BUSINESS RISK MANAGEMENT: FEATURES AND PROBLEMS IN SMALL AND MEDIUMSIZED TRADING AND MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES

SMEs are generally recognised as the engine of economic development, and their development becomes a precondition for the international competitiveness and the economic growth of the state. Business risk management is a specific management sphere that requires a deep understanding of economic activity, decision optimisation, insurance activities, and knowledge of economics, law, psychology and many other fields. In countries with deep-rooted business traditions, business risk management starts with the creation of the company. Currently Lithuania has no consensus on how to encourage and support the entrepreneurship in SMEs, minimizing the danger of possible risk. The main research tasks of the article are as follows: we analyse the related literature and information about SME risk management, and its application, generalizing this topic, and then we examine and evaluate the practical applications of business risk management instruments to SME companies in trading and manufacturing sectors in Lithuania. The data analysis of empirical studies carried out with the managers and experts of the Lithuanian SMEs, using the survey and interview methods, revealed a greatly varying capacity of the respondents to identify business risk and manage it accordingly. Such differences are particularly noticeable when examining SME CEOs understanding of what risk mitigation instruments can be applied to their business

Būsto kainų burbulo sprogimas - problemos vertinimas

The problem of real estate price bubble is analysed in relation to the development and growth of the economy of Lithuania. By evaluating theoretical and practical-historical aspects of formation of the housing prices’ bubble, as well as the opinion of renown experts of the country, the formation of the present situation is substantiated by specifying economic and psychological reasons (it is accentuated that these factors tendentiously influence the market of real estate in Lithuania). More than once the historical guidelines of many countries had disclosed the threat of real estate prices’ fluctuation to the harmonious development of a national economy. In 2003, when Lithuania became one of the most rapidly developing economies, began an unprecedented growth of housing prices. Encouragements of experts to resist euphoria came short of living standards’ growth and the psychological impulse that followed the tendency of price growth. Hence it became possible to state that the real estate price bubble was taking shape and might threaten the national economy.The perception of external signs, with reference to assumptions of economic growth and the interpretation of different factors’ interface, enabled to display the influence of the real estate market on the economy and welfare of the country. The estimation of economics growth, which in this article is based on fundamental factors and psychological motives, has displayed the complicated and often difficult to forecast influence of real estate market development on vital processes in economics. By generating insights and future prospects, a possible scenario of factors’ development is given in association with presumptive dates of the national currency replacement with Euro. This event is one of the most important economic factors that have laid foundations for causeless psychological motives in the real estate market.When in 2006 Lithuania didn’t accomplish the requirements of convergence and therefore couldn’t replace its currency with the common currency of European Union, Euro, the growth of real estate prices got slower and influenced the psychological motives of potential customers in the context of the new currency. It is very likely that years 2010-2012 (the presumptive time when the national currency might be replaced with Euro) will enable the participants of the market to come to more rational decisions with reference to the recent past; however, it might be impossible to avoid short-term fluctuations that might be not so threatful. However, when the foundations are rocked, some part of shivers will be absorbed by the insurance sector which will level the negative consequences for people, business and the country. as well as prevent from destroying the productive results of the rapid development.Straipsnyje nagrinėjama šalies ūkio plėtrai ir ekonomikos raidai aktuali nekilnojamojo turto kainų burbulo problema. Įvertinant teorinius ir praktinius istorinius nekilnojamojo turto kainų burbulo formavimosi aspektus, atsižvelgiant į daugelio šalies autoritetingų ekspertų nuomonę, grindžiama susidariusi situacija detalizuojant ekonomines ir psichologines priežastis (pažymima, kad būtent šie veiksniai turi tendencingą poveikį nekilnojamojo turto rinkai Lietuvoje).Išorės signalų poveikio suvokimas remiantis ekonomikos augimo prielaidomis ir skirtingų veiksnių sąveikos interpretavimu leido kryptingai atskleisti nekilnojamojo turto rinkos raidos poveikį šalies ūkiui ir gerovei. Formuojant įžvalgas ir ateities perspektyvas pateikiamas tikėtinas būsimų veiksmų scenarijus, kuris siejamas su skirtinga skelbiama nacionalinės valiutos pakeitimo euru data

QUALITY OF UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

Higher education is broadly recognized as one of the most significant components of modern social and economic development. The quality of education at a university depends on factors such as how the university is managed, how effective the management decisions are, and what consequences they have for the advancement of society. While the consequences have numerous hardly equitable aspects, this article hypothesizes that it is possible to build a synthetic model for the assessment of university management, that takes into account a full range of existing quantitative and qualitative effects. The study aims to identify the relationship between the quality of management and the performance variables needed to build the model. The research methodology includes the application of econometric analysis for the formation, ranking, and determination of point values of a balanced scorecard (BSC). Finally, the findings of this research led to the creation of a workable model that allows both direct and reverse translation of a quantitative management assessment into a qualitative (verbal) one. Further, the verification using the available empirical data confirmed the model’s validity. We would thus recommend this model for solving a whole range of university management issues, especially in areas with predominant ripple and indirect effects, i.e., in the interaction of higher education entities with regional and local communities. &nbsp

Sustainability of the public finance system via optimization of strategic management

Driven by sustainability and knowledge-based principles, the public policy at all levels requires innovative ways of strategic management, which in many countries, particularly those that are trying to catch up to better-developed economies, is still chaotic and unstable. Having the theoretical background of innovative development of public finances and the concept of sustainability in finances revealed in the first chapters of the present publication, it continues with the overview of the pension system in Lithuania. Finally, the theoretical aspects of the pension reform in Lithuania, through proposed precise quantitative methods of valuating reform, are supported. The aim of the present article is to propose the model of optimizing the strategic management of the public finance system via calculating the contributions from the income that changes wages and salaries, modifications in strategies for the investment of accumulated funds in pension funds as well as the increase in the level of pension contributions.Skatinant tvarumą ir žiniomis grindžiamus principus, visų lygių viešosios politikos strateginis valdymas turi būti optimizuojamas pagal susiklosčiusią situaciją atitinkamoje šalyje. Šio straipsnio tikslas yra pasiūlyti modelį, kaip optimizuoti viešųjų finansų sistemos strateginį valdymą, apskaičiuojant įmokas nuo pajamų, atsižvelgus į darbo užmokestį, investicijų į pensijų fondus pokyčius, pensijų įmokų lygį. Kaip nurodyta Europos Bendrijos parengtoje tvarumo ataskaitoje (2009), viešųjų finansų tvarumo sąvoka yra susijusi su vyriausybės gebėjimu prisiimti valstybės skolos finansinę naštą šiuo metu ir ateityje. Taigi, tvarus viešųjų finansų strateginis valdymas turi gebėti aptarnauti valstybės skolos išlaidas per būsimas pajamas. Besivystančiose šalyse viešųjų finansų tvarumo principų taikymas yra apsunkinamas augančia valstybės skola, „protų nutekėjimo“ problema, augančiu nedarbu bei nesugebėjimu pritraukti tiesiogines užsienio investicijas. Tai primena užburtą ratą, kur vienintelis būdas išspręsti problemą yra tęstinis ir tvarus visų lygių viešosios politikos strateginis valdymas, sutelkiant dėmesį į ilgalaikius tikslus. Lietuvos atveju viešųjų finansų tvarumas yra apsunkinamas demografinės situacijos – ilgėja gyvenimo trukmė, mažėja gimstamumas bei didėja emigracijos srautai. Pagal tokį scenarijų prognozuojama, jog 2060 m. išlaikomo amžiaus (65 metų ir vyresnių) žmonių koeficientas išaugs nuo 23 % (2008 m.) iki 66 % (2060 m.)

The exploration of future tendencies of the Lithuanian life insurance market

The objective of the research: The article treats the development tendencies of the Lithuanian life insurance market and evaluates its actual perspectives as compared to the markets of other European Union countries.The subjective of the research: The tendencies of the Lithuanian life insurance market development and its perspectives in the European context.Research methods: The analysis of the life insurance market embodies the arranged, systemized and carefully analyzed empirical data. The research uses the primal statistical data of the Lithuanian life assurance market collected and generalized by the Lithuanian Life Assurers Association and the Insurance Supervisory Commission of the Republic of Lithuania, and the statistical data of the Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania concerning Lithuanian macroeconomics indexes. Some notices and assertions are circumstantial to the personal experience of the author

Housing price bubble explosion: evaluation of the problem

Dwelling meets one of the key individual needs and (usually) constitutes the major share of the individual’s property; therefore, it is inevitably important in a person’s life. The growing need to acquire real estate promotes the lending services market of financial institutions, which affect the entire finance system, and evoke a reasonable interest by state institutions. The paper aims to overview the development of the dwelling market in Lithuania and, having evaluated the impact of this market on the country’s economy, to elaborate on the potential scenarios of economic development. Real estate prices rapidly going up for over three years in Lithuania could be explained by objective factors, yet with the growth pace not slowing down gradually the psychological motives declared an increasingly weightier influence on decision-making – sellers dictated their terms taking advantage of the market situation. While analysts and experts generated evaluations about the formation of a bubble with negative consequences and the potential outcomes of its explosion, the analysis of foreign experience made those buyers who did not yield to euphoria alert, although they constituted the minority. The evaluation of economic growth based in the paper by fundamental factors and psychological motives revealed a complex and often hardly predictable impact of the real estate market development on vital economic processes. Both factors are evidently significant for the targeted development of economy, and the negative price correction will result in a turmoil on the market – recession may start in one of the most rapid economies in the European Union (having evaluated real estate accumulated 40 markets)