Suchergebnisse

Military, institutional and discursive competence as seen by Burgundian court historians, c. 1470 -c. 1500 -- Politics into fiction: Maximilian's transformation of the Burgundian model -- The rise of the confessional model -- The revival of civic humanism, raison d' âetat and the incompetence of subjects in the histories of Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato -- Mismanagement and Other Virtues: The construction of secular political competence in the historiography of Gottlieb Eucharius Rinck

Offering a systematic analysis of texts produced between the court of Burgundy in the 1470s and the court of the Austrian Habsburgs in the early 1700s, this book traces the development of the idea of successful and competent political behaviour as seen through the eyes of court historians between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries.

It is hard to overestimate the effect of The Three-Body Problem and the ensuing trilogy by Liu Cixin1 on the collective imagination. Not many works of science fiction have achieved such global fame as The Three-Body Problem trilogy, also known under the common title Remembrance of Earth's Past,2 and even fewer have had a three-part documentary series produced by BBC Studios explore the science behind the fiction.3According to the IMDB, at least 65 million people have watched the docuseries. Netflix has now commissioned Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to develop a TV series,4 to be released in January 2024—despite protests from several US Republican senators who had noted the writer's controversial statements on Chinese policies against the Uighurs in Xinjiang. The first book of the trilogy had sold more than 8 million copies by the end of 2020. On Reddit, fans discuss which disciplines one has to study in real life to approximate 'cosmic sociology', a fictional academic field that one of the central characters, Luo Ji, develops in his work.

The topic of the work is of scientific and practical relevance, as there is a need to find ways to overcome the barriers to the effective functioning of online education during the global coronavirus pandemic. Russian higher education was faced with the need to suddenly change the principles of its work and transfer the vast majority of classes to an online format, which turned out to be associated with many practical problems that did not allow online education to function productively. As part of this work, an attempt is made to evaluate the rich experience of Western higher education in the application of online technologies and develop recommendations for the implementation of some effective solutions in the Russian social reality. The main research method is the analysis of documents and scientific publications. The following problems observed both in Russian and Western higher education were identified: digital divide, digital literacy, class lag, alienation from the educational process, virtualization of educational space, asynchronous communication and the inadequacy of coursework. The above problems create obstacles and barriers that do not allow Russian online education to function in full force, and require serious work to optimize the educational process. A recommendation was made to abandon non-contact online learning, the development of materials to improve the digital literacy of the teaching staff, as well as the need to unify the educational online space and create a Russian digital platform that will accumulate all the classes of state universities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of firm-, finance- and country-specific indicators to the performance of companies under the COVID-19 outbreak.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a regression performance model for enterprises during the COVID-19 crisis. The investigation is based upon a data set of 5,730 firms from 13 countries collected by the World Bank through enterprise surveys. The author combined the analysis of traditional performance measurements with the testing of relatively novel variables.FindingsThis study confirms the significance of multiple factors for company performance: sector, size, participation in exports and market demand for firms' products. Robust financing solutions during the coronavirus pandemic period include equity contributions, followed by firms' cash balances and debt. Support by a government, however, has not yet been confirmed as a significant source of finance. This paper also suggests the importance of country-specific factors for the performance of enterprises, including the level of economic development and the corporate governance infrastructure.Practical implicationsThe research outcomes might assist regulatory bodies, policymakers and companies in their formulation of public and corporate governance strategies concerning future emergency preparedness and responses.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first empirical studies in the management realm that addresses the impact of COVID-19 on company performance, with cross-national empirical data.

The article presents the results of the document analysis since the late 1940s to early 1970s devoted to the development of students' research activities in pedagogic institutes. The author studied documents of three levels – the level of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the level of relevant ministries and state organisations of a pedagogic orientation, the level of an institute. The documents were analysed in terms of the use of words in describing the process of formation and development of students' research activities in pedagogic institutes, the frequency of these terms use at different time stages, their meaning and context of use. The author identifies several main categories of lexical units used: "person," "student activity/result", "form of presentation of the student activity result," "activity aimed at the student," "association," "characteristic of scientific work," "abstract concepts used to describe science." Analysis of each selected term category has been carried out. Based on the analysis, conclusions were drawn on the reflection of the peculiarities of each stage, allocated within the framework of internal periodisation, in the use of lexical units. In terms of words, a parallel is drawn with the modern meaning of the lexical unit, the features of the development of the object or the course of the process in the studied chronological period and nowadays are compared.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of firm-, finance- and country-specificindicators to the performance of companies under the COVID-19 outbreak. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a regression performance model for enterprisesduring the COVID-19 crisis. The investigation is based upon a data set of 5,730 firms from 13 countriescollected by the World Bank through enterprise surveys. The author combined the analysis of traditionalperformance measurements with the testing of relatively novel variables. Findings – This study confirms the significance of multiple factors for company performance: sector,size, participation in exports and market demand for firms' products. Robust financing solutions duringthe coronavirus pandemic period include equity contributions, followed by firms' cash balances anddebt. Support by a government, however, has not yet been confirmed as a significant source of finance.This paper also suggests the importance of country-specific factors for the performance of enterprises,including the level of economic development and the corporate governance infrastructure. Practical implications – The research outcomes might assist regulatory bodies, policymakers andcompanies in their formulation of public and corporate governance strategies concerning futureemergency preparedness and responses. Originality/value – This paper is among the first empirical studies in the management realm thataddresses the impact of COVID-19 on company performance, with cross-national empirical data.Keywords Company performance, Financial sources, COVID-19, Country-specific factors,Firm-specific indicators

The article investigates hyperboles as a persuasion tool in British political discourse. The corpus under analysis comprises scripts of speeches by UK Permanent Representative to the UN Karen Pierce, Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson which are devoted to the incident in Salisbury. The research has shown that to describe the event under study the politicians use rhetoric devices that exaggerate its social and political importance. In political discourse hyperboles have an impact on three modes of persuasion – logos, pathos and ethos, but in political communication the effectiveness of a hyperbole as a persuasion tool mainly depends on ethos, i.e. conditions of a speech act which determine the relevance of this rhetorical device and a speaker's personality. In some statements hyperboles are so efficiently embedded the communicative context that they are interpreted literally. In political discourse persuasion is often implemented through the use of hyperboles and other rhetorical devices (analogy, alliteration, anaphora, climax). The evocative character of hyperbole is key to the implementation of its persuasive function in political discourse. Under the influence of the representations evoked by hyperbole, the object of exaggerated description acquires characteristics which quantitatively and, in some cases, qualitatively differ from its real properties.

Difference between foreign and local investors in their respective assessments of business climate constraints has not yet been given much attention in research literature. Drawing on institutional theory and the concept of liability of foreignness (LoF), the study contributes towards filling this gap in the context of business climate variables faced by foreign firms operating in transition economies. The Mann-Whitney U Test is applied to firm-level data of 30 transition economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We found that foreign investors experience less trouble with access to finance, tax rate and competition towards the informal sector compared with domestic firms. Conversely, such variables as courts, custom and trade regulations, inadequate workforce, and labor regulations disturbed foreign investors more than local companies. LoF appears as a balanced outcome of firm-specific advantages, possessed by foreign investors, and location and institutional advantages, utilized by the local companies. The results point towards important possible synergies in enhancing the business climate in transition economies by policy-makers, and to potential conflict between policy reforms accommodating the interests of foreign capital against those of domestic firms.

FDI (foreign direct investment) of Swedbank in Ukraine is an example of unsuccessful investment in transition economies. The Case Study is presented in relation with Swedbank's internationalization strategy and rapidly changing investment environment in transition economies and globally. Learning objectives include helping students to develop analytical skills in order to understand how political, economic, financial and social factors effect internalization strategy through FDI. The Case Study should help students to understand the importance of an appropriate long-term strategy of a firm entering transition economies, understand the investment environment of a foreign country and choose the best course of action for a distressed firm considering alternative scenarios. Lessons learned from the Case Study can be beneficial for students studying international business, but also for future decision-makers that would be acting in complex environments under rapidly changing situations. The author developed the Case from secondary sources: Swedbank's annual reports and press-releases, information published by multilateral organizations and government agencies, research from investment banking houses and reputable news agencies. This Case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to analyze successful or unsuccessful internalization strategy through FDI in transition economies.

FDI (foreign direct investment) of Swedbank in Ukraine is an example of unsuccessful investment in transition economies. The Case Study is presented in relation with Swedbank's internationalization strategy and rapidly changing investment environment in transition economies and globally. Learning objectives include helping students to develop analytical skills in order to understand how political, economic, financial and social factors effect internalization strategy through FDI. The Case Study should help students to understand the importance of an appropriate long-term strategy of a firm entering transition economies, understand the investment environment of a foreign country and choose the best course of action for a distressed firm considering alternative scenarios. Lessons learned from the Case Study can be beneficial for students studying international business, but also for future decision-makers that would be acting in complex environments under rapidly changing situations. The author developed the Case from secondary sources: Swedbank's annual reports and press-releases, information published by multilateral organizations and government agencies, research from investment banking houses and reputable news agencies. This Case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to analyze successful or unsuccessful internalization strategy through FDI in transition economies.

The article addresses the issue of the business climate in Russia from the Swedish investors' perspective and relates its to a general theoretical debate in the field. Statistical tests suggests that the majority of variables relating to the business climate has deteriorated between 2012 and 2014. The findings support several mainstream theories regarding the business climate but also demonstrate some contradictions that would require further investigation. These include the reaction of Swedish business to the escalation of political tensions between Russia and the West and the factor of corruption, which is not viewed as serious enough to fully discourage foreign investors from staying in Russia.