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This paper aims to describe some trends on climate change in the Baltic Sea region, along with current and future expected actions to cope with climate change in the region.

The elements that influence climate change in the Baltic Region countries are analysed and co‐operation efforts among the Baltic countries as well as their individual policy and political decisions considering this issue are described.

Climate change is one the biggest problems faced today and a major threat to society. There is a need for political measures as well as a change in socio‐economic trends in order to meet the challenges of climate change in the Baltic Sea Region.

Climate change is a matter of common concern in the 11 Northern European countries, which either are on the Baltic Sea coast or are influenced by the Baltic Sea by being in the catchment area. The importance of international co‐operation is outlined and some recommendations and possible solutions are provided.

The on‐going economic development of EU‐countries as well of the countries in the Central and Eastern (C&E) European region has been leading to a significant use of a great deal of natural resources as well as to noticeable environmental problems. Focuses on the project “Baltic environmental information dissemination system (BEIDS)” which has been acting as a focal point for the circulation of intelligent information on aspects of the marine environment among a sample of seven Baltic countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden (EU) and Lithuania, Poland and Russia (non‐EU), contributing to networking and know‐how exchange, complementing efforts towards transregional cooperation in sustainable spatial planning on the basis of Baltic 21. The results reached to date include: increased awareness of matters related to sustainable development in the six participant countries; enhanced communication exchange and networking among the sampled nations; improved information flow and increased participation in events, activities and programmes across the Baltic Sea region. BEIDS is a prime example of the feasibility of using marine research as a tool for sustainable development and the results reached over the first two years are reviewed in this paper.

This article examines access to finance for SMEs in the Baltic States and the South Caucasus countries following the financial crisis of 2007 and is set within the context of the rule of law for businesses.

The article uses the cross-sectional dataset from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) for 2009 to examine access to finance for SMEs and the court system in the Baltic States and the South Caucasus countries. An ordered probit estimation technique is used to model access to finance and the court system in the Baltic States and the South Caucasus countries. The analysis draws upon institutional theory to explain access to finance for SMEs.

The results show variations from one Baltic State and South Caucasus country to another in relation to fairness, speed of justice and enforcement of court decisions. The analysis suggests that if access to finance is not an obstacle to business operations and the court system is fair, impartial and uncorrupted, it determines the likelihood of strength in entrepreneurship. Additionally, the results show that, within the Baltic region, businesses experiencing constraints in accessing finance are more likely to have females as their top managers. However, for the South Caucasus region, there was no gender difference.

This research is based on evidence from the Baltic States and the South Caucasus region. However, the findings are relevant to discussions on the importance of the context of entrepreneurship, and more specifically, the rule of law. The institutional theory provides an explanation for coercive, normative and mimetic institutional isomorphism in the context of access to finance for SMEs. Coercive institutional isomorphism exerts a dependence on access to finance for SMEs. In coercive institutional isomorphism, formal and informal pressures are exerted by external organisations such as governments, legal regulatory authorities, banks and other lending institutions. These formal and informal pressures are imposed to ensure compliance as a dependency for successful access to finance goal.

This research creates awareness among entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs, business practitioners and society that reducing obstacles to access finance and a fair court system improve entrepreneurial venture formation. This has the potential to create employment, advance business development and improve economic development.

This paper makes an original contribution by emphasising the significance of access to finance and a fair court system in encouraging stronger entrepreneurship. The institutional framework provides a definition for coercive institutional isomorphism to show how external forces exert a dependence pressure towards access to finance for SMEs.

Purpose of this research is to shed light on the changes caused by shipping sulphur regulation, which will globally take off during years 2015 and 2020. It has significant effects on diesel markets globally, but especially in regions, where demanding 0.1 per cent level is required. One of these regions is the Baltic Sea. It is relatively undealt issue, how this forthcoming change will affect these specific sub-regions of stiff 0.1 per cent sulphur level demand and their transportation modes with different tax obligations.

The authors use second-hand data from various different sources, earlier research as well as simulation to estimate the effects on the diesel markets and transportation prices in the Baltic Sea region. Different transportation modes have diverging taxation treatment on diesel oil use, which complicates analysis further.

Based on research findings, it is rather probable that diesel markets for sulphur-free diesel oil shall face price spike in the beginning of 2015 in the Baltic Sea region. This is mostly explained with needed large-scale scrubber investment and short-time span to complete these (there are both technical and financial challenges). Therefore, numerous ships shall enter sulphur-free diesel oil market. Based on the simulation study, freight transportation will mostly be hurt in shipping, whereas road and rail shall face smaller price increases. Results are mostly explained with taxation treatment, where shipping is still using tax-free diesel oil, and no fixed taxes are hedging this transportation mode from sudden price changes.

Analysis concerns only Baltic Sea region, and effects and changes in the entire Europe from sulphur regulation change in 2015 are unknown. This would mean to extent study to North Sea. In addition, taxation system harmonization is not yet complete in Europe, and differences exist between member states. Research work was completed with diesel oil tax treatment regarding different transportation modes in Finland.

Based on this study, short sea shipping will be hurt by regulation change in 2015. However, in the future, this transportation mode shall face additional cost increases, as most probably, tax harmonization in diesel markets shall lead to fixed taxes added on shipping diesel. So, transportation mode shall face difficult and challenging times ahead.

Research is seminal study from possible sulphur regulation change implications in transportation mode level. It takes into account taxation treatment, cost share of diesel in transportation mode level and possible diesel price change. Until today, no other study exists in this detailed level.

The purpose of the paper is to present and compare collective efforts of higher education institutions working through regional networks in introducing and promoting education for sustainable development (ESD) and environmental education (EE) in two most significant EU boarder regions. Efforts to support EE/ESD in higher education are usually undertaken at individual universities and, in some cases, at national level, still remaining very fragmented; therefore, the examples of University networks in the Baltic and the Mediterranean regions are of particular interest and importance. Both regions have regional conventions, protocols and strategies for the relevant seas, bringing EU and neighbouring countries of the regions together for the protection of the environment and the promotion of sustainable development (SD) within which EE and ESD are embedded.

This paper presents the driving forces for the establishment, evolution and design of relevant activities of these two networks, making also a few inter-comparisons and recommendations for further improvements.

Both regions, the Baltic and the Mediterranean, have multiple needs and high potential for more efficient linking of SD with higher education. Early enough it was realised that regional networking could stimulate countries and universities towards this task. Two networks were set up: the Baltic University Programme (starting already in 1991) and the Mediterranean Universities Network for SD focusing on ESD (starting in 2007). The paper reviews main activities of the networks together with lessons learned and gives directions for their future operations.

This paper is one of the rare case studies related to higher education networking on ESD and demonstrates how networking on ESD, apart from enhancing professional development, supports also SD and promotes cooperation and peace in regions that have a history of frequently turbulent relationships.

Provides an overview of the article collection in this theme issue that explores the concept of “smart tourism” and in particular, developments and issues that are important for the Baltic States.

The article applies a thematic approach to exploring the factors affecting the development of smart tourism, as well as the challenges and opportunities facing the Baltic region. Overall, the collection reviews the literature, provides an analysis of data and a survey of experts, including tourism service providers. This combines with the practical solutions given in the articles.

The findings and conclusions of this theme issue focus on the factors affecting the development of smart tourism and smart villages, digitalization and innovation opportunities in the Baltic regions, and it provides an insight on the current situation in the smart tourism industry, the possibilities for using digital technologies, and the practical applications.

This theme issue explores the factors influencing and challenges facing smart tourism in the Baltic region, given that all the stakeholders actively want more sustainable and balanced tourism, as well as opportunities to develop innovative, technologically advanced solutions to the development of smart tourism.

The chapter discusses the characteristics of audiovisual (AV) media sectors in the Baltic Sea region. Therein it focuses on the specifics of media industries in small countries in the region as they are challenged in ways notably different from large countries with large domestic markets for media content. It discusses the differences between the AV media industries in the Nordic and Baltic countries and suggests that while in the first case long-term welfare society policies and conscious policy-driven system building have conditioned growth and international success then also in the second case innovation policy rationales have facilitated recent growth and dynamics. It then discusses the specific challenges, especially platformisation to small media industries in contemporary globalising media markets, and suggests that opportunities to resist these challenges may be in local inter-sectoral cooperation, that is, in building cross-innovation systems.

This paper aims to the environmental awareness raising as a key issue of education for sustainable development. Youth Environmental Volunteers Movement in the area of coastal oil response operations in St. Petersburg is presented in this paper as a successful initiative in the field of environmental awareness through universities and city authorities’ cooperation.

The main approach is to explore ways of environmental awareness raising through the cooperation between universities and city authorities in practice. It is shown as a system of preparation by environmental volunteers for oil recovery operations in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. The use of a voluntary rescue movement as an organization for support state authorities is investigated.

The program for environmental volunteers' tuition was created due to mutual cooperation between universities and state authorities. The purpose is to give necessary knowledge to and skills required by experts and young people on how to run together rescue and oil spill response operations. Practical field trainings with simulated oil accidents were realized in situ on the coastal zone of the Gulf of Finland.

Coastal oil recovery operations are the key responsibility of state authorities and professional organizations in all countries around the Baltic Sea. Active involvement of young people in public participation helps to solve environmental problems at local and regional levels.

The Environmental Committee, City of St. Petersburg together with universities, provided practical implementation of the Youth Environmental Volunteers Movement. It contributes to the improvement of the marine environment and gives a necessary experience for implementation of new initiatives in the field of sustainable education and environmental protection in the Baltic Sea region.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a new way of explaining and tackling the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay their employees an undeclared (envelope) wage in addition to their formal salary. Drawing upon institutional theory, it is here proposed that envelope wages result from the lack of alignment of a society’s formal institutions (i.e. the codified laws and regulations) with its informal institutions (i.e. the socially shared unwritten understandings which reflect citizens’ norms, values and beliefs).

To evaluate this, data are reported from a 2013 Eurobarometer survey involving 1,738 face-to-face interviews with formal employees in four Baltic countries, namely, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The finding is that the greater is the asymmetry between the formal and informal institutions (i.e. the level of disagreement of citizens with the codified laws and regulations of formal institutions), the higher is the propensity to pay envelope wages. This is the case at both the individual- and country levels.

To reduce the prevalence of envelope wages, the resultant argument is that the values of employers and employees need to be aligned with the formal institutions. This requires alterations not only in the informal institutions, using measures such as tax education, awareness raising campaigns and normative appeals, but also changes in formal institutions so as to improve trust in government by fostering greater procedural justice, procedural fairness and redistributive justice.

This is the first paper to apply institutional theory to explaining and tackling envelope wages in the Baltic Sea region.