Retail sector has always played and important role in the national economy. Any business is tendet towards satisfaction of consumer desires and needs, albeit profits. In relationships between companies and consumers both sides have their interests. For a company it, primary, is to increase the turnover and make profits, while the consumers may have several goals – to obtain the goods or services, to receive the necessary information and attitude. These consumer benefits are the basis for loyalty. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to research the loyalty formation process and its characteristics in the retail sector.

Retail sector has always played an important role in the Latvian economy. The success of a profitable retail business depends on meeting the needs of buyers and, in the long run, building relationships with the buyer. Process of attracting new buyers always involves spending more money, time and energy. In order for a company to retain existing buyers, it is necessary to develop a set of marketing activities that promote and ensure customer loyalty. The globalization of the market is also having a greater impact on retail companies, which makes them to look for solutions for competitiveness and development. In order to identify factors for competitiveness, the authors of the study have set out to investigate the customer loyalty-formation activities in Latvian retail companies. To reach a goal the authors of the paper will study theoretical basis of loyalty formation employing the monographic or descriptive method, the next step will be analysis of the retail development tendencies in Latvia and loyalty-creation activity level of the Latvian retail companies. This study will give retailers an understanding of the importance of loyalty and the need to build it for the competitiveness of retail businesses. The authors have summarized these theoretical aspects and have defined a common approach to loyalty building and provisions for it. After completing the research, the authors conclude that by understanding the essence and formation of loyalty, the company can manage this process and maybe loyalty can be one of the tools for ensuring competitiveness.

Social entrepreneurs play an important role in the economic and social development of the communities in which they operate. The career aspiration of social entrepreneurs can be encouraged if youths are given early educa-tional exposure when they are young. The purpose of this paper is to work out the proposal for study curriculum in order to include a subject of social entrepreneurship. To attain this aim, the following tasks were put forward: (1) to research literature regarding social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship education; (2) to describe the empiri-cal research methodology; (3) to discuss research results; (4) to propose a module for teaching social entrepreneurship to business students. These tasks account for the structure of the article: introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions and recommendations. The theoretical basis of the current article consists of recent literature on the social entrepreneurship (taking into account Covid-19 circumstances), social entrepreneurship educa-tion, as well as of the legal documents of the Republic of Latvia. The empirical research is bipartite – first, a survey of business students, applying the snowball sampling method, using 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, second, a survey of business school lecturers. The results are interpreted using methods of descriptive and inferential statistics – mean ranking and Kruskal Wallis test. The results of the research have a practical value, as they identify the problematic areas of business education in regard to social entrepreneurship and make it possible to offer a practical solution – an insert module of social entrepreneurship.

The sector of the retail trade has always played a significant role in the Latvian economics. The basis for the retail trade is the satisfaction of consumers' needs and the formation of the long-term relationship. To retain the existing consumers and to attract the new buyers, one of the fundamental tasks is to create the according assortment. The Efficient Consumer Response presupposes not only the new approach in creating the assortment, but also influences all business processes in the enterprise and significantly raises the level of assortment. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the level of the ECR application in the retail enterprises in Latvia. Therefore, there were set the following tasks: a) to characterize the retail trade tendencies in Latvia; b) to research the principles of assortment formation. The research methods applied were the expert interviews and consumers' survey. The key result of the research was: the ECR implementation helps to form the assortment of the retail trade enterprises in more responsive to consumers'' needs way.

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Retail trade plays a significant role in the economy of any state. In business, a relationship between the company and the consumer is formed and both sides have their own certain benefits they wish to acquire from this relationship. For the company the main goals are to increase the turnover and gain profit, however, for the consumer aims may vary. In order to attain their goals, being the increased turnover and incoming profit, the companies can use different tools to stimulate the consumer's choice of the product. Sales promotion is exactly what ensures the opportunity for the retailer to attract customers and motivates that particular choice of the purchase, what furthermore ensures competitive advantages over other competitors. The globalization of the market also affects the retailing companies more and more and, therefore, pushes them to find new solutions to ensure their competitiveness and development. To identify the factors that guarantee the competitiveness, the authors have established the research of price discounts as a tool for sales promotion and its effect upon the activity of the retail companies as their research focus. Furthermore, the authors will research the form of sales promotion-theoretical basis of usage of price discounts as a part of marketing communication. Moreover, they will also analyse tendencies of development of retail trade in Latvia, as well as, clarify the consumers' attitudes towards the price discounts and the impact of them on making purchases at retail outlets in Latvia by conducting a consumer survey. This research will offer an understanding about the impact of commodity price rebates on consumer behaviour and point to the specificities of this process in retail to the retail companies. From the scientific point of view in this work the authors have collected the analysed theoretical aspects and have defined a united approach for building up the discount policy for retail businesses. As a result of the research, the authors conclude that by examining consumer attitudes towards the commodity price discounts and their use, companies can manage this process and perhaps it may become one of their tools for maintaining competitiveness.

Social media communication has become an important tool both in relying information to potential consumers, as well as in creating experience sharing opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of’ social media communication on the loyalty formation in retailing. The tasks to be carried out are: (1) to research theoretical framework of social media communication and loyalty; (2) to work out methodology for empirical research; (3) to carry out research on consumers’ perception of retail stores online communication. Within the framework of the current study the authors employed a method of customer survey. Applying the non-probability snowball sampling method the questionnaire was distributed via e-mails and Facebook groups (n=327). The general population in this research  consisted of the economically active Latvia residents in 2020. The authors used 5-point Likert scale (1-low evaluation, 5 – very high evaluation). The SPSS program was used for this purpose, the following indicators were calculated: arithmetic mean (X ̅), Median (Me); Mode (Mo); Variation; Standard Deviation; Variation Coefficient. The research question posed in the article was the following: What role does social media play in enhancing consumer loyalty in retailing? Findings: 87% of all respondents have noticed the communication of Latvian retail store networks on social media and 60% of all respondents have chosen to follow the profile of social networks to one of them, which indicates the untapped opportunities of companies in this respect. Evaluating the communication of Latvian retail store chains, the arithmetic average is 2.68, but for communication on social media - 2.72.  It means that in order to increase these indicators, Latvian retail store chains must develop a communication strategy taking into account both the values of the target audience and the basic principles of building relationships with customers. The current research results can serve as grounds for the strategy development.

Purpose – the purpose of this research is to contribute to the business modelling in FinTech with criteria, which could FinTech companies to critically evaluate the performance of their business model, its relevance and timeliness, its compli-ance with set goals and value topicality. Research methodology – in this research, authors used semi-structured interviews with continuous comparative analysis method and content analysis method. Findings – this research forms the basis for conclusions about relevant business model elements and criteria, which de-serve closer attention while modelling FinTech business and could be relevant for evaluating the FinTech business model for sustainability reasons. Research limitations – in time, when there is no consistent theoretical approach to business modelling including aspects of sustainability, this could be the first step on the way of extending the business modelling theory and improving the practice. Practical implications – predefined criteria will enable focusing on particular criteria in the context of time, costs, flexibil-ity and quality within the business modelling and taking these indicators for measuring the performance of the model and manage the risk of getting commercially nonviable. Originality/Value – business model tools typically do not create a space for considering how sustainability concerns may be integrated into the business modelling process.