 0 to 1 (0 <  \(P_{css}\)  < 1).

Each of the coefficients included in the formula can be calculated both together with the others and separately. The formula proposed by the author has the advantage that it more widely shows the use of clusters at the regional level. The additional factor included in the formula shows in more detail the influence of cluster structures on the social component, since it shows changes in socio-economic development in a particular way to a particular industry.

The results of the calculations will recognize information about the statistical concentration of firms in the cluster compared to the total number of firms in the region; reflect the real employment of the population in companies and institutes of the cluster, as well as the effect of product profits on the real regional GRP.

This technique can be used by state and municipal authorities to obtain a real impact on the scale of the cluster operation in the region in a socially significant constant. The application is possible to write strategies for socio-economic development, long-term and medium-term forecasts, as well as territorial planning schemes.