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The purpose of this research is to study consumer satisfaction with the perceived quality of ground public transport (GPT) services in the Moscow metropolitan area. The methodology used includes identification of the quality attributes of GPT services relevant to consumers which affect consumer satisfaction, the choice of alternative transport modes, and the competitiveness of GPT services. Study reliability is ensured by a representative sample which included the results of an online survey of 1517 respondents, cluster analysis and the employment of the CHAID decision tree method. The authors formulated and confirmed 4 hypotheses. Thirty-two attributes influencing consumer satisfaction with GPT services were obtained; clusters with different degrees of satisfaction were identified; and attributes of perceived quality that are important for consumers when choosing transportation modes were revealed. Recommendations for marketing and management solutions to improve the competitiveness of urban GPT services in relation to substitutes in order to increase the mobility of the population and reduce the environmental pollution of the metropolis were proposed.

The perception of the ecological situation in the Moscow metropolis was studied using an online survey of the city dwellers. Quota sampling, proportional to the age and sex composition for each municipal administrative district, was used to ensure representativeness. The influence of the high-level values (basic, HLV) according to Schwartz and socio-demographic factors on the respondents’ perception of the ecological situation in the metropolis was studied during the research. The results obtained showed no statistically significant differences in the perception of factors that negatively affect the ecological situation in Moscow, depending on the value orientations. At the same time, the perception of changes in the ecological situation in the city differs in different clusters based on socio-demographic indicators. The change in the ecological situation is most acutely recorded in clusters, where young people occupy a significant share. Notably, in the cluster where women prevail, the change in the situation is seen as a deterioration.

The growth of metropolis cities and consequently the number of vehicles cruising within their boundaries create a permanent problem of dissatisfaction with the amount of parking space and its over-occupancy. The results of continuous observation of parking lots in Moscow and data on registered cars in the city districts was the initial basis for this study. The data was processed by IBM SPSS Statistics 20 statistical program to obtain descriptive statistics indicators of parking space in Moscow, the analysis of cause-and-effect relations and subsequent multivariate modeling using regression analysis; log it regression; discriminant analysis; "classification trees" (decision tree). The results clearly show the possibility of applying the methods of multivariate statistics, log it regression and "classification trees". Both models allow for using the explanatory variables "proportion of parking lots with violations" and "number of parking spaces in the street and road network" to analyze the impact on parking lot occupancy. Also, the descriptive statistics analysis revealed that when the number and proportion of parking lots with violations are 2 times higher on average in the districts with over-occupied parking lots versus the districts where the parking lot occupancy is not so high, and the number of paid parking lots is over 10 times less. The increase in the proportion of parking spaces with violations ranging from 0 to 0.2% entails a sharp increase in parking space occupancy (up to 90%), while a further increase in the proportion of parking spaces with violations does not entail a significant increase in the parking occupancy.

PurposeThe share of student youth, as consumers, is quite significant in the world. Considering that retailers view young consumers (including student audience) an important segment of the market, a substantial question is to study the effect of values on motivation consumer behavior. The purpose of this paper is to fill the lack of studies on motivational influence of “high-level values” (HLV) on young consumers. This research paper examines the motivational influence of HLV on brands in certain product categories-markers, to develop a methodology for segmenting consumers based on their clustering by values and evaluating brand preferences in different segments.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was formed by the “snowball” method from first-year undergraduate students. The sample size involves 239 respondents. The research was carried out by the online survey method on the basis of a structured questionnaire. To obtain segments, the authors used hierarchical cluster analysis by the Ward method and the Euclidean distance method. The statistical significance of the differences in brand preferences between segments was checked in the conjugacy tables using theχ2test at different significance levels.FindingsFindings show clearly the possibility on the basis of HLV to identify segments of consumers, which allows obtaining the distribution of the perception of the brand. For a student audience received segments were: “Become a successful leader,” “become successful in a harmonious world,” “ascetic,” “the Hedonist,” Frequency analysis revealed an uneven distribution of preferences between the examined brands. At the same time, revealed the differences in the motivational significance HLV for brands in different product categories.Practical implicationsRetailers should use segmentation based on motivation influence of HLV for improving the effectiveness of communication of young consumers with brands. The solution of this problem will allow forming particular strategic behaviors of retailers occurring in the sphere of shaping relationships with young consumers.Originality/valueIt is one of the rare studies that investigate motivational influence of a complex of ten HLV on the young consumers. In this paper, the authors propose to use a methodology for young consumers segmentation based on clustering for HLV, and assessing brands preferences in different segments.

The article is dealing with the issues of state regulation of the consumer market, where the interests of producers, wholesale intermediaries, and retail trade are traditionally encountered. The authors consider the features of state regulation of the formation and development processes of multi-object and omnichannel trading systems in Russia in the context of the country's entry into the global economy, the opening of the domestic market for foreign business structures, and commodity imports in a situation with a small business that is not fully established. The results of the conducted study complement the experience of the international community in regulating system formation in trade. The article analyzes significant differences in the state intervention mechanisms in the economic relations of retail chains and their suppliers, as well as the impact of stricter legislation on wholesale trade, and its place and role in the commodity distribution system. The authors prove that excessive regulation of the retail market causes negative consequences in its adjacent segments, justify the upcoming redistribution of the market between large retail chains and specialized wholesale companies in favor of the former ones, show the development prospects of the distribution, and the impact of this process on small retail businesses, as well as formulate proposals for optimizing approaches to regulating the transformation of the trade sector in the transition economy.

Background Giant cell tumor of bone (GCT) is a rare primary bone tumor, which can metastasize and undergo malignant transformation. The standard treatment of GCT is surgery. In patients with unresectable or metastatic disease, additional therapeutic options are available. These include blocking of the receptor activator of NF-kappa B ligand (RANKL) signaling pathway, which plays a role in the pathogenesis of GCT of bone, via the anti-RANKL monoclonal antibody denosumab. Case Presentation Herein we report on a female teenager who presented in a very poor clinical condition (cachexia, diplopia, strabismus, dysphonia with palsy of cranial nerves V, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII) due to progressive disease, after incomplete resection and adjuvant radiotherapy, of a GCT which affected the cervical spine (C1 and C2) as well as the skull base; and who had an impressive clinical response to denosumab therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the youngest patient ever reported with a skull base tumor treated with denosumab. Conclusion In situations when surgery can be postponed and local aggressiveness of the tumor does not urge for acute surgical intervention, upfront use of denosumab in order to reduce the tumor size might be considered. Principally, the goal of denosumab therapy is to reduce tumor size as much as possible, with the ultimate goal to make local surgery (or as in our case re-surgery) amenable. However, improvement in quality of life, as demonstrated in our patient, is also an important aspect of such targeted therapies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13052-017-0353-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to identify the activity of use and the perception of existing smart-technologies by the youth audience in the area of public transport in Moscow. Method: The perception of smart-decisions as regards public transport, realized to date by the young audience, should be investigated for the development and adjustment of city policy in this area. The study is an online survey of young audience, who live in the Moscow region; the number of respondents was 439 people aged 18-25 years. Findings: The proportion of respondents who use the smart-technology capabilities to plan their trips and payment for them has been found. The main differences in the behavior of young respondents of those who use and those who do not use smart-technology capabilities in public transport in Moscow also have been identified. Using the smart-technologies in public transport by young consumers is intense; with the use of technologies users solve problems of various types. Problems of receiving information and optimization are solved more actively, while those concerning performing actions on the fare are dealt a little less actively. Improvements: Using smart-technologies allows partially solving the problems arising from the use of public transport.