Regional Formation and Development Studies

The purpose of this study is to find out how the settlement systems in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia changed during the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century, and what the trends for further urban change are. In the Soviet period, single farms that existed in all three east Baltic countries were destroyed. The inhabitants of single farms were moved to central settlements. Cities grew in all the republics, especially in the largest centres. A network of satellite settlements grew up around the capitals, which was particularly dense around Tallinn and Riga. The capitals and their surrounding settlements are currently growing at a very high speed in all the east Baltic countries. This concentrates administrative functions and a highly skilled workforce, and attracts the most investment. As a result, peripheral areas, especially villages, are disappearing, and their inhabitants are emigrating. Such areas are becoming unattractive to business.In order to show the situation, the authors used a comparative analysis method, as well as cartographic, graphic and other methods. The anticipation of settlement principles and trends is one of the most important tasks of regional policy in each country. Therefore, an interpolation method was used to make estimates of the urban population in the three largest cities in the east Baltic countries from 2020 to 2023. The trend analysis indicates that the populations of most of the largest cities in the east Baltic countries will decrease.

Professional activation is an important part of the economy, in particular local and regional authorities. Properly initiated entrepreneurship significantly affects, among other things, the direct development of the region, including local businesses and the investment opportunities of local government units. Improving competitiveness and the socio-economic image of the region can be seen by taking direct economic initiatives (also in cooperation with economic entities and/or scientific research units) and by implementation of innovation, the use of various forms of external financing, but primarily through new jobs and business activity. The aim of the study is an attempt to present the issue of professional activation of disabled people in the former Central Pomeranian province, in the county Słupsk. The study public opinion poll (own questionnaire study) was conducted at the turn of 2013–2014y. Survey was also conducted in Polish and English literature. In the years 2007–2015 local government organizations implemented 7 projects in the region of Słupsk and also activities are constantly supported by District Labour Office (PUP) activation, which provides services to 97 % of respondents.

In this article there are being analyzed the natural and social economic structures of Lithuanian coastal strip. The research is based on survey about the hindrances and proposed suggestions for sustainable development. There are presented authors’ results about geographic profile of Lithuania’s coastal region, degree of exploitation and processes of spatial planning, suggestions for improvement of sustainable development of coastal strip. There are distinguished the types of bad examples as institutional, projects related, shortage of financial issues, private housing and the types of good examples as legislative, institutional, projects related, NGOs related for exploitation and sustainable development of coastal strip.

Straipsnyje susieti autorių pateikti organizacijų, turinčių tinklines struktūras, suvokimo lygiai ir pagrindiniai tinklinių struktūrų tipai. Pastebėta, kad ne kiekvieną tinklinę organizaciją galima pavadinti organizacijų tinklu. Tai lemia du skirtingus požiūrius į tinklines struktūras. Organizacijų tinklas vienareikšmiškai susieja kelias juridiškai nepriklausomas organizacijas, kurios siekia sudaryti naudingą sąjungą, užtikrinančią sėkmingą organizacijos veiklą greitai kintančiomis sąlygomis. Šių tinklų, kaip verslo organizavimo formų, koordinavimo sistema gali iš esmės skirtis. Straipsnyje parodoma koordinavimo sistemos organizacijų tinkle svarba, užtikrinant organizacijos veiklos efektyvumą, išnagrinėtas koordinavimo sistemos CPFR modelis ir priemonės, būtinos užtikrinti šio modelio funkcionavimą.

Technological innovations are a crucial component of a green economy transition and there is an urgent need to develop and implement the green technologies into the existing facilities, especially in the developing countries. The purpose of the article is to analyze theoretical approach on the green technologies development. In the article there are analyzed the essence of the concept of green economy and are identified key benefits of green technologies development.

The development process of any area is anfractuous. It is a multi-stage process. It starts with the area’s attractiveness, attractingresources, which are necessary for its development and ensures their preservation and retention for the area. When using theseresources optimally, efficiently and productively, area’s competitive advantages are achieved and, the area becomes competitive.Competitiveness is driving force and potential of growth of the territory. Growth facilitates quantitative changes of the resources,i.e. accumulation and development of resources, leading to state of development of the territory. The purpose of the process of territorialdevelopment is qualitative distribution and management of these resources aiming at achieving the concrete result – state ofdevelopment of the territory. In this article, the author structures stages of the territory development process in a definite sequencetaking into account earlier developed theoretical findings in this sphere, as well as she completes the layout of these stages with herown scientific view concerning the final aim of the territorial development to be achieved in the process of the development of theterritory. This aim is the territory’s state of development, which can be measured and compared, when considering success of theprocess of territorial development.

Russia continues to play an important role energy exporter to the EU. Research objective: to generalize and structure economic interestsof the European Union and Russia in power sphere, and to define priority directions of the international economic cooperationat corporate level. Research methods: economic-statistical; rather-analytical, the investment analysis. International cooperation inthe field of EU energy supply should not be limited mineral exports. It is advisable to involve Russian companies to finance andmanagement segment “downstream” in European countries, by contrast, Western European companies – to finance and managementsegment “upstream” in Russia. One tool exploration activities can be geological investment certificate.

Vykstantys ekonominiai pokyčiai, neišvengiamai veikia ir vadovavimą organizacijai. Straipsnyje aptariama vadovavimo organizacijai samprata. Remiantis Lietuvos ir užsienio mokslinės literatūros autoriais, apžvelgiamos vadovavimo sampratos, sudaryta vadovavimo schema, apibūdinami vadovavimo požymiai, juos suskirstant pagal klasikines vadovavimo teorijas, pateikiamos vadovavimo požymių išnaudojimo galimybės ir grėsmės. Galimi vadovavimo apibūdinimai: vadovavimas – tai įtakos priemonė arba valdžios galia kitiems; vadovavimas – tai tam tikra patirtis; neginčijamas ir nevertinamas vadovo tinkamumas užimamoms pareigoms. Nustatyta, kad vadovavimo požymių yra labai daug ir įvairių, juos reikia tirti, norint nustatyti jų svarbą ir reikšmę tiriamose organizacijose. Vadovavimas atpažįstamas pagal požymius: kūrybiškumas ir gebėjimas numatyti ateitį; gebėjimas įkvėpti (darbuotojus) ir elgsena (vadovo ir darbuotojų); gebėjimas nukreipti (darbuotojus) ir sutelkti pastangas (veiklos vystymui); gebėjimas suteikti įgaliojimus (darbuotojams) ir sutelkti sekėjus (sugebėjimas paveikti jų elgseną).

Tvarių investicijų vertinimo klausimas plačiau nagrinėtas globalaus, šalies ar regiono kontekste, tačiau šių investicijų vertinimas investuotojo (organizacijos) požiūriu – gana siaurai. Siekiant užtikrinti Nacionalinės darnaus vystymosi strategijos įgyvendinimą, būtina sukurti integruotą tvarių investicijų vertinimo metodiką investuotojo (organizacijos) požiūriu, kuri skatintų investuoti. Labiausiai esmę atitinkantis tvarių investicijų apibrėžimas galėtų būti: investicijos, kurios padeda įgyvendinti darnaus vystymosi tikslus. Atlikus tyrimą nustatyta, kad tvarias investicijas investuotojo (organizacijos) požiūriu priimtiniausia vertinti remiantis trijų ramsčių teorija, kuri integruoja tvarių investicijų vertinimą ekonominėje, aplinkosaugos ir socialinėje srityse.

The paper deals with the problem of Slovak image abroad. Slovakia is a small country in terms of population and geographical size and despite its natural beauties and positive economic development it does not draw enough attention. The paper describes two main approaches to nation branding and outlines several typical branding strategies of chosen Eastern European countries. As there is a strong correlation between the image of Slovakia and Eastern Europe, the paper also studies the common characteristics of Eastern Europe image with specific focus on its reflection in popular culture. The final part of the paper summarises basic characteristics of the image of Slovakia in foreign press and briefly presents a new Slovak branding campaign Good Idea Slovakia.