Regional Formation and Development Studies

This journal number should be interesting for different field of scientists and business people. We should mention that in most of scientific papers there are interdisciplinary approaches. It is mean that authors of papers view to scientific problems more open and widely. They are trying to describe scientific and practical problems not only from their scientific field, but also to use knowledge from different field of science. In journal we can read some papers where similar scientific problem is analyzed from different point of view. For example, regional cooperation questions are analyzed in D. Burgis and A. Dastanka, V. I. Chuprys papers, but in different aspects: D. Burgis through advanced planning systems and Dastankos, V. I. Chuprys through sociological and legal aspects. The management problems are described in Klaipeda: organizational culture research was done in J. Paužuolienė, V. Docienė, A. Vaitiekus paper, creativity aspects in E. Župerkienė, R. Šimanskytė paper, findings of leadership style in L. Šimanskienė, A. Petrulis paper. We can read about women employment in Uzbekistan written by S. Nurdinova and genetically modified product use and trade regulation of the European Union written by A. Gargasas, I. Rimkienė. D. Kiyak, L. Pranckevičiūtė analyses the prices of insurance products and A. Giedraitis analyses ergonomic risk factors in organization. Important regional development questions analyses R. Viederytė in paper about Lithuanian maritime sector’s clustering, A. B. Knašas analyses scientific-technical progress in the regions in terms of published patent applications, M. Kučinskienė, A. Mačerinskienė did the research about cycling for regional development. So readers have possibility to know a lot of interesting results from different research.

The aim of the article is to analyze the prevalence of retail stores in Latvian regions and consumer behavior in Latvia. The authors have analyzed the prevalence of largest retail stores in regions and consumer behavior in retail using available statistical data and research done by the authors. As a result of the study, the role of shop assistants was determined during the purchasing process, and the results of the study have been compiled from the viewpoint of generations. These results can help retail companies to work more effectively by choosing the most appropriate retail store types

In the last ten years the evident changes of settlement patterns through suburban growth near to capital city of Latvia occurred. Increase of distance between home and routine activity places as well as changes of public transport and rapid increase of car ownership initiated significant changes in commuting patterns of inhabitants living outside of Riga. Although the commuting from suburban area to Riga is recently broadly studied, however these researches focused primarily on able-bodied population leaving behind school-age children and young people. The aim of this study is to analyse commuting patterns of young people aged 12 to 17 moving from outskirts of Riga to school located in Riga. This study reveal commuting patterns in Riga agglomeration through wide analysis of spatial patterns of youth commuting, examination of motives and factors affecting transportation mode choice for school trips and commuting times. Findings of the research show existing correlation between location of young people’s place of residence in terms of distance from core city and proportion of them commuting to Riga. Likewise several socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of young people have influence on school trip transportation mode choice.

Social enterprises are crucial for Europe and its economy. These enterprises significantly contribute to job creation (especially for socially sensitive groups) and accounts for about 6 % of GDP across the European Union. In Latvia the role of social entrepreneurship is underestimated. The research aim is: based on the international experiences regarding social entrepreneurship, to determine economic gains of social businesses in Latvia. During the first year of developing social enterprises (2015) in Latvia, it is envisaged to establish 250 social enterprises, in which in total 1250 people will be employed, of which 50 % will be individuals from socially sensitive groups. Thus, the social benefit burden in municipalities will decrease by EUR 61 thousand, while almost EUR 222 thousand will be collected by the national government. The total gain from social entrepreneurship will amount to EUR 1.5 million over a six year period (2015–2020).

Climate change adaptation being one of today’s main challenges on global agenda do affect people worldwide, but even though most decisions regarding climate change governance are made at the international or national level, the implementation of these decisions in most cases takes place at the local level. Municipal climate change adaptation research project in Latvia was carried out with special emphases on main stakeholder understanding, preparedness and communication factors using several complementary research methods – case study research in Salacgriva coastal municipality, sociological surveys with both Salacgriva town households / inhabitants (home visits / questionnaires) and also nation-wide municipal planners/ specialists survey (web based) in Latvia, as well as complementary interviews with various national agencies governance level experts. The comprehention and level of understanding of all sectors and necessary elements of complex municipal climate change governance development in Latvia is not sufficiently high neither for municipal planners/specialists nor for municipal (flood endangered) households, according to the needs of both those groups. There is in Latvia diverse and wide list of separately developed and already available instrument groups for municipal climate change governance (MCCG), especially, complementary communication instruments, as well as suffient enough number of insturments are in possession of the any particular municipality, but usage of them is quite limited by their type and range, and not complementary. Necessary is to change municipal project type thinking-working towards comprehensive planning / programming municipal development / support and pro-active communication and collaboration.

Expression of business environment in trading company is being analysed in this article. Theoretically it was determined, that by supervising own business environment the companies must accordingly react to its changes and envisage what influence one or another factor of business environment have on them as insufficient attention to this area may determine inability to adapt to changing business environment. Therefore it may be baneful for trading companies and this topic must be analysed as much as possible. After quantitative research was made and 65 users of trading company were interviewed (customers of services or production), it was determined that alternation of supplies, employees and financial institutions as well as changes in legal, political and technological environment have the greatest influence on the environment of trading company. Obtained results of the research showed practical significance when solving management tasks of changes in business environment under development conditions. In accordance with this information, more rapid and better reaction of trading company into satisfaction of needs of the users is possible. The most important aspects, which must be considered, and which are necessary for managers of trading companies in order to make effective decisions are having of such information, accuracy of information, effectiveness of existing measures to receive and transfer information.

Tourism is becoming a very important and fast growing industry, where rural tourism is a very important part. Tourist loyalty is a very important factor determining tourist’s wish to revisit the destination; and main loyalty’s antecedent is tourist satisfaction. Accordingly, the research was provided endeavouring to determine how to turn satisfied Lithuanian rural tourists into loyal ones. The aim of the research was to reveal core factors affecting Lithuanian rural tourist loyalty. The obtained results reveal that variables that have to be considered to turn already satisfied tourists into loyal are: ‘natural features’, ‘destination marketing’ and ‘environmental preservation’. Considering that the variable ‘natural features’ remains at the constant level due to the requirement of large investments, ‘environmental preservation’ and ‘destination marketing’ are variables necessitating specific level of compatibility.

Since early nineties, Latvia has remained a net importer of agri-food products. At the same time, both exports and imports of agricultural commodities and processed food products has consistently grown, with total trade turnover increasing. The objective of the study is to determine the trends in development of barter terms of trade in Latvian agricultural commodities and food products. To reach the research objective, barter terms of trade indices were compiled with various levels of data aggregation over the period from 2002 to 2012. The research results in general show consistently higher terms of trade in agricultural commodities in comparison with terms of trade in processed food products. The differences exist between the terms of trade for the same products or product groups depending upon the level of aggregation. Trends in development of barter terms of trade indices for agricultural commodities and processed food products are different. In general, barter terms of trade for whole agri-food sector is not deteriorating.

The 2008 global economic and financial crisis hit hard in Iceland and Latvia. Economic developments prior to the crisis, as well as response to the crisis were, however, different in these two countries, yielding different results. Both countries received assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the crisis and the IMF has labeled their reform programs as success stories. This article reviews and evaluates the post crisis situation in Iceland and Latvia, both in terms economic performance, as well as social progress. It also discusses how other countries, as well a multilateral institutions, may have influenced the reform programs in Iceland and Latvia.

Society and communities with a possibility to exploit information resources, participate in cultural activities, acquire knowledge, it encourages life-long learning, etc. The activity of the library network encompasses all the regions of the country, including the most remote locations and persons that face difficulties in obtaining information and enjoying cultural services by other means; therefore, discourse on the roles and functions of the library network as well as its activities in the regional infrastructure of culture and information is needed.