Developing an organizational and economic mechanism for shaping and regulating the competitive environment in the regional economy

The processes of economic development of countries, industries, and enterprises are necessarily accompanied by the competition between the subjects of economic activity. That is why it is important to create favorable conditions for them, to form a competitive environment that meets market principles of economic activity, taking into account minimum intervention of the government in the functioning of the market. Russia is inferior to many countries - even to the former Soviet republics - in terms of favorable business environment; it ranks 40th in the Doing Business rating. Since there is no system approach to the formation of a competitive market environment and state competition policy is carried out with the help of economic coordination of economic entities, it becomes relevant to determine the set of elements (subjects, objects, methods, tools, etc.) regulating this area, and to study the links between them. Based on this, the goal of the present study is to develop an organizational and economic mechanism to shape and regulate the competitive environment in the regional economy. To achieve the goal of the article, we considered foreign experience in the formation of the competitive environment in the economy. Using a comparative analysis, we found that Russia has management practices typical of foreign countries, with the exception of effective privatization of enterprises. We studied the initial conditions for the creation of a mechanism to shape and regulate the competitive environment at the regional level (on the example of the Vologda Oblast). Thus, one of them is the need to organize the space for development in the field of entrepreneurship and competition; it is noted in the Strategy for socio-economic development of the Oblast for the period up to 2030. With the use of the calculation and analytical method and the method of generalization, we performed a critical analysis of the paragraph of the Strategy relating to this area of regulation. As a result, with the help of the system approach and synthesis, we designed a conceptual scheme for the proposed organizational and economic mechanism and described the action of its elements. The paper can be useful both for the authorities involved in the regulation of market relations, in the implementation of the standard for development of competition in the subjects of the Russian Federation, in the development of appropriate road maps, and programs, and for the representatives of the business community and researchers working in this field of studies.