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The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of bank financing on innovative development of Russian circumpolar area and identifying the barriers to its development.

Using the abstract-logical method and a set of methods of economic, statistical and econometric analysis (panel data analysis) the authors examine the role of financial intermediaries in innovative development of Russia and Russian arctic regions.

The key financial intermediaries in the Russian economy have historically been the banks, which are, at the same time, as it follows from the analysis above, inertly participating in the innovative development financing in the Russian circumpolar regions. Assessment of the potential intensification of the role of banks in the innovative ecosystems has shown that, despite the development of institutional conditions of banks’ resource base compounding and the development of funding, high risks of innovation, multiplying in a volatile external environment, prevent the inflow of bank capital into the innovation sector.

Main limitation is the inability of panel data to capture long-term impacts of bank financing on innovative development of Russian circumpolar area.

The results suggest that the intensification of the banks’ participation in financing innovation and overcoming the existing challenges will enable to stimulate the process of innovation development of the circumpolar zone in Russia.

There is no study evaluating the impact of bank financing on innovative development of Russian arctic regions.

This paper aims to deepen our understanding on circumpolar current dynamics relating to oil and gas exploitation and the role of nations in the polar development process. Additionally, it is fundamental to raise the debate about the energy development in the Arctic and the fact that the exploration of oil and gas resources in the Arctic cannot be performed with the current governance regime, policies and legal framework. Arctic-specific natural ecosystems, the presence of indigenous communities and the commercial interest in the region will require an innovative model of development based on the highest level of responsible exploitation, diplomacy, regulation and policy-making.

This is an unexplored subject but the paper uses a review of past and recent literature, outcomes of recent “petit comités” with some of the involved parties, as a vehicle to discuss possible new approaches and paths for the future development of an innovative model of environmental governance relating to energy development in the Arctic region.

This paper demonstrates the necessity of improving the current governance patterns, as the author believes that energy development will have both positive and negative impacts on micro and macro levels. The first relevant contribution of these operations in the Arctic, undoubtedly, is the benefit for energy security levels at a global platform; however, the framework built up in terms of new legal cooperation agreements, policy-making and technological innovation in different areas will define the new Arctic citizenship as well as the Arctic’s geopolitics, and, consequently, the region’s destiny.

This is an unexplored subject, as it is an unexplored region. New literature about the region dynamics is being developed, as new licensing process is ongoing, and there are more questions than answers about open space for reflection and decision-making. Important data have not been published or shared in “petit comités” due to strategic interests and confidentiality reasons.

The major drivers of change could be described as energy security, climate change and transportation that will have a huge direct impact in the region under social, economic and environmental perspectives. The core practical implication of this reflection is the energy development model for the Arctic region.

How the Arctic’s energy resources will contribute to the global energy mix in the decades to come and the impacts of the governance regime to Arctic and non-Arctic societies is the first relevant question. Another fundamental aspect with huge social implications is how the climate changes will impact the Arctic environment and societies. These are themes that deserve more study and deeper analysis.

The paper provides a deep reflection of the challenges and future trends involving the new frontiers of the world energy exploration. Multidisciplinary dialogue and research on all aspects of offshore oil and gas development will require a shift in the current conceptual view of the Arctic as well as in the multilateral efforts to negotiate and design an efficient Arctic governance regime that goes beyond the setting of new standards of spill prevention, preparedness and safety, but a regime that congregates the Arctic and Non-Arctic nations’ experience, workforce and leadership.

Environmental and social problems are tightly linked in coupled social–ecological systems in the Arctic. This chapter will discuss the importance of equity as a factor in the adaptive capacity of a region undergoing relatively rapid climate change and simultaneous land-use change (petroleum development) in the northwest Russian Arctic. Relative to North America, attempts to implement some kind of economic or legal equity with regard to massive industrial development are token at best. Unfortunately, in the current situation, legal rights to land and resources are neither likely to materialize nor, even if they did, to facilitate adaptive capacity on the part of Nenets herders. As such, herders lack power over important decisions pertaining to the manner in which development proceeds on their traditional territories.

Russia's northern lands have been developed along starkly different lines than those of Europe and North America. Yet the limited literature of resilience in northern social–ecological systems is derived almost exclusively from North American experiences with co-management. Recent work on the Yamal Peninsula indicates that even with a sustained commitment to active engagement, only incremental change is expected. Western-style legislative campaigns and overnight blanket solutions are far less likely to bear fruit and may, in fact, be counterproductive. The prescriptive approaches from four different analyses of the Yamal situation are compared, with special attention devoted to their respective assessments of resilience. Fortunately, the retention of youth within the nomadic population of tundra Nenets appears to be high, providing a positive indicator of overall resilience in this particular social–ecological system.

This work aims to investigate the current financial structure of Italian agri-food micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to understand how MSMEs face innovation challenges, which are also required to support sustainable development.

To reach the goal, an empirical longitudinal analysis is performed on a sample of Italian agri-food firms. In detail, to highlight the changes in the use of financial sources between 2013 and 2019, a descriptive ratio analysis is carried out on the data extracted by the AIDA database. In addition, statistical analyses were performed, including t-tests and U Mann–Whitney. Finally, a fixed-effects model is created to analyse the panel data. To ensure homogeneity, the sub-sectors of production and transformation are separately considered.

The financial structure analysis shows an increase in the equity percentage in the funding sources, attributable to an attempt to compensate for the reduction of banks' funding. However, even though this change has not compromised firms' profitability, the undercapitalisation of companies is still present. Therefore, more equity investments are required to support the innovation process.

The value of the present research is to highlight the choice of using new alternative financing sources instead of traditional banks' credit to implement sustainable and innovative development Italian agri-food sector (AFS). This choice is forced by reducing finance from banks and other financial institutions because of the credit crunch. This issue is even more relevant, considering that MSMEs have structural financial problems but have to fulfil the mission of pursuing innovation in the same way as large companies. Therefore, this paper expands the literature on agri-food, delving into an issue typical of MSMEs and combining agri-food with the need for innovation.

Despite widespread interest in the resources and people of Alaska, few libraries outside of the state maintain extensive collections on these subjects. In this article, David A. Hales reviews a multifarious sample of informative materials.

This paper aims to explore the socio-political implications of climate change as the melting ice ignites new debates over territorial sovereignty of Arctic coastal states. Previously ice-jammed waterways are now open, and a number of recent geological surveys have identified new potential sites with vast energy resources. Competition over resources causes states to question each other’s jurisdiction over specific parts of the Arctic. What used to be internal waters of one particular state can now be referred to as international waters by other actors interested in the benefits of resource extraction. Arctic indigenous groups, especially the Inuit, and Sami are directly affected by the current governance patterns that are fragmented across too many different bodies dealing with maritime navigation, tourism, fisheries and administration.

The paper uses a comparative study based on literature review combined with regional reports related to climatic and social impacts analysed jointly with live elements provided by international conferences discussions, workshops and direct conversations in “petit comités” style held in Norway, Greenland and Canada in the period of October 2014 until the first quarter of July 2015, with the representatives of Sami and Inuit communities.

The paper demonstrates that Arctic governance is currently fragmented and the largest inter-governmental organisation in the region, the Arctic Council, has only advisory powers, and although its norm-making method helps with the design, it is not effective to implement Arctic-wide policies for responsible management of energy resources.

The research considered methodological aspects like the difficulty in measuring the elements researched mainly when dealing with the diverse nature of responses from the indigenous populations to environmental impacts and the varied nature of effects in different studied areas.

As the Arctic is set to become the main global resource base and a major trade corridor, it is crucial to identify the dangers that poor institutional design can cause in relation to the control of extractive industries, sustainable development and the well-being of the region’s indigenous population.

In addition to governance reform, social arrangements should follow to ensure the indigenous populations can also participate in the process to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change on their traditional livelihood strategies.

The paper provides an overview on governance reform and social arrangements to ensure that indigenous populations can also participate in the process to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change on their traditional livelihood strategies. As the Arctic is set to become the main global resource base and a major trade corridor, the paper identified the risks of poor institutional design in relation to the control of extractive industries, sustainable development and the well-being of the region’s indigenous population.

This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The first strand is mixed methods research on the policy and practice of L1-based multilingual education programs, and their contribution to raising educational quality and addressing equity and inclusiveness worldwide. The second strand is qualitative, community-based research of educational programs aimed toward revitalization of minoritized, indigenous, and/or endangered languages. The third strand is empirical and theoretical research that seeks to document, contest, and reconceptualize the dynamics among dominant and non-dominant languages within and between international contexts. The authors explore points of synergy between studies, examine publication in the field from a meta-perspective, and suggest encouraging directions of future research, while highlighting the value of non-dominant languages as resources for education and life.