Our paper focuses on the role of e-government in relation to economic development within the post-COVID era. Nowadays, e-government represents the service which utilizes digital technology to create electronic pathways to improve the efficiency of public services, increase economic prosperity, and improve the standard of living. In this paper, we argue that e-government presents the only proper and viable model for public administration in the 21st century by embedding internet-based technologies to ensure smooth interactions between the government and its citizens, solving the most socially important problems, enabling internal communication between public servants, and delivering public services to the entire population regardless of age or gender. In addition, we show that stakeholders and policymakers should foster the development of an adequate and non-discriminatory environment for e-government through regulatory frameworks, policy guidelines, and government guarantees. Our study is based on the results of our own survey that was administered using a snowball and quasi-random sample of 400 respondents (aged 19–26 years; 56.2% females and 43.8% males) from the Czech Republic (N = 136) and the Russian Federation (N = 264), of whom 58% were women and 42% were men (M ± SD = 45.53 ± 11.46, median age 44). Our results show that the e-government enhancement concept has been perceived as an effective tool for fostering economic prosperity, tackling corruption, and helping to avoid uncertainty. Based on the theories of customer-focus and relationship marketing, this study suggests that the most significant factor influencing the success of e-government projects is citizen orientation, followed by channel and channel orientation, and technology orientation. We show that the governments of developing countries should prioritize e-government applications in their requests for international assistance and cooperation, as well as international financial support. Moreover, we argue that digital transformation should become the key element of the changing business and market needs in the post-COVID era.

Sustainable development is becoming a very important issue in the 21st century. Facing global changes such as the global warming, global climate change, as well as other pressing issue, all spheres of economy and social life need to take part in mitigating them and preventing disasters from happening. Our article studies the role of the small business in the above processes and the place of the small business in promoting sustainable development through its actions, public and social awareness and responsibility. We show how even small and medium enterprises can become a decisive power in tackling the climate change and promoting green thinking and sustainable awareness. This can be achieved through enhancing social responsibility of business companies which can greatly contribute to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and promoting sustainable economic growth.

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Scientists and analysts have been studying the investment attractiveness of Russian regions for a long time. In order to be able to predict the development of regional economy and assess its prospective growth or possible stagnation, it is necessary to assess the investment activity in the country and the investment attractiveness of its subjects. The problem raised is quite relevant at the present time, since most often the main criterion for an investor when determining an investment object is the return on investment, which should be comparable to the level of possible risk from investing capital. Investment attractiveness of Russian regions in 2020-2021 grew, demonstrating a positive trend of change, despite the consequences of the protracted pandemic and the international sanctions imposed in 2014 by the EU and the USA. However, the unprecedented international sanctions imposed by Western countries in 2022 require the development of new strategic decisions, both at the federal and regional levels of government, to ensure the transformation of socio-economic course of development and ensure the investment attractiveness of business entities. The current problem of import substitution in many sectors of Russian economy is also relevant in the investment sphere, first of all, it requires a reorientation of investment flows towards domestic economic entities. In this article, we will consider the issues of the formation of investment attractiveness and the investment climate in the regions of the Russian Federation under the current international sanctions. The destruction of a large economic system always has a negative impact on its investment attractiveness. In this regard, it is advisable to consider the factors of external and internal orientation that affect the investment attractiveness of the region, as well as assess the favorable and negative impact of these factors.

Our paper tackles the issues of the leading trends and perspectives in the world's sector of services. Our globalised and interconnected economy is slowly but gradually turning away from the industrial production and agriculture towards the sector of services. The rise of Internet, information technologies, and smartphones that employ both of the above also contributed to this trend. We discuss the implications, peculiarities, trends, as well as global perspectives for the sector of services in the 21 st century and draw some outcomes for the stakeholders in charge of the labour market and the development of the economy. Our results and findings clearly demonstrate that global services sector is growing and changing, and these new changes need to be acknowledged, monitored, and promptly captured by all the parties involved. In order to stay competitive in the global information-driven world, one needs to adapt to the new rules and open up her or his mind to the novel approaches and trends.