Regional Formation and Development Studies

Migration for children is a very challenging period. In the article children migration is looked through the phenomenological lens and expressed through the existential of lived body. Therefore, the purpose of article is to describe the nature of child migration through the existential of the lived body. In the lived experience descriptions or anecdotes the examination of human experience is presented. In such stories lies the essence of the children migration phenomenon. The results are presented in four three sections: unmanageable fear; otherness as abnormality and dissonance of body and language.

Innovation development process in companies is described by several challenges. One major problem is that there is much confusion about what it takes to develop innovations and what factors affect the innovation development process. The paper focuses on innovation process’ affecting factors in Latvian market. The paper’s goal is to identify main factors that affect the innovation process the Latvian companies. After surveying 128 companies, authors concludes that many factors affects innovation process and none of them should be ignored. Following factors affect innovation process the most and therefore should be analysed more deeply: 1) The company’s own resources; 2) High employees knowledge, competencies, skills and experience; 3) Investors’ attraction opportunities. Research also emphasises importance of company’s human resource, therefore authors suggest companies to look at their employees from different paradigm and approach them as the most valuable company’s asset.

There are 33 rural, 18 semi-rural and 9 urban municipalities in Lithuania according to three criterias: 1) part of population living in rural areas; 2) population density and 3) distance of municipality from large towns/cities. Šilutė district municipality together with Rusnė ward has been studied in detail to search the main problems of sustainable development of these rural territories of Klaipėda region. System analysis approach and method of integrated sustainability index were applied with suplement of social inquiry fulfiled in Rusnė ward. The indices selected for calculations and comparison of rural and semi-rural municipalities, including Šilutė district, were social, economic and environmental: for Šilutė 4 different indices in each group were selected, for Rusnė ward – 3 indices. The integrated sustainability index was calculated for all rural municipalities of Lithuania and Rusnė ward. The research period for Šilutė and other municipalities was 2006-2012, and for Rusnė ward 2008-2012. Research has revealed that the main problems with sustainability in the studied territories are of social character. According to the Integrated sustainability index, Šilutė district municipality was somehow lower than other rural municipalities of Lithuania, and even in Rusnė ward this index was a little higher during 2011–2012, than in Šilutė district municipality.K

Social entrepreneurship is an important component of the European social market economy that is based on the principles of solidarity and responsibility and the priorities regarding the individual and social goals; it promotes social responsibility and social inclusion. However, in practice, social enterprises face various problems that negatively affect their competitiveness. The present research has set an aim to examine the competitiveness of social entrepreneurship in Latvia. To achieve the aim, a case study was carried out to identify the factors affecting the competitiveness of social entrepreneurship and its competitive advantages and disadvantages in comparison with conventional enterprises. The research found that the key competitive advantages of social entrepreneurship were the story told by social enterprises and their employee motivation, while the negative effects regarding competitiveness were as follows: the lack of government support for social entrepreneurship, insufficient information in society about social entrepreneurship and the social value created by it, as well as various other factors in the internal environment of an enterprise.

The European Union data surveys give evidence of the growing trend of population ageing in the Member States. The aim of the study was to analyse the social structure of population in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in comparison with the average population in the EU-27 and present recommendations for policy makers for further improvement of the social policy development in these countries. The authors used monographic method to study theoretical aspects of society aging and welfare and statistical data analysis of secondary data aggregated by Eurostat reports, Eurobarometer survey and databases of national institutions. The analysis of the society aging indicators in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland clearly shows that the policy makers of these countries so far have been mainly focusing on unpopular measures – either increasing taxes or raising the retirement age, which have caused citizens’ dissatisfaction with the existing social policy that does not provide any hopes for the existing and becoming pensioners to approximate to successful aging. The authors consider that the national institutions responsible for society’s welfare issues should further encourage socially innovative solutions by finding unusual ideas for obtaining multidimensional support, including the assistance provided by policy-makers and involving local agents to enhance inclusion of the aged population in the labour market, especially in creating jobs for themselves, being able to retain employment as temporary workers or being encouraged to work in other professions.

As the global economy grows, so does the demand for energy. Investment in clean energy projects, including geothermal, is increasingly important to help meet these growing energy needs. Clean energy projects are also important for environmental reasons and as part of the battle against climate change. Many clean energy sources in the world are located in developing countries, including emerging market economies. Investors in developing countries are normally faced with higher risks than those investing in high income developed economies. Higher risks in turn reduce capital flows to developing countries. This is particularly true during times of economic and financial crisis. At the same time energy projects tend to be large and capital intensive with long repayment periods. Energy projects also often require partnership between the public and private sectors i.e. public private partnerships (PPPs). Efficient allocation of risks among the different partners in PPPs is important for success, generally results in more profitable projects, and is more likely to benefit all parties involved. This article discusses public private partnerships in the energy sector in developing countries, characteristics of developing countries, the risk faced by investors, the absence of an international regime for investment, and risk mitigation instruments offered by international financial institutions to manage risks.

The article reveals the essence of relationship marketing concepts and expression in Klaipeda health care institutions. Investigated the following main relationship marketing dimensions: trust, commitment, interdependence, reciprocity, cooperation, power, communication, satisfaction, value, justice and empathy. It is stated that the direct impact on consumer loyalty in health care market has the confidence, commitment and satisfaction. Relationship marketing principles – mutual interaction and power – in health care market only partially causes consumers loyalty.

The image formation and support, reputation-building and active marketing are vital for the existence of the nowadays modern country and its development. Today the country’s nature, history, people and traditions became the exclusive brands that strengthens the economy and cross-border relations, a competitive advantage is obtained. There are many image definitions and classifications, each author analyses it from own perspective. It was found that individual elements make a big influence for a general country’s image. In order to use it effectively systemic attitude is required. Country’s image in the international tourism market is explained by tourist behavioural characteristics: how a person behaves in respect of country, how he or she perceives the country – as a neighbour or distant, closed or open, acceptable or unacceptable, how much the person trusts the provided information, if he or she is ready to travel to the country. Personal characteristics has an influence for perceived location’s image. Despite Lithuania’s efforts to make the image better abroad and inside the country, it’s rank on the international agencies surveys, evaluating country’s political and economic situation in the world context and how famous it is, remains low. There are no innovative strategy for building Lithuania’s image. During the 2006–2015 period, there were no core changes in associations, created for foreigners by the word “Lithuania”. The research found that foreigners imagine Lithuania as underdeveloped, neglected agriculture country, people are closed, not willing to communicate – the same as was imagined in 2006. Lithuania’s touristic image was better after the visit. More facts about Lithuania was known by tourists from neighbouring countries. During the 9 years Lithuania’s touristic image has not changed.

Although idea management (IM) and idea management systems (IMS) and related topics have been researched since 1982 and IM itself is as old as the first ideas, authors in previous research specified 18 research gaps in literature about IM and one of the most important that there is no united view on the terms IM and IMS and there are no specialized researches about these terms, as well, in the literature of IM they are not board discussed. Purpose of the research is to discuss and create definitions of terms IM and IMS using the reviewed literature. Research object: literature on IM and IMS. Research subject: terms of IM and IMS. Main research method – literature review. Data collected from 70 sources, including scientific publications, conference proceedings, books, white papers etc. published over the last 33 years, i.e., from January 1982 to February 2015, in all research fields. The research highlights that in the literature there are wide variety of the definitions of terms IM and IMS. The results of the research revealed that definitions of IM have not fundamentally changed over the time, but the definitions of IMS have transformed from “passive” to “active” IMS in millennium. The object of these definitions more often are described as systematic and manageable. Results probe that IM could be defined as – systematic, manageable process of idea generation, evaluation and development, but the IMS as a tool, tool kit or complex system which provides systematic, manageable process of idea generation, evaluation and development. The intensity of IM and IMS researches varies by region, but there are no major regional differences in defying the terms.