Regional Formation and Development Studies

The research aims to update the corporate marketing role in promoting sustainability. The study is based on the assessment of today’s economic, ecological, and social responsibility issues, as well as public issues associated with the development of sustainability. The following scientific research methods have been applied in the research: analytical, comparing, graphical, statistical and surveillance methods. The authors have studied sustainability issues, i.e., economic, environmental and social, in the world and particularly in Latvia, as well as their impact on public welfare. In research, there was chosen and analysed the Latvian food retail industry, which makes a significant contribution to the economy of the trade sector. Companies, which take on social responsibility, should focus in their activities on the education of consumers. Using marketing communications, they can educate their consumers about ecological characteristics of products and their environmental impact on the public health, i.e., composition of products, acquisition, storage, use and disposal possibilities, also putting great emphasis on the Latvian products. Thus, companies can support the domestic market and promote sustainable development of the Latvian economy in general.

Social entrepreneurship is becoming more and more popular as there is a growing share of people who would like to contribute for social enterprises and are ready to become customers of the social enterprises and in this way participate in reduction of poverty in the country and support entrepreneurship development. For social enterprise marketing communications to be effective, an understanding is necessary not only of the information channels which are most effective but also of the preferences customers hold regarding the information channels that they would like to receive information from. Purpose of research: to investigate the preferences for different information channels among customers of Latvian social enterprises. Research methods: scientific publications analysis, analysis of previous conducted research results, social enterprise customers’ survey conducted by Kristīne Casno. Results of research have indicated that regular customers of social enterprises prefer such information channels as social networks, followed by television and radio.

Medicinos turizmas šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje tampa svarbia ūkio šaka, jo plėtra aktuali ir Lietuvos ekonominiam, socialiniam bei kultūriniam gyvenimui. Lietuvos medicinos turizmo plėtrai yra objektyvios sąlygos: geografinė padėtis, unikali gamta ir švelnus klimatas, gydomieji gamtos ištekliai, senos kurortinio gydymo tradicijos bei aukštos kvalifikacijos specialistai. Tačiau Lietuvoje esant tokioms palankioms plėtros sąlygoms ši ūkio šaka visapusiškai neišnaudojama, taigi atsiliekama nuo pirmaujančių šioje srityje šalių. Todėl plėtojant medicinos turizmą, būtina numatyti atrinktų prioritetinių inovacinių pokyčių diegimą, reitinguojant siūlomas alternatyvas.

Within development of telecommunication, e-commerce is rapidly replacing traditional shopping as well as offering new ways to pay for goods. Payment is one of the main phases of buying decision process and it is crucial to e-commerce, because there is a big possibility that consumer will abandon the shopping cart if preferred payment method is not available. Not only flexible payment options can help company to attract and retain customers, but it also can ensure that company get paid more quickly. The aim of the research is to find out how much money Latvian customers invest when shopping online and which payment methods they use to pay for the purchase on internet in Latvia. Research methods used in the study are scientific publication studies, studies of statistics on internet shopping development, survey realised in Latvia at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 on internet shopping in co-operation with company iMarketing, University of Latvia and Chamber of Trade and Commerce of Latvia. For many aspects in evaluation of opinion of respondents it was used evaluation scale 1–10, where do not agree with the statement; 10 – fully agree with statement. For data analysis there were used indicators of descriptive statistics, cross – tabulations, statistical tests of hypotheses, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis. Main results and findings of the study reveals that the most commonly used payment methods for online purchases in Latvia are paying with debit or credit card at the moment of purchase and paying at the store, but the least used payment methods for online purchase is cryptocurrency and at the pick-up box place. Also, there is no statistical difference between female and male customers on use of credit or debit card usage for online payments.

In the regional policy of Lithuania the Curonian lagoon coastal region is not distinguished as a separate territorial unit. Nevertheless, this territory is being analyzed in different regional context. Accoding to the samples of the EU regional policy, the authors of this article provided an assumption that the principles of solidarity and cohesion could be successfully implemented in the regional policy if the financial support will be allocated not for counties (regions) but according to specific problems in the regions on mezo and micro levels. The sample of that micro region can be recognized as the Curonian lagoon region (Lithuanian part).

The research analyses the beach litter monitoring programme in Latvia and provides suggestions for its improvement seeking to provide necessary information for effective marine litter management on the Latvian coastline of the Baltic Sea. The beach litter monitoring programme has been enacted since 2012 by NGO “FEE Latvia” and current research has been focused on the situation assessment and particularly provides analyses on a number and distribution of the surveyed beaches, the frequency and timing of the monitoring, litter classification and counting methodology, as well as the possible programme development using the NGO work based on the citizen science approach. The results allow to elaborate several suggestions on how to improve the programme in order to provide lacking information in Latvia on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework directive of European Union, and to advise local municipalities in their coastal waste management practices. The suggestions include the increasing number of monitoring sites, a prioritization of the EU Master list classification protocol and an increase of sites with higher frequency of monitoring (3 times per year). Moreover, in the conducted public survey, the beach visitors demonstrated good understanding of marine litter and highly prioritized the issue. The increased interest can add public participation to further development of this applied here citizen science approach.

Labour places sustainable development in rural regions are determinate the stratification internal and external, from different management levels, environment. The environment factors constantly changeable and interdependent. The open labour places development process is not self-contained, there is need professional management of the process considering many factors, which can be ascribable to the internal (near and distant) and external (near and distant) environment (regional, national, EU) factors groups. The aim of this research is to identify the factors of labour places sustainable development in Lithuanian rural regions. There were used analysis and synthesis, graphic depiction, logical and systematic thinking, comparison, SWOT, structured interviews, deep personal interviews, abstraction and other methods. In the research were analysed labour places sustainable development theoretical aspects, defined labour places sustainable development, identified determining factors of labour places sustainable development in Lithuanian rural regions, was find the possibilities for sustaining development of labour places and the benefits of rapprochement between working positions and place of residence. Interaction of all above factors (synergy) must be considered during the investigation along with the above factors in order initiate development and employment cycle of rural areas.Executed pilot SWOT analysis of job development in rural areas has shown that there are some restricted ranges of issues that abandon job development in rural areas. Liberality of labour forces, non-focused employment of the above resources, and lack of competitive advantage relevancy needed for territory development, absence of sustained and balanced development could be named as common subjects of all municipalities. For a long time workplaces and employment rates have been non-core preferences in case of decision making and implementation of strategic solutions, social and development policies. Implementation of measures, established within Lithuanian rural area development programmes, has been directed towards solution of problems occurred long time ago (not to development of countryside potential). Yet the problem could conceal the opportunity, not all figures involved in the development of rural areas could identify it, it means that long-term development of rural areas could show only initial signs of sustained development, and the balance between other development directions and (or) targets, i. e. economic, social and environmental, used for implementation of active work places is rather weak.Integrated employment development remains the main challenge based on the ongoing monitoring and responding to external changes. Research area is broad and complicated, but it is necessary to investigate vitality and resilience of labour places, the degree of labour places sustainability in the future.

Maitinimo įstaigų populiarumo Lietuvoje didėjimas pagrindžia vartotojų pasitenkinimo šiomis įstaigomis tyrimo aktualumą. Vertinant itališkos virtuvės atitikimą tradiciniam lietuvio skoniui, tyrimą nuspręsta atlikti picerijų sektoriuje. Tiriant siekta įvertinti vartotojų pasitenkinimą Kauno miesto picerijomis. Tyrimo duomenys leidžia daryti išvadą, kad siekiant didesnio vartotojų pasitenkinimo picerijomis, svarbiausia suderinti vartotojų lūkesčius ir produktų bei aptarnavimo kokybę. Apibendrinus atlikto tyrimo rezultatus, sudarytas vartotojų pasitenkinimo Kauno miesto picerijomis modelis, kuris gali būti taikomas apskaičiuojant vartotojų pasitenkinimą visomis picerijomis arba konkrečia Kauno miesto picerija, taip pat adaptuotas kitų miestų picerijų ar kitų maitinimo įstaigų vartotojų pasitenkinimui matuoti.

The article is devoted to marketing decision making by different generations. Author have analysed generations, its different formulationsin the world and Latvia. Author described generations of Latvian consumers, analysing statistical data and research results ofadvertising agency DDB Latvia and Gfk. The Development of Generations has significantly influenced the consumption, consumerbehavior, buying process. Very special role in the article is devoted to the generations what will help companies and individuals towork more efficiency in distribution of goods and services in the market. Relevant information about the consumer obtained in atimely manner enables an enterprise to plan their work on the market more successfully.

Thearticle aims to show why and how trust and its components of are importantwithin organizational context. Trust in virtual teams is a rathernew and little studied field. Explicitunderstandings of what is a virtual team together with which dimensions definesuch team are provided. Afterwards, the article discuss what specificchallenges virtual teams face when attempting to establish trust between itsmembers providing knowledge on what actions and behaviors can build trust in avirtual team and overcome the challenges specific to virtual teams. Due tocertain virtual teams’ specifics (geographic dispersion, electronic dependence,dynamic structure and cultural diversity) trust in these teams is usually low. Basedon the empirical research results methods for building trust in the virtualteam are suggested.