The increasing frequency and magnitude of adverse meteorological events together with the growing uncertainty in the upcoming future pose more and more challenges to agriculture. Therefore, the future sustainability of agriculture will increasingly depend on its resilience, i.e. the capacity to withstand various perturbations and to recover from them. The direct payment (DP) system of the EU Common agricultural policy (CAP) is the most financed EU support scheme for agriculture; however, research on its impact on the important phenomena of resilience is scarce and fragmented. In order to fill this gap, this paper offers an extensive overview of literature and a summarized list of factors that are mentioned most often as potentially influencing the agricultural resilience. Based on this, the possible impact of DP on agricultural resilience was analysed. In this paper, it is argued that this impact is transferred mostly through changing farms’ financial capabilities as well as farmers’ attitudes and behaviour, and is both positive and negative. Such phenomena as low crop insurance uptake and decrease in productivity may be due to the overcrowding effects of direct payments. These hypotheses are being tested in a survey, conducted in the meantime.

The culture industry and its human resources have been little researched in Latvia, yet research on the culture industry is important, because the industry makes a significant contribution to economic growth by promoting employment and the development of competitive regions. The culture industry encompasses libraries, folk art, theatre, music, museums, the creative industry and other sub-industries, yet in recent years those working in all the culture subindustries faced various challenges, including: a low remuneration and insufficient monetary and non-monetary bonuses, resulting in lower job satisfaction and a high personnel turnover. Accordingly, the aim of the research is to develop recommendations for hiring and retaining human resources by examining challenges in managing human resources in the culture industry. The authors conducted a survey among the personnel of the Board of Culture of Jelgava municipality. The survey found that the main challenges faced by the administration of the Board of Culture were an uncompetitive remuneration, the aging of the personnel and generational change as well as inefficient and insufficient motivation for working. The research has developed two scenarios for recruiting: ‘promotion of creativity and non-monetary motivation’ that aim to publicly appreciate human resources, so that they would feel important and significant as well as facilitate creativity, innovation and collective solidarity, while for the purpose of retaining human resources in a long-term and decreasing their turnover, the second scenario ‘competitive remuneration and the differentiation by position category’ aims to gradually raise the remuneration and differentiate it for all categories of personnel.

Company capital is essential in running business and creating value added for the stakeholders, including economy. How the view on company’s capital structure has evolved from theoretical perspective in the 20th century is needed to be assessed, in order to determine what concepts and theories, if any are relevant in the 21st century. Many theories have competed their way and transformed during the 20th century, while some, i.e. trade-off, signalling and stakeholder theories are still relevant in the 21st century. There are also new trends in the 21st century, new terms and quests shifting from determining and analysing optimal company’s capital structure to sustainable finance, taxonomy and also sustainability in capital structure. Therefore, the aim of this research: to establish existing main theories impacting and analysing company’s capital structure and to examine the theoretical shift of the theories based on the needs in the 21st century. Authors defined company’s capital structure and determined that during the years 1989–2020, number of research publications has grown significantly, thus validating the need to reassess theoretical background of capital structure theories in the 20th century, as well as to help to determine the trends still relative and emerging from the theoretical and practical aspects to company’s capital structure in the 21st century.

Given the growing worldwide tendencies of online shopping and increasing popularity of online grocery shopping, building customer-based brand equity for online grocery stores is gaining its popularity among business owners and marketers. Building good customer-based brand equity is considered to be one of the crucial goals for online businesses that lead to successful competition and good customer experience. The aim of this research is to determine customer-based brand equity dimensions for online grocery stores. To reach the aim, this paper adopts analysis and synthesis of scientific and practical literature in the field of customer-based brand equity and empirical research of three stages: field analysis, expert interviews and customer survey. 33 dimensions of customer-based brand equity for online grocery stores grouped in 8 dimension clusters were generated from the field analysis and expert interviews. Generated dimensions were provided for the evaluation during the customer survey. Empirical research proved 31 valid dimensions of customer-based brand equity for online grocery stores evaluated as very relevant, relevant and of average relevance. Main drivers of customer-based brand equity for online grocery stores that proved to be very relevant are: saving time, good price, fresh products, quality of service, and reputation of retail chain behind.

Nowadays, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flying at a low altitude in conjunction with photogrammetric and LiDAR technologies allows to collect images of very high-resolution to generate dense points cloud and to simulate geospatial data of territories. The technology used in experimental research contains reconstruction of topography of surface with historical structure, observing the recreational infrastructure, obtaining geographic information for users who are involved in preservation and inspection of such unique cultural/ heritage object as are mounds in Lithuania. In order to get reliable aerial mapping products of preserved unique heritage object, such photogrammetric/ GIS procedures were performed: UAV flight for taking images with the camera; scanning surface by LiDAR simultaneously; processing of image data, 3D modelling and generation of orthophoto. Evaluation of images processing results shows that the accuracy of surface modelling by the use of UAV photogrammetry method satisfied requirements – mean RMSE equal to 0.031 m. The scanning surface by LiDAR from low altitude is advisable, relief representation of experimental area was obtained with mean accuracy up to 0.050 m. Aerial mapping by the use of UAV requires to specify appropriate ground sample distance (GSD) that is important for reducing number of images and time duration for modelling of area. Experiment shows that specified GSD of 1.7 cm is not reasonable; GSD size increased by 1.5 times would be applicable. The use of different software in addition for DSM visualization and analysis is redundant action.

Experience saved in the construction industry shows that the timber portal frames with semi-rigid connections at knee joint exhibit permanently increase displacements at the knee and apex point. Normally, timber portal frame with semi-rigid knee joint connection is made with mechanical fasteners located in double circles and cannot be designed without relevant rotation at connection during structures’ exploitation time. The only way to increase connection rigidity is to rise distance from fasteners location at connection, but at the same time, the tension and shear stress become significant at the external section of members. The previous experience is obtained by a model testing showing that deformations at semi-rigid connections are non-linear. These were tests under short-term load and did not disclose creep effects, which can be significant. This study is aimed at the examination of increasing deformations with time under constant static load (creep effects) in semi-rigid dowelled connection. Experimental test models were made and set under long-term load in controlled environmental conditions (heated laboratory room). Results show a significant creep influence to decrease connection stiffness. Corresponding numerical test of orthotropic 3d model by Dlubal RFEM software tools was performed analysing the value of expected deformations. Results of the numerical test showed that friction between timber elements and extra nuts on bolts can increase connection stiffness. Research results in this stage show that the creep can affect connection stiffness more than expected. Also, experimental test results showed lower deformation values comparing with the ones obtained by the numerical test.

The socio-economic changes brought about by globalisation, the internationalisation and digitalisation of higher education, as well as the current demographic situation in Europe and Latvia, raise the issue of the competitiveness of academic staff in the context of multicultural higher education. The aim of the study is to provide a theoretical basis for the competitiveness of academic staff in the view of educational sciences, respecting the different trends and based on the conceptual approaches in personal/specialist competitiveness research. The following research methods were used: study, analysis and evaluation of scientific literature (theoretical research method); reflection of personal experience (empirical research method). As a result of the theoretical research, two trends for the substantiation of the concept of competitiveness in the educational sciences were identified. The first trend: the competitiveness of a person is substantiated through transfers from economic and management science, with a particular emphasis on specialist marketability and employability as a significant manifestation of competitiveness. The second trend: according to the new paradigm of competitiveness in educational sciences, the competitiveness of a human as a person and as a specialist is based on the perspective of pedagogy and psychology. The research results led to the conclusion that there are three conceptual approaches in the methodology of competitiveness research: 1) qualitative approach: identifies and lists competitive personality traits and qualities; 2) functional approach: describes the competitive behaviour of a person or specialist; 3) structural approach: competitiveness is substantiated as a complex combination of personal/ specialist qualities, identifying several structural components. All of these approaches are also characteristic to the research of competitiveness of academic staff. The following taxonomy should be respected in the substantiation of academic staff competitiveness: 1) substantiation of personal competitiveness; 2) substantiation of specialist competitiveness in the context of different industries; 3) the substantiation of the competitiveness of specifically academic staff in the context of the specifics of higher education.

Research in many countries across the world, including Latvia, shows that youth participation in national defence is a topical issue. So far, scholarly research focusing on the promotion of youth participation in national defence and the provision of career support at school age and after finishing school is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the research was to establish the basis for young people’s military career in national defence. Research results show that there is both theoretical and legal basis for young people to start a military career, already during school years. Based on the broad meaning of the concepts career and career development, young people’s self-development, self-management and self-actualisation in various fields of human activity over one’s lifetime emerge as topical issues. Such activities of various kinds may follow one another in succession or take place simultaneously, in parallel, in accordance with dual career theories. The beginning and development of young people’s military career in Latvia can occur in the context of various activities already present and available in the near future: 1) participation in the Latvian Youth Guard as a type of non-formal education, 2) acquisition of National defence training at school in the context of formal education, 3) upon reaching legal age, voluntarily joining the Latvian National Guard, which is a component of the National Armed Forces of the Republic of Latvia.

Dialogue (discourse) is the main indication leading us to the conclusion that mediation is constructive. Discourse, the main form of dialogue, allows to achieve a positive result of mediation – an agreement between the participants of the conflict, as well as to learn dialogue communication skills. The aim of this study is to determine the types of dialogue used in mediation, the usage of recognized dialogue, and to find methods for assessing the dialogue (discourse) skills that need to be taught to the participants of the conflict, as well as future mediators and to evaluate the effectiveness of mediation. The research was conducted based on the theoretical methods of analysis of modern concept of dialogue and empirical testing methods (using questionnaires) of the participants of the conflicts and future mediators. Methods of mathematical statistics were used, when processing and analysing the results of the questionnaires. As a result of this work, the types of dialogue used in mediation are identified; recommendations on the choice of components and barriers of dialogue to be considered by the mediator when training participants in the conflict and future mediators are made, as well as recommendations on assessment the effectiveness of mediation are offered.

The capercaillie Tetrao urogallus L. is a typical bird species inhabiting structurally diverse coniferous forests. To increase the habitat quality of capercaillie leks, experimentally the habitat restoration in degraded ecosystems has been practiced. The main habitat restoration events are related to the reversion of hydrological regime and understorey layer management. The aim of this study was to find out how the management of lek sites – mowing of Ledum palustre L. and ground vegetation – promotes the regeneration of the vegetation typical of the capercaillie leks. Three sample plot blocks of 10x30 m have been established, which have been divided into 3 variants of 10x10 m. The first is a control plot, in the second plot an entire ground vegetation mowing was performed, while in the third plot – the ground vegetation mowing in a 3 m wide strip was carried out. The vegetation was determined using the BraunBlanquet recording form before the management – in August 2015, and after the management – in August 2017. The condition of the habitat of capercaillie is inadequate before management, since Ledum palustre prevails in the ground vegetation. Both types of ground vegetation management have had a significant impact on the projective cover of Ledum palustre. After mowing the entire area, it has decreased by half, but after mowing in a strip, it has decreased by 30%. The ground vegetation mowing in a strip enhances positively the regeneration of dwarf shrubs and herbaceous vegetation.