Regional Formation and Development Studies

The essence of the “Swedish socialism” created in the 20th century lies in “democratic functional socialism”. During the last 30 years, even after having refused part of its elements, it remains the foundation of the Swedish welfare state, and historically the name of the “Swedish socialism” is mostly related to the famous Swedish and global figure of the smart political powers, social democrat Olof Palme. The article reviews the features of the biography of Olof Palme and his both theoretical and practical activity opting for social justice and by creating a welfare state in Sweden by the means of “democratic functional socialism”. Olof Palme was also an advocate of human rights and freedoms, neutrality of small countries, an international mediator, an advocate of nuclear disarmament policy and a severe critic of neo-liberal ideas.

The effective attraction of investments to the national economy is a key factor, which provides favourable conditions to perform structural changes in the national economy, regional development as well as promotes technical progress. Therefore, investments in the public and the private sectors conduce development of the national economy and provide conditions to increase the overall competitiveness of a country. The purpose of research is to evaluate investment processes in Latvia before and after the global financial crisis, revealing investment-related problems. Also, to calculate the level of the desired investment, which would ensure the Latvia’s average GDP growth of 5% per year, according to the target set by the NDP. The analysis employs different qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, such as: scientific literature and empirical research analysis, modelling tables, charts and schemes, calculations of average and relative values, grouping, comparison and other. Publications on investment and research by Latvian and international scholars are analysed seeking to define the investment role on the economic growth process. The authors use the data available in the Central Statistical Bureau of the Republic of Latvia and Eurostat data bases, reports by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia, the World Bank, the OECD and other studies of international organizations, as well as information provided in the Internet. As a result of research there have been defined the investment policy directions and essential obstacles that delay investment attraction in Latvia.

Material deprivation has recently gained prominence as a topic of debate as its proliferation is reising throughout Europe in particular in the countries hit hardest by financial and economic turbulences what leads to the gap in material deprivation levels throughout Europe. The aim of the study is to analyze material deprivation in the regions of Latvia. Research methods used in preparation of the paper: scientific publication and previous conducted research results analysis, analysis of anonimised data of EU-SILC survey results and European Central Bank conducted survey on Household income and expenses survey results, results are compared with the results of other EU countries. Survey anonimised data are analyzed using indicators of descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations for regions of Latvia, for urban-rural living and analysis of variance – ANOVA are used. The results of analysis have indicated in what situation are regions of Latvia in the context of material deprivation especially in Latgale region and what are the challenges for decision makers to deal with – more attention for several approaches in reduction of income differences in regions of Latvia.

Skaitmeninimo ir naujų technologijų diegimo sparti plėtra bei COVID-19 pandemijos metu įvairiose valstybėse vykę įmonių veiklų ribojimai paskatino elektroninės komercijos plėtrą. Straipsnyje, taikant mokslinės literatūros palyginamosios analizės, sisteminimo ir apibendrinimo metodus, nagrinėjami elektroninės komercijos platformų sėkmę lemiantys veiksniai. Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti, kurie veiksniai lemia elektroninės komercijos platformų sėkmę. Atlikta mokslinės literatūros analizė atskleidė, kad elektroninės komercijos sėkmę lemia: efektyvus elektroninės parduotuvės sistemos veikimas, patogi vartotojo aplinka, padedanti kurti puikią vartotojo patirtį, personalizuoti pasiūlymai, lengvai ir aiškiai pateikiama informacija, galimybė įsigyti prekę ar paslaugą atliekant kuo mažiau žingsnių, prekių nuotraukos ir vizualizacijos, vaizdo apžvalgos ir kiti veiksniai. Organizacijos, atsižvelgusios į minėtų veiksnių svarbą, gali tikėtis savo veiklos augimo, t. y. optimalaus klientų pasitenkinimo, didesnio jų srauto, pakartotinių ir daugkartinių pirkimų, kurie, tikėtina, lems augančią apyvartą ir pelną.

Preventing degradation of the natural environment is a duty that a contemporary society has to fulfil. Global threats include mainly: the greenhouse effect, destruction of the ozone layer, loss of biodiversity, non-sustainable use of resources and reduction of the planet’s capacity for absorption of pollution and waste. Preventing the negative impact of economic processes on the natural environment is one of the priorities of the EU policy. Despite their diversity, EU countries pursue their goals on their way to a green economy. An improvement in the natural environment largely depends on the pro-environmental measures taken by small and medium-sized enterprises. The aim of the study is to present and compare the present state and barriers experienced in implementation of pro-environmental policy in small and medium-sized enterprises in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

As competition is becoming more and more pronounced, the market entry for newly established companies is a complex task. This process becomes even more complicated if a company is small, because it has to deal not only with lack of experience, but also with a lack of funds. Business incubators have been spreading all over the world for more than half a century. It suggests that this type of sponsorship of small and medium business will be relevant in the next decade and continuous research in this field will help to provide optimal support for companies.

The paperwork provides formulas for measuring value (created through CSR) gained by company, its partners (members of VCC) and employees. As far as expert survey confirmed, customers gained value generally might be evaluated by more favourable purchase decision and justification of higher price. Therefore it is suggested to pay main attention on customer’s gained use value – the value which is expressed through more favourable purchase decision and justification of higher price is already calculated as value gained by company.

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos jūrų žuvininkystės sektoriaus, kaip regioninio verslo, problemos ir perspektyvos. Įvertinta jūrų žuvininkystės sektoriaus būklė, problemos ir numatytos galimos perspektyvos. Straipsnyje apibendrinta informacija, pateikta žuvininkystės sektoriaus norminiuose aktuose ir dokumentuose, statistinė informacija, moksliniai straipsniai bei informacija iš įvairių seminarų. Pateikta siūlymų galimoms perspektyvoms įgyvendinti.

Straipsnyje teoriniu aspektu analizuojamas migracijos reiškinys, remiantis įvairiomis teorijomis susisteminti skirtingi šio reiškinio aiškinimai. Migraciją aiškinančiose teorijose skiriami mikro-, makro- ir mezolygmenys, o tarp dažniausia minimų migracijos priežasčių – ekonominiai motyvai dėl darbo jėgos apmokėjimo bei paklausos ir pasiūlos skirtumų tarp šalių. Migracija, kaip ekonominis-socialinis reiškinys, savaime nėra nei blogas, nei geras. Atsižvelgiant į mastą ir šalies padėtį šio reiškinio atžvilgiu formuojasi teigiamos ar neigiamos pasekmės. Migracija vienai šaliai gali daryti neigiamą įtaką, kitai – teigiamą. Pirmą kartą nuo Lietuvos nepriklausomybės atgavimo, 2018 m. pastebimos ryškios imigracijos augimo ir emigracijos mažėjimo tendencijos: emigracijos mastai sumažėjo iki 32,9 tūkst. asmenų per metus, tuo tarpu imigracija išaugo iki 28,9 tūkst. asmenų per metus. Vertinant išankstinius 2019 m. duomenis, pirmąkart fiksuojamas teigiamas migracijos saldo (10,8 tūkst. asmenų). Šalyje vyksta kardinalūs asmenų judėjimo pokyčiai, susiduriama su reikšminga darbo jėgos imigracija. Todėl Lietuva, kaip šalis „priėmėja“, turi pradėti analizuoti ir imigracijos poveikį darbo rinkai (nedarbo lygiui, darbo užmokesčiui), ekonomikai, demografijai, socialiniam saugumui, tautiniam tapatumui, politiniams pokyčiams ir net nacionaliniam saugumui.

Sustainable economic development isbased on the favourable and stable business environment that promotescompetitiveness of companies. Commercial banks facilitate the capital flow fromthe less efficient sectors of the economy and businesses to more competitiveindustries and enterprises. The purpose of the research is to analyze the dynamicsof the Baltic States’ GDPs during years 2005–2010and to test the GDP correlation with the loans issued by domestic commercialbanks to the businesses. The key results of the analysis provide evidence aboutthe mutual relations between the leading and influencing factors in GDP andissued loans and serve as a basis for developing proposals on fostering the recoveryof Baltic States’ economies. The Granger testanalysis performed for the aggregate GDP and lending, as well as for six industries,provides controversial results and indicates that output in some industries hasmutual relationship with the availability of financial resources, however thebusiness sector development leads to the increase of credit granting thus ensuringthe development of the sector. The methods applied in the research comprise thesystematic, logical and comparative analysis, analysis of statistical data,expert method and generalization, as well as the econometric Granger causalitytest method.