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This article aims to explore informal entrepreneurial activities in ethno-cultural clusters in the Russian South. It evaluates the agglomeration economy efforts of ethno-cultural communities and the formation of a new operations of the informal sector. The transition of the ethnic project “Obukhovsky Choir” from an informal to a formal enterprise is considered as unfinished. The emphasis is pointed at the barriers affecting the process and extra-economic factors influencing entrepreneurship activities in ethno-cultural clusters in Russia.

For investigation of the informal entrepreneurship in the Southern Russian agglomeration, in-depth interviews method has been used. The paper researched concept of entrepreneurship and cultural entrepreneurship through the interviews, trying to distinguish the core factors influencing activities of Obukhovsky Choir. These questions concern motivation to enter entrepreneurship activity, regional and local policies affecting the overall situation, core values (ideology) of these types of activity, the role of institutional and other contexts, spatial distribution and social capital influence.

The case of the Rostov agglomeration demonstrates the delayed development of ethno-cultural clusters and attempts to closure activities of communities into local political space. Rostov agglomeration has not stepped through the threshold and involved ethno-cultural communities in the formation of the “common good” conception. While Rostov agglomeration is still attractive for labour migration and migrants' entrepreneurial initiatives, local government does not support such intervention into the stable regional market. These steps delay the development of ethno-cultural clusters and contradict communication between ethnic communities, autochthonic population and local administration.

The case chosen for analysis is Cossack music entrepreneurial space as a salient sample of ethno-cultural cluster with powerful economic potential. It could be used for further consideration of ethno-cultural cluster as a source for socio-economic modernization of Russian multicultural agglomeration where established ethnic communities' communicative style strategically provides support or opposition to the local administration initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current skills gap in both generic and skill areas within the construction industry in Queensland, Australia.

An internet-based survey was administered to collect the opinions of construction employees about the workplace-training environment and their perceptions towards training. The survey intended to address the following research questions, specifically in relation to the construction industry.

The survey results reveal that whilst overall participation in workplace training is high, the current workplace training environments do not foster balanced skill development. The study reveals that in the current absence of a formal and well-balanced training mechanism, construction workers generally resort to their own informal self-development initiatives to develop the needed role-specific theoretical knowledge.

The findings of the research are based on the data primarily collected in the construction industry in Queensland, Australia. The data are limited to a single Tier 2 construction company.

The findings of this study can be utilised to suggest improvements in the current (or develop new) workplace training initiatives.

The research suggests that workplace training has positive relationship with career growth. The results suggest that in the construction industry, employees are generally well aware of the importance of workplace training in their career development and they largely appreciate training as being a critical factor for developing their capacity to perform their roles successfully, and to maintain their employability.

This paper is unique as it investigates the current skills gap in both generic and skill areas within the construction industry in Queensland, Australia. So far no work has been undertaken to identify and discusses the main method of workplace learning within the Tier 2 industry in the context of Queensland Australia.

The purpose of the paper is to develop a model of distribution of human and machine labor at intellectual production in Industry 4.0.

The basis of the methodology of the research is regression analysis. The analyzed variables are independent variables that characterize the level of development of human and machine labor in the economy of a country; dependent variables that reflect the effectiveness of the production, marketing and innovative business processes in the economy of country according to “The Global Competitiveness Report” (World Economic Forum); and dependent variables, which show the share of the sphere (agriculture, mining industry, processing industry and service sphere) in the structure of GDP of a country according to the statistics of the World Bank. For determining the change of regression dependencies in dynamics in the interests of reduction of the probability of statistical error, the research is conducted for 2010 and 2018 with application of trend analysis.

Based on the full selection of modern countries that conduct digital modernization, the authors determine statistical dependencies of effectiveness of business processes and development of the spheres of economy on the intensity of application of machine and human labor. This allowed determining significant differences in automatization of business processes: perspectives of application of machine labor are the widest in production and the narrowest in marketing, differentiated logic of organization of intellectual production in different spheres of economy and the specifics of automatization of business processes and spheres of economy in countries of different categories, one of which has to be taken into account during organization of intellectual production in Industry 4.0.

The developed model of optimal distribution of human and machine labor at intellectual production in Industry 4.0 will allow reducing disproportions in effectiveness of different business processes, development of different spheres of economy and growth rate of developed and developing countries. This explains its contribution into provision of well-balanced development of the modern global economic system.

The purpose of the research is to determine the social consequences of economic globalization based on experience of developed and developing countries and to determine the perspectives of optimization of this process through regulation.

The research method is correlation analysis, for it allows determining dependencies between the indicators without requirements to their close mutual dependence. The research objects are top ten developed and top ten developing countries as to the KOF globalization index in 2019.

It is determined that, contrary to high economic risks, social risks of globalization are very low. Instead of this, in the course of globalization the social advantages increase – they are expressed in the form of harmonization of the labor market, development of digital society and increase of population's quality of life – in particular, provision of balance of the global society by leveling the social disproportions between developed and developing countries. It is substantiated that consequences that stimulate the increase of population's quality of life in developing countries are more expressed than in developed countries. This means that developing countries, which are traditionally more inclined to limiting the influence of globalization on them due to economic reasons, have to reconsider their foreign economic policy and include the measures on stimulation of globalization in the interests of social development. Other than that, the differences in consequences for developed and developing countries are minimal. There is no imbalance of consequences that is peculiar for the economic sphere, in which the main advantages are obtained by developed countries, and developing countries bear most of the costs. From the social point of view, globalization could be characterized as a positive phenomenon of modern times.

The offered authors' recommendations will allow optimizing the influence of globalization on the social environment in developed and developing countries and ensuring usage of economic globalization as a mechanism of implementation of the global goals in the sphere of sustainable development.

It is a truism now to say that systematic and orderly progress and growth of any human venture necessitates organisation in the first place. Much more even so in tourism where the state's intervention in the field of tourism, once a policy decision to develop and promote tourism has been reached, would need to encompass multiple tasks, co‐ordinated efforts and policy aspects.

The tourist industry refers to all those public and private organizations concerned with satisfying the requirements of the tourist for superstructure and infrastructure, and for a variety of natural, historic, cultural, human and climatic resources. In Great Britain, the tourist industry has important public, private and voluntary components. At a national level there is a wide spread of ministerial responsibilities relevant to tourism, and these are discharged through a plethora of central departments and specialised official agencies. At regional: local levels, local government is involved in tourism along with a wide front: from marketing and tourism programmes through to the provision of attractions and social overhead capital and to environmental planning. The private sector in tourism consists of a heterogeneous collection of trades and industries, and representing these and other interests is an important layer of voluntary body activity.

This paper aims to solve the problem of reduction of disproportions of the global economy and overcoming the underrun of Asian countries from Europe. The author offers a hypothesis that the reason of such underrun is the existence of “underdevelopment whirlpools” in Asian countries. The purpose of this paper is to verify this hypothesis and to determine problems and perspectives of economic growth in Asian countries.

As tools for verification of this hypothesis, the author uses the methodology of analysis of “underdevelopment whirlpools”, aimed at the determination of problems and perspectives of economic growth in countries of Asia; methodology of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis for determination of key factors of economic growth in countries of Asia; instrumentarium of theory of games for the evaluation of effectiveness of the use of various strategies of economic development of Asian countries.

As a result of the research, the author proves the offered hypothesis and offers – as a solution to the problem of the existence of “underdevelopment whirlpools” in Asian countries – the use of new models of economic development in view of specifics of Asian countries, aimed at transition to new quality of economic growth.

A certain limitation of the conducted research is primarily theoretical substantiation of the necessity for overcoming the “underdevelopment whirlpools” in Asian countries and framework character of the offered recommendations. Therefore, during further research in this sphere, it is expedient to focus the efforts on the development of the system of practical measures for achievement of this purpose.

Practical significance of the author’s conclusions and recommendations consists in the possibility for their use during the development of state economic policy in Asian countries in the interests of overcoming the “underdevelopment whirlpools” and transition to the new quality of economic growth.

At the time of preparation of this paper, the concept “underdevelopment whirlpool” is rather new, and application of methodology of their calculation by the example of Asian countries in the context of analysis of problems and perspectives of economic grows constitutes the basis for originality, scientific value and novelty of the performed research.

There are not many answers to the question of how the development projects launched to improve business performance in SMEs have succeeded. This study focuses on business development success in SMEs. The main objective is to structure and model the success dimensions that contribute to and can be used in evaluating the business development success in SMEs.

The study utilises multiple case study methodology, following the replication approach. The empirical evidence is based on data from four SMEs that have implemented a business development project. Two of the projects were perceived as successful and the other two as unsuccessful.

This study builds a framework for a business development project success in a SME context. In the SME context the business development project success seems to be dependent on several interrelated dimensions. Success in one area leads to success in other areas, and so creates an upward success spiral. Failure in one area seems to lead to failure in other areas, too, thus creating a downward failure spiral.

The results provide a basis for benchmarking one's business and evaluate how well one's own firm meets the success dimensions and its focus areas.

The framework for success dimensions has been developed providing a systematic way to analyse the business development project and its impact on the performing company. A setting for analysing the project success from different time perspectives in a SME context has been produced.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the evolution and current status of the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), the European Foundation for Management Development's (EFMD) accreditation for high‐quality international business schools. The paper aims to analyse and describe the value of EQUIS, as well as other international accreditations, to the world of higher education in business administration.

The paper presents the viewpoint of the EFMD's Director of Quality Services on the value of international accreditation.

The value added by accreditation systems stems from three main, and often inter‐related, areas – assessment of the quality of the school based on several criteria; enhanced brand recognition from being granted a distinctive accreditation label; and contributions to the actual improvement of the school.

International accreditation does add value to business schools in a variety of ways. It is also suggested that some of the value added is specific and unique to having international accreditation and is therefore unobtainable by any other means.

The paper highlights both the similarities and differences between international accreditations available for business schools. This should facilitate the assessment of the benefits and feasibility of international accreditation by decision‐makers at international business schools around the world.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which skills library managers think their staff should possess as their organisational culture alters to meet the demands of a changing internal and external TAFE environment and user needs.

A survey is used to ascertain what library managers believe needs to be included as a recognisable competency for their staff to perform their work. The survey contains 20 broad categories of skills listed under five main areas. A total of 18 TAFF Libraries are used in the survey. Data are entered into Excel. Tabulation consolidates the list of 200 skills and/or comptencies. Comments are also collected at part of the investigation

The perception that having as many competencies as possible is hightly indicative of a well rounded, service focused and broadly informed library staff member. Of the library managers, 64 per cent strongly agreed that finding and using print and online resources was an important skill to possess; 93 per cent agree that library staff should maintain a healthy work‐life balance; and 79 per cent agreed that staff should understand the performance standards relating to their position.

The paper illustrates that the team is greater than the sum of its parts.