Klaipėdos universitetas

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.

In increasingly globalised societies higher education meet challenge to integrate the international and intercultural dimensions into their services, strategic plans, education programmes and research. There were few discussions around the concept of “Internationalization at home” (IaH) during the last years in the academic community. This article generally outlines a process of IaH in higher education, by giving examples from the bachelor programmes of Social Work and Nursing Education at Malmö University, Sweden. The internationalisation of the curriculum at home was shown to have a much greater impact than individual mobility alone. The authors of the article present their own analysis about possibilities to understand the culture, profession in the process of IaH improving professional and intercultural competences. Modern society poses a challenge for professionals – to think globally and to act locally.

The article highlights the education community, drawing the community as a strengthening of local government units; debate on the participation of community members in self-governance process. The article discusses the case study; exposing the local community (Kupiškis district) participation in political and cultural life of the community, directly to the (self) pulling into municipal development processes and public civil debate edge business development actualities positioning. Concerned members of the community competencies, activities and feel, the presentation of their region as a smart social space of the region, in support of a competitive advantage in the global market – i.e. community participation, the promotion of entrepreneurship in the region; the development of tourism, the use of existing natural, cultural and other resources.

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.

The aim of this paper is to provide a structural review by analysing aspects of the relationship between prudential policy and systemic risk. It addresses the current research challenges associated with a lack of macro-prudential policy formalisation, guidance regarding its implementation and effectiveness measurement. Given the rising levels of interconnectedness between financial markets, the paper addresses the potential contagion or spill-over effects that foster change in systemic risk, especially in the case of market size differences. Finally, the paper discusses challenges associated with macro versus micro-prudential policy implementation, addressing difficulties in the measurement of systemic risk.

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.

In the article the paradigm of traditional public administration is analysed by trying to accomplish the critique of the model in the cultural dimension direction and by identifying the crucial elements of post-modernism which, according to the authors, had made an impact for the formation of such a model. There are also revealed the parameters of post-modernism in metanarrative theories of rationality, as the grounded technological and instrumental relation towards traditional paradigm principles by stressing the hierarchical governance, bureaucratic relations, control mechanisms, rational organisational structure and functional division with professionalism. By identifying the main traits of traditional paradigm, the aspects and tendencies of post-modernist organisations are revealed and the controversial answer to the question about the relevance of traditional public administration model is presented.