Importance of Integrated Marketing Communication in the Digital Promotion of Products and Ideas in Private and Public Sectors

Marketing communication is not limited to the implementation of promotional activities of a product or a message, it requires an integrated approach using various practically applicable and ever-expanding ways of marketing communication to be implemented through various communication channels for addressing the target audience more precisely. It is the integrated marketing communication (IMC) activities that help increase the organization's competitiveness and result-oriented efficiency both in private and public sectors. In response to changes in the external environment, organizations can use IMC as a strategic management process that helps to facilitate the transition from tactical advertising components into a single strategy. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the research was to study and assess IMC in the context of digital marketing and its influence upon product promotion. The object of the research is integrated marketing communication. The subject of the research is the influence of IMC upon product promotion. The study is based on scientific papers published by Latvian and foreign scholars, general and special literature, and periodicals. To attain the goal of the research, the following qualitative methods of economic research were used: case study, grouping and profiling, evaluation, market investigation, research and observation, and comparative analysis. The hypothesis set prior to the research aims at increased loyalty of the target audience as a result of IMC; however, it is not widely used and has spillover setbacks particularly in public domain. The research question therefore is to detect what are the key impact factors` peculiarities in IMC efficacy and its impediments. Findings: The research confirmed the hypothesis that IMC in the context of digital promotion facilitates consumer loyalty, but just up to a critical point of digital intervention`s negative aspects; also, IMC for digital promotion has a growing trend, but is still a relatively little used type of communication in the marketing communication strategy of organizations. The results of the research are of both theoretical and practical value.publishersversionPeer reviewe

The Feasibility Study of Innovative Public Policy Client-Accordance Index

This research paper was presented at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute IIAS Study Group on ‘Coproduction of Public Services’ seventh annual conference, Leuven, Belgium, 28 May 2019.The role of the societies and their interaction with public administration is changing toward ever closer cooperation. Since 2009 scientific literature, and to a lesser extent also the public administrations themselves, have increasingly been exploring the changing and dynamic role of the recipient of public services, or the client, as that of a partner in the provision of public services. In scientific literature this phenomenon is described as the concept of co-production or co-creation of public services. This is foreseen as the next stage of evolution in the relationship between public administration and society. With growing and wide-ranging social and civil participation in overall public governance, it is inevitable that new tools and approaches will be needed to facilitate the cooperation and co-production between policy makers and society itself. Furthermore, similar growing tendencies and principles of closer cooperation between providers and recipients can also be found business sector, most visibly in e.g. social entrepreneurship and crowdfunding. This, in turn, can give additional lessons to learn from in understanding the possible developments of the co-production of public services. Author`s proposed policy client-accordance index (PCA index), which measures the relevance of policy planned results and policy-makers’ expectations in relation to clients` intentions, is a draft try to contribute to this necessity. Such a research to large extent tackles also the general problem of insufficiency of innovation in public governance. The main goal of the research is to set for the experts` discussion on the applicability and challenging aspects of the feasibility and to test the possible transfer of the author`s developed Latvian youth policy case-based policy client-accordance evaluation methodology model for evaluating the relevance of any public administrations` policies to the intentions of the policy`s respective client target group – the client-accordance index of a given public policy. The research design essentially consists of 1) selection of public policy areas, 2) identification of main policy intentions and expectations, including the review of methodologies to do so, 3) categorizing the segments of the respective policy`s clients` target groups. To conduct the research on these stages, the contents analysis of respective legislative acts and expert interviews are to be conducted. The fourth stage of research design shall be 4) setting of the methodologies to collect the respective policy`s clients` target group intentions and evaluations with regard to the co-production process in the public governance in the respective policy area. Large focus of the research is planned to be put on the usage of existing data or collection of data for clients`/co-producer`s profiling – their interests, intentions, needs. The uncertain concept of the big-data, the risks of the surveillance state as well as the certain concerns of data privacy issues in relation to state information registers shall be reviewed. The research methods includes, firstly, scientific literature analyses to review the applications of relevant theories, experts` discussions and analyses of several empirical studies in EU countries. The literature research and experts` discussions forms the basis of creating the draft typology and structure of public policies, its respective services` groups, client target groups, and client-based approaches as an integral part of co-production. Then the feasibility of the author`s developed youth policy case study based client-accordance index methodology model shall be analysed. The main expected outcome of the research is the classification of typology of public policies, their respective services, client groups, and most importantly adjusted feasibility methodologies of client-accordance index measurement showing the integrity level of coproduction of public services.This research article has been supported by the European Union's Horizon-2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant agreement 726755

Solar collectors for northern countries

Traditionally the solar energy has used in southern countries, but it has used also in northern ones. Most popular kind of use of the solar energy in Latvia is solar collector for water heating. Traditionally flat-plate solar collectors are used because of simplicity of manufacturing. However, some peculiarities in use of solar energy in northern countries must be taken into account. In northern countries there is lower irradiance, but longer day and longer path of the sun during summer. Therefore, traditional flat-plate solar collectors are not appropriate enough in northern countries and new forms have to be developed. There are two forms of solar collectors - cylindrical and semi-spherical – proposed in this work. Such collectors can be made for both water and air heating. Theoretical calculations and measurements of energy gain from those two collectors were carried out. Results show that daily energy sum received by the semispherical collector from the sun at the middle of summer is 1.43 times more than that of the flat one, but for the cylindrical collector it is 1.74 times more than that of the flat one, or equal to that of the tracking the sun flat-plate collector. Resulting difference in energy gain from collector will be not so large because of the difference in heat loses. Heat loses can be decreased by switching off the water circulation pump when the sun is covered by clouds. For these purpose circulation pump powered by solar batteries can be used instead of complicated and expensive automatics. Even more important than overall energy gain is the fact that semi-spherical and cylindrical collectors work all the day (17 hours in the middle of summer at 57 northern latitude), while flat-plate collector only about 11 hours. Yearly energy sum received by the collector from the sun is 1.5 and 1.9 times larger for the semi-spherical and cylindrical collector respectively as for the flat one. The cylindrical solar collector is easier to manufacture, but semi-spherical one is more aesthetical and durable against impact of the wind. Although solar collectors for water and air heating are studied in this article, main ideas are applicable also for solar batteries.Papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Portoroz, Slovenia on 17-19 July 2017 .International centre for heat and mass transfer.American society of thermal and fluids engineers

Social Participation Through Volunteering as Co-production of Public Services: Case Study of Latvia

Active civic and social participation is considered to be significantly important for a country`s development in democratic societies. One of the popular forms of active citizenship is volunteering – the third economy sector that produces civic goods and/or services in which the public and private sectors are weak or inactive. In this aspect, volunteering is also a means for organized civil society to participate in the production of public services i.e. co-production. The aim of this research is the exploration of social participation in Latvia through volunteering, including its legal regulation and organizational setup, and identification of the aspects and prospects of volunteering in Latvia within the concept of co-production of public services. The research is exploratory by design. The main methods of the study applied are analysis and synthesis. Volunteering in Latvia is yet on its way to being considered a valuable part of general active citizenship and social participation, and admittedly even further from being a serious part of co-production. Compared to other European countries, volunteering in Latvia is a new way of social participation that mostly attracts youth and seniors. Volunteering is only a relatively recent recognized activity in Latvia, however this sector of economy is developing and has its achievements. The current research has both theoretical and practical application. The study is organised within the framework of the EU program’s “Europe for Citizens” international project “Volunteering – Code of Active Citizenship” implemented in cooperation with six partners from different EU member states under the leadership of Kaunas University of Technology.This research article has been supported by the European Union's Horizon-2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant agreement 726755

Coherence of Work Based Learning and Regional Development in Latvia

Integration of young people into the labour market is an issue of a high priority. The youth unemployment problem has explicit links to the vocational education and training (VET) system. Since 2009 there is an ongoing reform in the Latvian VET system. In this respect also the role of local governments increases. The paper addresses the issue of introducing innovative approaches in the Latvian VET system. The aim of the study is to estimate the overall readiness of public administrations to implement VET reforms within regional economic development in the context of the EU and national strategic priorities

Contourite and Turbidite Features in the Middle Caspian Sea and Their Connection to Geohazards Derived from High-Resolution Seismic Data

High fluvial input combined with specific topographic and oceanographic settings in the Caspian Sea create favorable conditions for contourite deposition. For the first time in its middle portion, contourite deposits have been observed in high-resolution seismic profiles. Various types of contourite drifts and mixed depositional systems have been revealed on the lower slope and in the adjacent basin, some of which are accompanied by sediment wave fields. The deposition of contourites or turbidites and their lateral distribution is controlled by sea-floor topography and oceanographic processes, as well as the modern activity of gravity flows downslope on the western Caucasian slope and in the channel system on the Mangyshlak Sill. The contourite drifts and sediment wave fields form several contourite depositional systems, which seem to merge in the Caspian contourite depositional complex. This occurs near the foot of slopes of the Derbent Basin and is related to the counterclockwise circum-Caspian current in the Middle Caspian Sea. The fact that the Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world makes this region a significant area for research into the “lake contourites” issue. The Caspian Sea is an important oil-producing area, and sedimentary processes related to the contourite and turbidite can be a source of potential geohazards in the construction and exploitation of underwater engineering structure

IMPROVING DIGITALIZATION THROUGH CO-CREATION: CASE OF THE CITADEL PROJECT

This article examines problems related to digitalization and use of digital services provided by the government. The study is based on the research work and results of the CITADEL project, which has tested co-creation methods in Latvia considering requirements and interests of society and businesses in decision making processes of public administration. It appears that in many cases people aren’t willing to accept proposed services as they haven’t been involved in the processes of their creation. While enjoying benefits provided by information technologies, electronic services and artificial intellect people still need an exchange between human beings to make a good use of existing advanced solutions. This is especially important for electronic services widely used by a large part of the population and enterprises, which need to be easy, fast and friendly. The concept of co-creation or co-production has been initially developed in the 1970s emerging from theoretical and empirical analysis of urban service delivery. Nowadays the co-creation is becoming a priority of many governments in the world and scholars in public administration see the potential of ICTs in this exchange process. Governments around the world are promoting an increased use of ICTs to predict and understand the complexity of public services, as well as to improve the transparency and efficiency of government practices and facilitate democratic practices using e-government solutions. This paper aims at contributing to the concept of co-creation and the impact of digitalisation of public services. The article concludes that efficient decision-making for improving economic development, as well as social welfare at regional, national and local levels needs implementation of digitalised services applying new modern approaches, such as the co-creation as they inevitably become more important due to the increased digital competitiveness of countries

Comparison of water heating by solar collectors and photovoltaic panels

Amount of presently mainly used fossil energy resources on the earth are limited and its impact on the earth environment is negative. Therefore, scientific research on replacing them with alternative energy like solar is important. Usually in practice, solar radiation for domestic water heating by solar collectors and production of electric energy by photovoltaic (PV) panels is used. Obtained by solar panels electric energy for water heating also can be use. The aim of the research is to make out the more preferable method for water heating by solar radiation particularly in weather conditions of Latvia. There are some advantages and disadvantages for each of them analyzed in the paper. Our research has shown that, at the same intensity of solar radiation, the efficiency of solar collectors is higher while the heated water temperature in the system’s hot water tank is lower, and at higher ambient air temperature as well, but opposite to this, efficiency of PV panels is higher at lower ambient air temperature. Electricity produced by PV panels, using an electric resistance heaters heat water independently of its temperature. The amount of heat energy transferred from a solar collector by heat carrier to the hot water tank depends on the temperature difference between the heat carrier and heated water. The method of investigation corresponds to the goal of investigation, the effectivity of solar collectors and solar panels of different design and construction has analyzed in the paper