Confidence and Cooperation of the Territories in the Competitive Economy

Abstract:

The article substantiates the importance of trust in the establishment and maintain cooperation of territories in the competitive economy. The authors put forward a hypothesis according to which the trust-building and maintenance of trust is considered as one of the strategic ways to overcome the contradictions between the competitive and cooperative component of interregional and inter-municipal interaction. This approach allows us to lay the theoretical foundation for a strategy for sustainable and viable socially-oriented development of regions and municipalities in the modern competitive economy. The provision to the effect is substantiated that trust is especially significant among the factors contributing to the effective interaction of regions and municipalities. The trust is one of the drivers of competitive cooperation between territories. A number of specific features of trust are identified that characterize its economic nature and the features of its impact on cooperation. The trust is a behavioral characteristic, irrational and can be an unlimited resource, can be restored, is inextricably linked with image and reputation. Its level is determined, inter alia, by the presence of “good” competitors. According to the results of the surveys in 2013, 2016 and 2019 the authors clarified the main reasons for the decline in confidence in the Russian economy and revealed the negative consequences of loss / decrease in confidence. The thesis that competitive cooperation of territories becomes an increasingly noticeable phenomenon in the modern economic space. The positive results of competing territories’ cooperation, the more popular and perspective forms of interregional and inter-municipal engagement are clarified.