Nowadays, when the general rate of unemployment in Latvia is not that high anymore, there are still a lot of people who are unemployed for many years and during all those years they are abusing the budget of municipality by receiving social benefits. The aim of the article was to examine the way how the long-term unemployed social benefit receivers assess the meaning of support in job searching. On the basis of The Theory of Planned Behaviour a questionnaire was developed by the authors, 37 long-term unemployed social benefit receivers registered in Riga Social Service were asked to take part in the survey and gave informed consent. The results show that the respondents who are longer unemployed receive more support from their families. Statistically significant correlations (p=0.03) were found between the duration of unemployment and person’s determination to search a job, the unemployed who are longer without a job are less active in job searching process. Direct support in the job searching process is deeply connected with the possibility to share individual’s thoughts and emotions with the family. There is no statistically significant correlation between men and women responses.

Icing notably increases the mass of a tree crown, causing damage to the tree. So far, a very limited number of studies have assessed the icing influence on coniferous trees, none of them in Latvia. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of tree parameters and recent thinning on the proportion of damaged trees and the type of damage in Scots pine stands. The study sites were located in the eastern part of Latvia, damaged in December 2012. In total, 98 pine dominated stands of different age were selected randomly. Eight (mean) plots per stand were established; in each plot, all trees larger than 2.1 cm were measured and the type of damage assessed. The above-ground biomass from 12 randomly selected stands (57 dominant trees) of different age was weighted with and without icing. The biomass of pine with icing exceeded that without 1.5 ± 0.27 times. The mean proportion of damaged trees in pine dominated stands was 26%; the proportion of broken trees peaked in the middle-aged stands (41 – 70 years old), but the largest proportion of pooled bent and uprooted trees was found in the young (11 – 20 years old) stands. The proportion of damaged dominant trees was affected by the slenderness coefficient – a higher proportion of such trees was found among more slender trees. The results suggest that the risk of icing damage could be reduced by silvicultural measures boosting individual tree stability.

The aim of the paper is the assessment of the changes in productivity expressed as the share of production costs in total output and its breakdown by major cost types of Latvian and Lithuanian farms over the period of the implementation of Rural Development Programme (RDP 2007 – 2013). The country’s agricultural productivity is determined by comparison of the total agricultural output value (in producer prices) and total inputs which include intermediate consumption expenditure, depreciation, labour costs and other external costs. The information for the analysis was sourced from the standardized Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data. The results show that productivity level is higher in Lithuanian farms, although the tendency is that the share of costs in production value is increasing in Lithuania, so the difference between two countries is reducing. The changes of productivity in both countries infer the relative growth in the productivity in crop farming both in Latvia and Lithuania respective to dairy farming, as well as the productivity of large farms respective to small and medium farms. The comparisons of major cost items reveal an especially high level of energy costs in Latvia, as well as a high and soaring level of depreciation in Lithuania, especially in dairy farms. In the future policy making, it is worthwhile to design the measures targeting the confinement of risks and negative trends identified in the study.

The scientific literature does not contain any single classification of management style. When dividing management styles into the classic and the new, the changes towards the nature of manager’s exposure to employees are taken into account. When analysing the structure of manager’s style, it is necessary to take into consideration the key factors: the conditions shaping management style, the opportunities for the manager to change and improve it purposefully. The efficiency of manager’s behaviour, together with the choice of management style, resulted in various objective and subjective factors. Objective factors include the factors which cannot (or very little) be affected by the environment. Subjective factors depend only on personal qualities which can be developed and improved. This article deals with objective and subjective factors shaping management style of a manager. The results of the empirical study on the structure of management styles of Kaunas district non-governmental organisations (hereinafter referred to as NGOs) have been presented, as well as the most significant advantages and disadvantages of objective and subjective factors shaping management style. Based on the data of the theoretical analysis and empirical study, improvement directions of the problematic factors of NGOs management styles have been identified and substantiated, taking into consideration the elimination of management style drawbacks.

People in their lives are divided into different social groups that cooperate with each other; all people are involved in many social groups at one time that may depend and mutually cooperate. The article shows how regional development centres Talsi and Cesis cooperate with other society groups in their territory to develop a smart public administration. The cooperation level was determined by a survey that was provided to the municipality workers, NGO members, and employees in higher education institutions, companies and mass media. The results show that the cooperation is above average, though a lot of work should be done to provide smart public administration in territories. Both municipalities are similar in their size, municipality structure and used cooperation approaches, therefore it is essential to learn from each other to receive greater loyalty from residents and improve cooperation that is significant for smart administration.

In recent years, farmers’ markets have become one of the most popular places for alimentary shopping. People searching for the alternative and healthier products often choose farmers’ markets instead of shopping centres. However, farmers’ markets face the same or even tougher competition than the conventional shopping places: farmers not only compete with powerful shopping chains, they have to compete among each other for every single customer. Therefore, customer loyalty becomes inevitable in this industry. Knowing the factors that lead customers to switch to another vendor becomes very important for consumer retention. The aim of the research is to determine the factors influencing customer switching behaviour in farmers’ markets in Lithuania. In order to reach the aim, the research was conducted in several stages: 1) the expert evaluation was provided to determine the factors influencing the customer switching behaviour that would be relevant to the industry; 2) a questionnaire survey regarding latter factors was provided; 3) the influence of the factors on customer switching behaviour regarding the different states of customer loyalty was assessed.

The aim of the research is to determine the criteria of internal factors influencing the effectiveness of outdoor advertising. The eye-tracking experiment was conducted in Lithuania in 2016. Consumers’ visual attention toward specific criteria of internal factors influencing the effectiveness of outdoor advertising was measured. The chosen criteria were headline font size, the number of elements in the advertisement, and dominating elements in the advertisement (visual or textual). The main results of the research reveal that when the surface size of visual and textual outdoor advertising elements is the same, textual elements attract more visual attention than visual ones and that advertisements containing a large number of elements attract more visual attention than the ones containing a small number of elements. Moreover, when the font sizes of two headlines are both larger than the body text, but those headlines differ in font size one from another, there is no significant difference in consumers’ visual attention toward those headlines. Consequently, it is recommended to create outdoor advertisements with a large number of elements, where most of them are textual, in order to attract the consumers’ attention.

The objective of the research paper is to explore the competitiveness of Latvian dairy sector from the aspect of productivity and export indicators, as well as to examine some of the possibilities to improve the sector competitiveness. The authors explore the productivity and export indicators of Latvian dairy sector, and the link between productivity and export (within the EU context), as well as analyse the impact of farm investment support within RDP 2007 – 2013. Value added per labour unit has been chosen as the productivity indicator; suitable qualitative and quantitative research methods have been applied to the studies. Based on the introduced indices of relative position of dairy industry productivity and exports, dairy processing in Latvia has strong inter-branch position in the domestic food industry. However, the inter-country comparison shows that Latvian dairy processing is behind the EU average level, when its productivity and export volume are considered. It has been found that productivity and export of dairy processing are positively related; rather strong positive correlation also exists between productivity in dairy farming and dairy processing. Therefore, the development of Latvian dairy sector, which mainly depends on the development of exports, can be more successfully achieved by the increase in its productivity; and relatively the largest productivity gap to close is in the dairy farming in Latvia. The direct investment support effect on NVA/AWU of dairy farms is found to be significant and positive, indicating that farm modernisation support of RDP 2007 – 2013 has facilitated the improvement of overall dairy farm productivity in Latvia.

The article is of a cognitive and application nature. The research objective is to distinguish harmonious management principles applicable to the management of public sector efficiency. Results of the article achieved: 1) The analysis was done of the management principles in social models, as well as between them and harmonious management and its exclusive features. Harmonious management in this article is treated as a continuation of the analysis of the public administration evolution. The extracted specific management principles of conduct can be used for a comparative analysis between the social management models. 2) The analysis was done of harmonious management directions, which may be applied to a public sector organization. 3) The article discusses the process of harmonization and presented stages. Harmonious management process logic diagram integrated exchange organizations into a cohesive process model and principles for promoting efficient activities. 4) The article presents the proposals and conclusions of different options and the need to apply the harmonious management of public sector management to gain efficiency. The aim of the research is to identify the principles of harmonious management applicable to public sector management for the purpose of effectiveness. The paper is based on the scientific literature and document analysis and synthesis, systematization, comparative analysis and case studies. In this article the case study is used by local authorities, which are represented by the public sector. Empirical research is conducted by using the quantitative standardized expert interview method. Visualization method is used, too.

The preservation of cultural heritage has become an important component of government policies of the EU and, of course, Latvia. Along with the preservation of cultural heritage, the use of it is also important. The aim of the research is to choose the best scenario for the use of cultural heritage in developing rural tourism in Latvia. The paper focuses on the problem of use of cultural heritage in the rural tourism development. The paper defined three scenarios for the use of cultural heritage in developing rural tourism: the initiative of entrepreneurs, public organisations and residents; the programme funded by national and regional institutions; the EU fund for the preservation of cultural heritage. A decision on the choice of the most appropriate scenario was made based on an expert decision-making method – the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Out of the three scenarios seven experts: rural craftsmen, a municipality vice leader, a civil servant from the Latvia Ministry of Finance, representatives from rural tourism organisations and the Association of Rural Female organisations, chose the third scenario – the EU fund for the preservation of cultural heritage.