Microfinance: Methods, Models and its Impact on Economic Development

The main purpose of the academic paper is to analyze the dynamics of microfinance services and assess their impact on the entrepreneurial activity of small and medium-sized enterprises and the consequences for the population. Methods of generalization, analysis, comparison, correlation and regression analysis have been used in order to achieve the purpose outlined. The academic paper considers the impact of microfinance services on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of net profit. The results have showed that the impact of the cost of microfinance services on the development of financial activities of small and medium-sized businesses have a positive result, and, when using the proposed regression equation, the company will receive positive results in 2020-2024. The conducted correlation analysis of the impact of microfinance services on the level of the average salary of the population of Ukraine has revealed a high level of dependence of citizens on loans obtained. This is confirmed by the high correlation coefficient.

Wine market segmentation by age generations in the Western US: expectations after the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate if differences exist between the four wine-consuming generations in wine purchasing behavior, the desirability of wine attributes when making a purchase decision and information sources used. It examines if generational market segmentation is an actionable and valuable strategy for the wine industry. Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X and Baby-Boomers are the four generations examined. This research also investigates if the generations behaved differently concerning wine consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, expectations concerning future wine purchasing behavior are examined. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted between April 29, 2020 and May 7, 2020, with a sample size of 944 consumers from Western US States (California, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Nevada). One-way analysis of variance technique and Chi-square tests were used to examine differences. Findings Segmentation by generation is appropriate when creating products, pricing, determining channels of distribution and creating messaging for a specific wine brand. The COVID-19 pandemic caused channel shifting that is expected to continue after the pandemic. Originality/value This is the second academic paper that examines differences in wine purchasing behavior between generations including Generation Z and the only study that examines the purchasing behavior changes and expectations for the future by generation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Research limitations/implications A national survey should be conducted to confirm that the results from the sample that was mostly from California and neighboring states reflect the national wine consumer in the USA. Practical implications The research identifies the products, prices, channels of distribution and messaging that are appropriate to target each generation.

Ensuring transport safety by police authorities and units of member states of the European Union

Police authorities and units are a separate link in the system of ensuring all levels of national security, including a transport one. Globalization, technological progress and urbanization are leading to an increase in vehicular transports and freight carriage, which makes it necessary to ensure transport safety. The purpose of the academic paper is as follows: to identify the factors that affect transport safety and the impact of police authorities and units of the European Union on transport safety. In order to achieve the purpose outlined the following methods have been used, namely: statistical analysis, correlation, factor analysis, generalization and analogy. It has been established that there is a positive interrelationship between the number of police officers, the number of road traffic accidents and the number of casualties on the road in Cyprus. A negative interrelationship has been proved between the number of police officers and the number of road traffic accidents in Germany, Finland, Greece, Belgium and Sweden. The positive interdependence has been revealed between the number of police officers and casualties of road traffic accidents in Cyprus, Germany, Finland, and a negative interdependence in Greece, Belgium, Sweden. It has been found that there is a low level of interdependence between the number of cars and the number of road traffic accidents in Sweden and Germany, a negative interrelationship in Cyprus, Greece, Belgium and Finland. Factors influencing transport safety have been established, namely: legislative regulation, level of introduction of innovative digital technologies, transport infrastructure, geographical location, length of roads, psychophysical factors of drivers, social ones. It has been proved that police authorities and units, taking into account other factors that affect transport safety, do not sufficiently ensure transport safety in the European Union

Software Must be Recognised as an Important Output of Scholarly Research

Software now lies at the heart of scholarly research. Here we argue that as well as being important from a methodological perspective, software should, in many instances, be recognised as an output of research, equivalent to an academic paper. The article discusses the different roles that software may play in research and highlights the relationship between software and research sustainability and reproducibility. It describes the challenges associated with the processes of citing and reviewing software, which differ from those used for papers. We conclude that whilst software outputs do not necessarily fit comfortably within the current publication model, there is a great deal of positive work underway that is likely to make an impact in addressing this.

Parallel Particle Swarm Optimization Based on Spark for Academic Paper Co-Authorship Prediction

The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm has been widely used in various optimization problems. Although PSO has been successful in many fields, solving optimization problems in big data applications often requires processing of massive amounts of data, which cannot be handled by traditional PSO on a single machine. There have been several parallel PSO based on Spark, however they are almost proposed for solving numerical optimization problems, and few for big data optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a new Spark-based parallel PSO algorithm to predict the co-authorship of academic papers, which we formulate as an optimization problem from massive academic data. Experimental results show that the proposed parallel PSO can achieve good prediction accuracy.

A cross-cultural analysis of the motivation factors and profitability of online wine tastings during Covid-19 pandemic

PurposeThe pioneers of online wine tastings have set a new standard and introduced an innovative tool that combines various goals: contacting existing and recruiting new customers, entertaining participants and boosting sales. Within the framework of the study, the authors addressed questions such as the reasons for offering online wine tasting, profitability and the basic characteristics and future perspectives of this new interactive online tool.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods research was conducted using a sequential exploratory design to analyse online wine tastings during Covid-19 pandemic. First, 40 in-depth interviews in Germany were conducted and, based on these results, a global online survey was undertaken with 1,423 wineries from more than 40 countries.FindingsThe survey results clearly show the effect of Covid-19 on the growing tendency to employ online wine tastings. This tool is about more than just providing entertainment for wine lovers in that it also has a tangible business aspect.Practical implicationsBased on these results, the authors assume that online wine tastings will continue to be offered after the Covid-19 crisis.Originality/valueThis paper offers a situation analysis of the first 10 months of the Covid-19 pandemic in the field of online wine tastings worldwide. The authors conducted a quantitative online survey that built on a qualitative pre-study. Given the fact that no academic paper has been published on the topic, this paper provides first insights on a global scale.

Exploring ESL Students’ Current Competency and Needs in Academic Writing Skills at University

Mastering academic writing is one of the skills to be acquired by all university students. Ability to master academic writing skills enables university students to be more competent in presenting ideas and information related to their field. Inability to master required skills in academic writing will consequently impact the students’ performance in fulfilling the graduation requirement. Generally, students in higher learning institutions (HLIs) are constantly struggling with unfamiliar styles and mechanisms in academic writing. The current situation subsequently resulted students’ incompetency in presenting their ideas and discussion. In this study, the researchers aim to discover the students’ expectation for an academic writing skills course and their current competency academic writing skills. An adapted questionnaire from Choo (1998) was used as the main instrument in this study to 65 undergraduate TESL students in public higher learning institution (HLI) in Malaysia. Analysis of data was done quantitatively using statistical software. Results from the analyses revealed that more than half of the respondents (76.9%) agreed that academic writing skills are regarded as complex skills to be acquired. In addition, the results also yielded that almost half of the respondents (46.2%) believed that literature review section is the most difficult section in an academic paper. Results from this study will be able to guide future researchers and educators in producing more teaching and learning related to academic writing mastery.

EDUKASI ASPEK KEAMANAN DAN PENGENDALIAN DATA GUNA MEMBANGUN LITERASI DIGITAL BAGI PELAKU UMKM

Digital literacy is a real effort activity to communicate, relate, thinking, and other else by utilizing digital media. It’s being admitted that building the digital literacy is not an instant thing. Moreover, for MSME preneurs who generally less educated and newbie in using internet technology, of course limiting their space and opportunities to adapt the digitization of business processes during the new normal because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this community service activity is to provide counseling/training and practice to the activity’s partners regarding aspects of data security and control in order to build adequate digital literacy for MSME preneurs, especially the culinary industry. The activity‘s partner is the owner of Restaurant "Seafood67 & Soto Lamongan". The results of the survey and discussions with partners provide the identified problems that the owner of the restaurant has experienced hacking of the merchant application account in marketing their products; and often experience difficulties in recording financial transactions. The counseling/training activity took place for two days in April 2021 using the lecture, question-and-answer method and the practice of security supervision and transaction data control using an Android-based application. This activity also involves students from the PPAk of FEB UNTAR, who generally have experience from the world of work and are intended to be able to contribute in providing solutions to problems/facts in society. In addition, the participation of PPAk’ students also had a positive impact on the accreditation of the study program. The activity resulted the fact that MSME preneurs became increasingly aware of the importance of digital literacy. The outcome of this community service activity is in the form of academic paper presented in the proceedings of scientific meetings.Literasi digital merupakan upaya nyata berkomunikasi; berelasi; berpikir, dan semua aktivitas dengan memanfaatkan media digital. Kita akui bersama bahwa membangun keliterasian digital bukanlah hal yang bersifat instan. Dan bagi pelaku UMKM yang umumnya berpendidikan rendah dan gagap menggunakan teknologi internet, tentunya membatasi ruang dan peluang mereka untuk beradaptasi terhadap digitalisasi proses bisnis pada masa normal baru sebagai akibat dari pandemi Covid-19. Tujuan dari kegiatan ini ini adalah mengadakan penyuluhan/pelatihan dan praktek kepada mitra mengenai aspek keamanan dan pengendalian data demi membangun literasi digital yang memadai bagi pelaku UMKM khususnya sektor industri kuliner.Mitra pada periode ini adalah Rumah Makan “Seafood67 & Soto Lamongan”. Hasil survey maupun diskusi dengan mitra memberikan gambaran bahwa pemilik rumah makan tersebut pernah mengalami peretasan akun aplikasi merchant yang menjadi partner dalam pemasaran produknya; serta sering mengalami kendala aplikasi umtuk pencatatan transaksi keuangan. Kegiatan penyuluhan/pelatihan berlangsung selama dua hari pada bulan April 2021 dengan menggunakan metode ceramah, tanya-jawab dan juga praktek pengawasan keamanan dan pengendalian data transaksi menggunakan aplikasi berbasis android. Kegiatan PKM ini juga melibatkan mahasiswa dari Prodi PPAk FEB UNTAR, yang umumnya telah memiliki pengalaman dari dunia kerja dan dimaksudkan untuk mampu berkontribusi dalam memberikan solusi terhadap masalah riil/fakta di masyarakat. Selain itu keikutsertaan mahasiswa prodi PPAk juga berdampak positif terhadap akreditasi prodi PPAk FEB Untar. Hasil dari PKM ini dirasakan manfaatnya oleh mitra yang semakin sadar akan pentingnya literasi digital.PKM ini juga menghasilkan luaran berupa artikel ilmiah untuk keperluan publikasi pada prosiding pertemuan ilmiah.

Juridic Review for The Development of Academic Texts for Amendment to The Regulation of The Regent of Tulungagung Concerning Administration of Advertisements

One aspect that is of concern to the Government of Tulungagung Regency is in terms of increasing Regional Original Income (PAD) through the installation of billboards. The Regent in this case as the Regional Head has the authority to make regulations relating to the administration of billboards, the policy regarding the implementation of billboards is to control urban spatial planning so that it is more organized, improve services to the community, and can protect the interests and public order, as well as increase PAD (here in after referred to as Regional Original Revenue) of Tulungagung Regency through advertisement tax revenues. Aims to review the regulation of the administration of advertisements related to licensing regarding arranging permits, installation, form, place of billboards and value advertisement tax, as well as to explain the licensing and tax mechanism on billboards and increase the Regional Original Income (PAD) of Tulungagung Regency through the advertisement tax sector. This research use desciptive qualitative approach, this research is a type of legal social research with the ROCCIPI approach. From the results of the study, it is concluded that the formation of the Regent's draft regulation requires a policy concept through an Academic Paper. Academic papers are a scientific basis and provide a direction in the preparation of public policies.

Intercultural communicative competence in the development of students’ linguistic skills

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is a component of the general concept of communicative competence, which refers to the ability to establish effective communication with representatives of different social-cultural regions. The role of ICC is growing significantly with the intensification of globalization processes. The purpose of the present academic paper is a comprehensive research of intercultural communicative competence of students-philologists while studying a foreign language at university. To achieve the purpose outlined, the following methods have been used, namely: analysis; synthesis; generalization; ascertaining experiment; the method of formative experiment; comparison. As a result of the research conducted, a diagnostic model has been developed in order to determine the level of ICC formation in students of foreign philology (based on English); a tactic of stimulating the initially diagnosed level of students’ ICC by conducting a formative experiment with subsequent secondary diagnostics for measurement of efficiency of the offered technique. It has been determined that the factors that have influenced the results are as follows: the complexity of the methodologies applied, the duration of the formative experiment, the intensity of work on improving ICC, individual features of participants (motivation, attitude to learning in general, etc.).