Monitoring of process performance by means of financial indicators

This study examines the impact of digital capabilities and digital orientation on the digital transformation and digital innovation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this study assesses how the role of digital transformation and digital innovation mediates the relationship between digital capabilities, digital orientation, and SME performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 247 SMEs managers, data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling with a partial least square approach. The findings demonstrate the significant and positive influence of digital capability and orientation on SMEs’ digital transformation and innovation during the pandemic. Additionally, the study confirms that digital transformation and innovation positively affect SMEs’ performance during the pandemic. Furthermore, the study reveals that digital transformation and innovation mediate the relationship between digital orientation and capability on SMEs’ performance during the pandemic. However, digital innovation was not found to significantly mediate the link between digital capability and SMEs’ performance.

Due to the rapid growth of the market of scientific and technical products and the high level of competition, market appropriate solution becomes finding ways to commercialization of research products. The article substantiates the need for accelerated modernization of the Kazakh economy based on increasing the effectiveness of scientific research and introduction into industrial production of research results while diversifying the ways of commercializing R&D results. In this article, the authors analyze the current state of Kazakh science. As a result of the research, a new mechanism for multi-criteria selection of promising R&D results of scientific organizations has been proposed and a system of organizational and economic support for their commercialization has been substantiated. The results will be useful in the practical activities of both scientific and industrial organizations.

The methodological approach for assessing the formation of food demand in unforeseen situations using digital Internet-technologies and the assessment itself, is substantiated in the paper (in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020). Comparison and theoretical generalization, as well as statistical test-assessment of hypotheses and structural regularities based on the data of Google Trends Internet platform, is used to analyze consumer preferences and intensity of demand changes for meat, milk, sugar, bread, and flour during the pandemic and quarantine, both in developed and developing countries. It is discovered that the biggest changes can be observed in the developed countries: consumer preferences shifted from rather expensive food products (milk and meat) to much cheaper ones (flour and bread). It is asserted that a decrease in consumer demand for basic food products will have a negative impact on the global economy. In 2020, a considerable decrease in GDP is expected for the developed countries; in the developing countries, GDP decline will not be as large, but prices are expected to rise much more noticeably. The following anti-crisis measures are proposed: support of the most vulnerable population and increase of food accessibility; temporary reduction of the VAT and other taxes influencing the price of food; reduction of central banks’ lending rates, etc. With the correct measures applied, the stabilization of consumer demand for food and gradual growth of the global economy is expected by the end of 2021.