ISM Vadybos ir ekonomikos universitetas, E. Ožeškienės g. 18, LT-44254 Kaunas, LietuvaEl. paštas ilobuc@ism.lt santrauka. Mokslo ir technikos pažanga, paslaugų sektoriaus augimas, stiprėjanti konkurencija, o svarbiausia vartotojų poreikių įvairumas bei nuolatiniai jų pokyčiai lėmė naujo požiūrio į veiklos plėtotę būtinumą. Santykių marketingas apibūdinams kaip naujasis marketingas, kuris orientuotas į pagrindinį įmonės veiklos tikslą -vartotojų poreikių tenkinimą ir ilgalaikių santykių su vartotojais kūrimą. Kaip įmonei pavyksta hiperkonkurencinėje rinkoje užmegzti ir palaikyti glaudžius santykius tiek su vartotojais, tiek su kitais rinkos subjektais, priklauso nuo to, kaip įmonė gerai išmano santykių marketingo dimensijas -pagrindinius santykių palaikymo principus.Reikšminiai žodžiai: santykių marketingas, įmonės santykiai su vartotojais, vartotojų išlaikymas, santykių marketingo dimensijos, pasitenkinimas, pasitikėjimas, įsipareigojimas. abstract. Advancement of science and technology, growth of service sector, strengthening of competition and, what is the most important, diversity of customer needs and regular changes thereof, determined the necessity for a new approach to the development of operations. Relationship marketing is defined as "the new marketing", oriented towards the main objective of the company's operations -fulfillment of customer needs and building of long-term relationships with customers. However, loyalty from the customers' side is not guaranteed. customer's wish to maintain loyal relationships depends on the company's ability to foresee the needs of potential customers and to fulfil them before the competitors do that. A company that seeks to earn the customer loyalty and maintain a competitive advantage has to be well versed in the qualitative dimensions of relationships -the main principles for maintaining of relationships. THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING DIMENSIONS IN THE CUSTOMER RETENTIONAs shown in the analysis of scientific literature on the subject of relationship marketing, only a few of scientific researches were devoted to operationalization of the key dimensions of relationship marketing. After taking into consideration the interpretations of commentation on relationship marketing dimensions, presented by the scholars, and their significance to the company's relationships with business partners, the following main relationship marketing dimensions were identified: empathy, communication, cooperation, satisfaction, trust and commitment. Manifestation of these dimensions in conjunction

The issue of youth unemployment is one of the most often addressed topics in the political and scientific contexts. The situation in the labour market during recent years shows the increase in youth unemployment above the general level; however, it varies in different regions of the world. National and the EU levels of youth unemployment recently became unacceptably high, and the increase in the long-term youth unemployment causes major concern. In Lithuania, the issue of the integration of youth into the labour market has been analysed since the restoration of independence, while the deterioration of the labour market condition and the unemployment rate increases from year to year. However, youth unemployment remains a pressing concern, and its rate especially grew during the time of economic recession: in 2011 every tenth individual aged 15 to 24 was unemployed. On the basis of the analysis of the issue of Lithuanian academic youth unemployment, it was established that a certain part of young people fail to get a foothold in the labour market as a result of low qualifications and limited work experience. The article analyses the dynamics of youth unemployment and aims at finding active labour market measures that may facilitate the transfer of academic youth from educational institutions to the labour market, thus reducing their unemployment rate.Research objective: to distinguish the measures facilitating reduction of academic youth unemployment and transfer from educational institutions to the labour market.Research methods: scientific literature analysis; statistical data analysis; document analysis.

Embracing the financing opportunities offered by the European Union, vocational schools draw up applications for various projects, mostly for implementation of international partnerships, dissemination of best practices, and exchange programmes, involving the general education and vocational teachers as well as students, student assistance specialists, and school principals. Vocational training institutions generally engage in projects under the Erasmus+ strategic partnership programme aimed at long-term mobility of vocational teachers and other participants of vocational training. When assessing the importance of Erasmus+ projects in the context of vocational training quality in Lithuania, the authors of the paper aimed at identifying the benefits of vocational teachers’ participations in projects under the Erasmus+ programme. Seeking for the research objective, a qualitative research approach was selected applying the triangulation principle. Document analysis method was invoked to examine the project activities documents of 26 Lithuanian vocational training institutions. Benefits experienced by vocational teachers experienced in project activities were analysed applying a semi-structured interview for the interviewing of 9vocational teachers and vocational teachers who served as international project coordinators in more than two national and international projects in 2015–2019. The study revealed that in Lithuania, projects implemented in vocational training institutions having the largest experience of international projectactivities were associated with vocational teachers’ qualification improvement, introduction of innovations, and renovation and expansion of infrastructure. Benefits of involvement in project activities are diverse, starting with improvement of the learning process, relationships with the learners, and vocational teachers become open to changes. The major benefit of project activities gained by vocational teachers is oriented to experiential learning, when learning occurs through personal experience.

In the contemporary competitive environment, companies strive to gain competitive advantage in their business. Strengthening a company's position in the market is closely related to marketing culture. The article aims at revealing which marketing culture dimensions come into the force in hard times and how these change as hard times inch away and the economy recovers. Seeking to reveal the change tendencies of marketing culture expression in Lithuania, firstly the conception of marketing culture is presented and its elements and peculiarities examined; then the research methodology is presented together with the comparative analysis and interpretation of the findings of questionnaire surveys.