Alina Pinchuk’s research while affiliated with Chernihiv National University of Technology and other places

The article proves that the implementation of the principles and use of the tools of corporate social responsibility can increase the reputation of the corporation and its activity in the world market. The purpose of the article is to substantiate and determine the role of corporate social responsibility of the mining and metals companies in ensuring and improving their reputation in the world market. The article substantiates that the low level of corporate governance practice and insufficient part of social contribution to the companies negatively affect formation of corporate social responsibility of the corporations. The article analyzes the indicators of Corporate sustainability and Transparency for 2018-2019 according to the professional rating of the largest Ukrainian mining and metals companies, based on leading international practices. The analysis of indicators made it possible to identify the proportional dependence of the reputation of the corporation on the measures of corporate social responsibility that the latter implements. It is determined on the basis of the study that corporate social responsibility is an effective tool to increase the competitiveness of mining and metals companies.

SMEs are the main drivers of economic development. As the debt crisis and coronavirus crisis show, despite their importance, they are extremely sensitive to economic downturns. Therefore, SMEs need to be supported through various tools. The paper is aimed at evaluating the SMEs’ bank and governmental support in the northern and southern EU countries in two crisis periods and assessing the financial state of SMEs on the eve of coronacrisis using micro-level data. It was proved that bank loans and credit lines remain the main sources of SMEs’ financing. After the debt crisis, banks are becoming more loyal to SMEs.It was proved that SMEs from the northern EU countries suffered less from the previous crisis and therefore started their recovery earlier than the southern ones in terms of profitability, liquidity and debt burden. In addition, it was shown that both groups on the eve of the new turbulence period were in better financial state compared to the previous debt crisis. The southern EU countries suffered more from both crises. At the same time, due to effective governmental support and bank loyalty, their SMEs entered the coronacrisis at the same level of financial stability as the northern ones. Since the new support measures are concentrated primarily in the banking sector through loan guarantee schemes and reduced interest rates, it is essential to provide debt financing to high-quality borrowers and avoid the debt crisis in southern counties.

The article is devoted to the issue of waste management in the mining regions, as the problems of industrial waste or waste products will always be relevant in nowadays. The most experts focus on urbanization processes, on increasing the resources’ requirements, which in turn will increase the needs of the population and environmental pollution. The processing of waste in the mining regions can be achieved through the use of elements of the circular economy, which will lead to the economic use of natural resources and the interaction of economic, environmental and social development. The building of Eco-Industrial Park using a sector-clustered approach to waste management is suggested in the conclusions. The Eco-Industrial Park will allow related industries to work in symbiosis, where secondary raw materials can be involved in recycling, remanufacturing, recovery, regeneration.