The aim of the work was to study accessions of Dactylis glomerata L. of different origin for breeding in the Leningrad region. The work was carried out at the Leningrad Agricultural Research Institute. The study involved 15 accessions. The nursery was founded in 2016 and included two replications for green yield and two – for seed production. Cutting and sampling for biochemical studies were conducted in May-June 2018, seeds were collected in July. The amount of ascorbic acid, carotenoids and chlorophylls and crude protein were determined. Statistical analysis included the calculation of the parameters of variation, ANOVA and correlation analysis. Three groups were identified by the degree of ripeness: a small group of early maturing – 31 days, a group of late maturing (single accession from Karelia) – 51 days, a large group of middle maturing – 34–37 days. For the late maturing accession the mechanism of regulation of the beginning of heading is due to the sensitivity to photoperiod. The adaptive potential of widely zoned varieties is wider than for localized. Their productivity is higher. The content of pigments in the green mass is closely correlated. The system of pigments in the complex of characters is separate, but is positively associated with the seed productivity and negatively – with the content of ascorbic acid. The seed productivity of the accessions is related to the total pigment content and power of the generative shoots (length and mass).

Public participation is needed for nongovernmental organisations (NGO) to function and exist, as the public plays the role of investors by supporting the NGOs financially and thereby providing a quorum needed for the organisation to operate and make decisions. NGOs provide services for defending public interests, and the NGOs members carefully assess their gains from involvement or participation continuation in public organisations, just as if choosing a good or service for consumption. The level of society activity in NGOs sector is low in Latvia comparing with the Western world. To increase it, it is required to contribute to the public’s trust and NGOs transparency. Organisational performance analysis is one of the ways how to provide members with information on performance and funding use, as the members of NGOs wish to be sure that their membership fees and other financial support are effectively used to achieve their goals and defend the interests of their members. The research aims to analyse financial analysis methods used in the NGO sector. The research tasks were set: 1) to analyse the substance of financial analysis of NGO, and 2) to identify shortcomings for a comprehensive analysis of NGO. The research has found that as public participation in NGOs increases, it becomes increasingly important to provide financial transparency in the NGO sector in order to contribute to the public’s trust in the NGOs and make it possible to verify the consistency of funding use with the organisation’s goals and performance.

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.