The article is dedicated to analysis of problems and barriers hindering the development of human capital in the Arctic region, starting from the stage when skills and abilities, in particular those connected to digital competences and information and communication technologies, are acquired by future professionals throughout modern higher education. We have presented the results for a target group comprising students of the Murmansk Arctic State University (Apatity Branch). We have carried out a survey of the target group, including via the online GoogleForms service, analyzing the answers given by the respondents. Analysis of the results allowed to identify the socio-economic barriers hindering the development of digital competences. We have provided the results of comparative analysis with the previously obtained characteristics of students of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, finding both similarities and differences in certain aspects of formation of digital competences of the respondents of the two given regions.

The interrelation of the directions of technological development of the industrial enterprises with efficiency of the used resources - material, labor and physical capital in the form of fixed assets is shown. The sequence of transition from one direction to another characterizing the life cycle of technological development is considered. A graphical model of such a cycle, including six stages, is presented. It is determined that the change of each stage of development of the value of one of the three indicators (material efficiency, capital productivity or coefficient of technological level of production) begins to change in the opposite direction. A practical method of calculating the time moment showing the completion of each individual stage is developed. It is shown how the transition from one stage to another affects the change in the cost of production of enterprises. The optimal time of change of production technology or its improvement is determined. It was found that the new technology for further improvement of production efficiency should provide the necessary level of capital productivity, and a method of calculating this level.

We have proposed an impact assessment methodology for determining sustainability in energy-intensive industrial production based on a comprehensive combination of economic, environmental, and social indicators for sustainable development. The goal of this study was to disclose this methodology for assessing sustainability in energy-intensive industrial production. We proved that any energy-intensive chemical, metallurgical, and energy generation processes should maximize the material output values and product value addition to ensure innovative sustainable development. We proposed indicators that determine the levels of increasing the sustainability of energy-intensive production as a whole, as well as taking into account individual technological processes. We proposed a procedure for making managerial decisions to increase the sustainability of energy-intensive outputs using the technological renewal of fixed assets and/or technological modernization of production. Our proposed methodology is based on a graphical model of the technological development’s life cycle of the existing energy-intensive production process. In addition, the proposed methodology ensures resource- and energy-efficiency intensification, together with the environmental safety of the technological processes.

The Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is the most important raw material base of the country’s economy, but for the further effective industrial development of Arctic resources at the enterprises operating here, a significant increase in labor productivity due to use of the latest technology and production technology is required. This is prevented by the lack of a system of targeting innovation revitalization by enterprises. Developing the theory of endogenous economic growth we propose to use a coefficient of technological effectiveness level of production to assess the pace of technological progress in enterprises and industries. Its values are calculated at macro, meso and micro levels on the basis of statistical reports, and the values achieved at the best enterprises of industries can be used by enterprises as target values in technological innovations.The increase in the value of the coefficient of technological effectiveness level is directly related to the renewal of the active part of fixed assets and the growth of capital productivity of enterprises, which leads to an increase in productivity; so, it is possible to assess the achievability of its target value based on the existing financial capabilities of enterprises and the possibility of obtaining financial support from the state and regions, including on the terms of private-public partnership.

Sustainable development stands as the principal paradigm for global economic progress in the 21st century. However, the challenge of measuring the sustainability of economic systems across various types and levels persists. This study introduces a novel methodological approach to assessing the sustainability levels of production systems. The objective is to substantiate a method for quantifying the sustainability of production systems. Building upon a previously devised graphical model depicting the life cycle of technological development in production, the proposed method involves scoring the sustainability of production systems at different hierarchy levels (manufacturers, industries, production types). The resulting sustainability index enables making comparisons across different periods and entities. Practical implementation of the proposed method is demonstrated through a twelve-year analysis of three major companies operating in the North and the Arctic (Alrosa, Novatek, and Norilsk Nickel) and the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel. Additionally, a fifteen-year analysis of industrial production by type in four Russian Arctic regions is presented. Calculations reveal a generally low level of sustainability across all analyzed entities. The study identifies the cyclical nature of technological development in manufacturing enterprises as a significant influence on sustainability levels. Accounting for this factor in sustainability assessments will equip authorities and corporate managers in the Arctic regions to make more informed strategic decisions.

This paper considers two types of leverage –operational and financial – used in the theory and practice of corporate financial management. It is shown that objectively there must exist another kind of leverage – investment and innovation - as the share of value added in sales value to material intensity of product. It allows you to determine the necessity and possibility of using innovation and investments of intensive type as well as to determine the amount of such investments to achieve the specified material intensity reduction level. The analysis results of industrial production trends in Russia’s regions in certain types of industrial activities ( on the example of the Far North and Arctic regions-subjects of the Russian Federation) between 2005 and 2015 have shown that production, depending on the direction of changes in values of material intensity and capital productivity indicators, can technologically develop in four main areas, namely innovative/efficient, innovative/non-efficient, non-innovative/efficient and non-innovative/non-efficient.. It shows that in most regions of the Far North and the Arctic industry development is not consistent with the best innovative/efficient direction but, in general, the situation here is more favorable than in country’s industry. The analytical relationship between material intensity, capital productivity and labor productivity, enabling the management of innovative/efficient development of industrial enterprises, industries and the corresponding growth of labor productivity, gross regional product and gross domestic product due to technological intensification of production, has been determined.