British Education Index

Students who have graduated from high schools across the EU member states can choose from a wide variety of study programs and universities at which to pursue their degree studies. Each combination of a university and study program is unique, which further complicates student choice. Lack of information transparency regarding the unique characteristics of each combination of a university and study program exacerbates the already inefficient allocation of resources in education and the delayed employment of graduates. Bridging the gap between secondary and higher education by creating a new e-business model – undergraduate study program search system – may help solve the problem.

The research background rests on the shortcomings of existing electronic business development models. The main aspects of the framework for e-business development as a prerequisite for sustainable competitive advantage are based on an analysis of scientific literature on sustainable competitive advantage and electronic business development. The paper aims to form a framework of electronic business development model oriented at the creation of sustainable competitive advantage for the enterprise. The research methodology consists of the critical analysis of e-business development and the analysis and related theories of the sustainable competitive advantage activities based on task-oriented questions that were met using the method of essential components identification. The main research findings are presented in the form of newly formed framework for the development of an electronic business that integrates the goals of economic, ecologic, and social dimensions into the IT-driven business activities. The framework is based on four dimensions identified as key to the company and influenced by the use of information technology: the dimensions of interoperability and robustness that incorporate external environment factors; value creation that includes the internal environment; the productivity dimension that includes changes to IT infrastructure and separation of key business areas.

The goal of the current study is to highlight the factors that could affect retail food prices and develop an econometrical model for estimating the level of the impact of the identified factors. The research covers the period from 2016 to 2018. Multiple regression modelling is used for model creation. The outcomes mad available evidence that the factors most affecting the prices are the monthly average price of food product and yield of the agricultural subsector providing main stock for the food product. The current research contributes to the scientific literature by showing that retail food prices could be estimated for the short-term period. The limitation of the research is that the developed econometric models are adequate for the Lithuanian market and ought to be modified if applied in other markets.

Ongoing shift to digitalisation brings new opportunities beyond earlier existed boundaries. Current economy is driven by digital platforms and their role grows steadily. Disruptive challenges trigger changes and evolution of existing business models is initiated by these platforms and their intermediary role. This trend requires continuous strategic decisions upgrade, digital strategies development and effective solutions. Required actions are directly linked to competence and skills. This research analyses features factors of platforms along with existing demand to enhance competence and skills as inevitable contributing factors to sustainable competitiveness growth. Research results reveal arising opportunities of the emerging digital era and guides through demand patterns on firms' competence enhancement to respond to competitiveness challenges. Following results have been investigated as platforms benchmarking and impact, identified deviation in platform features perception between vendors and platform owners and determined main limitations, risks and recommendations on digital platforms use at firms strategic and personnel level.

Industry 4.0 describes the phenomenon when wireless connectivity augments business processes, it not only improve work processes but also is radically impacting business models. However, there is a paucity of scholarly enquiry in this field, especially the economic efficiencies to be obtained. This article analyses scientific publications related to an efficiency assessment and business models of Industry 4.0, approaches the dynamic efficiency and develops a conceptual framework that assesses the efficiency of transformed and disrupted business models. The paper is based upon a systematic review of scientific publications indexed in Clarivate Analytics and evaluation by experts. The research revealed a lack of holistic assessment of efficiency of business models and its parts in the current literature. It also focuses on the impact of efficiencies at the enterprise, societal and environmental level. The paper makes recommendations for managers and policymakers at a national level on the assessment of efficiencies derived from Industry 4.0 to the whole society. The research has several limitations: literature review only in Clarivate Analytics limit from more recent results, very rare publications include a multidisciplinary approach to cover social and environmental aspects, also most researches use historical data and do not use ex-ante approach.

In pursuance of economic growth, developing countries are seeking to attract foreign direct investment. The European Union structural fund supports the economic growth of the less developed countries in order to reduce the gap between the member states, while foreign direct investment is referred to as one of the European Unions funding objectives. The topic is relevant because after the current European Unions 20142020 funding period, the financing conditions for the future will change and this raises a lot of unanswered questions regarding the funding period, funding flows and conditions. The aim of the work is to evaluate the impact of European Unions structural funds on foreign direct investment in selected sectors of Lithuania and to analyse the change of foreign direct investment by changing the flow of funding of the European Union structural funds. The hypothesis any change of EU structural funds supports in different economic sectors of a country has an impact on the country's FDI flows is confirmed by the study. The methods used for hypotheses testing are correlation analysis and logistic regression analysis. The limitation of the study is that tot all the economic sectors were taken into account and the agricultural sector is not analysed.

With the growth of e-commerce, most of the shippers, especially multi-channel shippers, are just starting to develop their own distribution network infrastructure. Since year 2000, e-commerce started to expand rapidly with the 'pure-play' (online only) retailers, which enabled establishing of e-fulfilment distribution networks. Certain products specific brings additional challenges for e-commerce and e-supply chain. In this article, the consumer perception and understanding of e-logistic services and quality of these services in e-commerce satisfaction or dissatisfaction structure of Lithuania consumers will be analysed, not taking into account specifics of certain products. Methods of comparative analysis, questionnaire, and statistical data analysis will be employed.

Transport ensures the flow of material flows and provides people with amenities, but transport is a major source of danger to people's health and life, due to the emission of harmful pollutants. The composition of the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines depends on the composition of the fuel in terms of its quality and the engine's technical state and mode of operation. There are over 200 chemical compounds in the car transport bombs, many of which are harmful to humans, biospheres. Transport emissions: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), hydrocarbons, aldehydes, particular matters and so on. The listed pollutants cause global changes in atmospheres that contribute to the formation of ozone holes, global warming or flooding. The article will analyse the negative impact of transport on the environment and evaluate the hypothetical transport process using an electric truck in a steel pipe carriage.