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In the area of international retail expansion the most challenging issues that firms struggle with are: which countries to expand to; which order to do it; and what are the retail drivers that can be readily exported to the new market versus which have to be market specific? The purpose of this paper is to look at one specific retailer and review how they have addressed these questions.

The approach used is based around a case study of the expansion of the Stockmann department store into Estonia and Latvia. Using the findings of empirical research, qualitative and quantitative, the research shows how Stockmann has both built upon and exported its original home strengths while also focusing on which drivers had to be tailored to the local marketplace.

The case study found that there are some differences between the performances of Stockmann across the two Baltic countries, but the level of performance is quite high in most areas of retail operations. This supports the position that a multinational can successfully expand in diverse markets. In other words, although there are minor issues, on balance the regional versus country specific issues have been substantially resolved. Even national issues like skilled labour shortages and developing good practices for handling returns have been resolved at a medium level. Areas for improvement were in pricing and handling merchandise returns.

The findings are limited to one case study, of one retailer, and the fact that the study was over a defined period. This is a general limitation of case studies, but the use of multiple research methods, and methodologies helped to strengthen the research findings and interpretations.

This study has presented the retail value chain as a model consisting of three main drivers: service; retail operations and country of origin aspects. The three constructs were found to be valid representations, enabling an assessment of a retailer's performance in multiple countries. The lessons drawn indicate that a business model used in the home country can be a powerful integrating and controlling tool for managing the multinational expansion, but that there is also a need to include consumer perceptions and evaluations of retailer performance. These operational measures continue to represent one of the best sources of data in understanding a retailer's performance, in both developed and converging countries such as Estonia and Latvia.

This paper presents a useful case study of a retailer that has expanded from its home base into a number of countries, all of which fall into the category of transition economies, and adds to the literature covering expansion into transition economies, which is a little known field in terms of the expansion of one's value chain or value proposition

In the context of falling demand for higher education and, in particular, doctoral studies, it is important to understand how to attract new students. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the decision-making process the PhD students of Baltic universities followed when choosing whether to continue their education at doctoral level and in which institution to do it.

It uses the data gathered in 2014 from all major Baltic universities providing access to higher education at doctoral level.

At macro-level, the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are rather different in the supply of doctoral programmes and the level and dynamics of the popularity of doctoral-level studies in the population. Besides, strong country-specific effects on the goals students pursued when they enrolled in a doctoral programme and the information about the university or the programme they found useful are observed at micro-level. The main result is related to systematic differences in the perceptions students have about the benefits they will get from a doctoral degree across the current (at doctoral level) and previous (at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels) fields of study, as well as depending on labour-market experience and family and social circle.

These findings suggest that Baltic higher education institutions should employ different marketing communication strategies when attracting new doctoral students, depending on the field of study and the country they operate in.

This is the first comprehensive study on the motivation of enrolment at doctoral level in the Baltic countries. It gives the management of Baltic universities a general picture of the motivation to get a PhD degree and factors affecting the choice of university, which can be readily incorporated into universities’ strategy.

This study aims to indicate the reasons and provide practical suggestions to financial viability of the age-friendly housing as a sustainable construction.

The paper reviews the primary and secondary literary sources, logical approach and comparisons of real estate and socio-economic regional statistics and conducts analysis of case studies.

The study contains the results from empirical analysis on the topicality of an age-friendly built environment in the scientific literature. Key principles are identified for a current early stage of the development of a concept of the age-friendly housing. A research on the current socio-economic aspects of the creation of an age-friendly built environment is made. The practical cases of the age-friendly housing are inspected. Timely developed age-friendly housings may expect growing demands, but thorough calculation on future income is required.

The research is carried on a scale of two countries – the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Latvia.

The paper provides new developments in construction sector of Latvia and the Netherlands in terms of intention to further scientific and practical activities. The research has to identify the socio-economic aspects and the impact and importance of those in determining the revenues of age-friendly construction.

Age-friendly construction is going to become the standard of the sustainable property development, whereby the developers and investors will not make additional investments as they are compensated up front, and society as a total gets the revenues on the long term. Once this “wheel is turning”, the benefits will be permanent.

Latvia is being analysed in comparison with the Netherlands. The authors challenged to find opportunities to both countries from the economic viability’s point of view for the age-friendly housing developments.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness on different aspects that interconnect energy efficiency projects and human behavioral aspects. Perception of energy, as the physical phenomenon, inevitably should be taken into consideration within elaboration of governmental strategies and performing of energy efficiency projects.

Quantitative and qualitative data as well as legislation analysis were performed to link consumer behavioral and the duality of perception of energy aspects while performing insulation projects in Latvia. The results confirm prior findings that link together the energy consumption trends and consumer behavioral and rebound effects. The problems are stated clear: society in general is not ready to invest into energy efficiency maintenance, information on energy efficiency projects is weakly disseminated, and lack of proper information on positive aspects about energy saving projects has negative feedback on public opinion and sustainable education in the topic suffers in this case.

As the response for solving these issues recommendations are proposed new strategies should be elaborated to perform effective and innovative marketing for promoting positively oriented trends on energy saving issues and behavioral changes in society; and awareness on energy efficiency projects should be raised to show positive examples from successful ones for the good of sustainable education.

Such type of study about consumer behavior have not been performed in country that is on transition stage for developing the energy-efficient societal thinking.

This paper seeks to present a methodology for measuring the outcomes of public access computing as well as presenting and comparing the main results of baseline studies conducted in Lithuania and Latvia.

Both baseline studies use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and both include multi‐perspective, longitudinal design and nation‐wide samples.

The benefits that users can gain from using PAC in public libraries include access to ICT, technology training and assistance, expanded employment opportunities, conducting commercial transactions, access to and assistance with local, state and federal government electronic services, and support for learning, communication and personal identity.

Since these are two baseline‐studies, they do not yet offer scope for comparisons over time, although these will be addressed in both countries. The main problem of impact‐focused research is that it is very tightly linked to influences on individuals, so it is difficult to trace changes and improvements back to the library. The paper shows methods that are currently being tested and used.

The paper reports on the baseline stage of systematic impact assessment programmes being conducted in Latvia and Lithuania as part of their public access computing in public libraries development work, supported by their respective governments and part‐funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This paper aims to review female entrepreneurship in a (post) transition context, analysing its almost three-decade development in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Little research has focussed to date on female entrepreneurship in the Baltic countries. Using an institutional perspective, this paper aims to explain the unique interplay of formal and informal contexts that have shaped the development of female entrepreneurship in (post-) transition contexts.

This paper is based on an institutional reading and analysis of secondary data: statistical data, international reports and previous studies on female entrepreneurs.

There are more than 130,000 female entrepreneurs in the Baltic countries who share many common features and challenges. While the formal entrepreneurship environment is considered to be very developed in the Baltic countries, women are under-represented among the population of entrepreneurs, and there is gender-based sectoral segregation of female entrepreneurs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This indicates a need to recognise the diversity of patterns in entrepreneurial development, reflecting different inheritances from the Soviet past and the inertial character of some informal institutions, not to mention the differences in the pace of change during the transition period following the Soviet era.

This research can be used for academics, professionals, researchers and policymakers working in the fields of small business and entrepreneurship. Its data can furthermore be used to develop evidence-based policy and actions that would foster the participation of women in entrepreneurship in Baltic countries.

So far, little research has focussed on female entrepreneurship in the Baltic countries. The paper attempts to investigate that Baltic countries with their history of emphasis on gender equality on one hand and the award-winning business and entrepreneurship system on the other hand demonstrate relatively low levels of women’s entrepreneurship. This paper aims to contribute to the field of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurship is linked to its social context.

Latvia, a small country on the Baltic Sea, became independent in 1918, but was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. Like its neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia has a skewed resource pattern, small domestic market, and an export concentration into commodities. Prior to the Soviet occupation, these three countries never managed to form an economic union to overcome the disadvantages of the small size of the domestic markets in the era of assembly line technology. They practiced “Alleingang” in economic and political matters. After gaining independence in 1991, the Baltic countries learned nothing from the past and have continued practicing “Alleingang” in the age of “high tech”.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the costs of implementation of the deposit‐refund system for packaging of beverage drinks in Latvia, and to evaluate the economic feasibility of the system in the period up to 2020.

The economic assessment is based on the projections of the future consumption of beverage drinks, and of the amount of deposit packaging respectively. Investment, collection, transportation, maintenance and other system operating costs are considered. An evaluation is made to compare the producers’ costs in the existing curbside collection system and in deposit‐refund system.

The costs of the deposit‐refund system depend on the amount of packaging placed on the market. The amount of deposit packaging, in its turn, depends on the consumption of beverage drinks affected by GDP. The implementation of the deposit‐refund system would cause an increase in the beverage drink packaging costs, as producers would need to pay the service charge to cover the costs of the system operator. The assumed return rates of deposit packaging exceed the existing recovery rates. Thus, compared to the curbside collection system the recovery of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), glass and aluminium has increased, whereas the amount of landfilled waste has decreased.

For several years there have been on‐going discussions on implementation of the packaging deposit‐refund system in Latvia. However, there are no academic studies available, applicable to evaluate the economic aspects of the system implementation. The paper presents the methodology for assessing the investment, collection, maintenance and other costs, as well as providing the results of estimated costs of the packaging deposit‐refund system in Latvia in the period up to 2020.