Volume 14 (2017): Edizione 1 (June 2017)

In today’s trade, the vast majority of commercial transactions in both domestic and international trade are concluded by applying trade credit terms. The aim of this article is to analyse the trade credit insurance and, according to the methodology, to evaluate it as a credit risk management tool in the context of Lithuanian business market. The authors have proposed a methodology that combines theoretical and practical research methods. First of all, with assistance of qualitative analysis, the alternative external credit risk management tools were examined. Such analysis allows not only to identify the advantages, disadvantages and benefits of researched risk management tools but also to assess the efficiency and rationality of trade credit insurance in the context of alternative methods. In order to carry out an assessment in the practical aspect, considering the lack of statistical data, it was decided additionally to perform an expert evaluation. After performing an assessment of trade credit insurance, it was concluded that in international trade, with a large buyer portfolio and high sales volume, the trade credit insurance becomes the most effective and rational way to manage credit risk, which eliminates the losses because of the debtor’s insolvency or bankruptcy, manages countries and sector’s risks and helps to discipline the debtor, what determines the decline in overdue accounts frequencies, amounts and volumes.

The topic of organisational pathology is surprisingly absent in literature on management, especially when bearing in mind the theoretical and practical import of such questions. The intention of the author is to fill in this gap, at least partially. The paper is based on an analysis of literature and an empirical research conducted by the author. The research applied partially structured interviews as its method. These interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs and managers of various levels. They made possible the drawing of conclusions relating to conditions behind the genesis and growth of selected organisational pathologies in a situation of economic downswing. The article briefly presents the concept and influence of pathology on the functioning of an organisation. The author concentrates on the causes of the phenomenon and presents them from various perspectives. It is during times of economic downswing that an increase in unethical behaviour, including corruption, mobbing as well as others, becomes particularly visible. Also noticeable is concentrating on limiting costs, which can sometimes reach pathological scale. This can lead to a permanent loss of pro-development potential by the organisation. Moreover, numerous pathological phenomena emerge at the tangent point of the organisation and its surroundings. The source of many undesirable phenomena in the organisation and in its relations with its surroundings is a fall in trust, which makes its appearance in crisis situations. More often than not, managers facing a situation in which they have no choice perpetuate organisational pathologies, whilst, at the same time, being aware of the lack of validity of their actions. However, a more frequent source of problems is the differences in perspective in perceiving organisational phenomena by various actors and stakeholders.

Research on embedding direct charitable contributions into purchase transactions through increasing product price has revealed mutual benefits for charitable organisations and for-profit companies. This process is referred to as the embedded premium (EP). The potential for this type of mutually beneficial cause marketing has been shown to apply to a wide range of products. The fastest growing product classification in the United States, organic products generally cost more than their non-organic alternatives. The basis of this research is to examine if organic products enhance the utility of EP offerings. Eight different organic and non-organic food products are presented in a 64-block, single choice set design to a national sample of consumers with choice options between current market price and current market price plus 5% price premium with entire premium going directly to charity. The results of the research indicate that organic products with EP were, on an average, chosen almost five percentage points less frequently than similar EP choices involving non-organic products.

Teacher is a key figure in the implementation of reforms in higher education. Pedagogical research of the professional identity (PI) of teacher, her/his priority values, self-evaluation of performances and professional knowledge and the way how she/he conceptualises the profession at an individual level can lead to the most appropriate strategies to manage the educational reforms successfully. This article presents some results of the Latvian-Russian project ‘Professional Identity of Contemporary Pedagogue’ implemented in 2014-2016 by researchers of Riga (Latvia) and Smolensk (Russia). In the realisation of project, a hypothetical model of the content of Higher Education Institution (HEI) teacher’s PI was created, and HEI teachers’ survey was carried out. In total, 198 teachers were surveyed in Riga and Smolensk. The aim of this article is to examine the relevance of the proposed model and analyse the indicators of the first two components of the model: Philosophy of the Profession and Professional Knowledge. The results show that, on the whole, the answers of the Russian and Latvian teachers in the questionnaire are fairly well agreed; however, some differences and peculiarities in the data of Riga and Smolensk were observed. The relevance of the proposed model has been confirmed, and some problems of PI of HEI teachers have been identified. To improve the educational process, executives of the reform and teachers should pay due attention to these problems.

Banking sector has developed and extended the usage of online services in the past decade. In fact, nowadays, Internet-based banking services dominate over other historically provided alternatives. This article discusses private clients′ trust in Internet banking in Latvia. The model of trust in Internet banking was developed based on four factors, distinguished in the scientific literature. They are provided information, bank’s characteristics, ebanking system and website of a bank. Hence, the goal of the research is to measure the impact of distinguished factors on trust in Internet banking. In order to determine how these attributes affect private customers′ trust, correlation and regression analysis were applied. The results showed that the most vital factor affecting private clients’ trust in Internet banking is e-banking system. What is more, it was found that provided information is a statistically insignificant factor and, hence, it was removed from the model. Respondents, being private customers, limit the breadth of study, thus the results do not reflect companies’ trust in Internet banking.

In 2016, the European Union has launched a new and ambitious project for the future regulation of international trade in the European Union and the rules of its taxation: since the 1 May 2016, the new Union Customs Code (UCC) has entered into force. It revokes the old Community Customs Code (CCC), which was applied since 1992, and passed in the form of EU regulation sets brand-new rules for the application of Common Customs Tariff and calculation of customs duties (tariffs) in all the EU Member States. It is oriented to the creation of the paperless environment for the formalisation of international trade operations (full electronic declaration of customs procedures) and ensuring of a more uniform administration of customs duties in the tax and customs authorities of the Member States in the European Union. Therefore, the article raises and seeks to answer the problematic question whether the Member States of the European Union themselves are ready to implement these ambitious goals and does the actual practice of the Member States support that (considering the practice of the Republic of Lithuania). The research, which is based on the analysis of case law in the Republic of Lithuania (case study of recent tax disputes between the taxpayers and customs authorities that arose immediately before and after the entry into force of the UCC), leads to the conclusion that many problematic areas that may negatively impact the functioning of the new Customs Code remain and must be improved, including an adoption of new legislative solutions.

The aim of the article is to present and compare the major sources of financing of physical investments in Poland and Latvia and to attempt to identify their determinants. The subject of the diagnosis is the corporate sector in Poland and i Latvia in the years 2005-2015.The article uses methodology, developed by C. Mayer, J. Corbett and T. Jenkinson, that is based on the net sources of finance. The financial data analysed in the article come from the capital and financial accounts, constituting the element of the integrated system of national accounts. Assuming that in a given period of time, the sources of finance (revenue) are equal to their use (expenditure), it is possible to estimate the structure of financing of physical investments in the corporate sector. The practical dimension of the analysis should be viewed as an indication for identifying changes in the area of financing of physical investments in enterprises in the two countries.

The World Health Organization (since 1998) recognises that many modern diseases and disorders (including social problems) are caused by risky behaviour. Youth risky behaviour is generally defined as a behaviour that directly or indirectly threatens the young person’s well-being and health. This is usually understood as smoking, abuse of alcohol and psychoactive substances and early initiated and unprotected sexual relations. However, the risky behaviour also includes basic things such as the failure to comply with diet regimen, sedentary lifestyle, not wearing the safety belt in the car and failure to wear a helmet whilst cycling or rollerblading. Adolescence itself is a risky span of the human life, as it is associated with moving from childhood into the adult world and intensive search for the personal identity. To ensure a consistent development of personality, adolescent risky behaviour prevention include harmonisation of education processes to help teenagers to develop responsible behaviour skills by reducing the risk factors and increasing protective factors. The article aims to overview the factors that influence youth risky behaviour and the factors that determine the planning and organisation of preventive activities for the pupils in the higher classes of the schools of general education. The study was completed in the form of a questionnaire that was conducted in the schools of the Lithuanian Republic in 2016. The results of the study describe trends of the prevention policies applied in the system of education, considering the national context of the individual Member States of the European Union.

Research relevance: Cold knowledge is perceived as a key issue in terms of the composition of the company and the sense of the procedures being implemented. Thus, organisation of appropriate forms of employee trainings in this regard becomes essential. Aim of the paper: Distinguishing the existence of schemes of applied forms of employee trainings in the contexts of relation between two aspects of cold knowledge (internal documentation and data bases) and the types of enterprises (their formal independence). Research methods applied: A survey based on the purposive sampling of respondents was conducted. A two-tiered clustering analysis and an analysis of correspondence were applied. Main findings: It was possible to distinguish four groups of particular forms of trainings. Three groups are represented by the same main forms of trainings in both cases (documentation/databases). The analysis of correspondence established that respondents from branches as well as head offices of multi-branch enterprises were, in case of trainings concerning internal documentation, more prone to point at two forms of trainings: blended and special, whereas, in case of training within the scope of databases, they were more willing to point at a special form of trainings. Theoretical and/or practical value of the study: Results allow to associate the forms of employee trainings in the chosen aspects of cold knowledge and show the differentiation of their use depending on the type of enterprise. These facts open up a new theoretical perspective for the description of organisation of employee trainings based on formal relations.`

Numerous economists and analysts from all over the world have been trying to find an appropriate method to assess company health and to predict its eventual financial distress for many years. No economy is a small isolated subject, and the bankruptcy of a company can cause through its stakeholders′ significant impact on the sustainable economic development. Otherwise, companies are very complicated entities, and it is not a simple task to estimate company’s future development. Together with the best-known Z-Score model of bankruptcy prediction developed by Altman, numerous models worldwide that are based on different methodologies have been developed. We assume that individual state’s economy has major influence on the final form of these models as well as there are several common characteristics between Slovak economy and economy of countries of Visegrad Four. Therefore, we applied chosen bankruptcy prediction models developed in countries of Visegrad Four on the set of Slovak companies and validated their prediction ability in specific condition of the Slovak economy. On the basis of the provided calculations, we compared gained results with the prediction capability of other popular prediction models also applied on the data set of Slovak companies. Through this, we pointed out the importance of the development of unique bankruptcy prediction model, which will be constructed in the specific condition of individual countries, and highlighted the weak forecasting ability of foreign models.

In this article, the index approach to an estimation of situational multifactor economic categories is considered: a level of development of a social and economic infrastructure of region and population living conditions. Author’s mathematical models of formation of the integrated estimated indexes formulated on principles of the factorial analysis of hierarchies are used. The constructed estimated integrated indexes form a basis of ranging of territories, both in an annual cut and in dynamics on years that, in turn, allows to analyse the change in ratings of territories (during 5-10 years): on a level of development of an infrastructure and quality of life of the population. Authors give results of computer modelling of an index of development of a social and economic infrastructure. Here authors use additional parameters for the measurement of an index of capital investments in an infrastructure. Further, authors model an index of quality of life of the population. Here the methods used are the analysis of hierarchies, the factorial analysis and a method of the main things a component. Then the interrelation analysis between tendencies of change of indexes through comparison of ranks of territories is made. Theoretical offers of authors are accompanied by quantitative results of modelling experiments on materials of 30 Chinese provinces for the period of 10 years period.

The tax prism method is developed for the assessment of tax part of the budget as well as for forecasting the influence of tax optimisation on it. There are certain trends in global practice. Developing and transition economies are characterised by low tax burden. Economically developed countries with a high level of social security of population are characterised by high tax burden. The analytical and graphic-analytical research for the purpose of determination of optimum size of the taxation using the tax prism has been conducted. In addition to the concept of ‘tax prism’, concepts such as static and dynamic tax prisms have been introduced, allowing to consider changes in the part of the budget of interest in connection with a possibility of taxation subjects to reduce the size of a tax burden by various methods of tax optimisation, and also to consider the influence of other factors on it. The use of this approach helps effectively to enhance the tax legislation by modelling high-quality and quantitative consequences of one or another changes and innovations.