Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

In terms of sustainable development, various forms of partnership are an important prerequisite for the development of companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Clusters are considered to be an effective form of support and innovation development for SMEs. Thus, enterprises working as a part of clusters are more efficient, flexible and resistant to external influences than large and hierarchical organizations. Clusters often arise spontaneously through the activities of local stakeholders who want to benefit from the synergy of the factors in the region, such as the existence of suppliers and customers, skilled labour force, specific resources and infrastructure. There are more than 20 clusters operating in the Slovak Republic. The majority of cluster members are SMEs. SMEs have many specificities and their engagement with clusters is influenced by various factors. For instance, many SMEs are often not sufficiently innovative or find it difficult to implement the results of their research and development into practical and successful innovation in the market. Bearing in mind the conditions of sustainable development, the authors examined the reasons why SMEs got engaged with clusters and enhanced their further development in terms of competitiveness. Moreover, the authors placed emphasis on their ability to innovate their products, technologies and/or services. Attention was also paid to the increased number of joint projects in the field of business, new market placement options and access to new information, as well as the acquisition of new partners, and employment growth in the regions in which these enterprises operate. The purpose of the paper was to identify the most relevant reasons why SMEs got engaged with clusters in terms of sustainable development. In order to achieve this purpose, an empirical study was carried out. The results were evaluated by quantitative tools of statistics (percentage, average values, standard deviation, chi-square test and Cramér’s V). The results showed that the most important reasons that made SMEs’ engage with clusters were entry to new markets and getting new partners.

The protection of state security by the legal standards of the criminal law is one of the key, the legally protected interests including the cybersecurity in the sectors of critical infrastructure transport (road, air transport, ship, and rail), electronic communications, energy, information and communication technologies, post, industry, water and atmosphere, health. Today’s empirical empowerment confirms that the security is a significant multidimensional factor of the quality of society and citizen’s life, which we have to systematically examine, forecast and ensure. The contribution presents the defined security interests of the state in the framework of new strategic documents of the Slovak Republic in the comparison with the current standards of the criminal law for the protection of state security within the material and non-material components of the defence potential of the state.

The scientific literature points out that cooperation increases the capability of an enterprise to engage in innovative activities. Besides, due to a change in the concept of regional development, much greater focus in growth in territories is placed on human capital, and the essential role of education and knowledge in innovation is stressed as well. Sustainable innovation is not only an economic category, and it mainly involves a social process where cooperation plays a great role. The research aim of the paper is to assess cooperation as a factor influencing sustainable innovation in the regional aspect based on the case of the bioeconomy industry in Latvia. The development of the bioeconomy represents transition from fossil to renewable sources, and it encompasses important industries of the economies of the regions of Latvia: forestry and agriculture. In Latvia, bioeconomy industry enterprises were quite cautious in their innovative activity and mainly focused on existing innovations that they adapted to their needs, and their innovative activity was observed only within their region. A positive fact is that most of the enterprises highly rated their cooperation with scientific and research institutions in developing innovations. The promotion of cooperation is one of the objectives that specialists of the Entrepreneurship Centres of the planning regions of Latvia have to deal with, yet their capacity is not sufficient for the promotion of cooperation among innovative enterprises in the region in the context of sustainability.

Strategic (Comprehensive) Partnership, as a general concept and also as a specific foreign policy instrument for developing the European Union’s relations with key world countries (strategic partners), involves not only equivalent, mutually beneficial and institutionalized cooperation in many areas but also a joint solution to strategic (security and defense) issues and issues of regional and global governance where parties not only cooperate but also share responsibility. The objective of this article is to analyze the legal instruments (criteria) of the EU-China Strategic Partnership and to compare its character with the general legal concept of the EU Strategic Partnership. Based on this analysis we will answer the question whether the EU-China Strategic Partnership shows evidence of unclarity, imperfection and elusiveness of the EU’s Strategic Partnership.

The internationalization practice of private public cooperation has been intensively studied since the 1960s. Due to increase in public capital flows, direct investments and competition in private services at that time active development of public and private cooperation has begun. This publication emphasizes the importance of a military training system quality and ways how to gain the better performance for the sustainable improvement. However diminishing long term allocations for training suppose new perception for different kind of qualification anticipated in the National Defense System (NDS). There are several good experience countries in the world which changed their army training system qualification assessments and purchased training service from private companies. Market research data showed that public-private partnership in military training is a new kind of military sustainable support possibility. There was a novel model laid in this paper for better military training system and private partnership evaluation.