UDC: 336.76
https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2026-5-11


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COLLECTIVE INVESTMENTS: TERMINOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Ts. B. Balzhirov
Saint-Petersburg State Economic University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
e-mail: Balzhirov.2018@mail.ru

Abstract. The relevance of the study stems from the fact that the collective investment industry has become a significant segment of the Russian financial market, while its conceptual apparatus remains underdeveloped. Russian scholarship and legislation lack a single definition of collective investment, and three closely related terms – collective investment, the collective investment market and the collective investment system – are typically used without differentiation. This terminological ambiguity has practical consequences: the boundaries of market statistics, the supervisory perimeter and the object of applied analysis all depend on the chosen interpretation. The aim of the article is to systematise the established approaches to defining collective investment, to reveal their limitations and to propose a demarcation of the three categories along the logic «process – market – system». The methodological basis is a synthesis of L. von Bertalanffy’s systems approach and the institutional approach of R. Coase and D. North, supplemented by a comparative analysis of normative, academic and international definitions. The main results are as follows. First, the established interpretations are systematised, showing that they capture different facets of the phenomenon without forming a coherent construction. Second, a demarcation is substantiated between collective investment as an economic process, the collective investment market as the space of its realisation and the collective investment system as an institutional shell, together with an empirically testable proposition on the institutional primacy of the system over the market under a regulated financial market. Third, four qualifying criteria of collective investment are proposed that separate its form from adjacent constructions and the channels distributing its instruments, demonstrated on the case of unit-linked life insurance. The scientific novelty lies in constructing a three-level demarcation of the conceptual apparatus of collective investment theory. The practical significance is that the proposed apparatus provides a basis for correct statistical accounting, supervisory scoping and subsequent empirical and econometric analysis of the Russian collective investment system.

Key words: collective investment, collective investment system, collective investment market, terminological analysis, institutional approach, trust management, mutual funds, unit-linked life insurance.

Cite as: Balzhirov, Ts. B. (2026) [Collective investments: terminological analysis]. Intellekt. Innovacii. Investicii [Intellect. Innovations. Investments]. Vol. 5, pp. 11–20. – https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2026-5-11.


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