Articles de revues sur le sujet « Businessmen – Great Britain »

The First World War ended Great Britain's nineteenth-century world economic supremacy, which had been steadily eroded in the decades before 1914. Within Britain, the war also changed the way in which individuals carried on business, the attitudes of the business community toward government, the government's own policies toward trade and traders, and public opinion on these matters, as reflected in the press. Although it is far too simplistic to claim that the war spelled the end of laissez-faire in Britain, state control of the economy did increase in a country whose economic culture was based on free trade and minimal government interference in business. Moreover, before 1914 Britain had to export to pay its way in the world, and its economy, more than that of any other great power, depended upon peace for prosperity. In this setting, Germany was the biggest European customer for British exports, as well as being the source of vital imports, such as aniline dyes, optical, and electrical goods. Thus the application of economic warfare against Germany and its allies deeply affected the British economy and businessmen who were suddenly forced by official edict to relinquish a traditional market in patriotic support of their government's blockade of the German Empire.

The article examines the factor of oil, when some influential politicians and big businessmen, primarily in Great Britain, tried to use for their far-reaching goals the factual absence of the Weimar Republic's own oil fields. Monopolization of oil supplies in the context of the implementation of the “legal mechanism for ‘pushing’ Germany to the East” made it possible to a certain extent to manage the foreign policy activity of the Hitlerite regime.

AbstractWorld War I reshaped the international economy. This was, in part, the consequence of British mobilization of resources for its own war effort, which aligned producer interests around the world with those of the United Kingdom. But it was also a consequence of Western policy aimed at excluding German businessmen from global markets. German planners noted during World War I that Great Britain, in particular, was expressing an interest in continuing such exclusion after the war, with potentially enormous economic consequences for Germany. Combatting or preventing such an economic “war after the war” prompted German businessmen and politicians to support a series of policies that would have profoundly changed the institutions and norms of the prewar international economy. These policies ranged from imposing one-sided trade agreements, expanding the mark zone, and establishing German control over Eastern European industries and infrastructure, to creating shipping cartels and imposing compulsory raw material delivery agreements on the Western powers. The result of German efforts to direct trade and investment in ways preferable to the German state would have been a deeply politicized postwar international economy. The article argues that economic questions were thus a central component of German war aims, but that these were not fixed: they evolved over the course of the war in response to changes in the international economy, and they focused not on short-term emergencies but rather on longer-term structural changes.

Though Mr Gladstone was speaking of the opposition to home rule in the country, rather than in the parliamentary Liberal party alone in the statement quoted above, this has become the rather standard interpretation of the great separation in the Liberal party in 1886. As one modern historian of the Liberal disruption puts it, ‘a striking characteristic of modern British history has been the class alignment of political parties… The Liberal Unionist party (those who seceded on the home rule question) was a half-way house, which entertained for a time much of the wealth and territorial influence which had been Liberal and was to be Conservative.’ One of the most influential historians of late-nineteenth-century Britain puts the issue in broader terms. The origins of Conservative dominance as well as the leakage of the landed and business classes to the Conservative party, Sir Robert Ensor argues, are to be found in the undermining of English and Irish agriculture by the invasion of North American wheat. This produced, in turn, agrarian revolution in Ireland, the rise of violent nationalism in Ireland, the growth of social and political conflict, and, ultimately, the rejection of Irish political demands by the English. Yet another attributes the fall of Gladstone's third ministry to a general revolt against the Liberal party by railway directors and other businessmen who had been alerted to the dangers to property which the government's railway policies implied. This theme has been taken up and many have come to argue that class voting emerged in 1886 when the upper – and middle-class Liberals, taking home rule as an excuse, departed to the Conservatives in a reaction against growing social radicalism.

In 1824, a group of London businessmen established the Australian Agricultural Company (AAC), Australia's oldest chartered company. Their prospectus listed amongst their objectives, after the raising of sheep and cattle, the production ‘at a more distant time, of Wine, Olive-Oil, Hemp, Flax, Silk, Opium, &c. as articles of export to Great Britain’. In 1828, a local manager reported that he thought that ‘if the labour of the Blacks can be procured for the operative part the culture [of opium] would likely prove profitable to the Company.’ And in 1833, the Australian manager of the company sent the London Board a sample of the first opium grown on company lands in the Hunter River area. The board had it evaluated by a pharmacist, who reported that it was ‘of fair, merchantable quality, about equal to Egyptian Opium. — It contains two thirds of the quantity of Morphia usually found in the best Turkey Opium. In this market, when Turkey Opium is worth 15s./ p lb., we have no doubt that such Opium as your Sample would sell for 14s/ p Ib. On the basis of this disappointing assessment, the Australian Agricultural Company abandoned opium growing — and opium growing was abandoned in Australia for another hundred and fifty years.

Young generations are those who make lives livelier and happier, who design the future and make the change, the ones with full hope and enthusiasm to go further and make the impossible possible. As every country of Europe, Asia or America, Albania as well is surrounded by a very fruitful young ladies and gentlemen's. This paper aims to analyse the changes of the youth development in Albania during the transition period. The young development in Albania has faced many problems, such as the difference between the levels of development of the youths that live in the other cities of Albania with the ones of the capital. Rural areas and small towns are closed where a portion of youth in minor are totally dependent from family, and they are exactly that with their weak hands are inclined to do the heavy work to keep their family one more day alive. Youth at the opening of the borders, generally tended to leave towards legal immigration either as tourist or in illegal opportunities addressing major countries like Britain, Greece, Italy, Belgium etc. Albania needs to make arrangements which will be financed by businessmen, private universities in cooperation with the state to offer young people opportunities to work together and to be closer to each other and to show their skills in conversation competitions. At the same time the state has other open universities in backward areas which will provide young entrepreneurs' with more opportunities for young people to graduate and to serve different areas. Meanwhile, there is needed a strategy to separate the fields in which there is a need to have more expert in the field which is required to work also which would come more to help the country's economy with the addition of experts. Albania is a country blessed where high mountains finish in seas, where groundwater resources are numerous, and with a conductive climate to produce almost all kinds of fruits and where vegetation is very diverse. If the youth will be directed towards learning of foreign languages and in recognition of their territories, traditions and customs, thus, we would make a big step because tourism market is precisely the kind of market where young people will find themselves more comfortable than ever, where the labour force will be insufficient paid and where the demand for products would be required as the number of tourists would be great and just the requirements would change in terms of application areas during the summer as it would be for beaches and seasonal fruits, while during the winter for skiing and mountain tourism.

Outline This paper presents the results of a recent evaluation of the Urban Development Grant in Belfast. In contrast to cities in Great Britain, the Urban Development Grant in Belfast has been available not just to property speculators, but also to owner-occupiers of commercial premises. The grant is to facilitate employment growth in assisted businesses by removing constraints on trade and production imposed by unsuitable premises or location. An analysis of employment change in UDG-assisted and non-assisted businesses is undertaken to ascertain whether grant assistance was associated with employment growth.

Mexico experienced relative political stability during the period of President Porfirio Diaz. This process was accompanied by accelerated capitalist development with dependence on foreign capital and the preservation of precapitalist features. The President of the country Diaz created favorable conditions for the penetration of foreign capital into the country's economy. Great Britain has shown an interest in establishing strong economic relations with the Mexican state, seeking to consolidate its economic dominance in the Latin American market. With the backing of the Diaz government in Mexico, major British entrepreneurs such as Whitman Pearson received favorable conditions to grow their businesses. At the same time, the country experienced a serious confrontation between Britain and the United States of America for influence on the Mexican economy and politics. The focus of the article is on the relationship between Great Britain and Mexico during the revolution of 1910-1917. The study reveals the position of London in relation to the Mexican governments replacing each other during the revolutionary events, headed by General Victoriano Huerta and the leader of the constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza.

In the mid-1820s, banks became the first businesses in Great Britain and Ireland to be allowed to form freely on an unlimited liability joint-stock basis. Walter Bagehot warned that their shares would ultimately be owned by widows, orphans, and other impecunious individuals. Another hypothesis is that the governing bodies of these banks, constrained by special legal restrictions on share trading, acted effectively to prevent such shares being transferred to the less wealthy. We test both conjectures using the archives of an Irish joint-stock bank. The results do not support Bagehot's hypothesis.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have faced unprecedented challenges when trying to remain open. Because COVID-19 spreads through aerosolized droplets, businesses were forced to distance their services; in some cases, distancing may have involved moving business services online. In this work, we explore digitization strategies used by small businesses that remained open during the pandemic, and survey/interview small businesses owners to understand preliminary challenges associated with moving online. Furthermore, we analyze payments from 400K businesses across Japan, Australia, United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Following initial government interventions, we observe (at minimum for each country) a 47% increase in digitizing businesses compared to pre-pandemic levels, with about 80% of surveyed businesses digitizing in under a week. From both our quantitative models and our surveys/interviews, we find that businesses rapidly digitized at the start of the pandemic in preparation of future uncertainty. We also conduct a case-study of initial digitization in the United States, examining finer relationships between specific government interventions, business sectors, political orientation, and resulting digitization shifts. Finally, we discuss the implications of rapid & widespread digitization for small businesses in the context of usability challenges and interpersonal interactions, while highlighting potential shifts in pre-existing social norms.

Welcome to this special edition of the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics.In Great Britain, it has become a regulatory and commercial imperative, to better understand consumer behaviour in relation to gaming machines and gambling-related harm. Businesses seek to improve their offering of gambling-related products and services in relation to market demand which may include changes to game parameters (e.g., increases in stakes and prizes). The regulator seeks to foster an environment where the gambling industry can flourish, but not at the expense of the well-being of consumers generally, and vulnerable players in particular.

J. Walter Thompson (JWT), the leading American advertising agency until the 1970s, established a branch office in Paris in 1927. While many of JWT's worldwide branches became the leading agencies in their respective countries, notably Great Britain and Germany, JWT-Paris foundered from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. This article focuses on the reasons why: cultural clashes between the French and Americans, a regulated and protected French market, anti-Americanism among French businesses, and American condescension and insensitivity. It concludes with an analysis of and the reasons for JWT-Paris's achievement of limited success by the late 1960s.

Abstract The taxation system is most certainly one of the main pillars of economic development towards sustainable growth.The aim of this paper is to critically assess the importance of an effective Tax System, its impact on the Albanian economy. Furthermore we shall outline a comparison of the Albanian Tax system to that of the United Kingdom. At this time a number of very important reforms are being undertaken by the government of Albania in light of future integration towards the European Union.The overview on the United Kingdom has the aim to enlighten the path on what should be our focus while building a Tax System that can help economic growth, to that effect Great Britain as a country of a stable and strong economy can be of example.Many differences can be noticed between the United Kingdom tax system and the Albanian one. This fact is simple to be accepted as Britain is one of the world superpowers, while the Albanian economy is a developing one. The tax systems in these two countries, the development history, application of VAT or Income Tax have had very different processions.The United Kingdom has one of the most voluminous Tax Acts in the world. The international company of legal research “LexisNexis” discovered that the Acts of Parliament on Taxation in the United Kingdom have more than doubled since 1997. The annual amendments to taxation are part of the Finance Act which has the power to change norms and principles of taxation as previously defined. Taxation in the United Kingdom usually includes payments for central government agencies called Her Majesty’s Revenues and Incomes and local councils. Local Councils collect a tax called business norms from businesses. The Albanian Taxation System consists of a packet of laws, regulations, guidance and tax agreements, on the procedure of application, measure, amendment and removal of taxes.Taxes are the main source of income in the state budget and the local government budget and the foundation of the whole Albanian tax system. In conclusion, we shall analyze the impact of the frequent changes to Taxation Law within the Albanian system and the challenges faced in light of this changes in terms of implementation and application.

Increasing concerns over global and local sustainability issues motivate businesses to develop solutions via collaborative partnerships. While many studies explain the contributions of sustainable alliances to economic, environmental, and social sustainability, less is known about how a portfolio of these alliances is configured. This study aims to answer this question by examining the relationship between organisational value frames and alliance portfolio configurations of 16 utility companies in the electricity industry of Great Britain. The study finds that organisational value frames play a key role in the selection of alliance partners and hence the configuration of alliance portfolios. The results demonstrate that British electricity utilities often collaborate with cognitively similar organisations. The results demonstrate that cognitive homophily is common in selecting partners to tackle sustainability issues. While previous studies demonstrated homophily in partner selection as resource homophily or status homophily, in the sustainability context, this study shows that homophily is also about values that guide interpretations of sustainability issues.

In 1990/91, survey responses were gathered from 621 independent businesses located in Great Britain. A follow‐on telephone survey was conducted with 150 surviving firms in 1997. This survey gathered information surrounding the propensity of firms to export their goods or services abroad as well as other performance and goal outcomes. Organizational and external environmental variables collected in 1990 are used to explain within a multivariate statistical framework the propensity of a firm to be an exporter in 1997, and the intensity of internationalization activity. Data collected in 1990 is also used to explain variations in several performance variables (i.e. whether exporting was regarded as a path to firm growth; profit performance reported in 1997 relative to competition; and the propensity to report employment growth over the 1990 to 1997 period).

The development of renewable energy producers in rural areas creates new job opportunities for the countryside population. The decentralized manner of renewable energy in small cities is one of the ways how to meet the rural and small scale energy needs in a reliable, affordable and environmentally sustainable way. In 2010, the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague has finished the participation in the European IEE project RES COMPASS. In mutual cooperation, with seven partners from the Great Britain, France, Spain, Greek and Finland, the University has been involved in the extensive research concerning the impact of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) on the future European labour market. The RES COMPASS project meets the objectives expressed by the New Skills for New Jobs Initiative of the EU and stressed also other initiatives, namely the Green Jobs Initiative, the UNEP initiative as well as the requirements of the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Organization of Employers in 2008. The RES COMPASS programme strategy was based on the implementation steps in three mutually supportive components: The first component Comparative analysis of the methods of identification of skill needs on the future labour market based on the renewable energy sources was concerned in the young generation of the today’s students. The second component Career Orientation test was developed as a tool for the potential young people thinking about a future career in the emerging area of renewable energy. The third component focused on the future business opportunities for small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) in the RES sector. The paper informs about findings of the third component New businesses for SMEs in the RES. Realistic possibilities of the development of SMEs appear to exist in the provision of more complex services reacting to (1) needs of more rapid renovation of the morally depreciated devices, (2) interest of inhabitants and producers in the installations of at least two different autonomous alternative energy sources, (3) creation of informal groups of users who will share various energy sources, (4) need to support the installation of energy devices with other measures – energy audits and projects.

Building relationships with Generation Z on social media is becoming a challenge for present-day enterprises. The aim of the paper is to indicate the features of the activity of the representatives of generation Z in social media that enable the company to build relationships in order to achieve benefits.The study of Generation Z behaviour towards brands on social media is part of broader research conducted by the authors among students in Poland and Great Britain in 2020. The method used in the study was a survey, as part of which the CATI surveying technique was used. For analysis of the study material, descriptive statistics measures were used. The findings show which social networking portals are most often used by respondents of Generation Z, what benefits they then expect and what actions they perform most often when communicating with businesses on social media. Additionally, the strength of the relationships between the analysed variables and the respondent's gender was verified.

Abstract Tanika Gupta’s neo-Victorian, postcolonial rewriting of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (2011) examines how India and Britain’s colonial history continues to shape both countries until the present day. The play is set in and around Calcutta in the years following 1861. Gupta thus not only relocates Pip’s transformation from village boy to metropolitan businessman to nineteenth-century India but also to a particularly fragile moment in the history of the British Empire: a subcontinent grappling with the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, facing the early years of the British Raj. Gupta interrogates narrow understandings of “Victorian” as located within the British Isles, explicating the contrapuntal reading practice that Edward W. Said calls for when highlighting Victorian literature’s implicit endorsement of imperialist ideologies and politics. Examining the play’s engagement with imperial power structures, this article centres on those moments that hint at the destabilisation of, if not revolt against, British rule. Gupta juxtaposes canonised narratives of undisturbed imperial hegemony with a tale of incessant colonial resistance. In doing so, she challenges those historiographical as well as fictional (neo-)Victorian texts that silence the sustained efforts and influence of anticolonial movements and that frame the history of Empire in terms of continuity rather than rupture.

The article analyzes the main consequences of Brexit for socio-economic and political development of the UK and the EU. The issuesof British identity, security, migration crisis, as well as the financial and economic crisis have turned to be the key factors that have, in some ways, led to the Brexit referendum and its results. Brexit means a crisis of a single European identity, European integrity and unity. The United Kingdom joined the EEC and then the EU on special terms, which it consistently defended in the future, staying away from most of integration processes. Brexit has political and socio-economic consequences for the development of both the UK and the EU. Adropin GDP and in the pound sterlingrate, rising unemployment, the outflow of migrants, real estate crashmay be the possible consequences of Brexit. A further fragmentation within Britain itself can also be the consequence of Brexit. In London today, there are many contradictions in relations with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the unity of the autonomous regions of Great Britain may be threatened by the strengthening of nationalist movement there.Today, Brexit is considered to be an irrational event that occurred due to a combination of factors and circumstances. Britain is the only country wherethe ruling party raised the question of EU membership. In other EU countries, similar proposals do not come from the majority parties, but from the semi-marginal far-right ones. Brexit has revealed a deep rift in British society on regional, age, social, educational and in general on a class basis. Negotiations on the terms of Brexit were tough and the possibility of Brexit without an agreement was not ruled out.With the exit of the UK, the EU loses its second union economy and the EU budget revenues willbe significantly reduced. The rupture of economic ties with the UK will have a mirror effect on EU countries and their businesses.

By 1960, Britain’s once-thriving Music Hall industry was virtually dead. Theatres with their faded notions of Empire gave way to Cinema and the threat of Television. Where thousands once linked arms singing popular songs, watch acrobatics, see feats of strength, and listen to risqué jokes, now the echoes of those acts lay as whispers amongst the stalls’ threadbare seats. The Halls flourished in the 19th Century, but had their origins in the taverns of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Minstrels plied their trade egged on by drunken crowds. As time passed, the notoriety of the Music Hall acts and camaraderie produced grew. Entrepreneurial businessman tapped into this commerciality and had purpose-built status symbol theatres to provide a ‘home’ for acts and punters. With names like The Apollo giving gravitas approaching Olympian ideals, so the owners basked in wealth and glory. The Music Hall became the mass populist entertainment for the population. Every town had one, where everyone could be entertained by variety acts showing off the performers’ skills. The acts varied from singers, joke-tellers, comics, acrobats, to dancers. They all aimed to entertain. They enabled audiences to share a symbiotic relationship with one another; became recruitment officers for the Army; inspired War Poets; showed short films; and they and the halls reflected both the ideals and foibles of their era. By using Raymond Williams’ structures of feeling as its cornerstone, the article will give a brief history of the halls, whilst providing analysis into how they grew into mass populist entertainment that represented British culture. Case studies of famous artistes are given, plus an insight into how Music Hall segued into radio, film and television.

The need to protect the rights and legitimate interests of entities affected by anti-competitive actions, to compensate for the losses caused to them, as well as to suppress illegal behavior in relation to a wide range of people, requires states to search for various measures to counteract such abuse by companies of their market power. One possible measure is class action, which is currently used in the US and UK as an effective mechanism to protect businesses and consumers from anti-competitive behavior. Taking into account the fact that the procedure of group proceedings has been developed in modern Russian legislation, the experience of implementing the relevant norms in other countries is of undoubted interest for study. The author analyzes the provisions on class actions contained in the legislation of the United States and Great Britain, the practice of their application in the field of competition protection, as well as the prospects for class proceedings in Russia. The conclusion is made about the insufficiency of legally fixed economic incentives for filing class actions, which may prevent the widespread use of this institution in Russian practice, including in antimonopoly disputes.

This article examines the possibilities for the Greek police to use performance measurement. The article first presents the context from which the monopoly of the state police began to be questioned. It briefly describes the development and essential trends in this type of evaluation for police forces in Great Britain, the initiator of quality reforms in the public sector in Europe and where considerable experience has been accrued. In the second part, the concepts of security and trust are explored and used as the theoretical background for a small-scale empirical study. It examines whether testing the effectiveness of policing can help in developing the necessary sense of security and trust required by small businesses to expand their enterprises. Furthermore, it examines whether such knowledge could motivate security companies to offer a more economic service to a larger number of households and private enterprises by cooperating with the state police and if such measurement would prove useful for them and their customers. Finally, some conclusions are formulated in reference to safety, police culture and organization, as well as to the quality of reform in Greece.

Capability Brown cannot be identified as the originator of modern landscaping, yet he created a business that achieved an unrivaled impact, outshining those before, during, and after his lifetime. Whether Brown was a great artist, opinions may differ. However, there is evidence that Brown was an outstandingly successful businessman. From humble origins, Brown ultimately created a business that seized the lion’s share of the landscaping market of Britain’s elite in the second half of the eighteenth century, counting half of the House of Lords as his clients. A study of Brown’s surviving account book, bank ledgers, and personal correspondence provides new insight into the rapid development, vast scale, and nature of his business. This research shows that commissions were not just gained due to his skills in landscaping, but through his exceptional business acumen, his method of operations, organizational structure, focus, work ethic, and ability to develop contacts and win trust with both the aristocracy and ultimately the King of England. What emerges is a picture of Brown as an entrepreneur of considerable skill, enabling him to uniquely build a national landscaping business.

Abstract. The article evaluates the funding structure and partnership models in ensuring human resource productivity. The government’s main task is to implement the economic policy that would stimulate the growth of the country’s economy, which is achieved through the active participation of human resources in social production and can be identified by their productivity. Increasing labor productivity requires both fundings for human resources development programs, namely education and health care, and the formation of models of partnerships between the subjects of its provision (government, business, and households). Revitalization of human resources involves meeting the essential human needs, which are defined in the concept of human development, the highest priority of which is education and health. Each country forms its own partnership model of subjects for financing to ensure economic growth and productivity of human resources. The object of the study is the model of partnership in providing the growth of productivity of human resources in the economies of countries that have excellent tools for financing human development programs, namely the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Ukraine. In this study, we used correlation regression analysis to evaluate the models of a partnership between households, government, and businesses in financing education and health to ensure increasing productivity of human resources. We proved the crucial role of public funding of health care systems in ensuring the growth of human productivity in Germany, the United States, Britain, and Ukraine, and in Sweden — socially responsible business. With regard to education, the priority in the partnership model in the United States belongs to the business, in Germany to the state, and in other countries, the participation of all partners is equal. Ukraine has relatively low productivity of human resources. Therefore, it is essential to implement measures to improve it and transform the existing funding structure for human development programs and partnership models to ensure its growth. Keywords: management, financing, education, health, social policy, economic growth. JEL Classification E22, I18, I22, J24, O15 Formulas: 0; fig.: 1; tabl.: 1; bibl.: 32.

All over the world, non-essential businesses were closed during the pandemic, which subsequently led to a deterioration in the economic condition of the whole world, the main negative factor was the surprise. The world economy was not prepared for such events. The service industry was completely destroyed along with the tourism and hotel industry. Companies that are able to work remotely were able to continue to work and survive the crisis. But industries that require personal interaction have been almost completely destroyed. This study aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock markets, as the stock market provides an updated summary of views on the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the theoretical structure, the prices of securities always fully refl ect all available information. As a result, it can be expected that there should be a strong link between the COVID-19 pandemic and stock index returns. The aim of the work is to study the impact of the pandemic on the quotes of the leading players in the QSR market. To achieve this goal, the author analyzed the dynamics of stock indices that were aff ected by the pandemic, studied the prices per troy ounce of gold on MOEX, the US unemployment rate, the position of the stock indices of the US, Russia, Germany, Great Britain and France relative to 01.01.2020, the index of bond yields of companies with a Ba/BB rating.

The article describes the applied measures of tax incentives for scientific, development and innovation activities on the example of foreign countries: Great Britain, Finland, New Zealand, Mexico, Latvia, etc. A generalized analysis of the effectiveness of tax incentives for R&D provided to large companies and small and medium-sized businesses is given. On the example of the legislation of Ireland, the study of the categorical apparatus is carried out. The role of the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the study of tax incentives for R&D is determined. The work is based on the application of general scientific and private scientific methods: statistical, comparative legal, historical, etc. A comparative analysis of direct government financing and tax support of R&D for business is provided. Several methods of evaluating the effectiveness of stimulating research and development are considered. Conclusions are drawn about the key global patterns in the field of assessing the effectiveness of tax incentives for R&D. In conclusion, the author notes that depending on the size of the economy and the level of its development, governments of different countries choose different types and sizes of tax instruments within the framework of fiscal policy. There is also a lack of unity in the methodology for calculating the impact of the proposed benefits on the growth rate of R&D financing.

The corona virus outbreak, which originated in China, has infected nearly 8, 75,000 people. Its spread has left businesses around the world counting costs. The corona virus is going global, and it could bring the world economy to a standstill. COVID-19 that began in the depths of China’s Hubei province is spreading rapidly, persuading the World Health Organisation to declare it as a pandemic. There are now significant outbreaks from South Korea to Italy and Iran, from America to Britain. The ongoing spread of the new corona virus has become one of the biggest threats to the global economy and financial markets. Even though, time and again our Indian economists have assured the country that Indian economy stands relatively insulated from the global value chain, but being integrated into world economy, there has to be some impact. This was reflected in the Nifty when the stock market took a great plunge down in last week of February, 2020. The present study is an attempt to examine the impact of COVID-19 on Indian Stock market. The study takes into consideration a time period of four months, from December 1st, 2019 to March 31st, 2020. The study focuses on the Nifty and sectoral indices of Nifty along with India Volatility Index. Tools used for the study involves correlation, regression, ANOVA, variance analysis and moving averages. The study concludes with the statement that volatility is higher in medium run than in short run and also there is significant impact of COVID-19 on Indian stock market.

Introduction. In many countries around the world, globalization is accompanied by the intensification of clustering processes, which is recognized as the best opportunity to strengthen and develop small and medium-sized businesses, increase the competitiveness of enterprises in the development of international relations and interregional partnerships. Cluster formations are relevant for developed countries, as well as for those in the development stage, in which small and medium-sized businesses are the basis of the economy, provide the production of the bulk of GDP and provide employment for a significant part of the working population. Purpose. The article is devoted to the review of the experience of developed countries in the implementation, support and development of clustering as the best opportunity to strengthen and develop small and medium-sized businesses, increase the competitiveness of enterprises, the formation of strong international ties. The study aims to assess the world experience in terms of formation and implementation of economic interests and priorities of adaptation in Ukraine. Results. To identify the priorities of clustering as a progressive model of regional economic development, the peculiarities of the formation and development of cluster structures in the most developed countries are considered. Peculiarities of cluster formation in the USA, Great Britain, France, Japan, China, and Germany are highlighted. In European countries, about 70% of cluster structures operate in the industrial sector. In India and Japan, more than 65-70% of enterprises are active members of clusters, in the United States; more than 50% of enterprises operate as part of cluster associations. The economies of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden are affected by clustering, and the activity of creating clusters in China and Southeast Asia has increased significantly. The characteristic features of the cluster model in each of the countries and the role of clusters in the formation of the country's GDP are revealed. It is established that innovation is the basis of the cluster model in any country. The influence of state regulation and regional programs on the development of cluster formation is noted. It is noted that a few decades ago clustering developed slowly, spontaneously and chaotically, but now it is a powerful tool of interaction between the state, research institutions, business sector, which is implemented through the mechanism of financing research institutions with equipment and resources. Conclusion. The review of innovative cluster models of developed countries testifies to their focus on innovative development and relevant state policy. Also, clustering, which in itself involves a partnership of participants, can be successful when there is close cooperation of business with different areas and specialization of research institutions that provide development of different types of innovations. The priorities of adaptation of the world experience of the innovative cluster model to the Ukrainian realities are substantiated: sustainable development of small and medium business; brand creation; involvement in cluster formation of regional level institutions, creation of a local cluster structure; long-term perspective of cluster formation. The article is devoted to the Review of experience of development of the countries concerning Implementation, support and development of clustering as the best opportunity for strengthening and development of small and medium business, Increase of competitiveness of the enterprises, formation of strong international communications. Research of orientations is based on an estimation of world experience from a position of formation and realization of economic interests and priorities of adaptation in Ukraine. The world experience of the innovative cluster model is highlighted. Features of cluster formation in the USA, Great Britain, France, Japan, China, and Germany are considered. The characteristic rids of the cluster model in each of the countries and the role of clusters in the formation of the country’s GDP is revealed. It is established that innovation is the basis of the cluster model in any country. The influence of state regulation and regional programs on the development of cluster formation is noted. The Priorities of adaptation of the WORLD experience of the innovative cluster model to the Ukrainian realities are substantiated: sustainable development of small and medium business; creating a brand; Involvement in clustering of regional level institutions, creation of a local cluster structure; long-term perspective of cluster formation.

The article deals with comparing taxation conditions of a range of countries which can be applied for IT companies as the subjects of digital economy. The author examines the peculiar features of tax privileges, tax planning tools and optimization for running digital companies in such countries as Estonia, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Malta and Ireland. These countries are included in a number of international ratings and are highly estimated by foreign experts as regards the level of convenience of doing IT business. The author especially focuses on the financial calculations of possible ways for tax optimization and the key features of implementation of the extremely popular in European countries IP-Box regimes. In conclusion the author concentrates on the patterns and trends within the tax jurisdictions under consideration including the one regarding the existing treaties on avoiding double taxation. He points out that it is possible to use the international experience in order to create competitive taxation of digital companies in Russia as part of developing addenda to the package of measures (effective 01.01.2021) which is also called “tax maneuver”. In particular, it is suggested that income tax rate for IT businesses in Russia should be altered taking into consideration the foreign countries’ indexes. Moreover, the author presents his ideas on the components of possible use of such measures as “digital residency” as part of the second package of “tax maneuver” measures. The author makes a conclusion on the importance of implementing non-taxation measures for maintaining rapid development of IT-industry in Russia and enumerates the most essential directions and problems of the IT-society and the possible ways of their realization.

The importance of assessing the financial distress risk of a company is a topic that has been of central value in many different economic fields and since a long time. Until the twenty-first century, most of the studies were concentrated primarily on using mathematical and statistical methods to assess the health of businesses. Many of these studies employed either accounting-based ratios or cash flow-based ratios; even if there is not a unique conclusion, the use of cash flows seems to improve the predictive capacity of the models significantly. Especially in the last twenty-five years, methods derived from different fields started to be applied in forecasting corporate failures, such as artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic.The objective of this study was to test the goodness of the discriminatory power of ratios based only on cash flows using a model that employs genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. Five countries (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy) and five Nace macro sectors (Agriculture, Industry, Services, Construction, Commerce and Food) have been considered in the analysis for a total of around 719-thousand companies. The model has proven to be well-performing on most of the countries and sectors that have been tested. The results obtained are almost all adequate; in particular, in Germany and Spain, results have been particularly good.The main weaknesses of this work are the limited availability of financial data in some countries and the time delay from the reporting of financial statement to the availability of the data through web services. It means that a large-scale risk assessment requires – being useful for the public and the private sectors – greater and faster disclosure of information at European level, and standardization of financial information transparency among countries.

In today’s conditions, when small and medium-sized businesses need significant financial investment support in Ukraine, it is P2P plaffers that can act as an effective credit tool that will represent an alternative to existing banks. Over the world, P2P and P2B ecosystems have already been created, standardized and are actively used to stimulate the economy. The purpose of the article is to study the foreign experience in the development of the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) crediting system to isolate and further take into account the possible potentially positive and negative effects of the promotion and distribution of P2P platforms in the financial market in Ukraine. P2P crediting is considered as one of the fastest growing forms of investment without the participation of credit institutions, but which is currently experiencing a legal vacuum due to the lack of special regulations that will establish the legal status, rights, obligations, responsibilities and guarantees of participants in mutual financing. The formation of peer-to-peer crediting in some countries, such as Great Britain, the USA, China, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Estonia, is analyzed. Based on the carried on analysis, it was determined that abroad the P2P crediting system is in the state of constant development. As a result of the study, it was determined that this type of crediting has good prospects for development in Ukraine. The main proposals for accelerating the paces of development of P2P crediting are highlighted as follows: creating a stable and balanced regulatory framework; continuation of work to improve the financial literacy of the population (in terms of awareness of P2P crediting); creation of incentives for cooperation of traditional financial institutions with crowdlanding platforms in order to increase the level of cooperation and interaction of financial market participants.

Reputation is an important part of everyday life of people, businesses, and other organizations. Reputation is like a bunch of thoughts in ones’ mind that drives people’s decision-making as an auto-pilot. There are many methods applied to define reputation level for companies all over the world, such as ”World Most Admired Companies” of Fortune magazine, Financial Times “World’s the Most Respected Companies”, “Britain’s Most Admired Companies” from Management Today, or ”Asia’s Most Admired Companies” from Asian Business. This paper aims to discuss on the measurement of reputation which could stem by the public opinion. To do so, the analysis reports on a national survey which measures 5 variables of public opinion perception on Albanian companies. Each company provided by the respondents, is calculated a value which leads to define the reputation level of the total market. The whole list gives space to do sectorial analysis, too. This paper will particularly discuss the sector of shopping centres. Drawing on calculated values for each of shopping centres, perceptual maps are designed that can be of great help for investors to decide about the most appropriate shopping centre they should invest their new retail project. Furthermore, these perceptual maps can also be designed by combining variables that are related with employment and success that will help job-seekers to compare different options in the job market.

The article deals with the history of emigration of Jews from the south of Ukraine to Argentina in the late 19th - early 20th century and the role of Odessa in the organizational, economic and educational support of the resettlement process. An analysis of the transformation of the idea of ​​the Argentine project from the beginning of compact settlements to the possibility of creating a Jewish state in Patagonia is given. There are provided such aspects as reasons, preconditions and motives of emigration, its stages and results, the exceptional contribution of the businessman and philanthropist Maurice de Hirsch to the foundation of Jewish settlements in Argentina. There are reflected a legislative aspect, in particular, the first attempt of Russian government to regulate migration abroad with the Regulations for activity in Russia of the Jewish Colonization Association founded in Great Britain; various forms and directions of the work of Odessa JCA committee; the activities of the Argentine Vice-Consulate (1906-1909) and the Consul General of Argentina in Odessa (1909-1917). There are also presented some valuable archival genealogical documents from the State Archives of the Odessa Region, namely the lists of immigrants on the steamer "Bosfor" in April 30, 1894. The article highlights the conditions in which the emigrants started their activities in Argentina in 1888, establishment of the first Jewish colony of Moisesville, the difficulties in economic arrangement and social adaptation, and the process of settlement development from the first unsuccessful attempts to cultivate virgin lands to the numerous farms and ranches with effective economic activities. An interesting social phenomenon of interethnic diffusion of indigenous and jewish cultures and the formation of a unique "Gaucho Jews" group of population is covered. It is provided information on the current state of Jewish settlements in Argentina and fixing their history in literature, music, cinema, documentary. It is emphasized that using historical research and direct contacts with the descendants of emigrants to Argentina could be very useful and actual for increasing the efficiency and development of Ukrainian-Argentine economic and cultural ties

With the development of a market economy, there are problems of balancing the interests of all participants in production, consumers, and society as a whole. This arouses interest in the concept of socially responsible marketing, which allows companies to focus on sustainable development and social values in solving business problems. The purpose of the article is to study the implementation of the concept of socially responsible marketing by business entities. The article considers the main aspects of the concept of socially responsible marketing, its importance for businesses. Related areas of research related to socially responsible marketing are identified based on bibliometric analysis of articles published in the Scopus database from 2010 to 2019 using VOSviewer software. It was found that the largest number of publications on the subject is available in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, and Australia. The basic principles of socially responsible marketing are grouped and its characteristic features are singled out. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of its basic tools. The tools of socially responsible marketing are broader than classical marketing and include marketing; consumer research; study of social and environmental consequences of production; consumption of manufactured goods and services. The authors noted that with traditional analytical methods in implementing the concept of socially responsible marketing, given the strategic direction of modern marketing, it is necessary to use multidimensional methods of analysis: SPACE-analysis, PEST-analysis, ETOM-analysis, QUEST-analysis, SNW-analysis, SWOT analysis, KPI analysis. The key features of the introduction of socially responsible marketing at the enterprises of Ukraine are analyzed. The paper substantiates that socially responsible marketing is a concept of marketing management, according to which the company's goal is to determine its own needs, needs and interests of target markets and meet them more effectively than competitors, ways to maintain or improve the welfare of both consumers and society in general. Keywords: marketing, principles of socially responsible marketing, socially responsible marketing, sustainable development.

Introduction. The problems of state and local governance in sparsely populated and rural areas is relevant for the Russian Federation due to the presence of depressed areas, depopulation of the countryside, small towns, monotowns, migration of the rural population to large cities, regional capitals, other regions and abroad. These processes are typical for many other modern states. Solving the problems of rural and sparsely populated areas includes providing socially significant services, protecting the health and safety of residents, developing education, creating and maintaining social infrastructure, and creating jobs. The purpose of the article is to identify the most important management problems in rural and sparsely populated areas and reveal possible solutions to these problems using the example of Great Britain. Methods. The research is based on a systematic approach to management in rural and sparsely populated areas. Analysis of factual data, legal sources, published survey results, foreign Internet sources. Comparative analysis of problems and measures of state policy in different states. Scientific novelty of the research. The author highlights the current measures taken in the UK at the central, local levels in order to overcome the problems of rural and sparsely populated areas. These activities as a basis for developing practical recommendations may be important for solving similar problems in Russian regions, including in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic and economic problems in the near future. Results. As a result the author identifies problems in the field of management in rural and sparsely populated and hard-to-reach areas, as well as possible directions of state policy in the UK and Russia to overcome these problems. Conclusions. The most important direction of state policy for solving the problems highlighted in the study is the development of local interests of the community, the integration of state support measures and local events. As measures aimed at solving social and infrastructural problems of sparsely populated areas in the UK, one can single out government programs implemented at the national and regional levels with the participation of industrial enterprises and businesses, a grant mechanism for the implementation of financial support, combined with the empowerment of local communities. There is no such policy in Russia yet.

The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism promotes the right of all people to equality in access to contemplate the resources of the planet, which, in turn, is the main principle of accessible tourism for all. Modern approaches to understanding the concepts of accessible tourism for all are analyzed in this paper. Accessible tourism for all means that any tourism product should be designed irrespective of age, gender and ability and with no additional costs for customers with disabilities and specific access requirements. Role of the principles of universal design for accessible tourism for all is characterized. In contrast to the concept of accessibility, which only applies to low-mobility categories of the population and focuses on physical access to transport and buildings, as well as access to information, the concept of universal design emphasizes creating the same conditions convenient for all users, without impersonating some of them. Three main prerequisites for the development of accessible tourism for all in the European Union are determined and characterized, in particular, existing accessibility legislation and standards at the global, European and national levels, population ageing and increase in the number of people with disabilities. There is the problem in Ukraine of the lack of accessibility standards for tourism facilities and services, so it is important to learn the experience of the European Union. The European Union population is aging and this trend will continue in the future. This phenomenon is a major challenge for the society, but at the same time, it also represents a great opportunity for local businesses and for the whole European economy. Elderly people (65 years and older) are encouraged to travel by different motives: visiting relatives, gaining cultural or gastronomic experience, they are interested in traveling on cruise ships, relaxing on the coast, participating in sports events or ethnic holidays. They tend to spend more while traveling and stay longer. Tourists with disabilities, above all, make travel decisions based on the opinions of their friends, and rely less on special offers aimed at them. Online offers and printed brochures of travel agencies influence their decision at the same level. France and the United Kingdom have the most disabled people in the EU. The European Union is the main tourism destination in the world. Five its member states (France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Germany) belong to the top ten countries of the world on arrival of tourists. The map of the most accessible cities of the European Union is created and the quantitative distribution of these cities by country of ownership is presented. France, Germany and Sweden are leaders in the European Union by the number of the most accessible cities in 2011-2018. Among the 23 most accessible cities, only five are the capitals of states. At the same time, the city of Ljubljana in Slovenia was twice noted by the European Commission as one of the most accessible. Elements of the tourism chain include: tourism destination management; tourism information and advertising (preparation, information and booking); urban and architectural environments; modes of transport and stations; accommodation, food service and conventions; cultural activities (museums, theatres, cinemas, and other); other tourism activities and events. On the basis of the theory of accessibility chain structure and the tourism chain, the best practices of accessible tourism for all are analyzed using the example of the city of Lyon – the great business center in France, which in 2018 was recognized by the European Commission accessible in the European Union.

In the paper the advantages of the service-oriented architecture of e-government and its prospects for Ukraine are revealed. Service-oriented e-government is governed by a service-oriented architecture. Service-oriented architecture is the functionality of software as services aiming to establish compatibility in their provision. The model of service-oriented e-government architecture is divided into five layers (levels), arranged from bottom to top: operational level, semantic level, service level, process level, presentation level. The practice of service-oriented e-government in foreign countries is studies: USA, Canada, and Great Britain. These countries implement the so-called Anglo-American model of informatization of the state, which is based on: removal of redundant functions of government, delivery of public services to citizens, meeting the needs of citizens through information technology. This model promotes the development of transactions, payment for services via the Internet. Foreign experience shows that a key feature of government activities is to ensure the success of the implemented actions, as well as to control the quality and scope of services. Therefore, when developing e-government projects, the governments take their efforts to get the corresponding positive consequences in the availability of services: providing quality services to citizens and businesses; increasing revenues; easing the financial burden on federal and local governments, primarily by reducing documents and electronic services on the Internet. The trends of the model implementation in Ukraine are studies. The evolution of the issue included the Program «Electronic Ukraine», the realization of the E-Government Information System. The further steps are analyzed based on the information from the official website of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine which provides the cases of service-oriented state (Popular services). The projects of the Ministry on Digital State digitize many services, update their legal framework, streamline the activity of state registers, and provide technical capabilities and data protection. It is concluded that service-oriented architecture of e-government is characterized by the features of its implementation based on such principles as: information-centric approach; the principle of a common platform, which focuses on creating an open information environment and common technological infrastructure for more effective collaboration of all participants and users of e-government; the principle of user orientation (all e-government activities are aimed at meeting the needs of service consumers); the principle of security and confidentiality.

Abstract The article analyses theoretical aspects of a city brand definition, applying cases of various brands of Lithuanian cities. A brand is any sign or symbol which helps to distinguish goods or services for one person from the goods or services of another, and which may be represented graphically. The brand can be a variety of symbols, their combination, and other visual manifestations of information, such as words, names, slogans, letters, numbers, drawings, emblems; or spatial characteristics of the product itself – its image, packaging, shape, color, color combination or a combination of all these. City development usually includes an image dimension. The common ground for this is that a well-known toponym often generates events, investments, etc. Many cities are actively positioning and promoting their strategic intentions. Often times a city brand is associated with its fight for investment, tourist numbers, or successful businesses. Objective: To scrutinize relevant theories applicable to city visual branding; to look through various definitions of the city branding and envisage some advantages and disadvantages they might pose; and to analyze various case studies so that we could summarize the methodologies of why and how we could better position our local products globally. Methodology: The case study methods were used as part of a complex study and combined with in-depth interviews as well as benchmarking methods from various sources. In-depth interview method was used to obtain expert opinions on the subject. The in-depth interview method helped to analyze logo usage, goals, define pros and cons, and evaluate the results of logo design in urban development. This method was chosen to collect detailed and authentic material based on the attitudes and experiences of those involved in such a creative process. Findings: The conclusion was reached that since a place prompts a lot of variables, in the future we need to consider more numerous components, such as population, industries, landscape, economies or history, etc. The hypothesis was confirmed about the variables of the city to be further considered for (re)branding, such as the cost, semantic complexity, societal charge, and the dynamics (changeability, or rigidity). As for the methodologies, we arrived at the conclusion that the best way to create a viable city brand is a collaboration between different stakeholders. Value Added: The article adds to European experts’ suggestion of rethinking the concept of design itself, as until now a one-sided approach to design as a means of schematizing a product has prevailed. This approach, even regulated by Lithuanian law, does not cover the whole process of creating and implementing an idea. “Design is a problem-solving approach that focuses on the user during its development. It can be applied in both the public and private sectors to promote innovation in products, services, processes and even legislation,” says Dr Anna Whicher, expert on design policy and strategy of the European Commission. In other words, design has been increasingly integrated into the science, business, social and service sectors to maximize innovation. As many as 63 percent of Lithuanian businesses do not use design solutions (product design, stylization or business strategy development) at any stage of production. This figure is below the EU average, where almost half of all businesses already integrate design solutions into their operations. Lithuania is also one of the 13 countries in Europe (out of 28) that does not have design policy documents or a community uniting organization, such as design centers in Great Britain, Denmark, Estonia or other countries. The paper invites Lithuania to re-think its design development policies at large, paying attention to urban design solutions in particular. Recommendations: In further research, while selecting potential expert for city logo development, it is recommended that priority should be given to (a) responsible experts in strategic / territorial and national policy making or related activities, (b) experts with knowledge of sustainable development, (c) independent sustainable development analysts / consultants / private and academic or who have implemented specific project-based SDs both nationally and internationally. The stakeholders in this process should be representing: 1) Public Sector, 2) NGOs, 3) Private Sector, 4) Academy and 5) Independent Experts.

Мақалада Қазақстанның шағын және орта кәсіпкерліктің (ШОК), соның ішінде ауыл шаруашылығы саласындағы ШОК-тің негізгі көрсеткіштері қарастырылып, талданды. Әлемнің экономикасы дамыған елдерінің ауыл шаруашылығы өнімдерінің негізгі түрлерін: мал және өсімдік шаруашылығының өнімділігін Қазақстанның көрсеткіштерімен салыстыра отырып, талдау жасалынды. Ірі қара мал шаруашылығын Бразилия, Индия, АҚШ, Қытай, Аргентина, Мексика, Австралия мемлекеттері, шошқа шаруашылығынан Қытай, АҚШ, Бразилия, Испания, Германия, Ресей мемлекеттері, қой мен ешкі шаруашылығынан Қытай, Индия, Австралия, Ұлыбритания, Бразилия, Ресей мемлекеттерінде озық дамығандығы анықталды. Сонымен қатар, дәнді және дәнді-бұршақты дақылдардың ішінде бидайдың өнімділігінен Қытай мен Ресей көш бастап тұр, ал картопты Қытай мен Индия, қант қызылшасын Франция, Ресей және АҚШ жақсы өсіретіндігі, бидай өсіруден Қазақстан көрсеткіштері Италия, Ұлыбритания, Польша, Испания, Бразилия елдерінен жоғары екендігі анықталды. ЕЭО елдерінің жалпы егіс алқабы мен негізгі ауыл шаруашылық дақылдарының өнімділігі мен жалпы жиыны, ЕЭО белсенді мүшелерінің ауыл, орман және балық шаруашылығындағы салықтық кірістері мен бюджет шығындары қарастырылды. ҚР ауыл шаруашылығына бөлінген қаражат көлемі Ресейден 4,7 есе аз, ал қалған ЕЭО мүше елдерге қарағанда едәуір жоғары бөлінетіндігі анықталды. Ауыл шаруашылығынан түсетін салықтық түсімдер Ресейден 28,8 есе аз, Беларусиядан 18,7 млн.АҚШ долларына аз кірістелінген. The article considers and analyzes the main indicators of Kazakhstan in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises( SMEs), including agriculture. The analysis of the productivity of main agricultural products (crops and livestock) economically developed countries in comparison with Kazakhstan. The leading development of cattle in Brazil, India, USA, China, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, pig breeding in China, USA, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Russia, sheep and goat breeding in China, India, Australia, Great Britain, Brazil, Russia was revealed. In addition, among cereals and legumes, China and Russia are the leaders in wheat yield, and potatoes are best grown in China and India, sugar beet-in France, Russia and the United States, Kazakhstan's indicators for wheat cultivation are higher than in Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, and Brazil. The total acreage and yield of the main agricultural crops of the EAEU countries, tax revenues and budget expenditures of active members of the EAEU in agriculture, forestry and fisheries are considered. It is established that the amount of funds allocated for agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan is 4.7 times less than in Russia, and in other EAEU member states it is allocated much higher. Tax revenues from agriculture are 28.8 times less than in Russia, by $ 18.7 million.The US yield is lower than that of Belarus.

Recognizing the importance of refugees as potential entrepreneurs was the main reason that impelled the launch of small business start-up programmes. In Britain, The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN) was the principal institution concerned with refugees as potential entrepreneurs, whereas in Australia, the programme was run by the Ignite Small Business Start-Ups. The research question was based on investigating to what extent the British initiative programmes are immersed in supporting refugees’ transformation into entrepreneurs, and to answer this question the researcher investigated how these programmes provide funds, training, and technical assistance. To place this in context, we compared the case of Britain with what has been achieved in Australia where the first worldwide experimental programme was applied. The aim of this comparison was to draw any lessons learned that could profitability be considered by the British programmes. Data was abstracted from the annual reports, and in addition, interviews conducted with the principals to ask about the size of loans granted, dates of loans, type of projects and the number of loans. It was noticeable that Ignite and TERN took a great interest in training, consulting, and advising their applicants. Both programmes were similar, even in number of beneficiaries. However, in Britain there was more interest in offering loans to potential entrepreneurs, especially the finance offered by the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA). Moreover, some businesses have been distinguished in their achievements, including such well-run successes as Dama Cheese and Fagee Fashion. On the other hand, the Start Up Loan Company offered financing compatible with the principles of Islamic Sharia which encourages more refugees to ask for finance.

AbstractThe UK retail sector is constantly changing and evolving. The increasing share of online sales and the development of out-of-town retail provision, in conjunction with the 2008–09 economic crisis, have disproportionately impacted high streets and physical retail negatively. Understanding and adapting to these changes is fundamental to the vitality, sustainability and prosperity of businesses, communities and the economy. However, there is a need for better information to support attempts to revitalise UK high streets and retail centres, and advances in sensor technology have made this possible. Footfall provides a commonly used heuristic of retail centre vitality and can be increasingly estimated in automated ways through sensing technology. However, footfall counts are influenced by a range of externalities such as aspects of retail centre function, morphology, connectivity and attractiveness. The key contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how footfall patterns are expressed within the varying context of different retail centre architypes providing both a useful tool for benchmarking and planning; but also making a theoretical contribution to the understanding of retail mobilities. This paper integrates a range of contextual data to develop a classification of footfall sensor locations; producing three representations of sensor micro-locations across Great Britain: chain and comparison retail micro-locations, business and independent micro-locations and value-orientated convenience retail micro-locations. These three groups display distinct daily and weekly footfall magnitudes and distributions, which are attributed to micro-locational differences in their morphology, connectivity and function.

The article is devoted to modern tendencies of change of strategies in formation of corporate culture in the crisis caused by the coronavirus. In modern business, corporate culture is an important condition for the successful work of a company, the foundation of its dynamic growth, striving to improve efficiency. Regardless of how the culture of an organization is formed, whether it is created deliberately or develops over time, it is always unique for each production (gender, age, professional and qualification structure of personnel, industry, specifics, etc.). CEOs are much more likely to think through the type of corporate culture of their company as it grows than in a possible crisis situation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the ways of transformation of key elements of corporate culture on the basis of sociological research in the form of surveys of employees of top corporations in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has shaken the entire global economy. First its paralyzed part of production in China, then stopped hundreds of enterprises in Europe, Asia and the United States. The authorities of different countries go to great lengths to help the business: salaries for the state account, parental benefits, cheap loans and tax deferral. However, in the context of the work of each enterprise, significant responsibilities lie with the management and the team. The negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are affecting and will exacerbate the work of both large state-owned enterprises and small businesses for a long time to come. According to the forecast of the International Labor Organization, due to the coronavirus pandemic, about 20 million people may lose their jobs. Operating under these stressful circumstances negatively impacts interpersonal relationships and business. In the article forms of manifestation of corporate culture in the context of a pandemic are considered. The data of surveys of employees and heads of organizations of such countries as the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Ukraine are analyzed. The significance and priority of supporting the team along with the elimination of financial risks and economic recovery was assessed.

With the emergence and expansion of post-manufacturing knowledge economies, formerly industrial inner cities in the West have become intensified staging grounds for a range of spatial claims. Among these are processes of residential gentrification, the cultural politics of heritage preservation, the struggles for community development, and the growth of creative industries, such as art, design, architecture, publishing and film, which I focus on here.1 Throughout the last two decades in the UK, inner cities and central city fringe districts have been subject to an assortment of strategies that have endeavored to revitalize them economically and socially. Prominent among these attempts has been the encouragement of new, and the incubation of existing, small-scale creative enterprises. Regeneration executives choose these enterprises for a range of reasons. Creative activities are associated with popular culture that disaffected, unemployed youth find appealing; they are able to occupy and rehabilitate underused existing building stock and to sensitively recycle historic buildings, thereby preserving urban scales; and, as a number of scholars have pointed out, they exhibit transaction-rich, network-intensive organization (Castells 1992; Lash and Urry 1994; Scott 2000). As a result, concerted efforts to design creative industry quarters have sprung up across the UK, including Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham. In London, a whole band of formerly industrial, inner-city districts from King's Cross, down through Clerkenwell, Hoxton, Shoreditch and Spitalfields, and along the wharves of the Thames's South Bank, are being or have been revitalized in part through the strategic deployment of creative industries. Certainly, how creative industries and economies develop varies. At King's Cross, nonprofit and commercial creative companies have emerged quietly in a context of protracted struggle over the future of the Railway Lands, which will be reshaped by the coming terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. At Spitalfields, high-profile conversions of Truman Brewery and the Spitalfields Market site into artisanal stalls, creative businesses, and leisure (café, restaurant, and sport) facilities are generating a new local creative economy, bringing in visitors and creating new customer bases for Spitalfields' Bangladeshi restaurant keepers and garment entrepreneurs.2 Whatever the conditions for growth, creative industries have been aided by the rhetoric of Cool Britannia and New Labour's cultural -- or more accurately --creative industrial policy. I would even put forth that, in the form of the creative quarter, the creative industries represent the urbanist logic of Cool Britannia, threatening to elaborate, following the other logics of BritArt and BritPop, a BritSpace. Now, according to some of Britain's foremost cultural critics, Cool Britannia was born sometime in 1996 in the Sunday Times, and died two years later, soon after a piece in the New Musical Express that showcased young musician discontent with New Labour creative industrial policy (Hewison 1996; McRobbie 1999, 4). Yet, before we close the casket, I want to suggest that Cool Britannia be understood as a symptom of a range of 'causes' that have been transforming the idioms of politics, governance, culture, citizenship, social organization; and, as the creative quarter evokes, the city. An itinerary of these causes would include: the expansion of a consumer-driven service/knowledge economy; the growth and globalization of communication and information technologies; the 'flexibilization' of regimes of production; the mutation of the function of the welfare state and corresponding meaning of citizenship; and, the dominance of intellectual property notions of culture. While these shifts are transforming societies around the world, in the UK, they became closely identified with New Labour and its attempts to institutionalize the rhetoric of the Third Way during the late 1990s (e.g., Blair 1998; Giddens 1998). In imagining itself as a force of change, New Labour capitalized on two events that gave birth to Cool Britannia: (1) the glamorization of British art and young British artists in the mid-1990s; and (2) the emergence of a discourse of 'rebranding' Britain, disseminating from reports from brand specialists Wolff Olins and think tank Demos (Bobby 1999).3 The first, producing the nBA (new British Art) and the yBAs (young British Artists) are media events with their own genealogies that have received copious critical attention (e.g., Ford 1996; McRobbie 1999; Roberts 1996, 1998; Stallabrass 1999; Suchin 1998). This glamorization involved the discovery of the artists by the mainstream media and a focus on artistic entrepreneurship in creating, shaping and responding to an enlarged market for cultural products. In the process, some of these artists effectively became brands, authoring, legitimating and licensing a certain kind of ironic, post-political art that was palatable to the international art market.4 The second cause stems from responses to anxiety over post-imperial Britain's future in a post-manufacturing, globalized, knowledge economy. For both the Demos thinkers and Wolff Olins consultants, these were centered on the need to re-imagine British national subjectivity as if it were a commercial brand. The discourse of branding is tangential to that of intellectual property, in which brands are value codings managed through networks of trademarks, patents, copyrights and royalties. Rosemary Coombe (1998) has written, albeit in a different political context, on the increasing dominance of notions of culture defined through intellectual property, and adjudicated by international trade experts. Indeed, New Labour creative industrial policies, as demonstrated in former Culture Secretary, Chris Smith's, essays that linked creativity, entrepreneurship and economic growth (Smith 1998) and initiatives under the Creative Industries Mapping Document (DCMS 2001) reveal how the relationship between the state and national culture is being renegotiated. Less meaningful is the state that served as sponsor or patron of cultural activities for its citizens. Rather, under New Labour, as Nikolas Rose argues (1999), and critics of New Labour cultural policy interrogate (Greenhalgh 1998; Littler 2000), the state is an enabler, partnering with entrepreneurs, small-scale firms, and multinational enterprises to promote the traffic in cultural property. How such a shift affects the production of urban space, and the future meanings attached to the British city remain to be explored. In the context of the American city, M. Christine Boyer (1995), elaborates how an iterative regime of architectural styles and planning ethics functions as a late capitalist cultural logic of urbanism that discards elements, often in decaying and abandoned sections, that cannot be easily incorporated. Borrowing on Kevin Lynch's (1960) notion of the imageable city, she writes: physically, these spaces are linked imaginatively to each other, to other cities, and to a common history of cultural interpretations (82). Within this scenario, the elements of the creative quarter copy, print, art supply and film developing stores, hip cafes and restaurants, galleries, studios, loft conversions and street furniture are gradually linked together to form a recognizable and potentially iterative matrix, overlaid on the disused former industrial district. Moreover, as a prominent, coordinated technique in the revitalization strategies of British cities, and given the aftermath of Cool Britannia, the creative quarter must be seen also as a symptom of a symptom. For, if Cool Britannia is itself produced through the application of branding discourse to the level of national subjectivity, and to the glamorization of the artist, then it is only a short step to contemplate the urbanist logic of the creative quarter as BritSpaceâ„¢. Notes 1. A creative industry is one that has its origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which [has] a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property. I am following the definition of creative industries used by the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It was first used in the Creative Industries Mapping Document, released in November 1998 and was maintained in the second, more extensive mapping exercise in February 2001. The list of activities designated as creative are: advertising, architecture, art and antiques, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, television and radio. 2. I discuss the emergence of creative enterprises at King's Cross and Spitalfields at length in my doctoral dissertation (Deckha 2000). 3. As Bobby (1999) reports, the Wolff Olins consultants commented that looking at business attitudes towards national identity and UK industry found that 72% of the world's leading companies believe a national image is important when making purchase decisions. In light of this, and worryingly for British business, only 36% of our respondents felt that a 'made in the UK' label would influence their decision positively. 4. Lash and Urry describe this process of branding in the creative or cultural industries: What (all) the culture industries produce becomes increasingly, not like commodities but advertisements. As with advertising firms, the culture industries sell not themselves but something else and they achieve this through 'packaging'. Also like advertising firms, they sell 'brands' of something else. And they do this through the transfer of value through images (1994, 138). References Blair T. (1998) The Third Way: New Politics for a New Century. The Fabian Society, London. Bobby D. (1999) Original Britain' could succeed where 'Cool Britannia' failed Brand Strategy November 22: 6. Boyer M C. (1995) The Great Frame-Up: Fantastic appearances in contemporary spatial politics, Liggett H., Perry D. C., eds. Spatial Practices. Sage, New York. 81-109. Castells M. (1992) The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell, Oxford. Coombe R. (1998) The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties. Duke University Press, Durham, NC. Deckha N. (2000) Repackaging the Inner City: Historic Preservation, Community Development, and the Emergent Cultural Quarter in London. Unpublished MS, Rice University. Department of Culture, Media and Sport [DCMS]. (2001) Creative industries mapping document [http://www.culture.gov.uk/creative/pdf/p...] Ford S. (1996) Myth Making Art Monthly March: 194. Giddens A. (1998) The Third Way. Polity, Cambridge. Greenhalgh L. (1998) From Arts Policy to Creative Economy Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, 87, May: 84-94. Hewison R. (1996) Cool Britannia Sunday Times, 19 May. Lash S. and Urry J. (1994) Economies of Signs and Space. Sage, London. Littler J. (2000) Creative Accounting: Consumer Culture, The 'Creative Economy' and the Cultural Policies of New Labour in Bewes T. and Gilbert J. eds. Cultural Capitalism. Lawrence & Wishart, London. 203-222. Lynch K. (1960) The Image of the City. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. McRobbie A. (1999) In the Culture Society. Routledge, London. Roberts J. (1996) Mad for it!: Philistinism, the everyday and new British art Third Text, 35 (Summer): 29-42. Roberts J. (1998) Pop Art, the Popular and British Art of the 1990s in McCorquodale D. et al, eds. Occupational Hazard. Black Dog, London. 53-78. Rose N. (1999) Inventiveness in politics: review of Anthony Giddens, The Third Way Economy and Society, 28.3: 467-493. Scott A.J. (2000) The Cultural Economy of Cities. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. Smith C. (1998) Creative Britain. Faber and Faber, London. Stallabrass J. (1999) High Art Lite. Verso, London. Suchin P. (1998) After a Fashion: Regress as Progress in Contemporary British Art in McCorquodale D. et al, eds. Occupational Hazard. Black Dog, London. 95-110. Links http://www.culture.gov.uk/creative/pdf/part1.pdf Citation reference for this article MLA Style Deckha, Nityanand. "Britspaceâ„¢?" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.2 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/britspace.php>. Chicago Style Deckha, Nityanand, "Britspaceâ„¢?" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 2 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/britspace.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Deckha, Nityanand. (2002) Britspaceâ„¢?. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(2). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/britspace.php> ([your date of access]).

Introduction The academic area known as food studies—incorporating elements from disciplines including anthropology, folklore, history, sociology, gastronomy, and cultural studies as well as a range of multi-disciplinary approaches—asserts that cooking and eating practices are less a matter of nutrition (maintaining life by absorbing nutrients from food) and more a personal or group expression of various social and/or cultural actions, values or positions. The French philosopher, Michel de Certeau agrees, arguing, moreover, that there is an urgency to name and unpick (what he identifies as) the “minor” practices, the “multifarious and silent reserve of procedures” of everyday life. Such practices are of crucial importance to all of us, as although seemingly ordinary, and even banal, they have the ability to “organise” our lives (48). Within such a context, the following aims to consider the influence and significance of an important (although largely unstudied) professional figure in rural and regional economic life: the country food preparer variously known as the local chef or cook. Such an approach is obviously framed by the concept of “cultural economy”. This term recognises the convergence, and interdependence, of the spheres of the cultural and the economic (see Scott 335, for an influential discussion on how “the cultural geography of space and the economic geography of production are intertwined”). Utilising this concept in relation to chefs and cooks seeks to highlight how the ways these figures organise (to use de Certeau’s term) the social and cultural lives of those in their communities are embedded in economic practices and also how, in turn, their economic contributions are dependent upon social and cultural practices. This initial mapping of the influence and significance of the rural and regional chef in one rural and regional area, therefore, although necessarily different in approach and content, continues the application of such converged conceptualisations of the cultural and economic as Teema Tairu’s discussion of the social, recreational and spiritual importance of food preparation and consumption by the unemployed in Finland, Guy Redden’s exploration of how supermarket products reflect shared values, and a series of analyses of the cultural significance of individual food products, such as Richard White’s study of vegemite. While Australians, both urban and rural, currently enjoy access to an internationally renowned food culture, it is remarkable to consider that it has only been during the years following the Second World War that these sophisticated and now much emulated ways of eating and cooking have developed. It is, indeed, only during the last half century that Australian eating habits have shifted from largely Anglo-Saxon influenced foods and meals that were prepared and eaten in the home, to the consumption of a wider range of more international and sophisticated foods and meals that are, increasingly, prepared by others and eaten outside the consumer’s residence. While a range of commonly cited influences has prompted this relatively recent revolution in culinary practice—including post-war migration, increasing levels of prosperity, widespread international travel, and the forces of globalisation—some of this change owes a debt to a series of influential individual figures. These tastemakers have included food writers and celebrity chefs; with early exponents including Margaret Fulton, Graham Kerr and Charmaine Solomon (see Brien). The findings of this study suggests that many restaurant chefs, and other cooks, have similarly played, and continue to take, a key role in the lives of not only the, necessarily, limited numbers of individuals who dine in a particular eatery or the other chefs and/or cooks trained in that establishment (Ruhlman, Reach), but also the communities in which they work on a much broader scale. Considering Chefs In his groundbreaking study, A History of Cooks and Cooking, Australian food historian Michael Symons proposes that those who prepare food are worthy of serious consideration because “if ‘we are what we eat’, cooks have not just made our meals, but have also made us. They have shaped our social networks, our technologies, arts and religions” (xi). Writing that cooks “deserve to have their stories told often and well,” and that, moreover, there is a “need to invent ways to think about them, and to revise our views about ourselves in their light” (xi), Symons’s is a clarion call to investigate the role and influence of cooks. Charles-Allen Baker-Clark has explicitly begun to address this lacunae in his Profiles from the Kitchen: What Great Cooks Have Taught Us About Ourselves and Our Food (2006), positing not only how these figures have shaped our relationships with food and eating, but also how these relationships impact on identities, culture and a range of social issues including those of social justice, spirituality and environmental sustainability. With the growing public interest in celebrities, it is perhaps not surprising that, while such research on chefs and/or cooks is still in its infancy, most of the existing detailed studies on individuals focus on famed international figures such as Marie-Antoine Carême (Bernier; Kelly), Escoffier (James; Rachleff; Sanger), and Alexis Soyer (Brandon; Morris; Ray). Despite an increasing number of tabloid “tell-all” surveys of contemporary celebrity chefs, which are largely based on mass media sources and which display little concern for historical or biographical accuracy (Bowyer; Hildred and Ewbank; Simpson; Smith), there have been to date only a handful of “serious” researched biographies of contemporary international chefs such as Julia Child, Alice Waters (Reardon; Riley), and Bernard Loiseux (Chelminski)—the last perhaps precipitated by an increased interest in this chef following his suicide after his restaurant lost one of its Michelin stars. Despite a handful of collective biographical studies of Australian chefs from the later-1980s on (Jenkins; O’Donnell and Knox; Brien), there are even fewer sustained biographical studies of Australian chefs or cooks (Clifford-Smith’s 2004 study of “the supermarket chef,” Bernard King, is a notable exception). Throughout such investigations, as well as in other popular food writing in magazines and cookbooks, there is some recognition that influential chefs and cooks have worked, and continue to work, outside such renowned urban culinary centres as Paris, London, New York, and Sydney. The Michelin starred restaurants of rural France, the so-called “gastropubs” of rural Britain and the advent of the “star-chef”-led country bed and breakfast establishment in Australia and New Zealand, together with the proliferation of farmer’s markets and a public desire to consume locally sourced, and ecologically sustainable, produce (Nabhan), has focused fresh attention on what could be called “the rural/regional chef”. However, despite the above, little attention has focused on the Australian non-urban chef/cook outside of the pages of a small number of key food writing magazines such as Australian Gourmet Traveller and Vogue Entertaining + Travel. Setting the Scene with an Australian Country Example: Armidale and Guyra In 2004, the Armidale-Dumaresq Council (of the New England region, New South Wales, Australia) adopted the slogan “Foodies thrive in Armidale” to market its main city for the next three years. With a population of some 20,000, Armidale’s main industry (in economic terms) is actually education and related services, but the latest Tourist Information Centre’s Dining Out in Armidale (c. 2006) brochure lists some 25 restaurants, 9 bistros and brasseries, 19 cafés and 5 fast food outlets featuring Australian, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Thai, Indian and “international” cuisines. The local Yellow Pages telephone listings swell the estimation of the total number of food-providing businesses in the city to 60. Alongside the range of cuisines cited above, a large number of these eateries foreground the use of fresh, local foods with such phrases as “local and regional produce,” “fresh locally grown produce,” “the finest New England ingredients” and locally sourced “New England steaks, lamb and fresh seafood” repeatedly utilised in advertising and other promotional material. Some thirty kilometres to the north along the New England highway, the country town of Guyra, proclaimed a town in 1885, is the administrative and retail centre for a shire of some 2,200 people. Situated at 1,325 metres above sea level, the town is one of the highest in Australia with its main industries those of fine wool and lamb, beef cattle, potatoes and tomatoes. Until 1996, Guyra had been home to a large regional abattoir that employed some 400 staff at the height of its productivity, but rationalisation of the meat processing industry closed the facility, together with its associated pet food processor, causing a downturn in employment, local retail business, and real estate values. Since 2004, Guyra’s economy has, however, begun to recover after the town was identified by the Costa Group as the perfect site for glasshouse grown tomatoes. Perfect, due to its rare combination of cool summers (with an average of less than two days per year with temperatures over 30 degrees celsius), high winter light levels and proximity to transport routes. The result: 3.3 million kilograms of truss, vine harvested, hydroponic “Top of the Range” tomatoes currently produced per annum, all year round, in Guyra’s 5-hectare glasshouse: Australia’s largest, opened in December 2005. What residents (of whom I am one) call the “tomato-led recovery” has generated some 60 new local jobs directly related to the business, and significant flow on effects in terms of the demand for local services and retail business. This has led to substantial rates of renovation and building of new residential and retail properties, and a noticeably higher level of trade flowing into the town. Guyra’s main street retail sector is currently burgeoning and stories of its renewal have appeared in the national press. Unlike many similar sized inland towns, there are only a handful of empty shops (and most of these are in the process of being renovated), and new commercial premises have recently been constructed and opened for business. Although a small town, even in Australian country town terms, Guyra now has 10 restaurants, hotel bistros and cafés. A number of these feature local foods, with one pub’s bistro regularly featuring the trout that is farmed just kilometres away. Assessing the Contribution of Local Chefs and Cooks In mid-2007, a pilot survey to begin to explore the contribution of the regional chef in these two close, but quite distinct, rural and regional areas was sent to the chefs/cooks of the 70 food-serving businesses in Armidale and Guyra that I could identify. Taking into account the 6 returns that revealed a business had closed, moved or changed its name, the 42 replies received represented a response rate of 65.5per cent (or two thirds), representatively spread across the two towns. Answers indicated that the businesses comprised 18 restaurants, 13 cafés, 6 bistro/brasseries, 1 roadhouse, 1 takeaway/fast food and 3 bed and breakfast establishments. These businesses employed 394 staff, of whom 102 were chefs and/cooks, or 25.9 per cent of the total number of staff then employed by these establishments. In answer to a series of questions designed to ascertain the roles played by these chefs/cooks in their local communities, as well as more widely, I found a wide range of inputs. These chefs had, for instance, made a considerable contribution to their local economies in the area of fostering local jobs and a work culture: 40 (95 per cent) had worked with/for another local business including but not exclusively food businesses; 30 (71.4 per cent) had provided work experience opportunities for those aspiring to work in the culinary field; and 22 (more than half) had provided at least one apprenticeship position. A large number had brought outside expertise and knowledge with them to these local areas, with 29 (69 per cent) having worked in another food business outside Armidale or Guyra. In terms of community building and sustainability, 10 (or almost a quarter) had assisted or advised the local Council; 20 (or almost half) had worked with local school children in a food-related way; 28 (two thirds) had helped at least one charity or other local fundraising group. An extra 7 (bringing the cumulative total to 83.3 per cent) specifically mentioned that they had worked with/for the local gallery, museum and/or local history group. 23 (more than half) had been involved with and/or contributed to a local festival. The question of whether they had “contributed anything else important, helpful or interesting to the community” elicited the following responses: writing a food or wine column for the local paper (3 respondents), delivering TAFE teacher workshops (2 respondents), holding food demonstrations for Rotary and Lions Clubs and school fetes (5 respondents), informing the public about healthy food (3 respondents), educating the public about environmental issues (2 respondents) and working regularly with Meals on Wheels or a similar organisation (6 respondents, or 14.3 per cent). One respondent added his/her work as a volunteer driver for the local ambulance transport service, the only non-food related response to this question. Interestingly, in line with the activity of well-known celebrity chefs, in addition to the 3 chefs/cooks who had written a food or wine column for the local newspaper, 11 respondents (more than a quarter of the sample) had written or contributed to a cookbook or recipe collection. One of these chefs/cooks, moreover, reported that he/she produced a weblog that was “widely read”, and also contributed to international food-related weblogs and websites. In turn, the responses indicated that the (local) communities—including their governing bodies—also offer some support of these chefs and cooks. Many respondents reported they had been featured in, or interviewed and/or photographed for, a range of media. This media comprised the following: the local newspapers (22 respondents, 52.4 per cent), local radio stations (19 respondents, 45.2 per cent), regional television stations (11 respondents, 26.2 per cent) and local websites (8 respondents, 19 per cent). A number had also attracted other media exposure. This was in the local, regional area, especially through local Council publications (31 respondents, 75 per cent), as well as state-wide (2 respondents, 4.8 per cent) and nationally (6 respondents, 14.3 per cent). Two of these local chefs/cooks (or 4.8 per cent) had attracted international media coverage of their activities. It is clear from the above that, in the small area surveyed, rural and regional chefs/cooks make a considerable contribution to their local communities, with all the chefs/cooks who replied making some, and a number a major, contribution to those communities, well beyond the requirements of their paid positions in the field of food preparation and service. The responses tendered indicate that these chefs and cooks contributed regularly to local public events, institutions and charities (with a high rate of contribution to local festivals, school programs and local charitable activities), and were also making an input into public education programs, local cultural institutions, political and social debates of local importance, as well as the profitability of other local businesses. They were also actively supporting not only the future of the food industry as a whole, but also the viability of their local communities, by providing work experience opportunities and taking on local apprentices for training and mentorship. Much more than merely food providers, as a group, these chefs and cooks were, it appears, also operating as food historians, public intellectuals, teachers, activists and environmentalists. They were, moreover, operating as content producers for local media while, at the same time, acting as media producers and publishers. Conclusion The terms “chef” and “cook” can be diversely defined. All definitions, however, commonly involve a sense of professionalism in food preparation reflecting some specialist knowledge and skill in the culinary arts, as well as various levels of creativity, experience and responsibility. In terms of the specific duties that chefs and professional cooks undertake every day, almost all publications on the subject deal specifically with workplace related activities such as food and other supply ordering, staff management, menu planning and food preparation and serving. This is constant across culinary textbooks (see, for instance, Culinary Institute of America 2002) and more discursive narratives about the professional chef such as the bestselling autobiographical musings of Anthony Bourdain, and Michael Ruhlman’s journalistic/biographical investigations of US chefs (Soul; Reach). An alternative preliminary examination, and categorisation, of the roles these professionals play outside their kitchens reveals, however, a much wider range of community based activities and inputs than such texts suggest. It is without doubt that the chefs and cooks who responded to the survey discussed above have made, and are making, a considerable contribution to their local New England communities. It is also without doubt that these contributions are of considerable value, and valued by, those country communities. Further research will have to consider to what extent these contributions, and the significance and influence of these chefs and cooks in those communities are mirrored, or not, by other country (as well as urban) chefs and cooks, and their communities. Acknowledgements An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Engaging Histories: Australian Historical Association Regional Conference, at the University of New England, September 2007. I would like to thank the session’s participants for their insightful comments on that presentation. A sincere thank you, too, to the reviewers of this article, whose suggestions assisted my thinking on this piece. Research to complete this article was carried out whilst a Visiting Fellow with the Research School of Humanities, the Australian National University. References Armidale Tourist Information Centre. Dining Out in Armidale [brochure]. Armidale: Armidale-Dumaresq Council, c. 2006. Baker-Clark, C. A. Profiles from the Kitchen: What Great Cooks have Taught us about Ourselves and our Food. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2006. Bernier, G. Antoine Carême 1783-1833: La Sensualité Gourmande en Europe. Paris: Grasset, 1989. Bourdain, A. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001. Bowyer, A. Delia Smith: The Biography. London: André Deutsch, 1999. Brandon, R. The People’s Chef: Alexis Soyer, A Life in Seven Courses. Chichester: Wiley, 2005. Brien, D. L. “Australian Celebrity Chefs 1950-1980: A Preliminary Study.” Australian Folklore 21 (2006): 201–18. Chelminski, R. The Perfectionist: Life and Death In Haute Cuisine. New York: Gotham Books, 2005. Clifford-Smith, S. A Marvellous Party: The Life of Bernard King. Milson’s Point: Random House Australia, 2004. Culinary Institute of America. The Professional Chef. 7th ed. New York: Wiley, 2002. de Certeau, M. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988. Hildred, S., and T. Ewbank. Jamie Oliver: The Biography. London: Blake, 2001. Jenkins, S. 21 Great Chefs of Australia: The Coming of Age of Australian Cuisine. East Roseville: Simon and Schuster, 1991. Kelly, I. Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antoine Carême, The First Celebrity Chef. New York: Walker and Company, 2003. James, K. Escoffier: The King of Chefs. London and New York: Hambledon and London, 2002. Morris, H. Portrait of a Chef: The Life of Alexis Soyer, Sometime Chef to the Reform Club. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1938. Nabhan, G. P. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002. O’Donnell, M., and T. Knox. Great Australian Chefs. Melbourne: Bookman Press, 1999. Rachleff, O. S. Escoffier: King of Chefs. New York: Broadway Play Pub., 1983. Ray, E. Alexis Soyer: Cook Extraordinary. Lewes: Southover, 1991. Reardon, J. M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table. New York: Harmony Books, 1994. Redden, G. “Packaging the Gifts of Nation.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999) accessed 10 September 2008 http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/gifts.php. Riley, N. Appetite For Life: The Biography of Julia Child. New York: Doubleday, 1977. Ruhlman, M. The Soul of a Chef. New York: Viking, 2001. Ruhlman, M. The Reach of a Chef. New York: Viking, 2006. Sanger, M. B. Escoffier: Master Chef. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1976. Scott, A. J. “The Cultural Economy of Cities.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 212 (1997) 323–39. Simpson, N. Gordon Ramsay: The Biography. London: John Blake, 2006. Smith, G. Nigella Lawson: A Biography. London: Andre Deutsch, 2005. Symons, M. A History of Cooks and Cooking. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2004. Tairu, T. “Material Food, Spiritual Quest: When Pleasure Does Not Follow Purchase.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999) accessed 10 September 2008 http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/pleasure.php. White, R. 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The paper aims to analyze the Ukrainians income structure, to study of the ratio of real, nominal wages and the consumer prices index; to draw a scatter diagram, which makes it possible to make assumptions about a logarithmic nature of the relationship between indicators of average annual wages and GDP growth per capita by countries; to study the correlation between average annual rates GDP growth per capita and wages based on correlation-regression analysis; to determine the ways to improve the well-being in modern conditions. The living standard of the population is one of the main socio-economic categories that not only characterizes the material well-being of a person, but determines the overall result of the country's economy for a certain period as well. Satisfaction of needs has always been a vital condition of people's life. Material well-being with the income as focal point is a key factor in the population living standard analysis. All people work for the sake of obtaining an income that satisfies their needs, and, under favorable conditions – enjoy saving some income, investing in assets, being engaged in charity. The amount of income is often insufficient to meet the most important human needs. Currently, the majority of Ukrainians live below the poverty line, and the skilled workforce has emigrated abroad. Therefore, there arises the need for state regulation of wages, for reducing the disparity in income between the rich and the poor, for searching other sources of income for the population. The issue of the formation of incomes has been studied by many outstanding scientists, but the issue of formation of the population income as one of the factors of the population well-being has not lost its relevance and needs further study and research. The income of the population is one of the population welfare factors determining the level of their life activity. Periodicals, scientific papers, Internet sources, statistical information, scientific and methodical literature make the information base of the research. A scatter diagram of population incomes distribution in the world's countries by average annual growth rates wages and GDP per capita, correlation-regression model dependencies between average annual growth rates of GDP per capita and salary is used as one of the research methods. The economic-mathematical, calculation-constructive and correlation-regression methods were used in the study was well. Incomes of the population are the main source of satisfying their needs for consumer goods and services, and the level of population life quality is measured in quantity and quality of goods that they can purchase with their incomes. the quality of housing conditions and medical services depend on the income level. Wages make the main source of Ukrainian population income. In 2020, it made 62,3% in the total income structure of the population of Ukraine. In 2020, the nominal salary of the population amounted to 110,4% compared to the previous year, and real wages, made 107,4% taking into account the price factor. That is, the average rate of nominal wage growth is 13,4 percent ahead of the average real wages growth rates which indicates deterioration of the material situation of the population, inflationary processes in economy leading to wage depreciation and purchasing capability decline. The average salary in Ukraine in 2021 was UAH 14,577. Compared to 2020, it increased by 40% (UAH 10,340). The highest level of the average monthly salary in 2021 was in the industrial developed regions (Kyiv - UAH 21,347, Donetsk oblast - UAH 15,480, Kyiv oblast - UAH 15,152, Zaporizhzhia oblast - UAH 14,510 and Dnipropetrovsk oblast – 14,479 UAH. The lowest level is observed in the Volyn oblast (UAH 11,735), Kirovohrad oblast (UAH 11,658), Ternopil oblast (UAH 11,455) and Chernivtsi oblast (UAH 11,326). This differentiation of wages is predetermined by the specifics of these regions and the structure of their economic development. The indicator of the wages share in GDP was 46.2% in 2021 (to be compared with the average in the EU, salaries make up 50% of GDP). This is a good indicator for Ukraine, but the size of the GDP is low. In 2021, GDP of Ukraine made only 2.7% of the analogue for the USA, 12,1 – for Germany, 17,3% - for Great Britain and 41,4% for Poland that indicates the poverty of our country. Income growth during the studied period by almost exceeds the level of inflation by 27,9-31,4% and indicates an increase in well-being population. However, according to the IMF data regarding the rating of GDP volumes per capita in 2019, Ukraine ranked last among the world countries. During 2020-2021, Ukraine ranked 101st among the 199 world countries. The scatter diagram makes it possible to assume the presence of a logarithmic nature of the relation between the average annual wages growth and GDP per capita by country. Ukraine, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland are among the countries with high GDP and wages growth rates. A low GDP and wages growth rate is observed in Australia, the Netherlands, Greece and Belgium. The correlation-regression model of the dependence between the average annual GDP growth rates per capita and wages confirms that the size of GDP per capita affects the average annual wages and this dependence must be high. Unfair distribution of national income in the country, tax evasion, and a high level of the shadow economy can be the reasons for the lack of a high correlation between the change in GDP per capita and wages in Ukraine. Ukraine is among the countries with the lowest average wages compared to developed countries. Therefore, Ukrainians have to go abroad in search of more acceptable conditions and wages. In addition, the part of the population that has remained living in the country is paid "under the table", they work in unfavorable conditions and are socially unprotected. Therefore, in order to improve the level of welfare of the population, the state should set the minimum wage corresponding to the level of the real living wage; to legalize the payment of wages; to provide benefits and subsidies to the poor and low-income segment of the population with examining their living standard; attract investments and innovations in production processes that will result in wage growth; reduce and simplify the level of taxation, which affects the reduction of the shadow sector of the economy; restrain the level of inflation; create conditions for the development of small and medium-sized businesses which will further create new jobs; reduce the corruption level, etc