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This paper aims to delve into the interdependent connection between place branding and social capital, specifically focusing on how it contributes to uniting a city’s recovery efforts during times of crisis. By using the theoretical frameworks of social capital and cultural intermediation, the case study of Vilnius, Lithuania, exemplifies how cities can navigate through turbulent periods by prioritising the work of place marketers and their relationships in their strategic approach.

A qualitative, mixed method case study approach used four different methods of investigation, drawing on multiple sources of evidence, including a mix of interviews with key actors, content analysis, netnography and participant observation.

Go Vilnius, in collaboration with the City of Vilnius Municipality, leveraged existing stakeholder relationships and a strong common identification among political actors, promotional intermediaries, residents and city institutions to not only adapt to the unfolding crisis but to evolve its marketing, place-making, tourism and community engagement strategies to emerge as a more resilient, dynamic and animated city after the pandemic.

This case study demonstrates that a “network constellation” approach centralised around key stakeholder relationships held by marketing, tourism and promotional professionals is a crucial component in urban post-pandemic and emergency planning.

By placing marketing professionals at the heart of crisis planning, cities can capitalise on the inherent social capital that is their key occupational resource and leverage their relationships with residents, the business community, international collaborators and the media for swift and maximum impact.

By identifying the “network constellations” that facilitated the institutionalisation of place branding activities in the face of both a local and global shutdown, this paper positions place marketers, acting as cultural intermediaries, at the centre of crisis planning and prevention strategies for anti-fragile cities of the post-pandemic future.

The purpose of this paper is to explore urban mobilisation patterns in two post-Soviet cities: Vilnius and Moscow. Both cities were subject to similar housing and urban policy during Soviet times, and they have implemented urban development using neoliberal market principles, provoking grassroots opposition from citizens to privatisation and marketisation of their housing environment and local public space. However, the differing conditions of democratic Lithuanian and authoritarian Russian public governance offer different opportunities and set different constraints for neighbourhood mobilisation. The purpose is to contrast local community mobilisations under the two regimes and highlight the differences between and similarities in the activists’ repertoires of actions in two distinct political and economic urban settings.

The paper employs qualitative methodology using data from semi-structured interviews conducted with community activists and state officials, presented using a comparative case study design.

Although, citizens’ mobilisations in the two cities are reactions to the neoliberalisation of housing and local public space, they take different forms. In Vilnius they are institutionalised and receive formal support from national and local authorities. Moreover, support from the EU encourages organisational development and provides material and cognitive resources for grassroots urban mobilisations. In contrast, residents’ mobilisations in Moscow are informal and face fierce opposition from local authorities. However, even in an authoritarian setting, grassroots mobilisations evolve using creative strategies to circumvent institutional constraints.

Little attention has been paid to grassroots urban mobilisations in post-Soviet cities. There is also a lack of comparative attempts to show variation in post-Soviet urban activism related to housing and local public space.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how transportation system factors affect city housing markets. The goal was to show that identifying these factors alone is not enough without also examining their effects and variations according to the housing location.

Transportation system factors were identified by conducting a thorough literature review. The factors’ relevance was tested using a quantitative methodology and a sample of 317 Vilnius residents. This city was next divided into three zones, and data collected from 18 real estate experts was subjected to qualitative analysis. The analytic hierarchy process was then applied to identify transportation system factors’ level of impact and dynamics by the housing location.

The results show that the factors affect the housing market in question but that these effects vary by the housing location and the most critical factors differ for each city zone.

Only data on Vilnius were used. Further research is needed to compare transportation factors’ dynamics in multiple cities.

Priorities in transportation system improvements should be assessed to facilitate sustainable urban development and enhance the residents’ quality of life. Housing market regulations can only be successful if investment in transportation systems is allocated purposefully and coherently.

This research went beyond identifying transportation system factors by employing a broad, systematic approach to clarifying potential options for regulating housing markets through transportation system projects.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the measures implemented under the spatial planning law of the Republic of Lithuania, along with various initiatives, to identify whether Lithuania is following the international trend of greening cities.

The authors’ analysis is based on an evaluation of the urban theory-based approach towards greening cities and adopting urban agriculture in Lithuania and legal regulations introduced by the Lithuanian government. The paper specifically analyses the legal requirements enshrined in Lithuanian law that are intended to encourage green infrastructure and urban agriculture in cities as part of the adoption of the principles of sustainable development. The paper focuses on Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, to gauge the extent to which the new regulations encourage urban greening and agriculture.

The authors’ reveals that Vilnius is lacking initiatives with regard to urban agriculture, while existing areas for urban agriculture are disappearing. This is happening despite the promising spatial planning reform in Lithuania, which introduced the principle of sustainable development into spatial planning regulations. This is a cause for concern and should lead to renewed calls for a coherent and ambitious approach to the greening of Vilnius and other cities in Lithuania. Furthermore, the lack of action shows that the vague wording used by the regulations does not actively encourage urban agriculture and even results in ignorance of its virtues. Therefore, more precise regulations on encouraging urban agriculture and greening of the cities should be introduced.

This paper is the first to analyse the extent to which the newly adopted principle of sustainable development in spatial planning could affect the greening of Lithuanian cities and encourage urban agriculture. The paper identifies the sequence of opening the meaning of the sustainable development principle in regular legal norms which encouraging the greening and indicates the lack of imperative norms to ensure the due implementation of sustainable development principle.

This paper aims to explore the symbolic meanings of physical places and social spaces for community members with and without disabilities in the process of relocation of people with disabilities into the communities. It particularly focuses on the potential of city events to become places for interacting with each other.

The data was gathered using two methods: drawing ecological maps (indicating places a person visits) and conducting interviews with people with disabilities and other community members. The ecological map is based on the theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1986). Empirical data was gathered in four Lithuanian communities by drawing ecological maps and conducting interviews with community members with disabilities (35) and without disabilities (24).

Data shows that two groups occasionally overlap in physical locations but seldom interact socially. However, city events which are rare, but provide a clearer structure for persons with disabilities and are attractive to other community members as well, offer a good starting point for inclusion.

Further research of community places where people with disabilities live and act could focus on, first, the gender differences in people with disabilities participation; second, on the challenging versus nonchallenging community environments and their role in the people with disabilities learning to live and act as community members and citizens. It is also essential to explore the meaning of privacy in the participation of people with disabilities, and the potential of private and less private places to facilitate their inclusion.

In the context of the ongoing deinstitutionalization, it is essential to identify the means of and desirable support for people with disabilities for their interaction in cafés, markets, bus stops and street corners, which encompass fewer preconditions for preparation. This implies, that practitioners should consider developing the abilities of people with disabilities to cope with the “chaotic order” of social gatherings. However, community-based citizenship implies not only festive city events but participation in decision-making. Thus, social policy actors should consider including people with disabilities in the community councils, increasing information accessibility and thus implementing the vision of an inclusive community.

The originality and value of the research lies in revealing the “framed” nature of people with disabilities participation. This type of participation is determined by their institutional experience, financial means and whose appearance (“coming in groups”) is frequently noticed by the community members.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodologies for implementing Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) at the local level, particularly in peripheral Europe where CP-UDP’s top-down standards have poor dissemination and acceptance. This paper debates how local partnerships can help reduce crime and how a CP-UDP-based model can be introduced into municipal planning.

The paper discusses the challenge of CP-UDP in the framework of a post-crisis Europe and Europe 2020. Because there is a large gap between theory and practice, lack of a shared holistic approach, and scepticism, or lack of knowledge, of public authorities, at local-level planning professionals and the police have devised bottom-up initiatives based on interdisciplinary partnerships with the community. The paper describes, discusses and compares the implementation of such approaches in Lisbon (Portugal) and Vilnius (Lithuania).

The paper addresses the processes and challenges of establishing synergies and working relationships between police officers, public officials and the community, and it discusses six main causes for its (un)success. When these conditions were met, crime and social constraints reduced.

Lessons learned are deemed crucial to disseminate knowledge and best practices, paving the way for proper top-down policies and planning legislations in these and other countries.

This paper analyses the potentialities and shortcomings of local-level implementation of CP-UDP strategies as an alternative to failed top-down strategies in two realities mostly unknown of the international scientific community. The case study material is previously unpublished internationally.

This purpose of the paper is to examine the multi-channel cyclone created at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Research Institute of Environmental Protection. The paper aims to predict the possible trajectories of solid particle motion in the cyclone with reference to the mechanical forces only.

The numerical calculations were performed on the basis of experimental results. The system of differential equations describing particle motion in the cyclone is analysed and numerically solved using Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method. Research consists of three examples that illustrate the impact of particle density and velocity on collection and analyses the particle motion trajectories in the first and second channels of the cyclone.

Numerical calculations were performed according to the data from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Research Institute of Environmental Protection. The particulate matter of wood ash and granite were used. The collection of solid particles of different size was examined when the air inflow velocity varies from 10 to 20 m/s. The possible motion trajectories of the solid particles are defined and the parameters of collected particles have been discussed.

The obtained results can be used for the analysis of air cleaning efficiency and particulate matter removal from air in a multi-channel cyclone.

The results lead us to improve the structure of the cyclone so as to effectively collect the solid particles of different size.

This paper presents the results obtained for the multi-channel cyclone created at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Research Institute of Environmental Protection.

Although there is a common agreement that children participate and impact parental purchase decisions, the research results are rather inconsistent. One of the reasons for the differences in the findings could be attributable to different operationalisations of a child engagement variable in surveys. This study aims to classify the instruments used to measure children engagement in parental purchase decisions and to develop a typology of these instruments.

In total, 67 articles that reported details and results of the surveys where a variable of children engagement in family decisions was operationalised were selected on a systematic basis. In total, 82 measures were extracted, reviewed and assigned to the particular category.

The typology of measures of children engagement into parental purchase decisions was developed. The features of particular measures, as well as their applicability for different types of child engagement measurement, are discussed.

The sample of articles was limited to nine major scholarly databases and framed for 1985-2015, excluding conference presentations, dissertations, studies and other types of primary research publications.

The analysis demonstrates that authors who had seemingly similar or the same purpose of measuring variable of child engagement into parental purchase decision in fact have used different measures. The differences in measures tend to produce different size of engagement effect. The proposed typology will support scholarly community in establishing more clear definitions and measures of children engagement in parental purchase decision domain.

The typology of measures of children engagement into parental purchase decision is the first attempt to introduce systematised approach toward different domains within the field and their measurement.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of information technologies and technology-enabled social networks on the efficiency of knowledge management processes in the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies.

Scientific literature analysis, structural equation modeling and expert evaluation (structured questionnaire) were used to develop the research model, collect data from the audit and consulting companies’ experts and test the research hypotheses.

The empirical results of this research supported the hypotheses stating that information technologies and social networks positively affect the knowledge management cycle, including five processes (acquisition, creation, storage, sharing and application) within the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies.

The research results were generated from the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies, which form a limitation concerning the geographical area and the business sector.

From the results of this study, audit and consulting companies, as well as organizations and society broadly, would benefit via the positive effect of information technologies and technology-enabled social networks on the whole knowledge management cycle, which has a further impact on organizational performance. These practical implications are related to a more open, sharing culture that drives organizational performance to the members and stakeholders of organizations, which, in turn, benefits society.

This research analyzes information technologies and technology-enabled social networks’ impact on knowledge management processes, particularly in the context of the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies. While the phenomena have received some attention in the prior scientific research, the studied context so far remained under-researched, where a gap is found in studying the knowledge management cycle as a whole.

Real estate economics, strategic management.

BA, undergraduate year 3, 4

The case aims to raise an issue of the effects of the economic crisis on Europa shopping centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, and its owner, Baltic Property Trust (BPT) Secura. For the first time since its opening in Vilnius, the company faced rapidly decreasing flows and turnover. Falling revenues meant that most stores within the shopping mall had been struggling to maintain their cash flow and profitability. The major idea of the case is to show that shopping centre management is a complex process covering interrelated relationship among owners, tenants, customers and society in general.

Learners will be able: to apply knowledge of retail segment functioning specifics; to apply knowledge of retail property management (in various economic and market cycles); and to apply strategic management principles in property management.

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