When it comes to moving towards sustainable entrepreneurship, a knowledge-based economy is starting to affect companies and how they are managed. It is relevant for researchers and entrepreneurs to evaluate different sustainability aspects and look for ways how to achieve entrepreneurship sustainability. In the past couple of decades, many indicators have been developed which measure the performance of sustainable entrepreneurship. Not all cover a sufficient basis to provide a thorough evaluation, though. The goal of the study was to evaluate the expertise in sustainable entrepreneurship among large companies with metrics identified in the latest scientific literature review. In the process of the literature review, authors identified key metrics to measure the performance of sustainable entrepreneurship and split them into six groups. They mostly focus on social, environmental, and economic performance measurement. Relatively few research results mention the importance of corporate management indicators. Thus, the key metrics are distinctive by including corporate management as a separate aspect in the performance measurement. The conceptual framework is represented by the acronym BREEZE, including 6 groups of key metrics: brand awareness and consumer behaviour, responsibility for society and employees, environmentally friendly materials, ease of use and reuse (disposal), zero waste, economic performance (approbated on focus group discussion and expert interviews). The results revealed that the expertise levels in sustainable entrepreneurship among the large companies are fair. Complementary data analyses were carried out; as a result, authors developed a self-evaluation matrix in sustainable entrepreneurship.

Covid-19 has affected the whole economy of Latvia, leading to various social and economic problems in the country. Social economy actors applying an innovative approach to solving social problems could make a significant contribution to improvement in social life, especially during the Covid-19 crisis and the post-crisis by supplying various services and products, helping the state to solve gaps that it cannot cope with without the help of the private or non-governmental sector. The research aims to describe the challenges faced by social economy actors in Latvia during Covid-19 and their responses to the crisis. The research employed case study analysis to describe the responses of 9 social economy organizations to mitigate the consequences of the crisis. The research found that Covid-19 had a negative impact on the performance of social economy actors faced by financial, organizational, social and psychological challenges, which overall did not significantly differ from those faced by other market actors in the particular situation. To solve the current problems in society and ensure their self-existence, social economy actors implemented an innovating strategy that focused on three priorities: new digital experiences, products and services in response to changes in customer behaviours and needs; development of new offers for a new or the current target group; new partnerships both within and outside the industry.

Private pension plans envisage a voluntary choice of a person to make additional savings for the retirement by joining a private pension plan and making contributions. In 2023, six open private pension funds offered twenty pension plans. Private pension funds provide three types of investment strategies: conservative, balanced and active ones. The research aim is to assess the performance of the private pension plans in Latvia. The research is based on the analysis of the statistical data on the return of assets and other performance indicators of private pension plans as well as it employs the correlation and regression analyses. The data analysis shows a steady increase (annually 6.24% on average) in the population participation in private pension plans. Active plan participants account for 51.42% on average, while the proportion of deferred participants is also large, i.e. 30.40% on average. Short-term returns of private pension plans are very fluctuating with expressive increases and decreases where the active pension plans demonstrated the most unstable return trends. The sharpest return decline was observed in 2022, when the arithmetic total average return of all private pension plans was – 14.63%. The basic reasons mentioned are the changes in investment portfolio, global downturn of stock markets and sharp growth of inflation. Long-term returns show a positive growth through the entire period analysed, i.e. 4.16% on average. This means that a short-term decline of returns does not signal of future decrease in the amount of pension, since contributions to pension plans are considered to be a long-term investment.

The society has changed its habits, and public demand requires a more extensive offer of environmentally friendly goods and services on the market, including more products of plant origin. New plant-based products continuously appear on the market. As competition in the segment of plant-based beverages intensifies, brands are forced into differentiating their products by including elements of sustainable marketing in their marketing materials to induce consumers into making purchase decisions and purchases. This study aims to find out which sustainable marketing elements contribute to consumer decisions to purchase and consume plant-based beverages. The article presents the results and trends based on the 1st stage of the study – a pilot survey and structured in-depth expert interviews. The pilot survey identified the key sustainable marketing elements in consumer decisions to purchase plant-based beverages: product availability at food supermarkets; advertising at point of sale indicating price discounts; healthy product composition and raw materials; convenient in-store placement, price discounts and natural raw materials, etc. Based on the results of the pilot survey, there were changes made in the consumer questionnaire, and the 2nd stage of the study – a survey of the Latvian population to find out the complex factors affecting consumer buying decisions – was launched in February 2024.

Recent developments in politics and economy has created additional challenges for medical institutions with lack of medical personnel, transportation from rural areas to medical institutions. Very often, there is a difference between medical services in urban and rural areas. In research is often mentioned that male and female persons have different evaluations on their health situation. The aim of the paper is to prepare research based recommendations for possible steps for public administrators to support availability of medical services in urban and rural areas. Tasks of the current research: analysis of theoretical findings reflected in scientific publications and discussion of research results, analysis of tendencies of self-perceived health status of population in Latvia, analysis on possible differences between gender as in scientific publications is often mentioned that female and male persons have different evaluations, analysis of health self-evaluations between inhabitants in rural and urban territories and possible differences in evaluations for persons with different employment status. Representative data from EUSILC, different statistical analysis methods and statistical indicators are used: indicators of descriptive statistics, crosstabulations, testing of statistical hypotheses with t-test and analysis of variance – ANOVA, chi-square test, as well as correlation analysis. Research results confirm that self-perceived health status in Latvia are higher in rural areas and higher health self-esteem evaluations were made by female persons.

Employment is a crucial indicator of economic development and growth, making employment policy a key component of national and regional socio-economic strategies. Self-employment is a significant form of employment widely practiced in Latvia and other EU Member States as a means to initiate businesses and integrate into the labour market. As of 2022, about 27.66 million self-employed individuals, constituting roughly 14% of the EU workforce, contribute to the European economy. Modern work dynamics allow individuals to earn income as employees or self-employed, with flexible employment forms, including self-employment, gaining popularity due to several advantages. These advantages include increased flexibility, personal independence, opportunities to join or stay in the labour market, and the potential to earn additional income alongside a primary job. However, self-employment also has its drawbacks. It can be exploited to evade taxes and bypass labour laws, leading to ʻfalse self-employmentʼ. While this may appear advantageous for the self-employed, it primarily benefits employers by reducing their costs. This practice can severely limit the self-employedʼs access to social protection and adversely impact their quality of life and financial stability in situations of social risk, such as illness, disability, or retirement. Self-employment involves various economic, psychological, sociological, and managerial dimensions and entails considerable risk. Global trends indicate that individuals in lower-income countries are more likely to be self-employed, whereas those in higher-income countries tend to have paid employment.

One of the main factors thanks to which the Ukrainian economy withstood the powerful beginning of the full-scale military invasion of Russia and has been maintaining courage for more than two years, is the high level of social initiatives of business and self-awareness of Ukrainian society. Agricultural companies not only protect their business, but also continue to work to support the army, their workers, communities and vulnerable population. The article analyses the features of the implementation of corporate social responsibility as a modern business strategy. The specifics of corporate social responsibility practices of agricultural companies have been established, which is aimed at: socio-psychological and financial support for company employees; ensuring the defence capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and related structures; humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons and vulnerable populations; support of territorial communities in the regions of presence. New directions of CSR, the emergence of which was a direct consequence of the war, have been identified and systematized. It has been established that these include: additional emergency leaves; military leaves with retention of compensation; regular emotional check-ins in teams; ‘Ukraine firstʼ case, ‘National Identityʼ case, ‘Ukraine Culture Codeʼ case. It was determined that the essence of these new cases is meaningful national education, support of national identity, raising the level of awareness of Ukrainian cultural heritage and debunking myths about ‘Sovietʼ Ukraine. Furthermore, it was established that the emergence of such practices is connected with a clear understanding of Ukrainian society about the need to rebuild the state after the victory.

In Lithuania, as well as throughout Europe, the areas of natural meadows and pastures are gradually decreasing due to the intensification of agriculture, leading to the ploughing of meadows and the consequent loss of valuable biodiversity, a crucial component of the landscape. The problems associated with meadow and pasture reduction is essential for informed decision-making, sustainable land management, the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Various methods, including comparative, analytical, statistical, and logical analysis, were employed in the investigation. The comparative study employed information from the Land Fund of the Republic of Lithuania covering the period from 2003 to 2023. The article also analyses the reasons and perspectives of the decrease in meadow and natural pasture areas. In 2023, meadows and natural pastures in the Republic of Lithuania covered 362,351.79 ha, constituting 5.55% of the countryʼs territory. From 2003 to 2023, the total area of meadows and natural pastures decreased by 135,439.55 hectares or 27.21%. From 2003 to 2023, in nine out of ten Lithuanian counties, the areas of meadows and pastures decreased. The most significant loss of these areas occurred in Siauliai County (36,828.33 ha or 59.02%), while the least loss was in Klaipeda County (141.05 ha or 0.34%). The decrease in meadow and natural pasture areas can be attributed to various factors: changes in land use, urbanization, climate change and other influencing factors. The area of meadows and pastures in Lithuania should increase by 87,000 hectares, and meadows and pastures in country would cover an area of 449,351.79 ha or 6.88% of the total area of the Republic of Lithuania.

This paper provides an overview of recent progress reached in semi-transparent photovoltaic systems (STPV), which are being assessed as a potential solution to enhance the productivity of plant grown in greenhouses. Utilizing this kind of renewable energy resources, relating with plant growing is attractive solution to increase sustainability for citizens. The aim of this study is to find out recent advances for application of various semi-transparent photovoltaic systems which can be integrated in greenhouses. Solar PVs are among dependable, mature and cost-effective renewable energy systems and solutions, which are promising for building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) application. The main emerging photovoltaic candidates for BIPV are amorphous silicon, kesterite, chalcopyrite, CdTe, dye-sensitized, organic and perovskite based systems. A monographic study approach has been utilized in this investigation, in ordain to compile and analyse the photovoltaic systems for BIPV mainly investigating and comparing two main parameters: average visible transmittance (AVT) and power conversion efficiency (PCE). The rapid development of new materials and structures for the manufacture of semi-transparent solar panels allows a balance to be struck between AVT, PCE and a comparison of the reviewed materials indicates that organic and perovskite are the most promising for semi-transparent solar panel production and application in greenhouse constructions, based on their PCE and AVT results.

Monitoring the operation of car engines using a smartphone and cloud services is a concept that falls within the field of intelligent vehicle technologies. Using information collection system, vehicle fleet companies can effectively manage the usage of their vehicles, minimizing investment and maintenance costs, preventing accidents and failures, identifying poor driving behaviour among employees, and reducing expenses associated with fuel, tires, and other resources. This approach involves collecting real-time data from the vehicle engine sensors, transferring data to the cloud via a smartphone, and then using cloud services to analyse and manage the information, making it understandable in a simple way. This review reflects on the working efficiency of internal combustion engines and the reduction of pollution to the environment, also gathers existing literature to gain insights into vehicle sensor data acquisition technology and systems in the automotive industry identifying gaps in current knowledge and provide a conceptual framework for next practical research in this field. After explaining the general idea of logistics tasks in technology development, various sensors and their methods are associated with engine properties are introduced. The research results show that most articles are about data acquisition systems from different systems. They can provide convenience and flexibility for users, allowing them to easily access and adjust settings on-the-go, enabling real-time monitoring and adjustment of engine performance, helping users optimize efficiency and performance based on their specific needs and preferences.