Assessing the Factors Influencing Earnings Management of Latvian Small and Micro-Capital Companies in the Digital Era
2025
Ludmila Kasperoviča

Defending
06.06.2025. 12:00, Rīgas Tehniskās universitātes Inženierekonomikas un vadības fakultātē, Kalnciema ielā 6, 209 auditorijā

Supervisor
Nataļja Lāce, Guna Ciemleja

Reviewers
Deniss Ščeulovs, Andrejs Čirjevskis, Rima Tamošiūnienė

Latvia is recognized as a country where the business structure consists mainly of micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result of the conducted research, the unbalanced financial development of Latvian small and micro-capital companies was caused by many external factors. To ensure the competitive advantages and sustainability of Latvian small and micro-capital companies, new innovative approaches must be sought, which will ensure an increase in turnover and, at the same time, cost reduction opportunities. The authors of several scientific articles believe that various factors influence companies' positive financial results in the digitalization era. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify factors and evaluate their impact on the positive financial results of small and micro-capital companies in the context of digitalization. To achieve the goal, the following main tasks have been carried out: 1) the operating environment of Latvian capital companies in digitalization conditions was researched; 2) factors that influence the positive financial results of capital companies in the era of digitization were identified; 3) the importance of the identified factors in Latvian small and micro-capital companies was compared to the assessment of the world's large companies; 4) the manifestation of the practical impact of the identified factors on commercial activity is evaluated; 5) a methodology for determining the digital maturity of a capital company has been developed; 6) the correlation between the digital maturity of small and micro-capital companies and the company's overall financial performance is evaluated. As a result of the work: (1) non-financial digital factors and non-financial factors that are not related to digitalization, as well as financial factors that affect the positive financial results of commercial activities in the era of digitalization, have been identified, and the 10 most important ones for Latvian small and micro-commercial companies have been identified; (2) the identified factors are grouped using the dimensions of the business model – value proposition, value creation, and value retention. The practical manifestation of the impact of the identified factors has been assessed, taking into account different commercial activities: 1) electronic trade (e-commerce) as a revenue channel; 2) the impact of disruptive innovations on information product development and revenue retention; 3) increasing the quality of services and reducing costs by digitizing the supply and communication network; (3) revealed the correlation between the level of digital maturity of commercial companies and the balanced growth of commercial activity. The doctoral thesis is written in Latvian; it contains an introduction, four parts, chapters of conclusions and recommendations, a list of used literature and sources with 166 sources, 78 pictures, 23 tables, and five formulas. The thesis is 172 pages without 12 appendices.


Keywords
Ienesīgs biznesa modelis, digitālā transformācija
DOI
10.7250/9789934371783

Kasperoviča, Ludmila. Assessing the Factors Influencing Earnings Management of Latvian Small and Micro-Capital Companies in the Digital Era. PhD Thesis. Rīga: [RTU], 2025. 212 p.

Publication language
Latvian (lv)
The Scientific Library of the Riga Technical University.
E-mail: uzzinas@rtu.lv; Phone: +371 28399196