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This paper aims to investigate the impact of pubs and breweries’ attributes on beer prices by exploring and examining the variation of beer prices across pubs in York, UK.

Data gathered from five surveys of pubs conducted between 2012 and 2020 are used to test six research hypotheses analysing how factors such as location, type of ownership and management of pubs, beers’ characteristics and breweries’ attributes affect beer prices in the on-licence market.

Beer packaging, type of brewery, pubs’ ownership and management all have a significant impact on beer prices, with beer on average cheaper in premises owned by pub companies and breweries compared to independently owned pubs.

Findings can have implications in the first instance, on current fiscal policies affecting beer prices and, on a broader scale, regulating alcohol consumption.

Understanding beer price mechanisms in the pub sector offers valuable insights to practitioners and policymakers about designing and delivering policies and actions aimed at halting the decline of pubs in the UK.

Findings provide original information relevant for developing initiatives aimed at preventing excessive alcohol consumption in private premises, an issue commonly associated with problems such as alcohol-related diseases, loneliness and antisocial behaviour.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first, providing an empirical analysis of beer price mechanisms within the pub sector at such a granular level; findings have important implications for pubs and on-licence businesses and for local communities and economies.

This paper aims to explore and examine how public houses or pubs function as facilitators and developers of community cohesion and social interactions in rural areas of England.

The authors use data and information about facilities and services available for 284 rural parishes in two different points in time (2000 and 2010) to elaborate an index measurement of community cohesion. The index, created upon a range of discrete variables capturing multiple aspects of community living, is then investigated by using structural equation models to assess the impact of pubs in shaping the levels of community cohesion in the English countryside.

Findings gathered from the analysis identify a strong positive relationship between the presence of pubs and higher levels of community cohesion index occurring within the examined parishes, indicating that this relationship is maintained in time regardless of size of the parish, although different impacts are found in the two time points considered.

As the study is based on a longitudinal examination, it can stimulate research on themes and issues regarding the impact of third places on community cohesion and social capital in rural and remote communities, increasing the amount of information and data available. For instance, due to the nature of information considered, the study could not explore the effects on rural communities’ wellbeing associated with different types of pubs’ ownership and management.

These results provide a valuable and original contribution to the literature related to the measurement of community cohesion and wellbeing with regard to third places such as small businesses and local retailers, whose significant functions of fostering social aggregation and communal initiatives at a local level are frequently neglected.

Findings from this study provide a valuable opportunity for policymakers and local administrators to evaluate policies and actions in support of their communities. In particular, findings provide an original piece of information about the social value of community pubs particularly in small and peripheral areas of England.

The paper provides new and original information about the importance of pubs and third places in general in fostering and developing community cohesion and wellbeing at a local level. Given the significant paucity of empirical studies in the field, the paper represents a valuable contribution to knowledge with particular regard to the methodology applied as well as the potential implications of its findings.

The paper examines the sudden changes and challenges experienced by British craft breweries because of COVID-19. The purpose is twofold; firstly, to evaluate the overall growth trajectory of the craft brewing sector prior to the pandemic crisis and, secondly, to identify features of resilience and adaptability that aided business survival.

The authors conducted 24 interviews with a sample of craft brewers during 2020, supplemented with a focus group later in 2021, to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on their businesses. Inductive thematic analysis followed a flexible six-stage approach to generating codes. Qualitative findings were set in the context of the pre-COVID-19 industry trends which were analysed using panel data from the Society of Independent Brewers' (SIBA) Annual Surveys between 2015 and 2018.

Findings from the analysis reveal a range of factors influencing growth in the UK craft beer sector before the pandemic crisis, such as levels of investment and local network ties, and identify a range of strategies implemented by brewers in response to the crisis, including new packaging and supply channels, more intensive marketing and greater online engagement with customers. Analysis of the intersection between aspects of individual and organisational resilience also revealed that dynamic responses to an external crisis depend on individual resilience characteristics before organisational strategies can be developed.

The study provides fresh empirical evidence to practitioners and policymakers to help forecast and future-proof the UK craft beer sector, as well as elucidating aspects of resilience that apply to SMEs in the global industry who face similar challenges. Moving towards a post-COVID-19 economy, the paper offers important theoretical insights into how the resilience of breweries, and other SMEs, is shaped by complex interdependencies and networks and how their adaptive responses might strengthen future business models.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement activity within the Cumbria County Council and its effects on the local supply chain. The paper seeks to identify the role of public procurement within the county, in relation to the propensity for income retention (or leakage) at local level. In addition, the paper seeks to consider issues related to public procurement in peripheral and rural areas, with particular reference to small and medium businesses operating in Cumbria, and to provide a spatial analysis of money flows at regional and national level.

Quantitative data, from primary and secondary sources, were obtained from a survey questionnaire conducted among the Council's suppliers and from SpikesCavell, an agency specializing in collecting procurement data, respectively. The study focuses on public sector suppliers. It analyses suppliers' attributes and characteristics such as size, location and sector of activity are used in order to explore suppliers' patterns of spend in relation to inward and outward cash‐flows within the County. Additionally, the paper explores the effects of the local authority's procurement in terms of advantages/disadvantages for the local supply chain.

The paper highlights the ability of competitive tendering systems to achieve cash saving and reduce wastage; but questions whether the adoption of such systems in the public sector produces positive economic effects on the local supply chain in peripheral and remote areas.

There is a lack of research on the impact of public procurement at regional and sub‐regional level and its significance as a source of income and businesses operating within local supply chains. This paper seeks to contribute to filling this research gap by presenting and analysing data associated with procurement activity within a peripheral local authority.

With the triggering of Article 50, the uncertainty around Brexit and the outcomes of the UK/EU negotiations process associated with the UK leaving the EU have catalysed British political debate. This situation has had and still has significant economic implications for thousands of businesses operating in the UK and in the region.

It is likely that impact of Brexit will be much larger for the North East of England compared to the other English regions, despite the Leave vote winning an overwhelming majority in the region. Many areas in the North East have heavily relied on public sector jobs and investments in the past and benefited from substantial European funding provided over the last few decades to support infrastructure, regeneration and training activities. Over 70,000 jobs were created in the region because of EU investments between 2007 and 2013, and thousands more jobs still depend on the investments being made under the 2014–2020 programming period.

This chapter analyses the economic implications that Brexit will generate for the North East of England. Focussing on data gathered from the post-crisis time, the author examines the most recent policies and findings in the literature, critically evaluating and presenting what a post-Brexit North East will be like from an economic and social perspective.

This paper offers an approach for outlining the main dimensions surrounding clusters in three areas of knowledge: economic geography, strategic management and operations management, the first being considered its natural field of knowledge.

The work was developed using the citation analysis technique as applied to a database of 627 articles and 22,980 citations, taken from 15 important journals in the areas selected.

The results proved that the theoretical and conceptual bases are unique to each of the areas studied and that they have few topics in common between them. They are complementary, however, and this facilitates their reconciliation.

The sample base, despite considering fairly influential periodicals in the areas of knowledge selected, can be considered to be a limitation.

Common themes and different areas of knowledge surrounding the cluster concept were identified; despite being considered “common”, a more detailed examination of their content reveals very different, but certainly complementary emphases, which makes it possible to reconcile the areas of knowledge.