Social Services Market Research Articles

SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP AS A TOOL FOR UNIVERSITY TRAINING OF SOCIAL WORKERS

Decentralization and democratization of public and state relations affects today’s social work in Ukraine. Universities should be the source which with the help of social partnership can change the status of a future social worker. The purpose of the article is to study social partnership as a tool for training social workers in higher education. The study used the analysis of educational and methodological practice of professional development of social work on the basis of social dialogue at universities. Teaching the discipline "Social Partnership" for students majoring in "Social Work" must be consistent with the requirements of the time, which are set before higher education. First, it is the importance of the transition of higher education institutions to formal partnerships with employers, which would include the training of professionals needed for the social services market. Secondly, the fixation of the "teacher – student" partnership in the syllabus as a reflection of the agreement on the organization of the educational process in the specialty "social work" and other specialties inthe humanities cycle. Thirdly, it is necessary to actively involve scientific and scientific-pedagogical staff in the study of the mechanism of social procurement and to ensure its proper understanding and use by practicing specialists in our country. Among other important factors there are consideration of social partnership as an integrative quality of personality, which allows to interconnect the interests of different groups of socially divided society and develops in students through the acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills, the formation of attitudes to the world. These factors form the basis for claiming that teaching partnership is both a process of learning to use this tool in social services, and its use in the educational process. The tools for training future social workers include the development of a system of active civic participation, support for student participation in the case movement, social order, and the syllabus of the discipline.

The Pandemic Social Services Market: New Practices and Technologies

This article analyzes the processes of development of the social service market, which is part of the social protection system. Through a comparative analysis of the Soviet and Russian models of social services, the authors conclude that the modern system, while partially retaining some characteristics of the Soviet system, is transforming and acquiring new specific features. Based on the generalization of the results of the authors' comprehensive sociological research using quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, content analysis), the innovative practices of working with consumers (recipients) of social services, which social efficiency in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic was noted by respondents, used by NCOs operating in the social services market. Despite the complexity of objective circumstances faced by organizations, regional NCOs still managed to maintain the quality of social services provided in both online and offline formats at a level that meets the needs of recipients. The prospects for the development of SO NPOs are connected not only with the creation and implementation of innovative technologies and practices, but also depend on strengthening the personnel composition of employees through the development and subsequent implementation of proposals for protecting their health and improving professional competencies by creating conditions for training, advanced training and mastering new specialties. The article notes the important role of regional media in covering the activities of NGOs in the difficult period of the spread of coronavirus infection and the establishment of a forced regime of social isolation. An analysis of video materials broadcast on official channels of Volgograd television is given, which contributed to strengthening the status of NGOs as competitive providers of quality social services. It is predicted that the experience gained during the "pandemic" period will be used by NGOs in their day-to-day activities in the future.

Дилемма социального выбора при заключении концессионных соглашений

Result of the government's many years of efforts to liberalize the market of social services is a huge number of organizations that are privately owned — 45,9%, but which have minimal impact on the infrastructure development. The reason is that private business alienates long-term and capital-intensive projects, and the overwhelming part of the social infrastructure (for sports facilities it constitutes 95.2%) remains in the state and municipal ownership. The state mistakenly classifies concession projects as investment projects that are paid back only through fee-based exploitation. Thus, social policy is being deprived of a promising mechanism — transformation of concession agreements into the basis for socialization of private investments, infrastructure and services. The identified problems of social disorientation in specifying criteria for evaluating the proposals of participants in concession tenders form the basis for asocial conditions of concession agreements, which makes social services inaccessible to the general population. Commercialization of the activities of social facilities is admissible (although in a limited sense), but at the same time, services at state tariffs or free of charge should prevail. There is a need for systematic scientific and methodological work on cross-cutting incorporation of this approach into the current regulatory framework and guidelines in order to create a network of basic social infrastructure for all segments of the population.

Social service in the system of social protection of the population: theoretical, methodological and financial aspects

Social service in the system of social protection of the population: theoretical, methodological and financial aspects

Values and Experience of Neoliberal Reforms in Russian Regions: Dilemmas of Social Management

The article offers a critical look at the challenges emerging within the reforms of the social services sector in Russian regions carried out in line with the New Public Management (NPM) principles. These reforms imply not only the renewal of management tools, but also changes at the cultural level. In this regard, the study is aimed at identifying how social managers explain the need for the transition to new relations, what tools they have, and what value contradictions arise in the field of decision-making on the issues of reforming the system of social services and in the practice of management. The study is based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with regional administrators and managers of social services of various legal forms. While sharing values and applying in practice the tools of the new social management, the leaders of the social sphere and social services face the internal contradictions of this doctrine. Customer focus and initiative are not easy to reconcile with efficiency requirements; decentralization does not negate close control, and the quality of services is difficult to maintain in a rationalized environment. Nevertheless, the discourses of budget saving and humanization of services do not always contradict each other, managers strive to reach a compromise between different logics in the relationship between the state, organization, employee, and client. The article shows the specific and often multi-vector perspectives of regional administrators, as well as of managers of municipal and non-profit organizations — providers of social services. Under the pressure of the challenge to efficiency, regional administrators are forced to deal with conflicting tasks: on the one hand, they strive to increase competition in the social services market and to outsource part of the social services guaranteed by the state, and on the other hand, to support their budgetary organizations. The values of neo-managerialism affect not only the personnel policy, but also the content of the social service itself. Managers in the nonprofit sector sometimes find themselves in a situation of choice between rationalizing, increasing the efficiency of services and saving resources, on the one hand, and humanizing services, on the other. Building horizontal ties and associations allows leaders of non-profit social services to receive tools to represent collective interests before the state, as well as protection from excessive control by the bureaucratic apparatus. Acknowledgements. This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University). The authors thank the staff of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives for their help in organizing access to the field study, participating in the collection of data and discussing the first results of the field work, and also express their gratitude to their collocutors for an open and honest conversation.

Improving the quality and efficiency of budget social expenditure in the public financial management system

Subject of research: applied principles of social expenditure management within the public finance system. The purpose of the article is the development of scientific and pragmatic recommendations for improving the efficiency and quality of budget social expenditures in the public financial management system. Methodology of work. The set of scientific methods and approaches, including the method of system analysis, comparison, generalization, etc., was applied in the work, which allowed to realize the conceptual unity of the research. Results of work. Taking into account the identified problems in the work, a set of scientific and pragmatic recommendations was proposed on how to increase the efficiency of budgetary social expenditures on the basis of budget implementation for citizens. The necessity of introduction of the state order for social services and its competitive placement, improvement of pricing through payment of services as a result of reduction of the budget of the maintenance of the corresponding budgetary institutions, involvement of the non-governmental organizations for realization of social protection of the population, application of marketing tools for an estimation of the social services market. clarification of financial indicators in the formation and implementation of the budget for citizens, state social programs. The application of these proposals will contribute to the further modernization of the public financial management system. Practical Implications: organization and conduct of research in the field of improving the system of public finance in the conditions of transformational changes. Conclusions: The necessity of the development and implementation of an effective monitoring, evaluation and social audit system for providing social support has been proved. It has proposed to increase the efficiency of administrative decisions in the system of providing social support by creating a unified database of recipients of all types of social assistance, a single information environment for social protection institutions of the population, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and civil registration authorities.

РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ МЕР ФИНАНСОВОЙ ПОДДЕРЖКИ СОЦИАЛЬНО ОРИЕНТИРОВАННЫХ НЕКОММЕРЧЕСКИХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ В СУБЪЕКТАХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

The financial form of support for socially oriented non-profit organizations at the regional level is considered. The present article describes the analysis of measures and methods for implementing this type of support on the territory of the regions, which in the ranking of the subjects of the Russian Federation, following the results of the implementation of support mechanisms for socially oriented non-profit organizations and the introduction of competitive methods of providing public services in the social sphere in 2019, took leading positions. The advantages and disadvantages of existing measures are determined, their influence on improving the quality of services and the formation of a competitive environment in the social services market is noted. The problems that socially oriented non-profit organizations face when receiving financial support are considered. Рroposals for exploration are formulated to improve approaches to providing financial support measures. Conclusions on best practices are made

Do small farms prefer agricultural mechanization services? Evidence from wheat production in China

ABSTRACT Developing agricultural mechanization services has been an important approach to pushing smallholder farmers engaging modern agricultural production in China. However, whether smallholder farmers prefer adopting agricultural mechanization services is still under-analysed. In this paper, we use data covering 3,440 wheat farmers collected from Henan province in China to investigate the links between farm size and the adoption of agricultural mechanization services. The results indicate that an inverted U-shaped relationship between farm size and the adoption of agricultural mechanization services exists. We also find that small farms can input more family labour, and large farms tend to invest in self-owned machinery assets. Our analysis implies that the development of agricultural mechanization services is not inevitable to attract farmers with alternative elements, and smallholder farmers may not be the major groups involved in the market of social services in agriculture in the future.

Профессиональная этика социально ориентированных некоммерческих организаций на рынке социальных услуг: к вопросу о внутриорганизационном и межорганизационном сотрудничестве

Профессиональная этика социально ориентированных некоммерческих организаций на рынке социальных услуг: к вопросу о внутриорганизационном и межорганизационном сотрудничестве

Индивидуальное предприятие «Праздничное агентство» и механизм его продвижения на рынке региональных социокультурных услуг

The relevance of the undertaken research consists in the analysis of economic and pedagogical factors in the activities of a commercial enterprise operating in the market of socio-cultural services of a municipal formation. Nowadays, various agents can engage in the education and enlightenment of the population, their professional activities are fixed by law. As a result, the competition of municipal and commercial leisure offers for the population arises in the market of socio-cultural services. The purpose of the study is to analyze the conditions for the implementation of the service of a children's and family holiday and its promotion to the market by a commercial agency that carries out its professional activities in the municipality of a Siberian city. Objectives. Among the studied tasks, we can note such as the study of the mechanism of promotion of a holiday agency to the market of socio-cultural services of a small city, including such marketing components as the study of the service market and existing competitors, the analysis of the segment of service consumers, the study of supply and demand for the service and the development of a turnkey service. Methodology. The leading empirical method of the study was a survey of residents of Tulun, Irkutsk region, and specialists in the field of culture engaged in the professional field of eventing. Results. The practical significance of the undertaken research is that the results obtained during it will allow other subjects of the market of socio-cultural services to provide a stable mechanism of functioning, thereby contributing to the expansion of the range of holiday services and improving its quality. The conclusions of the study are based on the need to introduce a wide range of festive events for children of all age groups, as well as inclusive holidays for children with special needs to the market of social and cultural services in the city of Tulun, Irkutsk region. It is assumed that due to the attention to children with special needs and the implementation of holidays in partnership with municipal institutions, the children's holiday agency, as the object of this study, will receive undeniable advantages in promoting its services in the city's holiday services market.

Family social work: the realities of Ukraine

The family social work in Ukraine is only at the stage of its developing. Deriving from the paternalistic philosophy, the demonopolisation of the market of social services places new demands on social policy aimed at implementing and regulating social work with families as a separate social structure. The purpose of the research is to characterise the institutional structure of family social work, to determine the assessment of social services and their quality on the example of a study of families raising children suffering from autism, basing on the system- and structure-centred analysis. The paper highlights the indicators of family-oriented practice, describes the market of social service providers for families, identifies the functions of individual institutions, structural entities and the specifics of their activities. It is revealed that in Ukraine there are two types of social work with families: regulated (state bodies and structural entities) and unregulated activities (individuals-entrepreneurs, public organisations, charitable foundations, volunteers), but this does not ensure its integrity, because most social service providers are not focused on the needs of families of certain social categories. The family social work in Ukraine could be divided into three types in the framework of its professionalization: a professional activity, a non-professional activity and a "mixed" (partly professional) activity. The survey provides an assessment of individual indicators of social services by the families raising children who suffer from autism (targeting family social work, access to services offered in the region, the presence of stigma, the effectiveness of social advertising of existing services, their compliance with family needs, etc.). It was discovered that most of the services offered are not in demand; they do not take into account the contextual and environmental background in which families operate either; service providers are biased towards families raising children with autism. Many families are in an information vacuum, which becomes an obstacle to expanding their rights and opportunities, the work done with them can be defined as fragmentary and chaotic; it does not take into account the role of the community in maintaining family resilience.

Local government purchase of social services from private entities: problems of administration and financing

Introduction. Designing a competitive mechanism for public purchase of social services including those from private providers is indispensable for assuring the high quality of provided services and the reasonable use of budget funds. However, much as this task has been seen as an important and urgent and justified in program documents, only a miserable portion of public funds is being allocated to purchase of social services from private providers.Purpose. The goal of our research is to determine the problems with the financial mechanism of purchasing social services from non-government providers that are faced by local governments in Ukraine.Methods. In the process of preparing this article, the methods of data collection and systematization, abstraction, observation, analysis, and comparison were applied.Results. Our study proves that a significant factor impeding the development of social services outsourcing is the mechanism of social services financing, in particular the practice of their valuation. Our findings revealed the following main problems with setting tariffs for social services that are publicly purchased from private providers: a tolerance for increasing costs of service providers; the inability to include income of service providers in tariff calculations; added complexity with access to the social services market for business entities under Simplified System of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting; lack of possibility to include Single Tax in the tariff, as it is only allowed to include VAT; and the application of different approaches to budgeting for social services sourced from non-governmental entities and the communal and governmental structures. It is also worth adding that the existing methodological guidelines on social services valuation are rather complicated to use. Thus, the flawed mechanism of private social service provider financing results in that only 171 out of 2 725 service providers, or 6.3% of the total, are legal entities under the private form of ownership. The mechanism of financing social services from local budgets could be improved by introducing fixed tariffs for social services with possibility of their adjustment by means of certain coefficients.Discussion. In future research, it would be feasible to focus on elaborating a detailed conceptual framework for setting social services tariffs, validating their base component and identifying additional elements, as well as defining the scope of application for such a mechanism.

Саморепрезентация религиозных организаций в контексте трансформации социальной политики в отношении пожилых: между «служением» и «экспертизой»

The article presents results of the study of self-representation by two religious organizationsin Saint Petersburg, Russia, that provide long-term elderly care. The main aim of the research is to reconstruct how faith-based organizations represent, or position, themselves in the conditions of expansion of the market of nonstate social services in Russia. The study was conducted within the qualitative paradigm of social research and used frame analysis as its main methodological tool. The study analyzed framing used in several dozens of the two organizations’ written texts, such as their official documents, news items, recommendations, leaflets, social media entries, and contents on their official webpages. Following the consensus existing in critical scholarship on the third sector professionalization, the main hypothesis of this study is that at the level of self-representation religious organizations readily abandon their original identity and values of spiritual concern and care for their charges, instead positioning themselves primarily as “experts.” In the course of the study, three main frames were identified: religious “patience,” aligned with the original mission and identity of the organizations; “humanism,” popular among the medical geriatric community; and “professionalization,” which implies self-positioning as experts. The analysis revealed that discourses of “patience” and “humanism” are used relatively rarely, be it at the level of caregivers or in the organizations’ statutory documents. In turn, “professionalization” was the most common type of self-representation, proving the study’s main hypothesis to be correct. Article in Russian DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-2-68-89

Развитие конкуренции на рынке социальных услуг сельских поселений Свердловской области в методологии регионального стандарта

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to analyze the forms of stimulating competition among social market participants in rural settlements of the Sverdlovsk region. Research methods. The method of studying the factors of development of competition in the market of social services of rural settlements within the framework of the Standard for the Development of Competition in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation involves the decomposition of the general objectives of the Standard in the blocks for assessing the competitive environment by market participants and consumers. The information base of the study is formed on the basis of interrogation methods for obtaining information on the results of the implementation of the Standard and covers rural areas of the Sverdlovsk region. The results of the study. The study confirms the use of infrastructural and institutional stimulation of competition in the social services market in rural areas, based on the methodology of the procedures of the regional Standard for the Development of Competition. The results of using this methodology to stimulate competition show unsatisfactory results for the rural social services market. Scientific novelty. The study confirms the use of the methodology of infrastructural and institutional stimulation of entrepreneurial activity in the procedures of the regional Standard for the Development of Competition. Accordingly, the standard does not take into account the properties of the “quasi market” characteristic of the social services market. At the same time, the features of the distribution process when paying for social services provide additional tools to stimulate competition. The authors of the article give a model of using the properties of the “quasi market” to solve the main barrier for entrepreneurs of rural settlements of the Sverdlovsk region expressed in the need to provide activities with their own premises. The compensation mechanism will create a steady demand for the services of organizations investing in the creation of premises for the implementation of their activities.

Concept of Social Marketing of «BeGood» Agency

The article describes the analysis of directions of entrepreneurial activity in the fi eld of social marketing. In the work, portraits of segments of the target audience as a result of a survey through a questionnaire have been formed. The author identifi ed the target client task, developed recommendations for the promotion of social marketing services of “BeGood” Agency.

The Perceived Differences: The Sector Stereotype of Social Service Providers

What difference does “nonprofitness” make is a fundamental question for nonprofit research. Although being held as the basic assumption of the contract failure theory, the sector difference perceived by individuals remains as an open question for multiple methodological problems. Here, we present evidence from three experiments for further empirical exploration of the perceived sector difference with improved research design. Our findings suggest a general pattern of sector stereotype: people perceive nonprofits as being warmer and slightly more competent than for-profits. More importantly, we show that such stereotypical understanding mainly results from people’s repugnance against profit-seeking intention instead of preferences toward nonprofits in the social service market. Such pattern differs slightly across three subareas being tested. Finally, we find more relevant information about the organization serves as a potential moderator that weakens the effect of being a nonprofit, which blurs the sector boundary in a given market.

Value creation and destruction in social marketing services: a review and research agenda

Purpose This paper aims to provide a review of the extant literature on value creation and destruction in social marketing services for social change, for the purposes of developing a research agenda for future research in this area. Creating value in social marketing services is now identified as a key focus for social marketing (Russell-Bennett et al., 2009; Domegan et al., 2013), yet work in this area is nascent and conceptual, methodological, and empirical work is needed to advance the research agenda (Zainuddin et al., 2013; 2016). Design/methodology/approach To help shape the future of research on value in social marketing services, this paper appraises the contributions of the current research literature, and identifies gaps in the current knowledge. A systematic literature review was conducted, following the PRISMA protocol for conducting and reporting systematic reviews (Moher et al., 2009). The review covers the areas of value creation in social marketing, value destruction in social marketing, dimensions of value in social marketing, and from value-in-exchange, to value-in-use, to value-in-behaviour in social change. Findings A research agenda for further work in this area is provided within the themes of 1. conceptual development, 2. broadening ontological, epistemological, and methodological foundations, 3. research contexts, and 4. measuring and evaluating value in social marketing services. Within each of these themes, a series of research questions are provided to guide further work in the four identified themes. Originality/value This paper is the first to offer a review of the extant literature on value creation and destruction in social marketing and social marketing services, and offer a research agenda for future work in this area. This paper contributes to services marketing and the development of service thinking as key component of social marketing, and the role that value creation plays in this (Russell-Bennett et al., 2013).

Развитие рынка социальных услуг для пожилых в условиях роста продолжительности жизни (The Development of the Market of Social Services for the Elderly with Increasing Life Expectancy)

Russian Abstract: В данной работе представлен анализ текущей ситуации в сфере социального обслуживания пожилых граждан, включая как работу государственной системы учреждений социального обслуживания, так и негосударственных организаций социального обслуживания пожилых. English Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the current situation in the field of social services for senior citizens, including both the work of the state system of social services and non-governmental organizations of social services for the elderly.

Development Prospects of Non-Profit Organizations as Suppliers of Social Services: on the Example of the Volgograd Region

The article provides an analysis of the formation of the social services market in the Volgograd region since the adoption of a federal law that introduced fundamental changes in the field of social services, allowing non-profit organizations to act as full participants in the social services market. A review of domestic publications addressing key issues is presented: economic and managerial aspects of access of non-profit sector organizations to the social services market, infrastructure support, the formation of a state support system, successful regional practices. The role of non-governmental suppliers in the social services market is shown, the specifics of the modern institutional structure of the social services market are described. The current state of the social services market is characterized, the data of the report of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia for 2018 on the implementation by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation of measures to ensure access to non-profit organizations to budgetary funds are presented. The main quantitative indicators of the social services market of the Volgograd region are highlighted. The results of a sociological study showed that the majority of the population does not use the services of non-profit organizations, the popularity of their services is low, and free services are most in demand. The possibilities of non-profit organizations when entering the social services market of the Volgograd region were identified: extensive experience in providing services, the availability of proven social technologies, targeted nature of assistance, customer focus. Despite the creation of conditions for expanding the access of non-governmental organizations to budget financing, there are barriers to accessing the social services market: delayed cost recovery when services are completed, economically unjustified tariffs, insufficient compensation to non-state suppliers, unnecessarily bureaucratic reporting procedure of non-profit organizations for services provided. To develop the demand and supply of non-profit organizations, it is necessary to inform the beneficiaries in more detail about the quality of the services provided, tariffs, increase the level of public confidence, introduce successful experience in other regions. Creating favorable social and economic conditions, consolidating the efforts of all interested parties can create an effective system of social services in the Volgograd region on the principles of interagency cooperation.

Social entrepreneurship in Russia and Asia: further development trends and prospects

PurposeThis paper aims to determine the trends and prospects of the development of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Asian countries.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology includes trend, regression, and correlation analysis and scenario (imitation) modeling and elaborates on perspectives and recommendations for further development of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Asia.FindingsDespite the active development of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Asian countries (its share in the structure of GDP of these countries constituted 2.6% on average in 2018), it accounts for a small contribution to domestic development of socio-economic systems. These countries of Asia in 2018 were peculiar for low level of social freedoms (70th position in the world), low level of healthcare (51st position), moderate level of ecological effectiveness (61.33 points out of 100), moderate level of education (0.767 points out of 1) and low level of development of infrastructure (39 points out of 100). In the provision of social freedoms and healthcare, social entrepreneurship is least developed and is peculiar for a tendency for a decrease. The difference between demand and offer of social entrepreneurship causes an imbalance of the market of social (non-profit, volunteer and charity) services in these countries. This imbalance is to be overcome with the recent tendency of digitization of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Asian countries.Originality/valueDigitization occupies the last position among the factors of the development of social entrepreneurship. Tax stimulation of social entrepreneurship is preferable, so it is recommended to pay primary attention to it until 2022, for the provision of the balance of the market of social services.