The main aim of the paper is to investigate the empirical relationship between research and development (R&D) expenditures and economic growth in the European Union member states in the period of 2000–2013. The empirical analysis is based on panel data regressions. The estimated model is the production function type standard growth model extended with R&D stock variable. The results show a statistically significant impact of R&D expenditures on the economic growth in the EU countries. The significance for R&D coefficient remains robust to different sub-periods, but the level of significance decreases as a sub-sample of new EU countries was considered.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the international transmission effects of euro area monetary policy shocks on the main economic and financial variables in Latvia in period from 2000 to 2014. Empirical assessment is made using a standard structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of the euro area, augmented by the Latvian variables of interest (real GDP per capita, annual inflation and money market interest rate, and consecutively by additional variables: real private consumption per capita, investments, exports and imports, various loan interest rates and real wages). The estimated SVAR model shows that a negative monetary policy shock in the euro area has a strong and persistent effect on Latvian economy via interest rate and foreign demand channels. The main results shown by impulse response functions suggest that the estimated reaction of Latvian variables is several times stronger than the reaction of euro area aggregates. Volatility of reactions can be explained by the small size and high openness level of Latvian economy.    Keywords: Monetary transmission; Euro area; Structural VARÂ

Lack of definition for customer relationship management (CRM) concept in the enterprise may hinder successful CRM project implementation. When for management it is challenging to understand objective of all CRM concept componentsstrategic, operational and analytical, it becomes also difficult to define the objective of whole CRM system in the enterprise, implement it successfully and measure its results. Many enterprises implement CRM by taking as the baseline CRM technology capabilities, but not their business and customer strategy, what hinders success of those projects. Currently available theoretical model of CRM is developed for large enterprises and it is not fully applicable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). When conducting CRM research in Latvia market, what is dominated by SMEs,

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the international transmission effects of euro area monetary policy shocks on the main economic and financial variables in Latvia in period from 2000 to 2014. Empirical assessment is made using a standard structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of the euro area, augmented by the Latvian variables of interest (real GDP per capita, annual inflation and money market interest rate, and consecutively by additional variables: real private consumption per capita, investments, exports and imports, various loan interest rates and real wages). The estimated SVAR model shows that a negative monetary policy shock in the euro area has a strong and persistent effect on Latvian economy via interest rate and foreign demand channels. The main results shown by impulse response functions suggest that the estimated reaction of Latvian variables is several times stronger than the reaction of euro area aggregates. Volatility of reactions can be explained by the small size and high openness level of Latvian economy.