Regional Formation and Development Studies

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) appears as a specific space in which ports, maritime transport and the entire shipping cluster are crucially important. The BSR is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world, and maritime transport has contributed to its prosperity. After the collapse of the USSR, the Baltic Sea recovered its role as a contact and transit area. The opening up of the eastern shore to the market economy has brought about the reactivation of its maritime system, which over the years never stopped being a major element in the production of regional integration. Discourses on Baltic unity are often based on the importance of maritimity and maritime trade, but there is also a significant regional diversity in the shipping industry. Nowadays, the emergence of new directions in specialisation, and of new decision makers in ports, allows for new expectations and issues for Baltic ports. The author shows how, in this special Baltic context, ports and maritime stakeholders interact, participating in regional development and integration, but also by pursuing differentiated trajectories.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the aspects of integration of entrepreneurship into higher education (Educational sciences) in Lithuania and Latvia. The article maintains that proper entrepreneurial competencies are required to successfully start, operate and ensure the new business in the marketplace. From an educational perspective, scholars are primarily concerned with the development of individual-level competencies for entrepreneurship. Therefore the following question arises: what competencies for entrepreneurship should individuals be able to manifest when facing an entrepreneurial venture? More specifically, from educational and higher education perspectives, the question is: what competencies for entrepreneurship should universities address in their curricula for graduate programmes specifically in Educational sciences. Models of students’ entrepreneurial competencies are highlighted theoretically and some empirical insights on which competencies students in Educational sciences from Lithuanian and Latvian universities would like to have acquired are provided. The article presupposes that competence–based education can be designed to promote entrepreneurial activity among university students.

Recent developments of information technologies have supported fast development of Internet shopping worldwide and also using mobile devices. Internet shopping creates convenience for customers, bigger selection of goods and services from one side, but also creates several challenges for companies as well as some problems for companies and customers from the other side. Active research on different aspects is done by businesses, academic researchers alone and in co-operation of business and academic researchers. The aim of research is to find recent ideas of customers on Internet shops and problems raised in Internet shopping using mobile devices and to compare the results with other countries. The authors used the research methods such as: scientific publications’ studies, analysis of statistics on Internet shopping development, a survey realised in Latvia at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 on Internet shopping in co-operation with the company iMarketing, University of Latvia, and Chamber of Trade and Commerce of Latvia. The main results and findings of the study, theoretical and practical implications are the following: the response rate of respondents was very high in comparison with other surveys, respondents have also expressed their suggestions and improvements for Internet shopping using mobile devices. The main conclusions of research: increase in Internet shopping in Latvia using mobile devices is not so fast as in other countries, mobile devices for shopping on the Internet are used not so often as in other countries; several local brands already having experience on Internet shopping encounter big challenges in development of Internet marketing; customers highly evaluate previous personal experience and good references of relatives and friends (word of mouth) in use of a respective brand for Internet shopping, but does not want to leave personal information (bank card information, personal code, etc.).

Higher education, scientific research and innovations play a significant role in supporting social cohesion, economic growth and global competitiveness. The Bologna Process documents note the importance of the involvement of students in the quality assurance of higher education.The aim of the article is to reveal the connections between learning provisions and study quality of the Klaipėda University (hereinafter: KU) Childhood Pedagogy study programme students. 131 students of Klaipėda University Childhood Pedagogy study programme were interviewed by means of a questionnaire.The research reveals that students’ attitudes towards individual determinants of the study quality are related to the learning provisions that they follow. Students have identified most important factors affecting the quality of studies: relationship between the student and the university teacher, student motivation to learn, teaching/learning methods and university teacher competences. The results of the research can help university management team, programme curators to enhance educational processes at the university by improving the quality of studies.

In this paper correlation of competitiveness and service quality are analyzed in theoretical and practical regard. It is emphasized that competitiveness might be evaluated according to different levels and formats. When preparing this paper scientific sources were analyzed and summarized, organizations were evaluated employing the methods of competitive profile analysis and surveying. Total of 316 Lithuanian insurance companies’ clients from various regions and towns of the country were surveyed. During the evaluation of the organizations direct and indirect factors influencing competitiveness were accentuated. Factors determining quality of service were also evaluated. Results of the research confirmed the hypothesis that competitiveness of service providing companies is mostly determined by the factor of service quality. Correlation between service quality and competitiveness of service providing companies was determined.

Changes caused by globalization changed consumer behaviour. It is passed from the era of items to the era of services causingemotions. On the other hand, it’s still a speculation, whether globalization affects the behaviour of Lithuanian people in choosingtourism. The research found that the Lithuanian residents still live in the era of items. For them is most important material safetyand image through items. To meet these needs Lithuanian residents prefer traveling abroad. Outbound tourism is attractive for thepopulation of Lithuania, but they frequently travel in Lithuanian territory. Lithuanian tourists are planning travel usually by themselves;this process is combined with rational. Economic, demographic and cultural factors have the greatest influence on the choiceof Lithuanians to make trips. Social, psychological and situational factors in the marketing mix have less impact.

The Author discussed, explored, evaluated and diagnosed the disparities of economic activity on regional level. The study embraced five peripheral regions of Poland, namely five Eastern provinces (voivodships), i.e. Lublin Province, Podlasie Province, Subcarpathia Province, Świętokrzyskie Province and Warmia-Masuria Province. The aforementioned five voivodships were compared to Poland and Poland’s central region, i.e. Masovia Province. The following elements were taken into consideration: employment rate and employment by sectors, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, number of economic entities and number of natural persons conducting economic activity, investment outlays and gross expenditure on R&D activity, as well as net internal and external migration for permanent residence. In order to observe the possible changes over the time the situation in 2005 and 2017 was studied. Additionally, the total value of projects co-financed by the European Union through Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund within 2007–2013 period and 2014–2020 perspective was presented and analyzed. The research tools used in the article included literature studies, critical thinking, descriptive analysis and comparative analysis, in that the selected statistical method of multivariate comparative analysis, i.e. Hellwig’s taxonomic measure of development. Statistical material provided by Central Statistical Office (Warsaw, Poland) and taken from Statistical Yearbooks of the Regions 2006, 2007, 2017 and 2018 was used for the analysis. The obtained results indicate the persistence of huge regional disparities of economic activity, economic potential and socioeconomic development despite the implementation of EU Policy of Social, Economic and Territorial Cohesion. Hence, it was possible to positively verify the research hypotheses: both the first hypothesis assuming that the gap between the studied peripheral regions and the rest of Poland was not reduced and the second hypothesis assuming that the participation in the processes of regional economic integration, and in particular in EU Policy of Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion, had only limited impact on the reduction of disparities between Poland’s regions.

Public television is an important source of electoral information in Poland. The scope of its duties is regulated by the Election Code and media regulations. The presented content can fundamentally influence electoral attitudes of Poles and shape their views in this respect. The analysis of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) reports on the monitoring of public television and the analysis of the opinion polls’ results carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) revealed that the key factor that determined a low turnout in the 2015 parliamentary elections was not the lack of information or knowledge on the voters’ side, but more a disappointment in the quality of political life in Poland. In the local government elections of 2014, the phenomenon of insufficient provision of information indeed did occur, as the main media for informational and educational content were not nationwide but rather regional broadcasts with low viewership. The author used the following research methods to address the above issues: critical literature analysis, comparative and descriptive analysis, as well as analysis of legislation, documents and surveys.

For the last 20 years, the Baltic Sea has been affected by many upheavals, not only geopolitical but also economic. They have forced

In all states of European Union reforms in pension system are being made, likewise in Latvia. Demographic and economic problems that are occurred forces pension reforms to be made. New developed pension reform includes different processes, like – formation of financial equilibrium between incomes and costs, limit performance in going early in pension, increasing of age of going in pension, rebalancing between men and women. Simultaneous formation of state and private pension systems could prevent some of the major drawback in system of pension that undermines the pension system of nowadays. Unfortunately the high social security contributions of state sector persons lacks of money, for deposit in private pension funds. Using method of logic synthesis, as the target authors nominated to examine problems of pension systems in the Baltic States, as well as similarities and divergences in problems and perspectives, with the status of private pension funds in accumulating pension system.