IMPROVEMENT OF THE INVESTMENT CLIMATE IN THE ENERGY SECTOR OF TAJIKISTAN

This paper examines the current state of the investment climate in Tajikistan, determining factors, problems, and challenges that have a significant decisive impact on the investment climate and energy sector of the country, by conducting a survey and descriptive analysis. The result of the study identified important determining factors that seriously affect investment, including regulatory, economic, political, and social factors, the most important of which are political stability (risk), taxes, corruption, bureaucratic difficulties, access to infrastructure. The results of our research have shown that the above-mentioned determining factors are the most influential and important obstacles in the process of attracting and implementing FDI investments, which seriously affect the business environment and hinder the process of attracting FDI to the energy sector of Tajikistan. The study identified and confirmed the importance of role above-mentioned determining factors, in improving the investment climate in the energy sector of Tajikistan.

A history of opioid abuse: Why buprenorphine is superior for the management of opioid use disorder and pain

Opioid abuse represents a public health crisis that has significant associated morbidity and mortality. Since beginning in the early 1990’s, the opioid abuse epidemic has been difficult to control due to regulatory, economic, and psychosocial factors that have perpetuated its existence. This era of opioid abuse has been punctuated by three distinct rises in mortality, precipitated by unique public health problems that needed to be addressed. Patients affected by opioid abuse have been historically treated with either methadone or naltrexone. While these agents have clinical utility supported by robust literature, we the authors posit that buprenorphine is a superior therapy for both opioid use disorder (OUD) as well as pain. This primacy is due to the pharmacological properties of buprenorphine which render it unique among other opioid medications. One such property is buprenorphine’s ceiling effect of respiratory depression, a common side effect and complicating factor in the administration of many classical opioid medications. This profile renders buprenorphine safer, while simultaneously retaining therapeutic utility in the medical practitioner’s pharmacopeia for the treatment of opioid use disorder and pain.

Assessing the Health System of a Country

Chapter 2 describes different definitions and conceptualizations of health systems. It presents a proprietary framework that adopts a systems view of health systems. In the authors’ framework they conceptualize health systems as a collection of functions that interact to produce outputs that in turn are used to produce outcomes. Health systems functions consist of organization and governance, financing, and resource management. These functions are used to produce health system outputs, namely public health services and personal healthcare services. Policymakers use policies to ensure the health system outputs are effective, efficient, equitable, and responsive to achieve the right level and distribution of health system outcomes, namely population health, financial protection, and user satisfaction. The health system is situated in a dynamic and changing context with which it interacts and is influenced by it. The context is shaped by demographic, epidemiological, political, legal and regulatory, economic, sociocultural, ecological, and technological changes and shifts that create opportunities and threats to which the health system must respond. Policymakers need to consider how to design health systems to ensure that they are not only responsive and resilient to the opportunities and threats created by contextual changes and shifts but also that they ensure the right balance of effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and responsiveness for the system outputs to achieve desired level and distribution of outcomes.

Strategy, business model, and innovation at Rivigo: Is Relay-as-a-Service the way forward?

This case documents the journey of Rivigo from being a humble logistics vendor to a unicorn in a short span of 5 years. The case provides information on the evolving landscape – regulatory, economic, substitutes, suppliers, and customers – of the Indian logistics industry including intensely competitive tech-based start-ups bent on disrupting the traditional industry normal. The case then notes Rivigo’s reliance on driver and customer-friendly technology-driven processes and solutions, and product diversification choices as key to its competitive success. The case ends with questions about strategic choices that can help Rivigo keep up its growth trajectory.

Advancing Undergraduate Laboratory Education Using Non-Model Insect Species

Over the past decade, laboratory courses have made a fundamental shift to inquiry-based modules and authentic research experiences. In many cases, these research experiences emphasize addressing novel research questions. Insects are ideal for inquiry-based undergraduate laboratory courses because research on insects is not limited by regulatory, economic, and logistical constraints to the same degree as research on vertebrates. While novel research questions could be pursued with model insect species (e.g., Drosophila, Tribolium), the opportunities presented by non-model insects are much greater, as less is known about non-model species. We review the literature on the use of non-model insect species in laboratory education to provide a resource for faculty interested in developing new authentic inquiry-based laboratory modules using insects. Broader use of insects in undergraduate laboratory education will support the pedagogical goals of increased inquiry and resesarch experiences while at the same time fostering increased interest and research in entomology.

Sustainable and Responsible Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Energy Development

The linkages between sustainable energy development and entrepreneurship are focussed, and studies in this field are critically discussed in this chapter. The new sustainable energy technologies and other innovations are presented, such as solar powered trains, electric tires, liquid sunlight, etc. The role of entrepreneurs in developing new sustainable energy technologies and other innovations in sustainable energy is emphasized. The main barriers and drivers of entrepreneurship and innovations in sustainable energy are scrutinized and grouped in regulatory, economic, informational, technological, etc. barriers based on comprehensive literature review. The policies and measures targeting these barriers are analysed and discussed.

Customer Satisfaction and Firm Profits in Monopolies: A Study of Utilities

There is a growing body of evidence that customer satisfaction is predictive of firms’ future financial performance. However, studies of this relationship have been limited to competitive markets, and monopolistic markets have been largely ignored. This study explores the large and important utilities market and exploits its unique regulatory requirements that generate detailed and reliable operating and accounting data to examine the overall relationship between customer satisfaction and utility profit and establish the causal mechanisms involved. Using data from U.S. public utility firms, the authors show that even when customer satisfaction does not affect future revenues, it does positively predict future profitability by reducing utility firm operating costs. More specifically, they find that higher satisfaction reduces the costs of utility firm distribution, customer service, and sales and general administration expenses. These findings and additional post hoc evidence are consistent with the notion that customer satisfaction (1) generates efficiency-enhancing benefits for utility firms by lowering the direct and employee engagement costs of dealing with dissatisfied customers and (2) fosters greater trust and cooperation from customers. This study has important implications for both managers and regulators and provides important new insights for market-based asset theory and regulatory economic theory.

The analysis of the state of the problem of processing agricultural waste and ways to solve it in the context of the formation of the organic products industry

The state of the problem of processing agricultural waste as a newly forming industry for the disposal of such waste in conjunction with the development of the emerging industry of organic production and the market of organic fertilizers is considered. The issue is regarded in the interrelation of the regulatory, economic and technological components in their dynamics from the current state to the target (desired).

Non-Public Bulk Consumers as Drivers of Eco-innovations

Environmental innovations are one path towards new “Green Economy” using natural resources only within the boundaries of the ecosystem’s ability to renew itself. The paper focuses on product related demand-side eco-innovations. It addresses commercial procurement. According to the hypothesis of our research, a properly displayed demand for eco-innovative solutions could attract vendors to market their respective products, enhance their further diffusion and thus make non-public bulk consumers acting as change agents for eco-innovations. The analysis shows that bulk consumers play a crucial role as lead buyers. Activating them to purchase eco-innovative solutions requires several pulling and pushing measures: regulatory, economic, informative/communicative, reflexive/discursive, co-operative, monitoring and the role of lead market initiatives. By implication, a demand-side related political promotion could complement the various ongoing efforts for activating public institutions and private end consumers to purchase eco-innovations systematically and more frequently. The strategy of focusing seems promising when it comes to bulk consumers as change agents for innovation. Therefore, the authors advocate further research and pilot actions in the field.

Copycat Fast Casual Restaurants: Consumer Response of Dublin Professionals 25 - 39

The fast casual market in Ireland is growing at a rate three times that of other restaurant categories. It is especially popular with young professionals aged 25-39, representing more than one third of their food spend. Many Dublin restaurateurs have taken this opportunity to capitalise on the success of existing restaurant brands and open “copycat” eateries within the capital. These restaurants appropriate concepts, menus and trade dress from leader brands outside Ireland, often to commercial success. By using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, this research aims to explore Irish consumer perception and patronage of five Dublin copycat restaurants and negotiate the results of this with consumers’ evaluation of authenticity. Two hundred and twenty-seven questionnaire responses were evaluated and phenomenologically assessed through in-depth interviews to try to explain the socioeconomic and cultural factors of these results. Findings indicate a generally positive acceptance towards copycatting in Ireland, while still evaluating the “original” restaurant as better in most categories. In this context, a moderate similarity approach appears to work best when the leader brand is not present. Respondents did not have an overall negative view of copycats, and even fewer reported a desire to stop visiting such restaurants once informed about them. Interviews investigated the regulatory, economic and cultural underpinnings for this, suggesting consumer response is dictated by contextual factors that are unique to the Irish commercial landscape.