Single-industry town: Assessing the activity of town-forming enterprise

Abstract

Subject. The article considers performance indicators of a city–forming enterprise (absolute indicators, like revenue, cost of sales, net profit; relative indicators, like coefficients of autonomy, current liquidity, return on sales, assets, equity) and the level of socio-economic development of a single-industry town (demographic indicators, housing and communal services, investment activity). Objectives. The purpose is to analyze and evaluate the activities of a city-forming enterprise, its production and technological linkages and their impact on socio-economic development of the entire monotown. The paper considers the cases of Kamensk-Uralsky and Polevskoy monotowns and their town-forming enterprises. Methods. We employ methods of theoretical, statistical, financial and economic analysis. Results. We assessed the indicators of the monotowns’ socio-economic condition. In both cases, on the one hand, there are negative trends in population decline, the investment policy is underdeveloped. On the other hand, the construction of housing stock is expanding. There are production and technological linkages between the major employers of the monotowns under study. However, both of them are characterized by low efficiency of production and economic activity. Conclusions. The interaction of town-forming enterprises along production and technological chains, affiliation with larger institutional entities, like strategic unions, associations, corporations, etc., do not guarantee effective development of either the town-forming enterprise or the single-industry town as a whole. A better targeted support from municipal, regional, and federal government agencies, and attracting private investment are required.