Private Sector in Comprehensive National Defence System of Latvia – Dimensions of Psychological Resilience and Strategic Communication, Institutionalisation Potential of Mobile Telecommunications Operator LMT: Case Study

Description

Psychological resilience and strategic communication are among the priority directions defined in the Comprehensive National Defence System of Latvia introduced in 2019. Public institutions have traditionally been the main actors addressing these topics. As the trust in such institutions in Latvia continues to be at low levels, this research addresses a new, little-studied direction exploring the contribution and motivation of private companies towards psychological resilience and strategic communication with a case study of private telecommunications company LMT at the centre. Sociological institutionalism lens is used to conceptualize the case study.. The study examined strategic documents of Latvian defence sector using quantitative content analysis and qualitative text analysis. To conduct the case study and capture causal mechanisms data from semi-structured interviews and publicly available resources was analyzed with the process tracing method.. The research outlined that a) the role of the private sector within the Latvian national defence framework is growing, but not in the relation to psychological resilience and strategic communication b) the case study, on the contrary, indicated that a private company can have an effective institutionalization potential towards these dimensions and is driven by a deliberate strategic choice. . Although in the strategic documents the role of the private sector is mainly viewed from a very practical angle (supply chains, cyber-security), a case study revealed that it can significantly contribute towards psychological resilience and strategic communication as well. The analyzed patterns of LMT show persistence over time and the ability to offer society frameworks for thinking and acting. Preliminary results indicate that motivation to act lies within interrelated factors such as company strategies, management beliefs, state activity, geopolitical context. The analysis concludes that private companies can be valuable partners in achieving national-level goals thus opening the discussion for the need of a more institutionalized framework.

Period	29 Mar 2023
Event title	RSU Research week 2023: PLACES
Event type	Conference
Conference number	3
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Rīga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International