Introduction

The introductory chapter acquaints the readers with the issue of international trade and the related external economic relations. It accentuates the importance of international trade for individual countries and the significant role it plays in terms of the global economy. The chapter also outlines the basic changes that international trade has undergone in recent years and that have significantly affected its development. In addition to the above, the text also points to the obstacles international trade has had to face during its existence, whether it is war conflicts, financial crises, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or other sudden events (such as the blocking of the Suez Canal). © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Development of the World Trade in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected every area of human life. It has had an impact, negative but also positive in some cases, also on matters concerning global trade. This chapter provides theoretical findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international trade, with particular attention being paid to the problems this illness caused to exporting, importing, or neighbouring countries. In addition, it also expresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international trade in numerical terms. The text also presents specific examples of surveys conducted in terms of global trade in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, it also mentions the basic goals of the research conducted, the methods applied, and the results achieved. The conclusion of this chapter outlines the post-pandemic development of international trade and its possible future trend. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Conclusion

This chapter provides an overall overview of the issues addressed in the preceding chapters dealing with international trade, with a focus on trade between the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the principle of international trade is mentioned, along with its importance and its position in the economy. Moreover, there are described the findings concerning the impact of the pandemic on international trade, including an outline of its further development. With regard to the current situation, it also provides forecasts of the development of the trade between the CR and Russia. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

THE UK FIREBALL ALLIANCE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM TWO METEORITE FIELD SEARCHES IN THE UK

Introduction: The UK currently has six meteor camera networks that are coordinated through the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) [1]. Together, these networks currently image much of the UK's night sky. Since its formal establishment in 2020, the UKFAll has organised field searches following two detected fireball events that dropped meteorites in the UK: one at 21:54 (UTC) 28th February 2021 in Gloucestershire, England, and another at 23:45 (UTC) 14th April 2022 in Shropshire, England. The former fireball detection led to the recovery of the Winchcombe CM chondrite, the first UK meteorite in 30 years [2-4], whilst our search for the Shropshire meteorite have not yet located any stones. Here, we report some lessons learned as a citizen-science and academic collaboration, and from engaging with both local and national communities in searching for meteorites in Gloucestershire and Shropshire, UK. Camera Networks: UKFAll includes the UK Meteor Network (UKMON), Network for Meteor Triangulation and Orbit Determination (NEMETODE), the UK Fireball Network (UKFN), the Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON), the Global Meteor Network (GMN), and the AllSky7 network. Orbital calculations and dark flight modelling are a collaborative effort by researchers from the Global Fireball Observatory based at Curtin University, Australia, as well as the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and FRIPON, France. Winchcombe: Since the Winchcombe meteorite fell during a national lockdown, we issued a press release asking residents in Gloucestershire to report possible meteorite finds following the fireball, as opposed to sending a search party immediately. This approach was successful, with the Wilcock family waking to find a pile of dark rocks and powder on their driveway, and having seen the news, collecting the material and contacting the UKMON. Following verification of the meteorite fall, and additional refinement of the strewn field, a small (~15 scientists) search party assembled in Gloucestershire on 4th March 2021. This led to the recovery of the largest 152 g stone at Rushbury House farm on 6th March 2021. Field Experience: Members of UKFAll with meteorite searching experience led small teams of 4 - 8 people. The search was conducted in a unique situation due to COVID. Care was taken to remain socially distanced at all times, which made coordination of the search efforts challenging. Positive engagement with the local community was prioritised from the outset, with team leaders contacting landowners for permission to search and emphasising our safety precautions and risk assessments. News of the meteorite fall spread quickly, and residents were very hospitable and enthusiastic about our activities. The UK countryside is full of "meteorwrongs", and the rural terrain was difficult to search due to long grass, bushes etc. A game was devised to help boost morale - and to see if a meteorite would be found in that field - where a convincing meteorwrong was thrown into each new area by one team member to be found by the search team. During the field search, we also received many enquiries. These were managed by dedicated UKFAll team members, who replied to emails and visited potential meteorite finds in the area. The press interest in the story following the announcement that the meteorite had been found was significant, with journalists soon arriving in Winchcombe. This press release came after the main UKFAll search had ended, and there were many requests from the the media for interviews. Following several busy days, a key lesson learned was to the need to have a designated media liaison for any future press releases. Shropshire: This meteorite search was carried out over six days by ~20 scientists in an agricultural area south of Shrewsbury that included grazing land for sheep, wheat and rapeseed fields, and woodland. Searching in mid-April proved more challenging due to the increased vegetation cover. In order to train more people in meteorite hunting strategy, search line leaders were alternated each day. An initial small team arrived for the first two days to engage with the community. This "recon" was used to assess the terrain, identify key areas, and obtain permissions, and to avoid inundating small communities with search teams without advance notice. Early on, we engaged with a business owner, who helped to spread the word using local social media groups. Within 24 hours, most residents in the strewn field were aware of the meteorite fall and our presence, with many families conducting their own searches of public land. On 18th April 2022, a press release with an approximate strewn field was issued to local journalists. As with Winchcombe, there was significant national media interest, despite no stone being found to date. This helped us to gain access to search areas, as several landowers were aware of the meteorite before we contacted them. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Meteoritics & Planetary Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector to the conditions of Industry 4.0 and Society 4.0: evidence from the Czech Republic

Research background. The need for an in-time, efficient and effective adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector to the technical, economic, social and environmental conditions of Industry 4.0 and Society 4.0 is a current problem caused by the introduction of new information and communication technologies, cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence into all economic industries and areas of human life. The advent of new technologies is changing the entire value chains of Industry 4.0 - Labor 4.0 - Education 4.0 - Thinking 4.0, creating conditions for new business models but also pressure on flexibility and personalization of services or triggering new requirements for cyber security and the interdisciplinarity of access of small and medium-sized enterprises - providers and users of services. The current global COVID- 19 health pandemic (2020-2021), with its economic and social impacts on all economic industries, has accelerated the use of disruptive technologies, principles, procedures, methods and tools of Industry 4.0 and Society 4.0 and the need for the support of small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector in adapting to changes in the business environment. Purpose of the article. The main objective of the research is to validate, evaluate and discuss the functionality and content of the created methodology of adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector to the implementation of the principles, procedures, methods and tools of Society 4.0 and its applicability in business practice, specifically focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises in the area of knowledge-intensive services. An integral part of the research is to assess selected negative and positive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business processes in the context of issues being tackled. Methodology. The methodological procedure to validate the functionality and content of the created methodology of the adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector to the conditions of Society 4.0 is based on the strategy of mixed research. An explorative sequence design was used as a key design of mixed dynamically oriented research, during which quantitative data collection, analysis and evaluation formed the basis for qualitative analysis and evaluation, which resulted in the interpretation and discussion of the research results and, at the end of the paper, the formulation of the issues that will be the next area of scientific research activity of the author's team. In the quantitative part of the research, Fisher's exact test was used for the verification of difference statistics in data obtained from testing a sample of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and from external project application sponsors providing services to this category of enterprises. In the qualitative part of the research, the Atlas.ti software was used for the evaluation of information obtained with respect to the methodology of adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises for encoding, processing and interpretation of qualitative data and semantic networks were created for the individual sub-categories of evaluation. Findings & Value Added. The research result proved that the adequacy of the content and functionality of the checked methodology of adaptation of SMEs strongly corresponds to the needs and requirements of micro and small enterprises in particular that conduct business in the area of knowledge-intensive services. Barriers, limits, needs and potential in individual categories of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises were identified which are related to the use of technologies and tools of Society 4.0, to new requirements for knowledge and skills qualifications of labor and to the relation of SMEs to innovations in business processes. The results of validation of the methodology of adaptation of SMEs in the knowledge-intensive service sector confirmed that the created methodology of adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises is applicable to the implementation of the principles, procedures, methods and tools of Society 4.0. in the real conditions of business practice.

BUSINESS RISK IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC RECESSION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The issue of business risk in times of recession or growth is very topical in these times. The Czech Republic and its neighboring countries are currently struggling with the economic problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the paper is to analyze the number of insolvency petitions in the Czech Republic from the years 2010-2020 and to compare them with each other. The data source are data from publicly available resources from the Creditreform group and also from the CRIF database of the Cribis platform. First were created tables for the Agriculture and Forestry, Manufacturing, Construction and Transport sectors. Data for the relevant years were added to them from the aforementioned resources. Then was created a line chart for each industry. Using time series analysis and comparison, we analyze and compare the development of insolvencies. At the same time, we use causal analysis to find out why there were high numbers of insolvencies in the given years. We are also looking at which sectors were hit hardest during the insolvency crisis, when they were hit hardest, how they did in times of economic growth and how they should adapt to the next possible crisis. During the Great Recession, the construction sector was hit the hardest, and then the transport sector also suffered greatly. The largest numbers of insolvencies can be observed in 2012. At a time of economic growth, which began in 2014, the numbers of insolvencies fell in all sectors analyzed, but mostly in agriculture and forestry and transport. Businesses in the sectors analyzed can adapt to the next crisis by creating larger cash reserves or changing, for example, crop production or transport by temporarily reducing fares to attract new customers. We see the benefit of this work in the analysis of the number of insolvencies in the given sectors, which has not been recorded in almost any academic papers. We also see a benefit in determining the conditions for how companies can prevent another crisis.

Corporate perceptions on digitalization of public services: From the perspective of Czech SMEs

A frequent shortcoming of the digitalization of public administration and services is an excessive concentration on individual points of communication between the citizen, company and public authorities, rather than focusing on digitalizing the whole process. Digitalizing a service must mean that the entire process from the beginning to the end is digitalized from the end-user’s point of view and fully accessible through the online interface. To be able to be competitive in current environment it is necessary that SMEs have easy access to the digitalization processes. The aim of this paper is to provide SMEs point of view on the necessity and applicability of online eGovernmental solutions being vital for their activities. The research was based on surveying of 278 Czech SMEs. We consider the results of this study very topical considering the current COVID19 impact on companies and public administration. © 2021, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved.