Baltic States and Finland are vibrant regions with similar sized population and historical experience. Their adaptation to the new digital era is undermined by lack of professionals. Across the EU a major reason for labour shortage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields professionals lies in the insufficient supply of higher education graduates due to stagnant enrolment rates in STEM fields. The aim of this research addresses the existing trends in tertiary STEM education in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This includes the tasks of analysing the quantitative trends (enrolment and graduation) in the HEIs of Baltics and Finland over the period from 2013 to 2017 as well as analysing the structural changes taking place in the respective higher education systems from 2013 to 2018. The Baltic States combined have numerical advantages in terms of young people, and young professionals (25−34 year olds) with tertiary education. However, in terms of the number of students and graduates Finland is at the forefront. The largest proportion of students enrolling in STEM fields lie within Finland (33.9%) whereas the smallest one is in Latvia (24.0%). Finland is also a leader in the share and total number of information and communication technology (ICT) graduates. In the period 2013−2017 Latvia’s results improved in two (5th and 6th) of the STEM study fields, Lithuania made a remarkable result in one STEM (6th) field by 46.9%, Estonia saw a relative increase in the 5th and 6th study field while Finland experienced a numerical decrease in all three STEM fields.

The variety of study methods used at universities still is conservative and more pragmatic, but there is an increasing tendency to change study methodology to more and more student-centred and to focus on the students’ ability to become valuable workforce for SMEs. The necessity for development of study methods clearly demonstrates the research problem. At the same time, universities are facing pressure from governmental authorities to internationalize – student and teacher mobility, international partners and projects are highly recommended. The main process at universities is the study process. But also internationalization should support the study process and students in achieving practice-based learning outcomes. Facing these challenges, NOBANET network of universities has elaborated and piloted the study method Cross-Border Assignments (CBA) linking students’ future ability to successfully incorporate in the job market and the requirement for internationalization of studies. The aim of this article is to introduce and assess the CBA as a method to involve student work and students to engage in entrepreneurship problems. The authors have collected and analysed feedback of 10 CBAs implemented in 6 different universities. The feedback was received by using questionnaires with mainly closed questions. The results show that companies are satisfied with students’ work and they also appreciate teachers. The main conclusion about assessment of this method gives valuable contribution to scientific literature as a description of modern study method and good practice in linking HEIs and SMEs. Gratitude is expressed to the Nordic Council of Ministers for funding NOBANET project and project EKOSOC-LV, part 5.2.2. and INTERFRAME-LV.

Tourism development contributes to the vitality of rural areas: it increases employment opportunities for residents, promotes the development of relations among different business entities and attractiveness of rural environment. In this article, the situation regarding the development of one type of tourism – educational tourism – in Lithuanian rural areas, factors encouraging and limiting this development have been analysed. The research question is what are the main problems regarding the development of educational tourism in rural areas. The aim of the research is to present relevant solutions after the analysis of the problems regarding the development of educational tourism in rural areas. Theoretical research was performed while applying methods of content analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and other researches. The method of case analysis was chosen to describe the state of the development of educational tourism and to identify main problems. In total 18 cases were analysed (18 providers of the educational tourism services in rural areas). In order to collect necessary information, methods of semi-structured interview, analysis of secondary informational resources and direct participation in researched educational programs were applied. The development of educational tourism is promoted by the factors related to the environment of manor, historical place or nature as well as professional qualification, working experience, enthusiasm and ability to be flexible about customers’ needs of actors responsible for rural development. Volatility of demand regarding educational programs, lack of specialists and challenges related to cooperation were identified as problematic issues.

In a period of economic prosperity, the real estate market is very active. The demand for real estate is causing the growth of prices, thus inducing people to sell their properties. As the easiest and often most convenient way of selling the property is partnering a real estate company, even 95 per cent of sales are provided through the mediation. However, the increasing demand in services is often leading to the decrease in service quality. It is worth mentioning that, while the amount of real estate agencies is increasing, service quality becomes the main competitive advantage for companies. In order to contribute to a body of knowledge on service quality, this research deals with a problem: what service quality is provided by real estate agencies to farmers selling their properties, and what service quality dimensions have to be improved. The research aims to establish the undermanaged dimensions of service quality obtained by Lithuanian farmers selling their property through real estate agencies. The determination of latter dimensions is crucial for real estate agencies achieving to successfully compete in the market of real estate in Lithuania. In order to reach the aim of the research, previously elaborated service quality models were analysed and adapted to a current research framework. The questionnaire survey was provided to establish a model of service quality real estate agencies expected by farmers selling their property. Finally, the four-dimensional REASQ model was established.

Social entrepreneurship plays an increasing role in society. It is evidenced not only by the inclusion of a section on social entrepreneurship in the Europe 2020 strategy but also by the engagement of European countries in making legal documents on social entrepreneurship as well as designing support programmes in order to help entrepreneurs to start up a social entrepreneurship business. The research aim is to characterise the legal aspects of social entrepreneurship and support instruments for the promotion of social entrepreneurship in the Baltic States. In order to achieve the aim, the research analysed legal acts and strategic policy documents regulating social entrepreneurship in Latvia as well as analysed the legal framework for social entrepreneurship in Lithuania. To do the analysis, the research examined the kinds of support for starting up a social entrepreneurship business in the Baltic States. The research has found that no uniform definition of social entrepreneurship is available in Europe, which does not result in a unanimous opinion on what a social enterprise should be. In the Baltic States, the Social Enterprise Law has been passed in Latvia and Lithuania; besides, the laws mainly focus on the integration of target groups into society, addressing no other essential problems that could be solved by means of social entrepreneurship, e.g. environmental protection.

One of the most often mentioned competence in the surveyed literature is problem solving. It is also one of the key skills for the sustainable development of society. The article includes analysis of pedagogical approaches like project-based, problem-based learning and enquiry-based learning, as well as describes the use of design thinking as one of the problem solving approaches in higher education. As mathematics studies at universities play an important role in developing problem solving skills, an empirical study was carried out to identify the pedagogical approaches used by mathematics teachers and to illustrate the development of problem solving skills in mathematics studies at universities in Latvia. It includes a survey of mathematics teachers in Latvia aimed at identifying their experience in implementing different pedagogical approaches to mathematics and assessing the extent to which these methods help develop problem solving skills. The answers of mathematics teachers show that problem solving skills are developed at the middle level, which means only for the use in a certain situation (that is slightly different from previously known). The most effective approach to promoting problem-solving skills is the so-called context approach, which means focusing on the practical task related to a specialty. In the empirical study self-assessment method is used and the results are based only on respondents’ opinion.

Rapid technology development has had an evident impact on the financial sector during the last eight years. The financial sector experiences changes and it is important for the contemporary financial organizations to set a sustainable business perspective through competency management to ensure competitiveness. The current paper additionally focusses on fintech. Information technology development and competency management are the basis of the research. Authors of this research performed literature review to clarify the technology management competency model proposed by Doggett, McGee and Scott (2013) with the purpose of customizing the model for finance and technology knowledge-intensive fintech companies.

In a landscape of increasing customer/firm interactions in digital space, content marketing, which aims to generate prospects and sales to foster customers’ brand engagement, brand awareness and trust, is on the rise. Notwithstanding, despite significant marketing specialist interest, scientific content marketing research is not widely developed. Therefore, it encourages the need for new studies in the content marketing field. This paper introduces theoretical and practical aspects of content marketing decisions for the creation of desired customer value in the tourism sector. The aim of the presented research is to determine which combinations of content marketing decisions could create the desired value for the customer in the tourism sector. Understanding the content marketing decisions that create the desired value for customers could lead to a proper implementation of content marketing in the tourism sector. The presented results of q-sort study indicate twelve different combinations of content marketing decisions which could be used by tourism organizations in order to create desired value for their customer. Thus, it means that increasement of desired customer value can be made in the light of content marketing usage. The paper ends with insights, conclusions, limitations and future research possibilities.

The share of the renewable resources used continues to grow due to environmental, economic and political reasons. Consequently, intensification of forest management is on-going and expected to continue in the future. Logging residues, such as treetops, branches and stumps, are a significant renewable energy source. Since the logging residues are noticeably richer in nutrients than conventionally harvested stems, there is a concern related to the negative impact of intensified harvesting on the ecosystems, productivity of the sites and sustainability of forestry in general. To evaluate the impact, this study has compared different intensity harvesting effect on the next rotation young stand productivity in eight sites in Latvia. In a nutrient-rich site, the productivity of Norway spruce was higher in the whole-tree harvest (WTH) subplot comparing to stem-only harvesting (SOH) subplot three years after the planting. Productivity of Scots pine in oligotrophic conditions was observed to be higher in SOH subplot comparing to WTH subplot two and three years after planting. Furthermore, in a site on a mineral soil relatively richer in nutrients no significant differences were observed. Comparing WTH to whole tree harvest + stump biomass (SB) extraction subplots, the productivity of Norway spruce was higher in WTH four to five years after the planting; in a mixed stand of Norway spruce and black alder no productivity differences of spruce were detected, but productivity of black alder was higher in WTH+SB subplot five years after the planting; in black alder stands a significantly higher productivity was observed in WTH subplot four and five years after the planting.

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.