Regional Formation and Development Studies

Higher education export is gaining more and more importance taking into account international competition, the benefits offered by the industry and demographic changes in many countries – the number of local students is reducing due to low birth rates and extensive emigration of young people. There are many academic publications on several aspects related to higher education export. The aim of research is to analyse foreign students’ evaluation on the importance of different organisations’ (universities, agencies dealing with higher education export, ministries) webpage content and design for higher education export. Research methods used: scientific literature review analysis, evaluation of webpages by experts, survey of foreign students (using the evaluation scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means ‘do not agree’, and 10 – ‘fully agree’). Data obtained from the foreign student survey are analysed by indicators of descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean, mode, median, range, standard deviations, standard error of mean), cross-tabulations, correlation analysis and factor analysis. The obtained research results have indicated narrow places and challenges for the information placed in respective webpages and webpage design which could be practically implemented.

The article discusses economic growth influence to sustainable development. According to the collected theoretical material, it analyzes the impact of economic growth to social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The analysis of statistical data using integrated index of sustainable development allowed evaluating the impact of economic growth to sustainable development in in Lithuania on 2000−2011. Studies carried out in foreign universities confirmed a hypothesis that further extensive studies are necessary in order to understand the essence and evaluation of the concept of sustainable development. The basic idea behind the scientific problem studied in the paper can be described as the following: what are the regularities of the concept of sustainable development and its evaluation, that allow assess the economic growth influence to dimensions of sustainability and to sustainable development of the country. The main problem of the paper is stated as follows: how to achieve economic growth considering economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development? Research object – the impact of economic growth to dimensions of sustainable development. Research aim is to analyze and assess dynamics of sustainable development dimensions in Lithuania. Research tasks: theoretically to analyze the influence of economic growth to social and environmental dimensions; after methodological calculations of indicators of sustainable development in Lithuania, to evaluate the tendencies of changes of sustainable development dimensions and to forecast perpectives. Research methods contributing to this paper are: systematic scientific literature analysis, statistical data and comparative analysis, regression analysis, use of SPSS 17 (Statistical Package for Social Science) and Package Microsoft Excel. Theoretical analysis done in the paper quit well show, that systems of assessment of influence of economic growth to sustainable development must take in account three closely related dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Integrated sustainable development index and trend were used and evaluated that the biggest increasing of index was noticed by given stable inflation rate. Analysis done in the paper quit well show, that for problems solving can be used fiscal instrument – taxes.

Advanced internet infrastructure and increasing internet usage both in corporate and home levels broadens opportunities for marketers. The internet as a marketing channel became one of the most important tools for communication between the seller and consumer. More and more companies rely on the internet and increases the budget for the next generation strategies. However, the channels (Search Engines Optimization, Search Engines Marketing, Email Marketing, Invasive Marketing, Syndicated content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and etc.) are chosen intuitively. There is no proven efficiency of different channel or tool. Marketers know the technical description, can calculate budgets but the efficiency differences are unclear. The purpose of the article is to analyse and describe the efficiency of each online marketing channel. Quantitative research method was used to analyse the efficiency of online marketing channels. A survey of Lithuania’s internet users reveals the most acceptable (efficient) online marketing channels. The article scientific aim is to identify which online marketing channels are the most efficient. The findings are valuable at least for Lithuanian market as it reveals the efficiency of different online marketing channels. Companies can make the strategic decisions and choose the most powerful and money efficient channels combination to achieve their marketing goals.

Civic engagement is a core value of democracy that approves legitimacy of democracy itself and decisions made by public institutions. In Latvia, civic engagement rates are decreasing, thus for public institutions it is important to find new ways how to engage citizens in the decision-making process. In the twenty-first century, it means that public institutions should also be present in social media. The objectives of the article are to identify foreign experience how public institutions are using social media for civic engagement and evaluate the reasons for Latvian public institutions to learn from this foreign experience. Accordingly, methods of the research are analysis of scientific publications covering examples about digital democracy, civic engagement and use of social media by public institutions, as well as analysis of data about the Internet and social media usage in Latvia. The study findings suggest that Latvian public institutions are already using social media for one-way communication. Moreover, in Latvia, availability of the Internet and participation rates in social media are above the EU average, thus there is potential to use social media also for two-way communication and foster civic engagement.

Atliekant tyrimą, siekiama, išnagrinėjus pajamų nelygybės poveikio ekonomikos augimui teorines interpretacijas, įvertinti pajamų nelygybės poveikį ekonomikos augimui skirtingose šalių grupėse. Rezultatai pagrįsti 28 ES šalių 1995–2014 m. laikotarpio skydo duomenimis. Pirmoje straipsnio dalyje aptarti pajamų nelygybės reiškinio turinys, samprata, apibendrintos pajamų nelygybės poveikio ekonomikos augimui teorijos. Antroje straipsnio dalyje sukurti pajamų nelygybės poveikio ekonomikos augimui vertinimo modeliai, pagrįsta vertinimo metodika ir aptariami empiriniame tyrime naudojami kintamieji. Trečioje straipsnio dalyje nustatyta, kad didėjanti pajamų nelygybė daro nevienareikšmį poveikį ekonomikos augimui skirtingais transmisijos kanalais: taupymo, socialinių politinių neramumų. Nustatyta, kad pajamų nelygybė skatino ekonomikos augimą šalių grupėse, kurios pasižymėjo aukštesniu pajamų nelygybės ir šalies išsivystymo lygiu. Kitose šalių grupėse pajamų nelygybė lėtino ekonomikos augimą.

Straipsnyje pateikiamas darnumo principų įgyvendinimo poveikio įmonių veiklos efektyvumui problematiką atskleidžiantis tyrimas. Atliktas tyrimas rodo nepakankamą darnumo principų įgyvendinimo poveikio įmonių veiklos efektyvumui suvokimą šalies ekonominės veiklos valdymo lygmeniu. Siekta ištirti darnumo principų įgyvendinimo ir poveikio veiklos efektyvumui problematikos aspektus. Šiam tikslui pasitelktas kokybinis tyrimas, apklausiant ekspertus, duomenims rinkti nuspręsta taikyti interviu metodą, jie apdoroti kokybinės turinio analizės metodu. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad darnumo principais pagrįsta veikla akivaizdžiai skatina įmonių veiklos efektyvumą. Darnumo principų įgyvendinimo procesus veikia šie veiksniai: darnus vadovavimas, darnios žinios, tinkami rodikliai, tinkamas valdymo modelis. Parodoma, kad bendras darnumo principų kompleksiškumo poveikis yra veiksmingiausias būdas formuoti ilgalaikius konkurencinio pranašumo pagrindus.

Sparti internetinės rinkodaros plėtra neišvengiamai skatina investicijų šioje srityje augimą, tačiau įmonėms gana sudėtinga prognozuoti internetinės rinkodaros programų atsiperkamumą. Internetinės rinkodaros efektyvumo vertinimo kriterijai ir jo didinimo kryptys mokslinėje literatūroje nepakankamai ištirtos. Tyrimu siekta išanalizuoti internetinės rinkodaros krypčių efektyvumo vertinimo kriterijus ir jo didinimo galimybes. Straipsnyje, atlikus lyginamąją mokslinės literatūros analizę, atskleistos naujausios internetinės rinkodaros tendencijos, siejamos su antros kartos žiniatinkliu, lokalizacija ir daugiaekraniškumu. Pagrindinėmis internetinės rinkodaros kryptimis tampa paieškos sistemų optimizavimas ir rinkodara, elektroninio pašto ir invazinė rinkodara, sindikuotas turinys ir RSS, reitingų tinklalapiai, socialiniai tinklai, forumai, tinklalaidė, tinklaraščiai, valdikliai. Šių krypčių efektyvumas gali būti vertinamas finansiniais ir nefinansiniais rodikliais. Nefinansinių rodiklių pagrindas – vartotojų teikiamos pirmenybės. Finansiniais internetinės rinkodaros efektyvumo rodikliais tampa lankomumo, investicijų pelningumo (ROI) ir konversijos rodikliai.

Teaching history of genocides has taken a special place in the school history course. This article describes basic methodological principles of teaching the genocides topic in the school history course. There are defined teacher’s methodical mistakes in the process of teaching the history of genocides. The article is focused in the importance of using cross-curricular themes and different aspects in teaching the history of genocides. There is a based conclusion about the necessity of the organization of teaching the history of genocides from the point of the social psychology. There is a question defined on the comparative teaching of history of genocides.

This study aims at presenting complex information on the specifics of regional development and its management system, as well as the experience of forming and implementing the state regional policy in Ukraine. The information in the article is presented in the context of generally accepted notions and concepts of regional development and regional policy, along with the European experience and global trends, but first of all it is based on the realities of regions and rural areas in Ukraine and on its governance model. It has been determined that to establish an effective and competent public administration of rural development should be a priority, singled out as part of the state regional policy, socially orientated and coordinated with sectoral policies.

Pension systems have become one of the main priorities for the national governments. Developed countries population is getting older by putting the pressure on the state budgets and work age people tax load. The current pension system in Latvia performs according to regulation of state compulsory unfunded pension scheme since 1996 and regulation of the state funded or accumulated pension scheme since 2001. The third pension system pillar is private voluntary pension schemes realized in form of people contributions into pension funds and life insurance policies. Aim of the research – deeper analyses of voluntary private investments as the pension system part and its development challenges in Latvia. Research methods: scientific publications and previous conducted research analysis; analysis of time series on private pension fund developments in Latvia and comparisons with the situation in other OECD countries. The authors were looking for answer on the question – can voluntary private investments cover the gap between pre-retirement and after-retirement income of population in Latvia and what are the pre-conditions for it.