Economic Science for Rural Development最新文献

{"title":"Economic-geographical characteristic of beekeeping in the Ruse region","authors":"L. Lyubenov, A. Atanasov, I. Hristakov","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.021","url":null,"abstract":"Beekeeping and the production of bee products is a specific activity in which heterogeneous factors interact. The main factors of competitiveness in beekeeping are formed at the regional level, but they are realized on a supra-regional basis, which is why a marketing strategy is needed to develop the potential and competitiveness of beekeeping in the Rousse district, the starting point of which is the economic and geographical characteristic of the area. There is a discrepancy between the natural zoning of the Danube plain and the administrative and territorial structure of the Ruse region. The aim of the study is the interdependence between the triad \"natural conditions - natural resources - economy\". One of the specific tasks is related to the analysis of beekeeping by administrative-territorial units in Ruse district, and the second is focused on the economic and market characteristics of regional beekeeping. The hilly nature of the relief, the relatively low altitude and the great biodiversity are the factors determining the variety of beekeeping grazing in the region of Ruse in terms of quantity and quality. The analysis revealed that it is more professionally oriented and managed by the national, with more efficient territorial organization and development, and with a higher relative share of organic beekeeping. These advantages determine its higher competitiveness. Now the district of Ruse forms more than 10% of the national production of honey (over 1000 tons per year), respectively and in proportion to the economic effect of pollination - over BGN 100 million / year. The district offers very good opportunities and optimal conditions for the development of api-tourism, which will diversify the beekeeping farms and provide them with more stable and higher incomes. It has significant production, educational and innovative potential, a solid base for the formation of a regional beekeeping cluster.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124171039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prospects of implementing digital services at tourism information centres in the context of consumer attraction: a case study of Zemgale region (Latvia)","authors":"Beate Vilcina, Santa Bormane","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.026","url":null,"abstract":"Digitalisation emerges as one of the priorities of the tourism industry in Latvia – it currently finds itself in an early stage of digitalisation while consumers increasingly use smart technologies and devices. Digital technologies and digital tools have caused major changes in the industry, giving rise to new tourism businesses, products, services, and consumer experience. The goal of the study is to develop recommendations for the implementation of digital services at tourism information centres (hereinafter – TICs) in the Zemgale region in the context of consumer attraction based on the theoretical findings as to the role of digitalisation in service provision and its application in the tourism industry and on the consumer and expert surveys conducted. The study employed the monographic method, secondary data analysis, qualitative data analysis including survey of experts of the tourism industry, and quantitative data analysis – an online consumer survey. This was then followed by a comparative analysis of the results to see how various digital services are rated by the experts and by consumers, while the graphic method was used to depict and interpret the results. The results of the study show that the following five digital services would be key to attracting consumers to TICs in the Zemgale region: interactive digital tourism games and amusement activities, educational activities at the TICs using virtual reality 3D glasses, a complex visitor’s map of the city or municipality, an individually personalised tourism guide, and a 360-degree tour of the city. Regardless of generation, consumers mostly prefer tourism activities and experience at the tourism destination. When it comes to implementing sustainable, digital and more environmentally friendly services at TICs, one needs to consider the differences among generations in terms of views and preferences, digital skills, and daily use of digital technologies.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130729532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social advertising features in Lithuania","authors":"Margarita Išoraitė, Nikolaj Ambrusevič","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.017","url":null,"abstract":"The article analyses the meaning of social marketing, discusses the main social marketing tools, investigates social marketing models, and presents a case study of social advertising campaigns in Lithuania. The article highlights the role of social advertising by drawing attention to social challenges that require actions in order to address specific problems. In short, social advertising is used as a means for introducing an important problem to the society. The problem-solving process by using social advertising campaigns is effective when a campaign includes specific memorable characteristics; therefore, the main social advertising features are a topical subject. The authors of the article aim to investigate social advertising features in Lithuania and observe the main social marketing campaign elements that evoke strong feelings and encourage representatives of various audience groups to change behavioural pattern. The paper relies on scientific literature overview, statistical data analysis, and a case study. A case study as a research method is selected in order to investigate social advertising campaigns that were launched in Lithuania during the last decade (before and after the pandemic) as well as to perform a comparative analysis of the main elements and models used. As a result of the article, four main goals for social marketing advertising for Lithuanian market are distinguished: (1) to encourage changes in behaviour, (2) to spread information, (3) to form a public need, (4) to develop and support the promoted idea. Moreover, the performed analysis reveals the importance of publicity and strong emotional response evoked by shocking images as the main elements of Lithuanian social marketing campaigns launched during the last decade.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132697748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analysis of energy resources’ flows as the sustainable development parameters","authors":"Inese Trusina, E. Jermolajeva, B. Sloka","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.025","url":null,"abstract":"Global challenges require a transition from the existing linear economic model to models that will consider nature as a life support system for the development on the way to social well-being in the frame of the ecological economics paradigm. The article presents results of the development of formalizing the sustainable development monitoring using the concept of energy flows in open non-equilibrium stable socio-economic complex systems in the frame of ecological economics approach. The authors calculated and used a new system of universal parameters of sustainable development: total consumption of energy resources, total production, power losses and impact on environment, technological excellence. Level of human life was defined as a function of total production, environment changing, population changing and technological efficiency level. In context of considering approach, universal parameters were calculated using the data of Eurostat during the period from 1990 to 2019 and using statistical analyses methods. The main results: definition of the type and structure of the final consumption models (theoretical trends) on energy resources time series; allocation of stationary and non-stationary components in time series; calculation and primary interpretation of the system of basic parameters of a sustainable for the countries of Europe - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The countries as objects of research were selected in accordance with the following parameters: the population of each state is not more than 10 million and membership of the EU since 2004. The results of the research have indicated that there are several challenges in the analysed countries with several similarities, and there are possibilities to share and use the experience of energy resources flows approach for data analysis.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"305 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115135972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lake governance developments in Latvia: lake Lubans governing process studies applying governance system framing model","authors":"K. Konkovs, Rasa Ikstena, Ilze Zvera, M. Ozoliņš, R. Ernsteins","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.019","url":null,"abstract":"The overall frame of this research was the governance process of surface water resources in Latvia, particularly, public lakes, to be studied by applying triple dimensional governance framing model of complementary dimensions of governance stakeholders, governance content and governance instruments. Studies were realized in the area of Lake Lubans, administratively located on the border areas between two municipalities of Madona and Rezekne in the eastern part of the country. Lake Lubans is the largest lake in Latvia, as well as the largest dammed lake in Europe, included in surrounding NATURA 2000 nature reserve territory as also nationally largest inland protected wetland complex (Lubana Wetland/Ramsar site, 2009). Case Study Research methodology was applied by approaching the study area not only as a nature protection area but especially as a socio-ecological territorial and human system, using indepth semi-structured interviews in the surrounding areas/administrative territories with all main local-regional and also national stakeholder groups, as well as, applying document studies and territorial/objects’ observations. The National Nature Protection Agency’s Latgale region branch as the legal administrator supervises all nature protection territories in the region and also the Lubana Wetland, which is still lacking statutory Nature Protection Plan for the area; and, due to very limited administrative capacities, Agency is to be oriented more towards c ooperation with various other national and regional institutions from very different sectors, being organized under mainly two ministries involved – Environmental and Regional Development Ministry (nature, environmental, municipal and regional development sectors) and Agriculture Ministry (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water infrastructure sectors), as well as, particularly, with many municipalities in the wetland area. But municipalities have to take into account also interests of local communities, the basic socio-economic development situation and possibilities, having also limited capacities, sometimes also approaches, which all is to be combined with strong nature protection requirements and limitations. This governance landscape requires co-relation of various and diverse interests and creates a rather fragmented and underdeveloped management of the lake. Lake water levels are fully regulated by the national Water infrastructure agency using dams and other hydro-technical systems, while water areas are used not only for highly popular angling, but also for active commercial fishing and various recreational activities, tourism, esp. bird watching etc., thus also keeping strong nature protection status in the same time, which all represent a unique challenge for to be developed multi-stakeholders and socioecological system (SES) approach for lake governance (assessment, planning, collaborative management, monitoring, and communication) developments in Latvia and alike.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122390523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Significance of financial security in environmental behaviour","authors":"Renars Felcis, E. Felcis","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.016","url":null,"abstract":"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on adaptation is demonstrating that the most vulnerable people are already disproportionally affected by the climate breakdown (IPCC, 2022: 8-9). The ongoing climate and environmental breakdown, the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian war in Ukraine in early 2022 are creating a convergence of crises with grave concerns about its future unfolding and impacts on vulnerable groups. Inability to afford environmentally friendly actions might leave certain groups of society in a vicious circle. Based on quantitative social survey data from 2020 and 2021 within the Latvian Council of Science funded project ‘Ready for change? Sustainable management of common natural resources’, this paper demonstrates correlations between the financial security of people and environmental behaviour in Latvia. Financial security is measured by status of debt obligations and the length of time people can provide for themselves in case of the loss of their current income sources. We conclude that the overall financial security has significantly reduced from 2020 to 2021, while at the same time environmentally oriented behaviours have remained stagnant or less widespread. As a result of cluster analysis, three groups of financial security are distinguished and further analysis demonstrates that high income alone is an insufficient motivator for diverse environmental behaviour. Affluent people tend to do the simplest steps more often, like trying to sort their waste for recycling, while many with lower incomes and in rural areas are capable of more actions, with the overall lower consumption levels. Only thinking and acting beyond the ‘business-as-usual’ narrative can enable transformative actions to change the structural processes that keep causing the side-effects of our development.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126214567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Financial needs of micro-enterprises in the period before and during the Covid-19 crisis","authors":"Ilona Beizitere, B. Sloka, Julija Bistrova, Ieva Brence, E. Jermolajeva","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.038","url":null,"abstract":"The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus COVID-19 led to changes in companies' demand for funding. Therefore, financial institutions were forced to develop new types and directions of financing offer. The aim of our study is to find the financial needs of the micro-enterprises and the possible solutions to meet these needs. Micro-enterprises are more than 90% of all the SMEs in Latvia; therefore, analysis on their performance is essential. The survey in empirical research was focused to find out to what extent companies had access to finance, whether they needed new or additional funding and for what purposes financial support was needed. Research methods: analysis of scientific publications and pre-crisis research results, survey of entrepreneurs. Based on survey data, the authors have used main indicators of descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations, have conducted correlation analysis. In addition, the entrepreneurs were asked to disclose the funding used for their development and entrepreneurship. During the COVID-19 crisis, companies were seeking to fund their working capital to compensate for business disruptions caused by the loss of revenue, while in the long-term they seek capital to develop new products and services, to digitize and optimize the processes, to raise employee competence. The survey results have also revealed that micro-enterprises suffered to greater extent than larger ones, though they used much less of the offered state support, attempting to rely mainly on their internal resources. Moreover, even before the current economic crisis, it was found that micro-enterprises had more limited access to external finance than other types of SMEs. Based on the survey results, main conclusion points to the need to improve availability and diversity of public financial support for micro-enterprises, which is vital during crisis period, and as well as to adopt solutions to promote the further development of micro-enterprises.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"215 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134067563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legal aspects and institutional framework of urban agriculture in Latvia","authors":"Madara Dobele, A. Zvirbule, Aina Dobele","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.015","url":null,"abstract":"Urban agriculture has a long history of evolving functions of the practice, but its place in global and national legal aspects is often still unclear. Both the United Nations and the European Union have defined goals and directions of sustainable development, identifying and including the use of resources, the principles of the circular economy, the equal development of regions and other aspects. Urban agriculture has a potential in the most of them. However, the role and legal framework of urban agriculture is largely based on national or municipal initiatives. In Latvia urban agriculture does not have a legally defined status, it is not defined in strategic development plans, nor in the laws and regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the legal aspects of urban agriculture in order to determine its potential institutional framework in Latvia. To achieve the goal, tasks of the research are defined: 1) to identify the main legal aspects affecting urban agriculture in Latvia, 2) to determine the potential institutional framework for urban agriculture in Latvia. The study was conducted using systematic review analysis of laws, development strategies and regulations of the Republic of Latvia. As a result of the research, the main groups of legal aspects, influencing urban agriculture, were identified (agriculture and commerce, food chain, local government and environmental development and protection, waste management) and a possible institutional framework was developed.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"82 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131933348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Municipal cycling governance developments in Latvia: towards sectorial planning and governance system requirement","authors":"Roberts Pugulis, Liga Biezina, R. Ernsteins","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.024","url":null,"abstract":"Nowadays considering that cycling as a widely increasing daily transport mode is becoming more popular and also more publicly required among all kinds of interest groups of our society, municipal policies and practical activities for local cycling developments are already steadily growing and will be a substantial part of municipal statutory development planning in Latvia, too, and that needs modern adaptive governance application and must be properly integrated within necessary sustainable municipal mobility approach. The study starts with an overview of the municipal cycling governance developments in Latvia as the aim of this research is to study the municipal cycling governance building frame, via the complementary set of cycling governance instruments application in terms of their development, implementation and impact evaluation – political and legal, institutional, planning, economic, infrastructure and also communication instruments. As the model’s case study area, Valmiera township municipality (case of medium and small size town municipalities in Latvia) was chosen, where our sustainable mobility studies have been step-wise continuing from 2016, particularly participatory documenting the cycling mobility development and its governance as sub-system of municipal mobility/transportation governance. The research methodologies applied included both research-and-development framework, being realized in active collaboration with municipal administration, and, case study research, allowing to provide integrative contextual analysis of the case phenomenon, including document studies, infrastructure observations with photo documentation, followed by semi-structured in-depth interviews with whole set of the main stakeholders. The study highlights direct necessity of the particular cycling mobility governance system approach understanding and adaptive application, based on three governance dimensions (governance content, stakeholders and instruments). Besides social-ecological system as governance content dimension approach and stakeholders’ participation as governance stakeholders’ dimension approach, also and particularly, not only to use usually emphasized infrastructure planning, but further design and complementary use of all groups of traditional governance instruments, also additionally developing adaptive governance based disciplinary/sectorial cycling mobility instruments, esp. whole set of cycling communication instruments (information, education/training, participation, pro-cycling friendly behaviour). This triple governance dimensions’ model and principle as well as action policy recommendations elaborated may be used by the other local municipalities starting to expand cycling mobility.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128687585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact of change agents on the long-term viability of the Latvian state","authors":"E. Jermolajeva, B. Rivza, I. Ostrovska","doi":"10.22616/esrd.2022.56.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22616/esrd.2022.56.018","url":null,"abstract":"There are many players in the process of sustainable development of Latvia, including the long-term viability of the country: state and local government institutions, companies, non-governmental organizations, as well as various informal interest groups and every inhabitant. As the regions of the country have different socio-economic development results, it is important to find out who and how can influence these processes. The scientific novelty is the survey developed by the researchers of the National Research Program EKOSOC-LV in order to find answers to the question: What is the long-term viability of the country and what affects it? During four years, 946 respondents from Pieriga, Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Latgale regions were surveyed about the most important influence factors of three groups of change agents: state institutions; local governments as local government bodies; communities or residents of the municipality. The results of the survey show the following trends (the Kruskala-Wallis Test showed that the differences were not statistically significant): the state’s impact was generally positive in the years under review and had increased slightly. However, the impact of the other two groups of change agents was on a downward trend - for municipalities as local authorities and for communities living in the municipality. According to the individual assessment of each respondent, the most important agent of change was not the state institutions, but local governments or residents of the community, which is a positive indicator, because the development of the area can be most influenced by people living in its social groups, etc.","PeriodicalId":404208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Science for Rural Development","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129819954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}