Regional development problems of small and medium-sized enterprises in Latvia

Despite the achievements attained in recent years in the economic development of Latvia, until now Latvia’s regions demonstrate uneven development, which negatively impacts the development of small business. The development of the regional innovation environment will contribute to the enhancement of competitiveness of regional economies

Where Do Venture Capitalists Invest? Case of Latvia

The paper presents the study of Latvian Venture Capital (VC) funds’ investment trends in particular industries. The literature analysis reveals five main factors influencing VC funds’ managers preferences towards particular industries: three external factors (existing clusters in the investment region; high growth industries; availability of other funding for companies from specific sectors) and two internal (factors driven by VC funds’ limited partners profile; possession of specific industry related knowledge). The results of the practical part of the study show that 52% of Latvian VC funds’ investments (total amount) went to Services sectors, 45% to Manufacturing and 3% to other industries. From the total amount invested in Services according to the classification of Eurostat, investments in High-tech knowledge-intensive sectors account for 46%, Knowledge-intensive services - for 10% and less knowledge-intensive sectors – for 44%. Breakdown of investments in Manufacturing is as follows: 26% in High-technology firms, 24% in Medium-high technology; 15% in Mediumlow technology and 35% in Low technology. Investment patterns of different Latvian VC funds’ managers vary substantially. For example, investments in High-technology and High-tech knowledge-intensive sectors were made only by three of five Latvian fund managers. Other two invested heavily in Low Technology and Less knowledge-intensive sectors. Industry-related knowledge and experience accumulated in particular fund management team presumably is an explanation of the variances in the patterns

Общая факторная производительность и инновационный потенциал предприятия

Общая факторная производительность (ОФП) является важным фактором, определяющим экономические тенденции, экономическое развитие и рост доходов на душу населения в разных странах. ОФП также является важным фактором для формирования добавленной стоимости определенного предприятия. Можно утверждать, что этот показатель может дать более четкую картину финансовых достижений и развития предприятия, чем некоторые традиционные показатели, такие как, например, производительность труда или эффективность затрат. Концепция ОФП тесно связана с концепцией инноваций, это подтверждается многими эмпирическими исследованиями. В рамках проведенного исследования авторы пытались выяснить, существует ли какая-либо внутренняя связь между общей факторной производительностью компании, ее доходностью и эффективностью. Кроме того, авторы провели подробный анализ предприятий с наиболее высокой общей факторной производительностью с целью выявления факторов, определяющих их ОФП

Economic efficiency and energy security of smart cities

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the determinants of economic efficiency and to assess the prerequisites for the energy security of smart cities. The main methods of the paper include an economic analysis of the infrastructure improvements that result in reducing the energy demand of the smart cities represented by the intelligent light-emitting diode (LED) street lighting system. Smart LED streetlights are getting increasingly popular in the world’s major metropolises as one of the leading components of the “smart” city. We compare the efficiency of LED street lighting used in smart cities with a commonly used lighting system based on sodium lamps. Our results demonstrate that LED street lighting system can significantly reduce the energy demand of any modern city. Moreover, we show that smart grids might help distribution systems within smart cities to better integrate intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The main research novelty of our study compared to previous studies from the literature is the estimation of net profit (NP), Net Discounted Savings (NDS), as well as the total savings (TS) using the example of an average European metropolis. Our findings show that there is a need for better management including strong networks of leaders to drive smart city policies and investments and to cover wider city areas with economically sustainable projects and plans. In addition, our findings yield that smart city projects should aim at finding solution for smart connected local energy storage systems to support more renewable energy sources on the power grids. Our results might be of a special interest for city planners, local government stakeholders, as well as urban policy makers dealing with planning and managing smart cities

Going Public: Key Factors to Consider by IPO Candidates on Emerging Markets of Poland and the Czech Republic

Increasing globalization contributes to the growing role primary capital markets play for raising external equity capital. This phenomenon is becoming more significant in both developed and emerging countries and influences the effectiveness of national economy. We survey 45 chief financial officers (CFOs) from not public and not financial companies operating in the Czech Republic and Poland to document the internal determinants of going public. We use statistical analyses and comparison with recent academic literature and empirical evidence to interpret the survey-gained data. First, the most important IPO motivations are enhanced publicity and reputation of the company and establishment of the firm´s market value. These benefits are expressed by CFOs across all firms and in both countries. A considerably larger number of CFOs is motivated by raising external equity capital. Surveyed companies tend to conduct an IPO in the expansion stage of their life cycle. Next, the significance of other going public determinants differs between Czech and Polish respondents and across companies varying in size and age. Third, our findings indicate that theories on IPO formulated for well-developed capital markets can explain going public determinants in smaller emerging markets. We suggest that our evidence can be a source of knowledge for enterprises while formulating new financial strategies. Furthermore, we also expect that survey results will be beneficial for investment bankers, stock exchanges and macroeconomic policy makers while discussing and designing incentives to attract more enterprises onto the primary capital markets under the specific conditions of the Czech Republic and Poland

Evaluation of Gambling Sector Activity in Lithuania, Latvia, Slovak Republic and Czech Republic

Research background: Gambling is a specific activity that has an undoubtful impact on the national economies, however the evaluation of this sector still has been analysed very little by economists. This article comparatively analyses the peculiarities of the gambling sector activity in Lithuania, Latvia, Slovak Republic and Czech Republic in the period from 2015 to 2020. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to evaluate the activity of the gambling sector in Lithuania, Latvia, Slovak Republic and Czech Republic. Methods: The following methods are used in the article: comparative analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and legal acts, analysis of graphical and statistical data. Findings & Value added: An analysis of scientific literature and legal acts revealed that definition of gambling is defined differently and in some countries certain types of gambling are not even considered as gambling or does not exist. The evaluation revealed that during 2015-2019 the highest AAGR of the gambling sector’s GGR was in Latvia (11.09%) and in 2019 Latvia also had the highest GGR per inhabitant 199 Eur. On the contrary, during 2017-2019 in the Czech Republic AAGR of the gambling sector’s GGR was -5.63% and in 2019 GGR per inhabitant (39.51 Eur) was the lowest. According to the mentioned statistical data, total GGR and the population size, Latvia has one of the largest gambling sector in the evaluated countries, so gambling sector in other countries still has great potential to growth. Although because of COVID-19 Latvia experienced huge losses of GGR, Slovak Republic online gambling sector showed a great potential to grow and it can be assumed that in Lithuania online gambling sector didn’t took over all of the potential revenue from land-based gambling sector

Determining the EUR/USD exchange rate with U.S. and German government bond yields in the post-crisis period

This research shows how U.S. and German government bond yields can determine the EUR/USD exchange rate in the short run. After presenting the discussion on fundamental, technical and microstructure approach exchange rate determination models, a conclusion is made that out of the components of fundamental models the interest rates could be the best determinants for explaining exchange rate fluctuations in the short term. For the research the mostly traded currency pair, the EUR/USD, was chosen and 2-year, 10-year U.S. and German government bond yields were selected as determinants of the exchange rate. After performing the linear regression procedure it has shown that the model can determine 5 per cent of the daily EUR/USD fluctuations with a change in 2-year U.S. government debt yield being the greatest determinant in the model. It affects the exchange rate as it is stated in the uncovered interest rate parity model – when the yield increases, the USD declines against the euro and vice versa. Another finding is that an increase in the German 10-year government bond yield increases the price of the euro and the increase in the U.S. 10-year debt yield leads to an appreciation of the USD

Does firm’s higher innovation potential lead to its superior financial performance? Case of CEE countries

Innovation is one of the most commonly used word in the business and academic world. Naturally the firms are willing to innovate to leverage on future profits and growth generated by the new products and supported by temporary monopolistic positions on the market. However, the question is about how much the companies should invest to record higher profitability. The authors tried to answer this question analyzing the companies within the Central and Eastern European region taking intangible assets as innovation proxy. It was concluded that the companies having higher investments in the intangible assets are able to generate higher margins. However, positive effect of possibly higher innovation potential is seen only if investments in intangibles are substantial, i.e. over 10%

Factors affecting development patterns: econometric investigation of the Japan equity market

In this paper it is assumed that equity markets reflect the development of the overall economy of a country. Equity markets, among other factors, are considerably affected by factors such as inflation or deflation. Therefore, when inflationary or deflationary pressures appear, Central Banks try to manage those pressures in order to minimise their impact on the economy. In this paper, the case of Japan will be examined. Japan can be considered an example of a country which was under extended deflationary pressures for about three decades. In this study, the authors investigate different time frames for the Japan equity market. The research is based on Japan equity market (NIKKEI) returns. The authors aim to answer the question of whether the Japanese market complies with the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for different time frames, as well as test analytically if Japan’s stock market and economy have improved after the implementation of different attempts at Quantitative Easing (QEs), a Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) or a Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) to curb deflationary impacts on the economy. The analysis and obtained results could be useful for risk and portfolio management, and could be extended to other markets

Relevance analysis of factors enhancing coaching interactions in organizations

International audienceThe article discusses the factors that are expected to enhance coaching interactions and reports the survey findings on the relevance of external and internal conditions to enhance coaching interactions in organizations. A particular focus of the literature review is to explore the factors ensuring a successful coaching interaction in organization. These characteristics are recognized as important predictors of coaching effectiveness. A questionnaire is designed to investigate the relevance of conditions that are likely to enhance coaching interactions in organisations. A list of conditions generally extracted from the literature review include external indirect conditions, external direct conditions, internal conditions at the level of organisation, internal conditions at the level of groups and internal conditions at individual (client’s) level. The external indirect conditions comprise the reference to coaching in the context of EU documents. The external direct conditions are focused on the conditions that are expected to ensure the quality of service delivery. Internal conditions at the level of organisation are related to the features of organisational culture. The conditions at the level of groups have collaborative focus. Internal conditions at individual level are focused on the client. The survey was conducted from December 2014 to August 2015. Respondents were targeted from two groups: those who provide coaching service and those who receive this service. 75 coaches and coaching clients from Latvia and Lithuania took part in the survey. The obtained data is analyzed by using SPSS and conducting correspondence analysis to extract the most important factors. The analysis reveals the key factors under five categories that might be important in enhancing coaching interactions in organizations. The results obtained in the study are compared with the findings of theoretical and empirical literature review. The findings of the study are important for the further research in the field of organizational coaching to investigate the impact of factors on coaching delivery throughout organizational life cycle. Limitations. The data obtained by using correspondence analysis can only be interpreted to make a general statement about the trends. The study is based on a limited number of respondents and therefore has certain statistic limitations