Issue 1, 2022

The current Covid-19 pandemic provoked alternative work arrangements and a large proportion of employees started to work from home. Despite the initial technological euphoria, this change started showing not only positive, but serious negative phenomena in terms not only of organization and daily practices, but also of psychological and managerial nature. It brought a lot of new questions and problems concerning all soft management elements, especially in the domains of corporate cultures, work motivation and individual psychological responses. This article provides an overview of some major issues of this type and offers ways of tackling them. The new normal is not exactly normal and the old one already seems irrevocably lived-through. While there is no doubt that the future will offer a lot more flexibility and various options for combined distant and office work arrangements, this article explains why the current extent of working from home should rather remain as a transitory element responding to the exceptional circumstances.
Keywords: Organizational culture; distance working; working from home; human resources management; Covid-19
JEL: M12; M14; Z13

The study reveals that the COVID-19 crisis has had a strong but one-off negative impact on the hedge fund industry. It also shows that during the new coronavirus pandemic, the main components of the hedge fund industry achieved only partially their main investment goal, i.e. they as a whole provided a hedge of the investment risk but did not produce higher than the market return in the conditions of a growing capital market. In this situation, due to the relatively stable М&A market, the Event-Driven Risk Arbitrage strategy was undoubtedly most successful, followed by the Emerging Markets, the Global Macro and the Long/Short Equity strategies. The worst performance was reported for the Fixed Income Arbitrage strategy due to the currently overvalued bond markets and to the expectations for higher inflation rates in the countries with developed capital markets.
Keywords: hedge funds; investment strategies of hedge funds; portfolio performance; COVID-19
JEL: G11; G15; G23

COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a shock to the world, leading it towards an unprecedented socioeconomic crisis. Amongst all the sectors of the global economy, tourism was hit the hardest. Non-pharmaceutical interventions put in place to curb the spread of the disease, deeply impacted the activities in the global tourism community. Owing to the pandemic, the global community is being pushed into a recession. Tourism is crucial to the economic recovery of the world. Therefore, this study focuses on examining the consequences of the pandemic on the global tourism sector. Since tourism does not work in isolation and is intertwined with its associated sectors, the study considers the impact of the pandemic on aviation, hotel and accommodation and MSMEs in tourism. For this purpose, a regional analysis has been conducted. The findings reveal that the Asia-Pacific region has been consistently performing poorly in terms of tourism-related indicators. Europe stood second in place. However, during the resurgence of the second wave and new variants of the virus, it kept on switching places with the Asia-Pacific region. Tourism is considered to be a resilient sector as it bounces back to the pre-crisis levels eventually. However, the evolving nature of the pandemic has created huge difficulties for the sector to start its recovery. Hence the paper also discusses the future of travel in the next normal.
Keyword: COVID-19; Global tourism; Recession; Regional-analysis Next normal
JEL: M21; Z30; Z32; Z38

Global processes significantly affect the mobility of the population. In the context of geopolitical transformation, globalization and quarantine restrictions of Covid-19, it is important to predict the development of the migration movement of countries that are developing. Therefore, the article is aimed at modelling migration changes according to alternative scenarios using the example of Ukraine.
The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is formed by a number of scientific works of leading scientists from different countries, statistical information on migration processes and socio-economic indicators of Ukraine’s development, economic, mathematical and scenario methods. In the course of the study, the main factors were identified that more affect the migration processes of Ukraine, taking into account the trends in the impact of Covid-19 on them. These include population size, life expectancy, GDP per capita, average monthly wages, and the volume of remittances from individuals to Ukraine.
With the help of correlation-regression analysis, a multivariate econometric model of migration growth (reduction) has been built. This made it possible to study the absolute and relative influence of factors on the magnitude of the migration increase (decrease), determine the potential reserves for its increase (decrease), evaluate them using a comparative analysis and carry out predictive calculations of the volume of migration increase (decrease) in Ukraine.
Keywords: migration; migration movement; migration increase; emigrants; immigrants; multivariate econometric model; scenarios; Covid-19
JEL: С82; F22; F24; J11

As a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak, the corporate “(in)solvency” issue will probably be one of the most frequently discussed topics in the business and economics fields. We analysed the meaning of the term solvency and the solvency assessment methodology in the papers published in the journals indexed in SSCI from 01.01.2017 to 31.12.2019. We have found that the term “solvency” is inadequately used by the authors from Roman law countries, particularly by those who are from the East European countries. We have also found that the inadequate use of the solvency assessment methodology is conditioned by the scientific field of the researchers. The further the authors are from the legal and accounting fields, the more they are inclined to misuse the term (in)solvent and to introduce the solvency ratio. Finally, we explained the probable origin of this confusion.
Keywords: solvency; solvency ratio; solvency analysis; firm performance; semantics
JEL: M41; K22

The passengers’ rights protection policy is crucial for providing the quality of air transport services and has a significant impact on the competitiveness of airlines and airport operators. This impact can be measured by defining a system of quantitative and qualitative indicators and can be managed by adopting adequate efficiency-enhancing measures of this policy that contribute to the greater competitiveness of all the players in the European air transport market. The study aims to present the opportunities of a dynamic programming approach to enhance the efficiency of passenger rights’ protection policy in terms of the competitiveness of airlines and airport operators. The application of the model has been empirically tested and, on this basis, a proposal to update the passengers’ rights protection policy has been worked out by the authors and the expected impacts and effects of its implementation have been examined.
Keywords: air transport; passenger rights policy; dynamic programming
JEL: R41; R48

The article proposes a scientific and methodological approach to strategising the development of a manufacturing enterprise in a decentralised environment based on the principle of feedback. This approach involves taking into account the direct and feedback indicators of the enterprise, aimed at increasing its competitiveness and achieving sustainable development goals. The authors propose to assess the level of development of the production enterprise in decentralisation, taking into account the multiplier effect of interaction with the united territorial community on the basis of the target approach (indicators are distributed according to the goals of the enterprise), taking into account the main directions of sustainable development component, each of which has its own system of evaluation indicators.
The proposed methodological approach to assessing the level of development of a production enterprise in decentralisation allowed to assess the development of the enterprise in accordance with its qualitative and quantitative characteristics in each of the areas of sustainable development (social, economic, environmental, budget), taking into account their interaction levels. A scientific and methodological approach to modelling the management system of the dynamic state of the production enterprise in terms of decentralisation, which provides for the formation of a model of development of the production enterprise in cooperation with OTG on indicators of its development. The model of management of development of the industrial enterprise in the conditions of decentralisation for LLC TIS, which is located in the territory of the Vizyr UTC of the Odessa region is constructed.
Keywords:sustainable development strategy; decentralisation; territorial community; comprehensive assessment of the strategy
JEL: M21; R12

A new decision-making model in technology foresight based on fuzzy logic is proposed. The choice of technology as disruptive or critical doesn’t depend on the subjective expert’s opinion, but bases on the mathematically justified limits of technologies criticality. The basis of the model is the fuzzy inference system by Mamdani algorithm. Five of the most important criteria of criticality have been used as input linguistic variables. A new approach to defining membership functions based on equidistant derivative points is proposed and described in detail. The functioning of the model is considered by example. The influence of the application of different membership functions on the criticality assessment is shown. A comparison between the fuzzy model and classic expert model is also conducted.
Keywords: critical technologies; disruptive technologies; fuzzy logic; membership function determination; technology foresight
JEL: C30; C51; O20

The article summarizes the arguments and counterarguments in the scientific discussion on the development of a scientific problem for the creation of a modern concept of resourcing for the security and defence sector of Ukraine. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the category of “resourcing” to formulate the optimal scientifically grounded ways of further research. The systematization of literary sources and approaches to solving the problem of formulating the definition of “resourcing” has shown the presence of a wide range of scientific ideas and approaches to determining its content. The relevance of solving this scientific problem lies in the fact that the existing approaches to the resourcing of the defence needs of Ukraine require clarification and improvement. This is confirmed by the publication of several conceptual documents on ensuring the national security and defence of Ukraine. The study is structured in the following logical sequence: an analysis of approaches to determining the content of “resourcing” is carried out; the process of resourcing of the security and defence sector of Ukraine is analyzed for compliance with the characteristics that characterize the system. Methods of analysis, system analysis, and synthesis became the methodological tools of the study. The year from 1998 to the present was chosen as the study period for the content of the key definition. The object of the research is the resourcing of the security and defence sector of Ukraine. Since the ability to acquire the necessary capabilities by the components of the security and defence sector of Ukraine in the course of repelling armed aggression from the Russian Federation depends on the level of timely and full provision of defence needs. The study empirically confirms and theoretically proves the need for further research of the resourcing system as a subsystem of the security and defence sector of Ukraine of the national security system of Ukraine as a whole. The results of the study can be useful for scientists and managers, embracing the issues of comprehensively meeting the needs of the defence of Ukraine.
Keywords: resources; resourcing system; security and defence sector of Ukraine
JEL: F52; H56

This paper examines and assesses craft village development and challenges in the environmental management of craft villages in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam. This is the area where most of the craft villages of the country are concentrated. They contribute to creating jobs, increasing incomes for rural people, contributing to the successful implementation of the goal of hunger eradication and poverty reduction. However, this rapid development also creates many environmental consequences for rural areas. From the data published by state agencies and case studies in some craft villages in the Red River Delta, this article shows that economic development, rural urbanization create dynamism force for enterprises, households in craft villages to expand production, but also leads to fierce market competition between craft villages as well as environmental pollution. Although Vietnam has implemented many environmental protection policies, pollution in craft villages is still serious. Therefore, in order to ensure the handicraft village environment, research shows that it is necessary to promote supervision and monitoring of the implementation of environmental protection measures by businesses and households, in addition to building a policy of reasonably economic development for this area.
Keywords:environmental pollution; Red River Delta; craft villages; enterprises
Jel: R11