The paper provides the study of specific spatial conditions of rural development of Arctic zone regions in Russia during 2000 – 2015. The aim of the paper is to propose the methodology for rural development disparities study in the Russian Arctic. Spatial development of the Arctic is described by a system of indicators, reflecting the system of the resettlement, the level and quality of life: total population size, life expectancy at birth, housing stock etc. The extent and nature of disparities, particularly, social and economic disparities within the rural territories of the Arсtic are explained. The assessment has been based on min-max ratio, coefficient of variation as well as Gini index. Eliminating excessive spatial differences in the social development of urban and rural territories of Arctic regions, improving the demographic situation, raising the level and quality of life of the population should be seen as a priority of the state policy in the Arctic in order to make it attractive for living.

Public food procurement is a complex system with a large number of participants, and it is regulated by a number of laws and regulations on different sectors, and there is involved a number of controlling bodies. The research aim is to explore and analyze the laws and regulations governing public food procurement in Latvia and to identify the main obstacles to food purchases from local producers. By purchasing food, local governments or authorities have to fulfill the European Union (EU) and the Latvian statutory requirements for both the correct procurement procedures, both on food safety and hygiene norms throughout the whole food product life cycle. Purchasing food from local producers is a challenge, because on the one hand, the EC Treaty and a number of other documents request the free movement of goods and equal rights for all market participants, on the other – the local community and local government is interested in providing school students with high-quality, natural food and in promoting small local businesses. The solution is to use green public procurement (GPP) criteria in the public food procurement. However, in the implementation of the GPP there are several disadvantages for both the local government and local food producers. By studying Latvian and other EU countries’ experiences, it can be concluded that barriers to local food producers to participate in local government food procurement are related to both competitiveness and production storage and regular supply assurance.

Given the intensive competition in almost all the business sectors, customer loyalty research is gaining its popularity among marketers as well as among scholars. The aim of this research was to determine the differences in loyalty to grocery retailer between urban and rural consumers. In order to reveal the differences, questionnaire research was provided and differences between Lithuanian urban and rural customer loyalties were determined. The research results indicated the existence of statistically significant differences between the loyalties of Lithuanian urban and rural regarding their mostly visited grocery retailers in terms of their attitudes and repeat patronage behaviour. Moreover, based on the neo-behaviouristic approach, considering attitudinal and behavioural measures, all kinds of loyalties were observed stronger in the urban areas of Lithuania. The assumption was made that there might be an effect of limited-choice condition. Affected by the latter condition, rural citizens tend to seek for variety more than the urban ones. Consequently, considering the rural citizens’ evaluations, it can be stated that their loyalty is undermanaged, resulting in a very low amounts of truly loyal customers. Therefore, for the grocery retailers it was recommended to revise their customer loyalty schemes based on the point of residence of their consumers. In such a way the higher possibility of meeting consumer needs might be achieved.

Apple trees are the most common fruit tree type in the EU covering 450 000 ha. At the global scale, the largest apple exporters are EU-27, China, Chile and the USA, but the largest importers – the EU-27 and Russia. In the EU and Russia, large volumes of apples are imported during the cold time of the year. The market for fresh fruit has traditionally been driven by price, but today’s market has become even more dynamic and consumers – more fastidious. The aim of the article is to identify the main determinants influencing prices of fresh fruits and indicate a range of differences between winter and summer prices of fruits based on the example of apples. The current research should be regarded as a ‘work in progress’, as it will be a part of more extensive research conducted in several EU countries and different times of the year. In the present research, the authors have used comparative analysis, which was based on theoretical literature studies, publications and statistical data available in EUROSTAT databases as well as statistical data aggregated by Spanish, Polish and Latvian market research institutions.

Europe is the number two producer of beer worldwide. However, the quantity of beer sold in Latvia in the last decade did not increase considerably, and the average quantity of beer consumed per capita rose very slowly. Even though beer consumption was stable in Latvia, the quantity of beer supplied to the market was approximately three times greater than the quantity of the other kinds of alcoholic beverages combined, totalling about 15 million dekalitres. Besides, in recent years in Latvia the segment of craft beers tended to increase, which became increasingly popular in Western Europe and the number of small breweries sharply increased there. In Latvia, the number of small breweries increased at a slower pace, therefore, the research aim was to examine the factors influencing the development of small breweries in Latvia. The research found that most of the breweries in Latvia qualified for the status of small brewery, the output of which did not exceed 50 000 dekalitres per year. Although small breweries produced craft beers, yet their performance and development were considerably influenced by the activity of the large breweries and the purchasing power of consumers. Small breweries positively influence the beer drinking traditions of Latvians, which can contribute to the stable development of the small breweries. Small breweries have their competitive advantages in the market, which is due to the quality and assortment of their products, as well as they perform extra economic activities that contribute to their recognition.

Nowadays ICT has a significant role in public administration by creating opportunities to automate a lot of manual operations. ICT plays an important role both in improving customer service in public administrations as well as internal and inter-institutional co-operation processes in public administrations that promote access to services and service quality, facilitate administrative processes for citizens and businesses and contribute to the accessibility of information. Public authority daily faces a major challenge – on the one hand to reduce labour costs and on the other hand to introduce innovations. In the implementation of both these objectives public administrations deal with a serious problem – to operate in a connected environment by involving stakeholders and at the same time to solve problems by using new working methods, tools and management models. One of the strategic objectives of tax and customs administrations is to increase resource use efficiency and effectiveness; therefore, they continuously search solutions to simplify administrative procedures, to improve and develop the quality of services provided and the business environment in general, and how to automate internal work processes and significantly reduce manual workload. This study aims to examine the structure affecting the efficiency indicators, to point out the factors which have the biggest impact on increasing effectiveness of institutions.

In foreign studies Latvia is positioned as a ‘depressive’ region in the year 2030, which will have an insufficient population of young people. Thus, Latvia as a country with a business-friendly environment will not be able to be competitive relative to other European countries and the flow of investment will be at risk, as well as passed on other, more competitive and better developed regions in demographic terms (Grinevica et al ., 2016). It is one of the main reasons to deal with the youth unemployment problem and to realize the actuality and consequences. Also, one of the EU’s priorities of development is to reduce youth unemployment. National labour force surveys (Hoffman, 2011) show that since 2008 the youth unemployment rate has risen in all the EU countries (Hjūza & Borbējs-Pece, 2012). The current economic instability in the context of youth’s prospects and opportunities in the labour market is uncertain (Balan, 2014). Youth unemployment has also a negative effect on economic growth and productivity. The aim of the paper is to identify the importance of unemployed youths and draw the society’s attention to the consequences. The paper presents a brief analysis of importance of unemployment costs as well as the calculation of an economic loss from youth unemployment in Latvia. The result was calculated using Okun’s Law concept.

Academic staff of higher education institutions has to extend students’ vision and promote their variability of views on competitiveness in order to promote prospective hospitality managers’ competitiveness. The aim and goal of academic activities of the university teaching staff is to search for appropriate or relevant means and provide the necessary conditions to foster the students’ thinking and understanding of the concept of ‘competitiveness’ according to a new paradigm of this notion. The pedagogical experiment was carried out at the Latvia University of Agriculture. The aim of the study was to promote the opinions’ change regarding the notion of prospective hospitality managers’ competitiveness; the developed competitiveness self-assessment method was used as a pedagogical tool. The results of the research (the concluding statistics of the Wilcoxon test and the Sign Test) show that the students’ opinions regarding the notion of prospective hospitality managers’ competitiveness have significantly changed before and after their competitiveness self-assessment. Thus the theoretically grounded method of competitiveness self-assessment approved by students and experts, including a questionnaire of the students’ survey, significantly extended the students’ vision as a pedagogical tool influencing the opinions regarding competitiveness notion among representatives of the prospective hospitality managers’ profession.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is one of the most widespread coniferous species in boreal zones and it has a considerable economic importance in the Baltic countries. The impact of fungi on Scots pine has been known also historically, but it is predicted that it will increase in future due to climate changes that will have a positive effect on incidence and vitality of various species of fungi. The aim of the study was to characterize the occurrence of Lophodermium spp. in young stands of Scots pine in Latvia. Needle samples were collected from young pine stands (aged 1 – 14 years) located in all regions of Latvia. DNA extraction from needles was done using modified CTAB protocol, presence of Lophodermium in total extracted DNA was detected using a PCR method. Meteorological data – air temperature and precipitation – were obtained from all 34 observation stations of the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre. The presence of Lophodermium spp. was detected in all surveyed stands, and occurrence differences between the western and eastern regions were significant (p = 0.004). The occurrence of Lophodermium spp. in the eastern and western regions was affected by the meteorological conditions in autumn and winter of the previous years, as well as differences in the given years’ air temperature and precipitation. In 2016, the eastern region of Latvia had a higher May−August precipitation and, to a lesser extent, temperature, which correlated with a higher occurrence of Lophodermium spp.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of models developed by Repola (2006) to estimate the vertical changes of the basic density of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst), and birch spp. (mainly Betula pendula Roth) stemwood in the forests of Latvia and to develop a model for the estimation of average knot-free stem density with bark (SD) using diameter at breast height as an independent variable. The study material comprised a total of 81 spruce, 102 pine, and 105 birch stems representing a wide range of tree growing conditions in Latvia and covering all age classes. The knot-free stemwood density (SWD) of pine and birch demonstrate strong vertical dependence along the stem, while for spruce the variation pattern was less pronounced and seemed to be nearly constant along the stem. The SWD estimated by Repola’s models was 4.3% lower for spruce, but 3.4% higher for pine and 2.2% for birch comparing to average values obtained in this study. Sigmoidal regression equations constructed in our study explained 67%, 27% and 54% of variations for predicting SD for pine, spruce and birch, respectively. Birch stemwood has a highest basic SWD – 470 kg mE-3, followed by pine – 397 kg mE-3 and spruce – 385 kg mE-3. According to our results, the birch bark turned to be denser than the birch stemwood, being vice versa for the studied coniferous species.