Zinātniskie raksti (BVEF) / Scientific Articles

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https://dspace-dev.lu.lv/handle/7/169

Fakultātes akadēmiskā un zinātniskā personāla publicētie raksti

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Cross-border Entrepreneurial Education, Development and Knowledge and Technology Transfer: Experiences with the Cambridge–Riga Venture Camp Programme—A Reflective Report
(SAGE, 2021) Bērziņa, Kristīne; Barrell, Alan; Paalzow, Anders; Baltins, Elmars; Storgårds, Jan; Purmalis, Karlis; Irbe, Madara Mara; Ozolins, Modris
Over a 6-year period, a collaboration has been developed between a group in Cambridge, UK, and two Latvian Universities, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and other organisations, including Riga City Council, supported by the British Embassy Riga and the Latvian Embassy in London, enabling structured processes to be developed to identify aspiring entrepreneurs based in Latvia and Estonia and provide education, coaching, mentoring and encouragement first in the home territory, leading to an intense whole-week development venture camp in Cambridge for selected candidates. The programme was extended to provide ongoing business development support for a number of entrepreneurial companies with global potential, and the developing venture camp activities attracted, supported and helped accelerate the evolution in Riga of an innovative ecosystem providing leadership in the Baltics. Practical examples of cross-border knowledge and technology transfers have been recorded as part of the Cambridge–Riga Venture Camp process. This report presents the development, content and outcomes of this innovative project aimed at supporting the emergence of entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities of Latvian delegates to the project. Detailed appendices including data and narrative based survey of outcomes and assessments containing structured feedback from delegates participating in the 2020 Cambridge-Riga Venture Camp are available as the Supplementary material online. This is an interim report, since the activity is ongoing and continuously developing.
Tourism SME sustainability social and economic challenges during pandemic: cases of Russian Federation, Georgia and Latvia
(E3S Web of Conferences, 2021) Bērziņa, Kristīne; Tsoy, Marina
. Until 2020, the tourism industry was characterized by a growth rate, the statistics highlight that globally 2019 was the tenth year with a consecutive annual growth. However, the Covid-19 pandemic marked a major turning point in the development of tourism, instead of tourism overdevelopment, the underdevelopment issues appeared in front pages of the industry news. The effects of the pandemic are intensified by the fact that tourism is a labour-intensive industry and that most companies in the sector are SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises). At this time, it is crucially important to look at sustainability issues, therefore the aim of this study is to analyse the social and economic dimensions of sustainability for tourism SMEs. Descriptive statistics as well as qualitative research methods were used to study the challenges posed by the pandemic, indepth interviews were conducted with tourism SMEs from three different countries. The conclusions show the situation from an enterprise perspective in Russian Federation, Georgia and Latvia
Business models of FinTechs – Difference in similarity?
(Elsevier B.V., 2021-04) Laidroo, Laivi; Koroleva, Ekaterina; Kliber, Agata; Rupeika-Apoga, Ramona; Grigaliuniene, Zana
The FinTech industry is gradually maturing and offers a wide range of financial services on the global stage. Still, the understanding of FinTech business models remains at its infancy with a shortage of cross-country comparisons. This paper aims to determine the differences in business model attributes of FinTechs in five rapidly emerging FinTech hotspots in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Survey results from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, accompanied by cluster analysis, enable us to provide unique in-depth evidence on FinTech business models. Across the selected countries, we observe significant differences in the attributes of FinTech business models: key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer segments, delivery channels, cost structure, and revenue stream. We identify four clusters of FinTechs: “lending community”, “mixed services”, “payment service”, and “payment community”. Although these clusters share similarities with FinTech archetypes proposed in previous research, they remain rather unevenly distributed across countries.
Management of Distribution Risks and Digital Transformation of Insurance Distribution - A Regulatory Gap in the IDD
(MDPI, 2021-08-02) Marano, Pierpaolo
The Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) aims to regulate insurance distribution in the EU regardless of distribution channels and means. Although new technologies affect insurance distribution, the IDD does not explicitly regulate this digital transformation. Insurers and intermediaries must comply with detailed business conduct rules that aim to counteract distribution risks. However, the IDD exempts ancillary insurance intermediaries from its scope when they meet certain conditions. The article highlights the regulatory framework on insurance, requiring insurers and intermediaries to address distribution risks, and analyses how this exemption affects the management of distribution risks in online distribution from a legal perspective. The focus on online distribution depends on the scale such distribution can achieve. The consideration of the scale allows for challenging the political choice behind the exemption of ancillary insurance intermediaries, which consists of the principle of proportionality. A regulatory proposal to counteract these adverse effects is to remove the exemption from the IDD rules for ancillary intermediaries in online distribution. Such a proposal is compliant with the principle of technological neutrality and is in line with the new legislative proposals in the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. ---//--- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms andconditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
FinTech in Latvia: Status Quo, Current Developments, and Challenges Ahead
(MDPI, 2021-10-14) Rupeika-Apoga, Ramona; Wendt, Stefan
FinTech has been in the focus of discussion for quite some time. However, the market share of FinTech companies is still relatively small compared to that of more traditional financial services. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the status quo, current developments, and challenges ahead for the Latvian FinTech sector. We combine three analyses: a political and legal, economic, social, and technological environment (PEST) analysis; a survey among FinTech companies; and an analysis of the size and financial performance of FinTech companies during the last 10 years. We find that the current status of regulation is one of the main obstacles to FinTech development, because it does not sufficiently consider FinTech-specific aspects. Problems in attracting a skilled workforce and an environment that is not very supportive of new developments in finance are further challenges and might explain at least part of the growth and financial performance difficulties. A revision, modernization, and harmonization of regulation is essential to create a level playing field for all market participants: FinTech companies, traditional financial service providers, and those originally traditional players that are integrating FinTech solutions in their business model. Further efforts are also required to foster Latvia’s attractiveness for a skilled workforce. We hope that this study helps increase the visibility of Latvian FinTech and contributes to the development of the new Latvian FinTech strategy

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