We investigated the resilience of small-scale family farms because of the contemporary importance of both the farms’ resilience and the role of these farms in five countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The authors addressed a research gap concerning cross-sectional research on the resilience of farms by combining determinants from various fields. Thus, the primary goal of this article was to identify microeconomic and political factors and links to markets that affect the resilience of small-scale family farms in Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Serbia. Using a database of over 3500 farms, the resilience of the farms was calculated, and then the impact of selected factors on that resilience was determined. The research showed that the production scale was the key determinant of the resilience of farms. To achieve higher benefits, increasing the production should be combined with strengthening the market integration of agricultural producers. The position of the producer in the food supply chain determined the income situation of the farm (economic stability). This shaped the quality of life of the family members (social stability). Identifying the effects of those dependencies may provide recommendations for the policy of supporting small-scale family farms in the analysed countries.

The overcoming of the issues on energy crisis and inequality have become the priorities as far developing as developed countries are concerned. Moreover, energy inequality has increased due to the shortage of natural gas and rising energy prices in retaliation to the economic recovery affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to verify the linkage between the growth of renewable energy consumption and the country’s economic advancement. In this context, this paper determines the main driving forces of renewable energy consumption in European countries during 2000–2018. The annual data for panel regression analysis are retrieved from the OECD. Stat and World Bank Open Data. This empirical analysis employed a set of estimation procedures such as the panel unit root test (Levin, Lin & Chu; Im, Pesaran, Shin W-Stat; ADF-Fisher Chi-square; and PP-Fisher Chi-square methods), the Pearson correlation, fixed- and random-effects models, generalized method of moments (GMM), Hausman and the robustness tests. The results from the Hausman test ratified that the fixed-effects regression model is more suitable for involved panel balanced data. The results of fixed-effects regression and GMM identified the statistically significant and positive relationship between the share of renewable energy consumption of total final energy consumption, GDP per capita, and CO2 emissions per capita for the overall sample. In turn, the total labor force, the gross capital formation, and production-based CO2 intensity are inversely related to renewable energy consumption. The identified effects could provide some insights for policymakers to improve the renewable energy sector towards gaining sustainable economic development.

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the marketing activities of blood service for over the last 20 years. The main purpose of the research is to understand the content and characteristics of existing research in the field of marketing in blood service to determine the direction of future research for both scientists and practitioners. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the problem of marketing in blood service indicates that a large amount of research in the field of marketing activities of blood service for the last 20 years requires a synthesis of existing research. The relevance of this scientific problem decision is that one of the criteria for the health level of the country’s population is the availability of a sufficient number of blood donors (Global, 2017). Moreover, marketing activities of blood service allow to attract and retain the required number of donors and receive from them a sufficient amount of blood and its components. Investigation of the topic of the marketing activities in the blood service in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence: it was determined the influence of authors, journals, and articles about marketing in the blood service, studied and identified marketing clusters in the blood service, conducted the content analysis and presented the visualization of scientific literature on marketing activities in the blood service. Methodological tools of the research methods were 2000-2019 years. The object of research is 262 relevant articles published in 25 journals over the period 2000–2019 because, namely, they explain the essence of marketing activity in blood service facilities. The paper presents empirical analysis publications on marketing in the blood service during the last 20 years, which showed that the most influential journals were Transfusion, Vox Sanguinis, and Transfusion Medicine Reviews. The most famous authors are Wakefield M.A., Gillespie T.W., Glynn S.A., Lemmens K.P.H., Bednall T.C., Sojka B.N., Masser B.M. The classification literature on marketing in the blood service is presented in the areas of recruitment and retention strategies, influence, and incentives for planned behavior, decision-making on donation. Each five-year plan covers research in the following areas: understanding donor behavior to develop engagement and use strategies, finding ways to recruit new donors, marketing tools to work with donors, focusing on donor retention, and using modern marketing communication tools. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that it is advisable to focus on the introduction of the most modern tools of marketing communications (messengers, mobile applications, ringtones on mobile phones, social networks) in combination with traditional (radio, brochures, videos, SMS messages, motivational interviews, and loyalty programs). It is also recommended to pay attention to average when building the loyalty of existing donors to increase the amount of blood donated by more donors and improve the quality of donors and blood safety. The results of the research can be useful for blood services and companies who promote unpaid voluntary donation. Keywords: blood donor, blood service, marketing, marketing activities, motivation, promotion, recruitment, retention.

The agricultural sector ensures food security and is a major source of employment, income, and economic activity in rural areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) considers that family farms are the key to a sustainable future in Europe and Central Asia. In Romania, small farms represent the pillar on which Romanian society has been developed. Although the trend has been a reduction in the number of small farms and an increase in the number of large farms, the Government of Romania understands the importance of small farms and therefore supports them through policies involving direct payments, rural development instruments, special initiatives, and loans and outstanding obligations, among others, which focus on increasing their economic performance. The aim of our research was to determine the relationship between farmers’ motivation, their job satisfaction, and the farm economic performance in the case of small Romanian farms. The research sample consisted of 900 small farms (utilized agricultural area (UAA): under 20 ha; standard output (SO): under EUR 15,000). The data obtained after applying the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 24.0. For the exploratory factor analysis, values of Bartlett’s test of sphericity, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were calculated for each dimension of the proposed model. The hypothesis that motivation, job satisfaction, and farm economic performance directly and positively influence each other was confirmed. An important finding was that the correlation coefficient between farmers’ motivation and farm economic performance was ρ = 0.78, while that for the relation between farmers’ job satisfaction and farm economic performance was ρ = 0.53, which was similar to the correlation coefficient calculated for the relationship between farmers’ motivation and farmers’ job satisfaction. This result allows us to conclude that the influence of farmers’ motivation factors on farm economic performance is stronger than the influence of job satisfaction in the case of Romanian farmers on small farms. This might explain why, although work in agriculture is considered to be worse than an office job and the people that work in agriculture are sometimes stigmatized and receive lower incomes, there are still very strong motivators for Romanian farmers to continue their work in agriculture. This is proven by the fact that Romania has the highest number of small farms in Europe, and this number is not decreasing.

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