Market conditions have become increasingly dynamic and demanding, resulting in a challenging competitive environment. To adapt to this dynamic environment, supply chains have become increasingly reliant on collaboration, integration, flexibility, and trust between stakeholders. Therefore, the importance of new technological applications in supply chains has grown even more. To improve supply chain flow control, modern specialized applications must be implemented. Blockchain technology has established itself as a necessary component of today’s competitive environment. Companies should invest in blockchain technology to respond quickly to changing market conditions and demands in today’s dynamic business environment. In this regard, this study investigates the effect of blockchain technology utilization on supply chain transparency, supply chain flexibility, and trust in suppliers. For this purpose, first, data were collected from the first 1000 exporting firms declared in 2019 by the Turkey Exporters Assembly using a survey method. Secondly, factor analyses and regression analyses were performed with the dataset obtained from 84 companies. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that blockchain technology utilization increases transparency, flexibility, and trust in supply chains. According to these results, it is suggested that companies should invest in blockchain technology to make their supply chain more transparent, flexible, and secure. Moreover, blockchain plays a crucial role in building mutual trust with supply chain stakeholders. Finally, the research includes some considerations on the positive implications and potential of blockchain in collaboration and integration.

The article involves analysis of urban competitiveness from the national and international perspective. The analysis is focused on possibilities of application of different methods, widely used for the assessment of both the company's, national and regional competitiveness, as well as on identification of advantages and disadvantages of such methods. The article also involves introduction of methodological guidelines on the assessment of urban competitiveness from the national and international perspective, based on results of theoretical and empirical analysis. The empirical study is based on analysis of the sample of Kaunas, the second largest city of Lithuania. From the national perspective the assessment of Kaunas city competitiveness is based on comparing it with other major cities of Lithuania-the country's capital Vilnius and Klaipeda, by employing statistical data of 2007-2010. The availability of official data at the regional level revealed that the assessment of international competitiveness of the cities, located in regions which, based on the territorial statistics units nomenclature, are attached to the third level (NUTS 3), should be equaled to the regional competitiveness itself. Measurement of Kaunas city and region competitiveness from the international perspective is based on statistical data of 2007-2011. The identification of specifics of measurement the urban competitiveness at the national and international level, presented in the article, is one of the ambitions to promote the methodological background for urban governance and improvement of competitiveness of Lithuanian cities. The article presents the continuity of the research work of the authors in the sphere of urban competitiveness measurement.

Competitiveness issues are comprehensively analysed by different researchers from various perspectives. Most frequently the concept of competitiveness is analysed from the production or service, company's, economic, urban, regional and national perspectives. However, the analysis and assessment of urban competitiveness is rather scarce (particularly among Lithuanian scientists). Many questions arise while analysing and assessing cities. One of the key questions is why manufacturing and services as well as other sectors flourish in certain urban areas and the population feels comfortable, whereas totally opposite tendencies are observed in other cities. What does the concept 'a competitive city' mean? What are the decisive factors, which determine urban competitiveness? In Lithuania strategic plans are developed, aiming to increase competitiveness of a city. Subnational authorities manage and control different factors and use levers determining competitiveness of individual factors. Nevertheless, the concept of urban competitiveness is not uniformly defined, and the factors that determine the competitiveness of a city are not unanimously identified. There has not been established a uniform urban competitiveness evaluation model. The article introduces methodological guidelines of the urban competitiveness assessment model, developed by the authors, based on the results of theoretical and empirical assessment. The type of the article: Research report.

The competition between cities involves the search for different ways and means to create, attract, sustain, and use diverse resources, knowledge, ideas, and innovations to support the economic growth of each individual city and, as a result, to strengthen the city’s position in the urban hierarchy both short-term and long-term. However, for each city, urbanisation does not only mean an increase in competitive economic power but also a number of problems such as pollution, poverty, crime and unemployment. In order to address the challenges posed by the urbanisation processes, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) issued the 1987 Report that emphasised the need for sustainable socio-economic development that would also consider ecological factors. Given this, the article examines the issue of urban competitiveness on the basis of sustainable development principles. After a systematic and comparative analysis of the concepts published in the scientific literature, this article accomplishes the following: It defines the concept of competitiveness in urban areas; it identifies the inclusion aspects of the sustainable development principles into the assessment of urban competitiveness; it presents the research into urban competitiveness assessment models; and it carries out an integrated competitiveness assessment of the Baltic capitals in the period of 2014–2019 based on the principles of sustainable development by applying the integrated competitiveness assessment model that is based on the principles of sustainable development (MDK).

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