Despite the recent arrival of new domesic brands in the clothing market, many Russians remain loyal to imports. However, using foreign-sounding brand names does not help Russian companies, according to Natalia Antonova, Associate Professor of the Department of Organizational Psychology and Head of the Psychology of Consumer Behavior Research and Study Group, and students of the HSE Department of Organizational Psychology Ajay Kumar, Maria Soloreva and Veronika Morozova, members of the Study Group.
Maternal capital has helped increase birthrates in Russia, but its contribution to total fertility has been limited so far, with just 15 more children per 100 women of reproductive age, according to Fabian Slonimczyk and Anna Yurko, Associate Professors at the HSE International College of Economics and Finance. On the other hand, the proportion of women wishing to have more than one child has increased, and postponed births tend to occur sooner than planned, apparently influenced by the country's pro-fertility policies.
In Central Asia, subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction tend to be higher than objective wellbeing, and people in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan appear to be more content than Russians about their material circumstances and life in general. According to Tatiana Karabchuk, Deputy Head of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), and Daria Salnikova, Research Assistant of the same laboratory, relatively low levels of economic inequality in Central Asian countries may be one of the reasons for this paradox.
In many countries, including but not limited to Russia, frontier regions, populated more recently than the country's core territory, tend to lag behind in terms of socio-economic development. This phenomenon can be explained by legacies such as state formation in remote regions and the autonomy traditionally enjoyed by new settlers, according to Roberto Foa (Harvard University) and Anna Nemirovskaya, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR).
Most employees and a significant proportion of managers are not briefed on their company's business strategy, while a quarter of all blue and white-collar workers are not informed about operational management issues. While Russian businesses are concerned about employee development, creating bench strength and adopting state-of-the-art ICT solutions, they use the latter only for transmitting orders from the top down. Veronica Kabalina, Kira Reshetnikova and Olga Zelenova of the HSE Department of Human Resources Management examined Russian businesses' approaches to HR development and corporate communications.
An elderly person can be described as aging successfully when they maintain good health and engage in fulfilling social activities. According to Larisa Kosova, Director of the HSE Joint Economic and Social Data Archive, poor health and a lack of savings often prevent older people in Russia from enjoying retirement.
Factors which determine consumer preferences for certain brands are not limited just to income, age and social status; other important considerations are the brand's ‘personality’ and whether it fits with that of the consumer, according to Natalia Antonova, Associate Professor of the Department of Organizational Psychology and Head of the Psychology of Consumer Behavior Research and Study Group, and Veronika Morozova, member of the Group.
Women who have moved to another part of the country tend to have higher fertility than those who stay in the same community all their lives. Relocation often improves a woman's life circumstances and broadens her choice of marriage partner, thus supporting her reproductive intentions, according to Svetlana Biryukova, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Center for Studies of Income and Living Standards, and Alla Tyndik, Leading Research Fellow at the RANEPA.
of top managers at large and medium-sized Russian industrial companies expect their companies’ production to grow by late spring 2016. This is one of the best forecasts in the last two years.
