The article deals in the analysis of the organization of the educational process at the university during a pandemic. It shows the ability of universities to adapt to possible changes, to make decisions in conditions of uncertainty and risk, to act in extreme situations. The article also considers the reaction of the educational system, executives, teachers and students to the challenges associated with the pandemic. The authors distinctly show the role of digitalization that made it possible not to interrupt the educational process and that is an important factor in sustainable development. Much space in the article is paid to the issues of emotional stability of all categories of the staff employees and students. The prospect for a mixed format in realizing the educational process, the acquisition of digital competencies by teachers and students is shown.

The work considers the concept of the ecosystem from the point of view of business processes and aggregation of digital resources. It defines the ecosystem characteristics which distinguish it from other models of management, indicating its advantages over them. The specifics of the Russian digital market is noted, the features of the approaches of the main players to forming the ecosystems and ways of cooperating with the consumer are analyzed. A concept of the ecosystem competition is indicated. The authors propose the forecast for the development of the ecosystems of the Russian market in the foreseeable future indicating possible prospects. The study is based as on the foreign statistics, studies of international institutions and the data of Russian business aggregators, annual reports of chapters of companies, their positions stated in official press releases. The ecosystem is considered both from the point of view of a business and a person. There is also a consideration of innovations in interfacing the Internet of Things (IoT), financial-technical and mobile communications. For the first time, the article introduces the concept of “consumer capital”, as well as the management and social risks in the acceleration of such business models.

The purpose of the article is to analyze specifics of the communication construction and adaptation of cultural institutions products during the crisis. The pandemic associated with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus had a serious impact on all spheres of life and required a revision of many familiar processes. In particular, the system of communication with consumers in the spheres of culture and education had to be substantially restructured. Also in those areas the development and implementation of new products and projects, adapted to the restrictions conditions, became urgent. On that basis, the article deals with the specifics of creating and promoting educational products in a period of quarantine restrictions as well as of the most crisis-prone areas of work.
The key outcome can be defined as the conclusion that an important factor in the effectiveness of communications is the study of the consumer needs, and in a continuous mode. The spheres of education and culture, in that case, are no exception. The prospects of the study are associated with the fact that new products related to the crisis and restrictive measures do not disappear with the return to “ordinary” life, but remain in the product line of many organizations. However the ratio of traditional and new products in the assortment portfolio of different organizations will be different, which depends on many factors. Studying the factors and thus effectively managing the product portfolio are tasks for future periods. It is thereupon (along with the study of needs) that it is necessary to develop a communication strategy for the organizations of the spheres of culture and education.

The article discusses the most important issues of forming the investment relations in the capital markets. It defines the subjects of those markets, which does not seem possible to do without clarifying the investment relations concept. There is an overview of foreign approaches to the definition of “Investor relations”. To substantiate the need for elaborating relations the authors give an analysis of the investment market development with the involvement of the population and opportunities for investment in the Russian Federation. The necessity for creating the IR-departments of companies as the main communicators with investment markets is also substantiated. The issues of the functionality of the IR departments of companies are considered in detail, the directions of their activities and the requirements for the personnel of those departments are defined.

The evolution of the banking system is especially noticeable during the period of global digital transformation. In the article, the authors present a look at the internal changes in the Russian banking sector at the time of radical changes both in the economy and in the industry. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the sixth technological mode bring changes in the settlement and payment technologies, and therefore in the technological management of the banking organization.

This article is devoted to the consideration of the key mechanisms of the enterprise’s interaction with suppliers in import operations in the foreign trade. The article studies the import transactions’ nature and types, the operations’ main stages and considers the features in documenting them. The primary focus is made on the mechanisms of interaction during those operations. The authors characterize elements of the coordinated interaction’s mechanism in the system “customer-supplier”, they are: the interaction mechanism’s forming principles, the choice of the interaction’s coordinating parameters, conducting the basic interaction procedures, finding a compromise for the relations’ stability.
The article describes the content and role of international agreements’ terms standardized in accordance with the Incoterms’ requirements in documenting the export-import operations. It presents the terminology most frequently used in the foreign trade operations and deals in differences in the book-keeping accounting and tax accounting of foreign economic activity from similar operations between internal divisions of the organization and operations within the country. The authors emphasize the importance of taking into account all the opinions of stakeholders – participants in the chain of the foreign economic activity linking the producer to the consumer of goods (and there may be more than 10 of them in global value chains). They also list principal operations that must be performed when organizing the delivery of goods. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of the ability to find compromises for an effective business management in the foreign trade transacting.

The article analyzes the existing project management software. It presents the advantages and disadvantages of software packages of world leaders and ways of their integration into other systems. Based on that is the author makes a conclusion on the effectiveness of those packages in modernizing the work of project management and about their necessity for working with modern systems.

Significant changes taking place in the economic life of the state and society are associated with the active and widespread development and spread of the digital economy. The Internet, personal computers, smartphones, mobile communications, artificial intelligence, robotics and much more have become an integral part of the life of our society. The digital economy development has a significant impact both on the economy as a whole and on its individual segments: the engineering and technology development is accelerating, the boundaries between various fields of activity are blurring and significant changes in the activities of enterprises and workers are taking place. Thanks to digitalization, it became possible to identify various risks which are associated with activities and which can have a negative impact on the development of the entire financial market.
One of the markets actively involved in the development of digital technologies is the financial market, which is a combination of the credit, investment, insurance, and stock sectors. In fact, the financial market is a significant indicator of the state of the entire Russian economy. In connection with the above, it is not accidental in the strategy of the Bank of Russia that it strives to develop platforms for the “digitalization” of the financial market. The development of platforms is necessary to create a competitive and trusting environment in the financial market, to maintain its stable financial condition, as well as to ensure the capital and financial services availability. In addition, the development of such platforms provides significant economic and financial benefits for various participants in the financial market, which will positively affect the entire economy development.

The article examines the structure of the banking services market on the African continent. It analyzes the principal reasons for the low level of banking services on the continent and the proposed solutions for the financial inclusion of a large part of the population. The topic was researched at the regional level with the involvement of a wide range of sources.

The article describes the indicators for the analysis of students’ performance, introduces the concept of a first-class student, and presents the results of the experiment. The author systematized the parameters of the students’ working capacity, developed and conducted a pedagogical experiment based on the works of F. Taylor.
A hypothesis is proposed: it is possible to measure and change the performance of students with the help of a system for improving the effectiveness of F. Taylor. To test the hypothesis, an experiment was conducted, the participants were graduate students of the Faculty of Economics and Management. The task of the experiment: to adapt the ideas of F. Taylor to the students training to measure performance based on the principles of the “first-class worker”; to try to change the performance of students. The use of indicators made it possible to adequately assess the performance of students and load them with additional tasks. For each item of the diagnostic card one can work to improve the performance parameters.

The topic of the round table “Investor relations as a necessary condition for the development of modern business” attracted increased attention of specialists in connection with the aggravation of the investments attracting issue during the economic crisis provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time that interest reflects yet more fundamental factors – first of all, accelerated virtualization of economic life. It is not just about developing mechanisms for adapting to cyclical difficulties, but also developing new approaches in connection with the advancement of new investment priorities in the global economy. Now the most attractive projects for investors will be projects that meet the criteria of the environmental friendliness, social orientation and transparency in business management. At the same time, it does not only mean a sharp turn from the already established areas of interaction between companies and investors, but, on the contrary, requires the mobilization of all possible instruments of influence on investors within the framework of the already traditional areas of cooperation.

The work is a publication that fully claims to be a monographic study, since it contains not only materials intended for the student and postgraduate audiences. They will be quite interesting for specialists in the field of logistics, both practitioners and theorists.