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Theoretical and Applied Economics
Reference:

Assessment of the economic attractiveness of the spheres of economic activity of small enterprises according to statistical survey data

Burda Semen Alekseevich

Postgraduate student, Department of System Analysis and Information Processing, Kuban State Agrarian University

350044, Russia, Krasnodarskii krai, g. Krasnodar, ul. Kalinina, 13, of. 202 ek

saburda@mail.ru
Serchenko Ol'ga Sergeevna

Student, Department of Economic Cybernetics, Kuban State Agrarian University

350044, Russia, Krasnodarskii krai, g. Krasnodar, ul. Kalinina, 13, of. 209 ek

olyaserchenko@yandex.ru
Burda Aleksei Grigor'evich

Doctor of Economics

Professor, the department of Economic Cybernetics, Kuban State Agrarian University

350044, Russia, Krasnodarskii krai, g. Krasnodar, ul. Kalinina, 13, kab. 209 ek

agburda@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8647.2022.2.37355

EDN:

SXDQSZ

Received:

19-01-2022


Published:

06-07-2022


Abstract: The subject of the study is the economic attractiveness of the spheres of economic activity, which are considered in the article in the context of sections of the current classification of types of economic activity, while each section corresponds to a certain enlarged sphere. the purpose of the work is to assess the economic attractiveness of the spheres of economic activity of small enterprises according to statistical survey data. The paper verifies the scientific hypothesis that, based on official state statistics, it is possible to get an idea of the economic attractiveness of individual spheres of activity of small enterprises and, by comparing them with each other, to build a generalized rating of groups of economic sectors according to their attractiveness for small and micro enterprises. The article summarizes the definitions of economic and entrepreneurial attractiveness found in modern publications. The selection of indicators reflecting the economic attractiveness of the spheres of activity of small enterprises and available for calculation on the basis of available statistical data was made: capital return, revenue per employee, the level of wages of employees. A method of complex assessment is proposed and a ranking of the economic attractiveness of fields of activity for small enterprises is carried out using various methods of criteria convolution for the transition from a multi-criteria assessment to the construction of a rating. As a result of the research, the most attractive spheres of economic activity for small enterprises have been identified: trade, repair of vehicles, construction, information and communication technologies. It is proposed to take into account the results obtained when forming a small business development policy.


Keywords:

economic attractiveness, scope of economic activity, small businesses, statistical survey, rating, multi-criteria assessment, the method of the sum of places, additive convolution, multiplicative convolution, distance method

This article is automatically translated.

Introduction. In order to identify promising areas of economic development, identify priority points of economic growth in territorial and sectoral aspects, the concept of attractiveness has recently been widely used in economic science and practice of economic management. In some cases, they talk about the attractiveness of territories [1],[2], in others – about the attractiveness of industries and types of economic activity [6],[7],[12],[14]. Etymologically, attractiveness is associated with the word "attractive", about which it is said in the explanatory dictionary: "Such a person attracts, disposes to himself, likes. Attractive appearance. An attractive prospect (tempting)" [3]. Attractiveness in the broad sense of the word is understood as "the ability of an object to attract positive attention, arouse interest, joy and desire to repeat contact" [4], such an interpretation of the concept, in our opinion, is applicable not only in psychology, but also in economics.

In the economic sphere, attractiveness is most often spoken about in relation to investments – the term investment attractiveness has become common. However, economic systems are attractive not only for investors and investments. After all, investments in fixed assets by themselves are not capable of producing products, creating new value. Therefore, investment objects should be attractive not only for investors, but also for the workforce, competitive wage levels are laid in investment projects, and long-term plans for the development of production and economic systems are associated with socio-economic aspects of development, respectively, there is an objective attractiveness considered by potential employees. We believe that it makes sense to talk about both social and professional attractiveness. In the labor market, the attractiveness of certain professions is assessed by the level of remuneration, guaranteed and potential income, conditions for the implementation of labor functions and social packages provided, and other parameters. In the field of small business, where the owner is often an employee at the same time, it is advisable to consider the entrepreneurial attractiveness. In our opinion, the definition of economic attractiveness deserves closer consideration by representatives of economic science and interpretation from a scientific point of view, since today there is a shortage of serious comprehensive studies of the category of economic attractiveness – this was felt by the authors of the article in the process of bibliographic search during the preparation of the presented material, since the available publications mainly consider only investment attractiveness, and economic attractiveness in general, insufficient attention is paid.  

The purpose of the study is to assess the economic attractiveness of the spheres of economic activity of small enterprises according to statistical survey data.

Material and methods of research. The preliminary results of the Continuous Statistical Observation of Small and Medium-sized Businesses for 2020 conducted by Rosstat in the first half of 2021, which are posted on the official website of the Federal State Statistics Service on December 30, 2021, were used as material for the study [5]. The results of the study and their discussion. We share the opinion that the assessment of the attractiveness of economic activities should be based on the goals pursued by various entities and the tasks of an investment and social nature [6],[7]. Ultimately, it is the stakeholders – investors, creditors, entrepreneurs, employees, government agencies – who set criteria and indicators that reflect their interests to assess the attractiveness of geographical and industrial objects. Table 1 presents generalizations of definitions of attractiveness found in the literature in various contexts in relation to economic systems.

Table 1 – Definitions of economic and entrepreneurial attractiveness in modern publications

Authors

Category

Definition

M. G. Platonova,

Z. V. Chebotareva

Economic attractiveness of a small enterprise

"obtaining the highest result of the activity of a small business entity in terms of increasing efficiency and improving the quality of its functioning, increasing the value of the business and attracting capital investments in the organization" [8].

I. V. Astashkina,

A. S. Zotova

Economic attractiveness of a small enterprise

"the activity of the enterprise, which leads to the sustainable development of the enterprise on the basis of information and knowledge capital, in which the economic value added, which is an indicator of the quality of management decisions and testifies to the creation of additional enterprise value, grew in different time intervals" [9].

O. B. Bigday,

L. V. Kazakova

The entrepreneurial appeal of the industry

"a set of factors and resources that make it possible to form a positive opinion about the successful conduct of business within a certain industry" [10].

M. G. Platonova and Z. V. Chebotareva note that "when studying the economic attractiveness of small business, attention should be paid both to the peculiarities of the organizational structure of the enterprise and to the economic attractiveness of the industry" in which it operates [8]. Without identifying economic attractiveness with investment, they consider the first concept to be broader, reflecting the economic and social effectiveness of small business activities, they propose to calculate the attractiveness coefficient [8] of a small enterprise – a coefficient that is essentially the sum of the coefficient of return on sales (profit divided by revenue) and the coefficient of the level of wages at the enterprise in relation to the average in the economy (the average salary at the enterprise divided by the average salary in the economy). This indicator really reflects the economic efficiency and social significance of the activities of a small enterprise, however, the lack of information on the profits of small enterprises in the survey materials published by Rosstat for 2020 prevents the practical application of the above approach. It is possible, in the absence of profit data, to use revenue values in calculations to assess the effectiveness and attractiveness of small businesses.

T. V. Astashkina and A. S. Zotova consider economic attractiveness as a factor of increasing the potential of competitiveness, note its significant differences from investment attractiveness: taking into account social and innovative characteristics, intellectual capital and human resources [9]. There are publications in which the authors link the dynamics of the real gross regional product with the socio-economic attractiveness of the region, which they propose to evaluate the dynamics of the real one using an integral index, considering it a key indicator in models and forecasts of regional economic systems [2], the foreign trade attractiveness of regions is also mentioned in the scientific literature [11].

O. B. Bigdai, L. V. Kazakova distinguish three groups of factors of economic attractiveness of the agricultural sector and the agro-industrial complex for small forms of management: factors of mental and property and regulatory order, as well as market attractiveness [10]. Of interest is the methodology proposed by A. A. Dedov for comparative evaluation of the investment attractiveness of the production of various specific types of agricultural products [12], tested on materials for 2000-2013, which showed high investment attractiveness of sunflower, sugar beet and eggs production, low attractiveness of investments in the production of cattle meat and milk. This methodology is based on calculations of the need for land and labor resources, as well as the costs of servicing fixed assets to obtain 1 million rubles of products and profits from the production of specific types of agricultural products.

O. V. Bulavkina, Yu. L. Demidovich set themselves the task of "ranking various types of economic activities of small businesses in the region according to their degree of investment attractiveness" in order to "choose for investment those types of economic activities in small businesses that have the greatest comparative investment attractiveness" [13]. In their research, these authors compare different approaches to assessing the investment attractiveness of the industry, compare the methods used for these purposes, come to the conclusion that the question of the best way to assess the investment attractiveness of a type of activity for small businesses is open, and also note the absence in standard statistical reports of information necessary for the application of many techniques. According to the results of the study of the economic attractiveness of the activities of small enterprises, L. S. Trubnikova concludes that "the presented statistical data are insufficient to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the activities of small businesses" [14].

Using the data of official state statistics on small enterprises in various fields of activity, we will build and rank them by return on capital, revenue per employee and salary level, on the basis of which we will build a rating of the attractiveness of economic activities for small enterprises (Table 1).

Table 1 – Rating of attractiveness of economic activities for small and micro enterprises of the Russian Federation by the sum of places method, 2020

OKVED2 section Code [15]

Place in the ranking by private

criteria

The sum of places according to private criteria

Final place in the ranking

return on funds

revenue per 1 employee

salary of 1 employee

A

18

8

14

40

12-13

B

16

4

2

22

6-7

C

6

7

9

22

6-7

D

15

12

6

33

10

E

7

6

12

25

8

F

2

3

7

12

2

G

1

1

8

10

1

H

11

5

11

27

9

I

9

14

19

42

15-16

J

5

9

1

15

3

K

10

2

4

16

4-5

L

19

11

10

40

12-13

M

3

10

3

16

4-5

N

12

15

17

44

19

P

4

18

15

37

11

Q

13

17

13

43

17-18

R

14

13

16

43

17-18

S

8

16

18

42

15-16

T

17

19

5

41

14

It is not difficult to see that none of the spheres of economic activity occupies the same positions in the ratings according to private criteria, for example, construction (code F) is in second place in terms of capital return, in terms of revenue per employee – in second, and in terms of wages – in seventh place. Therefore, an integral assessment is needed that would reflect the position of each field of activity in the rating based on the entire set of indicators. One of the approaches to such an assessment is based on the ranking of objects by the sum of the places they occupy in ratings based on private criteria. The data transformations carried out made it possible to determine that when using this methodological approach, the leading positions in the rating of economic attractiveness of fields of activity for small enterprises are occupied by trade and car repair (code G), construction (F) and ICT (J). The fourth and fifth places are occupied by financial and insurance activities (K), as well as scientific and technical activities (M) of small enterprises. In the penultimate place in terms of economic attractiveness is the activity in the field of health and social services (Q), as well as in the field of culture, sports, leisure and entertainment (R), administrative activity closes the rating (N). However, the simplicity of the sum of places method is associated with disadvantages highlighted in publications [16]. Since each of the rating methods gives only indicative results, it seems appropriate to use different approaches and study the stability of the obtained estimates.

When processing statistical data on the work of small enterprises in the context of their activities (sections of OKVED2), we used approaches that were previously outlined in the published works of one of the authors of this article [17],[18]. The calculation results are presented in Table 2.

 Table 2 – Rating indicators of small and micro enterprises of the Russian Federation and rating numbers when using various methods of convolution of criteria for the attractiveness of their fields of activity, 2020

OKVED2 section Code [15]

Standardized

values

Rating numbers for different methods of criteria convolution

fund returns

revenue per 1 employee

salary of 1 employee

additive convolution

multiplicative convolution

method of distance from the reference

A

0,043

0,314

0,469

0,826

0,006

1,291

B

0,083

0,452

0,816

1,351

0,030

1,084

C

0,220

0,376

0,526

1,122

0,043

1,106

D

0,087

0,268

0,559

0,915

0,013

1,250

E

0,210

0,433

0,512

1,155

0,047

1,088

F

0,381

0,511

0,533

1,425

0,104

0,917

G

1,000

1,000

0,530

2,530

0,530

0,470

H

0,154

0,445

0,514

1,113

0,035

1,122

I

0,163

0,205

0,389

0,757

0,013

1,306

J

0,254

0,309

1,000

1,562

0,078

1,017

K

0,162

0,531

0,694

1,388

0,060

1,007

L

0,030

0,298

0,524

0,853

0,005

1,288

M

0,284

0,299

0,752

1,335

0,064

1,033

N

0,142

0,178

0,426

0,745

0,011

1,320

P

0,265

0,141

0,468

0,874

0,017

1,250

Q

0,124

0,160

0,469

0,753

0,009

1,325

R

0,098

0,222

0,426

0,746

0,009

1,322

S

0,187

0,166

0,415

0,768

0,013

1,303

T

0,073

0,067

0,583

0,723

0,003

1,380

The values of indicators given in this table can be used not only for ranking and determining places, but also make it possible to operate with relative values obtained after standardization (rationing) in relation to the leaders for each attribute taken into account in the rating.  In this sense, the estimation by the method of determining the distance from a conditional reference object is of particular interest.

Based on the rating numbers, the positions of each section of the OKVED in the attractiveness rating for small enterprises were determined (Table 3).

Table 3 – Final rating of attractiveness of the spheres of economic activity of small and micro enterprises of the Russian Federation, 2020

OKVED2 section Code [15]

Place in the rating

Place according to integral criteria

Sum of average places according to partial and integral criteria

Final place in the ranking

additive method

multiplicative method

distance method

A

13

17

13

15

27,5

13-14

B

5

9

6

6-7

13

6

C

8

7

8

8

14,5

7-8

D

10

11

11

11

21

10-11

E

7

6

7

6-7

14,5

7-8

F

3

2

2

2

4

2

G

1

1

1

1

2

1

H

9

8

9

9

18

9

I

15

12

15

13-14

29

15

J

2

3

4

3

6

3

K

4

5

3

4

8,5

4

L

12

18

12

13-14

26

12

M

6

4

5

5

9,5

5

N

18

14

16

16

35

18

P

11

10

10

10

21

10-11

Q

16

15

18

17

34,5

17

R

17

16

17

18

35,5

19

S

14

13

14

12

27,5

13-14

T

19

19

19

19

33

16

Attention is drawn to the existing differences in the distribution of places when using different methods of criteria convolution, for example, the positions of real estate transactions (L) varies from 12 to 18; places of agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing and fish farming (A), mining (B), administrative activities (N) they differ by 4 positions depending on the chosen method. To average the results and level out the impact of the choice of the ball rating method, the sum of average places according to private and integral criteria was calculated, on the basis of which the final ranking of economic activity spheres according to their attractiveness for small businesses was carried out.

Conclusion. The trade and repair of motor vehicles (G), construction (F), ICT (J) have the greatest economic attractiveness for small enterprises. Next in terms of attractiveness are the following areas of activity: financial and insurance (K), professional and scientific-technical (M), mining (B), manufacturing (C), water supply and waste disposal (E), transportation and storage (H). In the second half of the rating, the remaining spheres of economic activity are located, the places of which can be identified by the code based on the classifier [15]. It should be noted that the areas of hotel business and catering (I), leisure and entertainment (R), agriculture (A) they are not among the economically attractive ones and, therefore, taking into account that they are associated in the public consciousness with potentially possible areas of employment of labor and capital of small enterprises, it can be assumed that these industries need close attention when forming a small business development policy.

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The subject of the article is the category of economic attractiveness and, in particular, the economic attractiveness of entrepreneurship. The problem of increasing entrepreneurial activity has long occupied economics and practice, since in modern conditions it is entrepreneurship that is considered as the most dynamic subject of innovation, flexibly responding to changes in demand and the economic environment, unlike large corporations that have considerable inertia in making and implementing their innovative decisions. It is no coincidence that small enterprises become the object of absorption by large corporations, thereby increasing their innovative activity. The research methodology is based on the analysis of the economic performance of small and medium-sized enterprises and, on this basis, the construction of various models for ranking the results of economic activity, allowing to assess the economic attractiveness of a business in a particular industry. The author proceeds from the hypothesis that the attractiveness of a business is largely determined by economic indicators, that is, adheres to the model of a rational economic entity, but it is obvious that such a model is largely only approximate to reality. Other factors must also be taken into account, such as the information asymmetry of market information, as well as psychological factors of entrepreneurial behavior. The relevance of the approach proposed by the author lies in the urgent need to create a favorable business climate in the country. In the context of the global recession, economic sanctions and a pandemic, the factor of economic attractiveness of entrepreneurship has significantly lost its power, the risks of entrepreneurs have increased, revenue and profits have decreased. Therefore, it is necessary to take some extraordinary steps in the field of stimulating entrepreneurial activity. The scientific novelty of the study consists in an attempt to introduce the concept of economic attractiveness into scientific circulation, the formation of a model, albeit a very approximate one, which would allow us to assess the magnitude of economic attractiveness, its main components. The attempt, in our opinion, deserves the closest attention from economics and practice. The article is written in clear language, has a clear structure, the author formulates his theses and argues them. The content of the article is supplemented with tabular material, which makes it possible to more clearly convey to readers the provisions put forward by the author. The bibliography includes 18 references to the works of Russian authors, which allow you to delve deeper into the material of the article. At the same time, the shortcomings include the absence of references to foreign publications in the list of references, as well as to more relevant materials on the topic under consideration. The article, despite the comments made, is worthy of publication. She introduces the concept of economic attractiveness into scientific circulation and offers models for evaluating this value in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises. Obviously, these models are still very simple and require complication, the introduction of a wider list of indicators assessing attractiveness, but this, we hope, will become the topic of further research by the author.