Regional Formation and Development Studies

The paper deals with the situation of entrepreneurship in three rural cross-border regions of Lithuania bordering on Kaliningrad Region and Poland, i.e. with Jurbarkas, Šilutė, and Vilkaviškis districts. The entrepreneurship factors in rural areas have been summarised, the outcomes of the research in the entrepreneurship factors of the rural areas of Lithuanian cross-border regions have been presented, and the factors impeding business development in the region have been named. In the contemporary society, the significance of the impact of entrepreneurship in economic, social, and psychological processes of the society development has been increasing. The direction of the society progress and the trajectory of its development is related to its members’ entrepreneurship abilities and opportunities. Individual’s entrepreneurship contributes to the perception and identification of the new opportunities of activity development, thus increasing the social welfare.

In the condition of demographic issues in Europe and competition for specialist between public and private sector on the labour market public organisations’ as employers’ image is an important aspect of development. The research aim is to identify principles of Employer Branding (EB) and ways public organisations can organize and develop employees’ education on this topic. There are EB activities examined in ten socially responsible (SR) organisations from public sector in Latvia. Authors prepare theoretical bases for the research analysing scientific literature to explain the main point of the approaches framework and define the main terms in depth implementing qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the result proposals for the EB training development for public organisations were developed. Training programs on EB for the public sector organisations should consist of blocks connected to marketing and HRM. Managers should decide whom to train and why and develop different training tracks for each employees level. Training should be implemented periodically reflecting on the changes in external and internal organisational environment.

The subject of this study is to present the process of implementing the concept of e-citizen in Poland in the perspective of industry 4.0. In the global world, a significant part of public administration, including local government administration, aims to increase activity using Information and Communication Technology. This process allows introducing more efficient functioning of public administration, especially in the scope of providing services to the citizen. Changes in the functioning of public administration are forced by changes in ICT, in particular by those resulting from the current implementation of the concept of industry 4.0. The result of the research was a description not only the legal bases or development policies of public e-administration, but first and foremost to indicate its practical implementation effects. As part of the practical effects, the study will present examples of the effects of e-administration implementation in the Otwock County. In particular, the attention will be paid to the implementation of elements of computerization of administration by the local authorities, and how it affects local sustainable development.

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.

Economic and social indicators need to be given more importance in the management of results-oriented rural social infrastructure (RSI) in order to become an integral measure in the monitoring of country’s development. The research aim – to prepare and test a methodology for the assessment of RSI condition in order to ensure the territorial cohesion. The following objectives have been set out: 1) to summarize theoretical aspects of rural social infrastructure development in the context of social territorial cohesion; 2) to prepare a methodology for the assessment of RSI; 3) to reveal inequalities and critical areas of Lithuanian RSI development. The analysis of Lithuanian RSI data revealed differences in RSI development in different rural regions which negatively affect Lithuania’s competitiveness and social territorial cohesion. While the articles notes that there have been some positive changes in the use of investment projects over the last couple of years, it also indicates that management of RSI availability and accessibility with respect to locations and sectors is not optimal.