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The relevance of the research topic is due to the high importance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for increasing the presence of China in the markets of the countries of the New Silk Road. The topic becomes more relevant due to the ambiguous results of the BRI, although it was launched in 2013. On the one hand, the effect for China is growing. On the other hand, the effect for the participating countries has not yet reached the level initially declared.

The chapter aims to identify the main challenges and advantages of the BRI based on the involvement of countries and their markets in the trade and economic system formed by China.

The research novelty lies in studying the economic goals and objectives of the People's Republic of China (PRC) under the BRI and the possibilities of using the trade and economic system created by the PRC for developing the PRC and the BRI member countries.

The authors found that the initiative is designed to better integrate the economy of China at the regional and global level, promote the socio-economic progress of the less developed western territories of the country and stabilize foreign trade and domestic socio-economic processes in conditions of global instability. The authors justify that this initiative, uniting more than 80 countries in Asia, Africa and Oceania, will strengthen China's role in the world economy and trade, form a specific international trade and economic platform under the leadership of China and provide the country a leading position in at least three parts of the world.

The authors use traditional economic research methods, such as scientific abstraction, deduction, analysis and synthesis. Additionally, the authors use the method of visualization based on the application of the statistical method.

This paper aims to make a theoretical critique of the revolutionary sociocultural transformations created by e‐learning in the manner knowledge is created, codified, retrieved, managed and transmitted across the boundaries of different cultures.

The structure of these transformations remains European and North American in orientation and very cautious in sharing the benefits of e‐learning with the developing societies. The paper contends that this might lead to a parallel academic bureaucracy of e‐learning institutions, alongside the traditional Western universities, making it economically hard for people of developing countries to participate in this great and new found experience of learning. The paper proposes a, “democratization of knowledge,” for this new venture of e‐learning. This rests on the premise, that e‐learning, in order to be truly effective, must be multilingual in content and context, culturally divergent, morally relativistic and technologically sharing and integrate non‐Western views on knowledge, morality, economics and politics, especially in curriculum designs.

The paper demonstrates that the social democratization of knowledge can lead to the establishment of viable global civil society, helping millions in Asia, Africa and South America to contribute and share the fruits of knowledge explosion in a just, equitable and honorable fashion.

The paper shows how e‐learning can help the growth and improvement of less developed communities.

The aim is to describe the cultural richness of Peruvian racial diversity. The articulating and unifying role of Peruvian gastronomy is highlighted in building a national identity, which acts as a platform for social cohesion.

Qualitative analysis is used in order to understand the drivers that enabled a cultural revolution through gastronomy.

Under a vast cultural diversity, gastronomy arises to articulate and unify it into a common sense of national identity and social inclusion. Although Peruvian gastronomic boom started as an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs, it actually has had an impact at society level.

Ethnographic studies among different social classes and racial groups are needed in order to elucidate the perceptions that they have regarding their social inclusion. At a quantitative level, econometric studies could be conducted to reflect the impact of gastronomy on poverty reduction or on inequality reduction, especially in urban-marginal or rural areas.

Gastronomy is also a business strategy model on the basis of the creation of a cluster as a viable alternative for developing countries.

Peruvians no matter their racial heritage or social class are proud of their cousin and of being Peruvians, creating a sense of national union and social inclusion.

The contribution is to highlight the importance of gastronomy as one of the main articulators in the construction of national identity under a racially diverse population. Society, public policy officers, and businesses may benefit from this.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether the volatility of regional stock markets’ is common or country-specific for 46 international markets of the Asian, European, African and Latin American regions using the Morgan Stanley Capital International daily prices in the period from January 1998 to December 2009. Further, the study has been divided into two sub-periods to distinguish the effects of the current sub-prime financial crisis and to determine whether the crisis has an impact on the fluctuations of common component of stock market volatility.

The paper applies the time-varying weighting methodology of Lumsdaine and Prasad (2003) to determine whether the volatility fluctuation is country-specific or common across the countries.

The results evidence that the volatility of stock returns is due to common factors, rather than country-specific ones, but this is not always the case. However, this common component is more stable in European and Latin American countries than in the Asia-Pacific and African regions. Furthermore, the results suggest that the influence of a common component has been enhanced significantly during the current sub-prime financial crisis.

The study has implication for domestic and international investors, portfolio managers, as well as policy-makers to implement economic and financial policy that promote stability, reduce vulnerability to crises and encourage sustained growth and living standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to include four regional samples and test the common component of fluctuations of regional stock markets volatility.