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Background: Scientific and technical progress are unstoppable. Nowadays, information technology affects every sphere of social and economic life. The automation of business processes is a common part of business and accounting practice. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the automation in companies. Regularly occurring transactions, which were performed manually before, are gradually being replaced by information technology and automatic robotic systems. The companies fully use cloud storages, artificial intelligence, or blockchain technologies. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to identify areas and possibilities for improvement of business and accounting processes with use of information technologies, digitalization, and automation. Methodology: For the purpose of the paper, a standard methodology review of literature sources was performed. Then we conducted a brief questionnaire survey in order to find out the level of automation and digitization of business processes in companies in the Slovak Republic. Findings and conclusions: It is expected that, as a result of robotization and automation of business processes, some professions will gradually disappear within a few decades. Even the crisis related to COVID19 pandemic had an impact on the acceleration of using information technologies in business processes related to their digitalization and automation. The paper describes possibilities of automation with focus on e-shop, which make the processes safer, faster, more effective, eco-friendly, with fewer errors. On the other hand, there are some challenges and threats the accounting entities have to consider when implementing artificial intelligence, information technology in their business processes, such as cyber security, the Internet and electricity outages. We have observed that companies in Slovakia have their business processes more or less automated. However, the automation is the domain of bigger and multinational companies. The higher initial costs related to automation are limitation for smaller companies that need to consider benefits and costs the automation requires. Limitations and future research: Our paper is based on the theoretical background with a brief research in the area of implementing information technologies in companies in the Slovak Republic. The number of returned questionnaire surveys that were the base for our brief and initial research was very low. More detailed analysis of level of automation in the Slovak companies in comparison with companies abroad, their readiness for changes related to automation, as well as threats, challenges, pros and cons of automation may be the topic for the future research.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it dramatic environmental changes, forcing organisations to adopt digital technologies on a wider scale, under significant time pressure. While the pandemic tested the agility and resilience of organisations, team dynamics and the implications of virtualisation on collaboration and creativity have become increasingly important for research (George et al., 2020) as the daily working routines in which employees have been embedded in for decades have become disrupted. The abrupt move to "working from home” that the pandemic created is arguably the most significant organisational design change in our lifetimes. Organisations are now asking how the virtualisation of work has impacted on the collaboration and communication necessary for driving innovation behaviour, and what strategies are available to develop remote innovation solutions. In this study, we explore organisational culture theory against the backdrop of digitally transforming innovation development as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This multi-layered model offers a useful framework for thinking about processes that foster innovation. By doing so, we investigate how organisations have adapted their approach to remote, collaborative innovation from the perspective of nineteen industry experts. The purpose of this study is to present the determinants of organisational culture to develop digital innovation in a hybrid working environment. Our findings reveal twelve distinct variables across the artifacts, values, and assumptions required to ensure digital innovation. These findings have implications for theory and practice, as it provides organisational leaders with a strategic understanding as to how a remote innovative culture can be developed, and subsequently exploited. © 2022, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. All right reserved.
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Much of our current knowledge about technology in research and learning settings relates to devices and software programs: What types should be purchased?;How many should we buy?;What training is required?;and What return on investment will they produce? The implicit message communicated by this research is that technology transforms learning by simply being introduced into a setting -- and that any technology tool will produce powerful opportunities for learning. Just give youth iPads and results will follow. Over the past several years, groups of learning scientists, critical scholars, and participatory researchers have pushed back against this perspective, arguing that: (a) most traditional technologies utilized by scholars today reproduce problematic "banking" methods of learning (Freire, 1970);(b) scholars, leaders, and educators who rush to integrate technology in formal and informal learning settings often overlook the ways that race, identity, power and privilege shape the technologies that they give youth;(c) context matters -- unlocking the benefits of these new participatory forms of technologies for learning requires a shift in pedagogical approaches, embracing more critical, de-colonizing, and participatory forms like youth participatory action research (YPAR);and (d) new, mobile, interactive, accessible forms of technology have the potential to transform learning by creating a new participatory culture that fosters collaboration, communication, critical consciousness, and creativity. Throughout this dissertation, I use the term participatory technologies to describe these emerging tools. I define participatory technologies as the broad set of technology tools that can allow youth to engage with, critique, and co-create the systems, structures, and environments that shape their everyday lives. Participatory technology tools allow individuals to be both consumers and producers of information;and as the term "participatory" suggests, I argue that it is important for youth to use technology to "read the world" using their own socio-cultural lenses;critique and dismantle systems of power, privilege and oppression;and become active participants in co-creating a more just and equitable world around them. Using participatory technologies, youth can examine, influence, and alter the way that power is conferred and exercised across many arenas ranging from public health (#StayHome), politics (InstagramLive town halls, Arab Spring), civil rights (#BlackLivesMatter), urban planning (Google's Sidewalk Labs), disaster response (Ushahidi), to social justice (#MeToo). In the era of COVID-19, the case for participatory technologies could not be more urgent. As Alain Labrique, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global -mHealth Initiative shares, "The connectivity and participation through technology we have today gives us ammunition to fight this pandemic in ways we never previously thought possible" (A. Park, 2020, para. 3). In the face of this unprecedented global pandemic, colleges and classrooms have rushed onto online settings, physicians are conducting tele-visits through FaceTime and WhatsApp;"non-essential" workforce members, as well as family and friends, are connecting over Zoom;"social distancing" adherence is being tracked by epidemiologists through geo-location data;and global dance parties are being held on Instagram Live. To date, however, the global technology response to COVID-19 has only scratched the surface of what new participatory tools offer. For example, much needed real-time data on where outbreaks are occurring, how many tests are available, and what resources exist in communities in terms of critical health services, tests, or groceries (Where can I buy eggs? Which places take WIC for baby formula? Where are the lines the shortest? Where/when can elders and vulnerable populations shop safely?) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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COVID-19 might become another weapon in the armory of those who believe that the answer to the twenty-first century is to build a bigger wall. A pandemic that exposes the weakness of systems for international cooperation will lead some politicians to campaign on more nationalist platforms. In the last decade, countries have realized the benefit of becoming soft power superpowers, and have spent more time and energy shifting the way the world sees them. This chapter discusses from a personal perspective how states have used digital technology to craft new messages internationally, and both the challenges and benefits they have found along the way. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Exogenous shocks, such as COVID-19, significantly change fundamental premises on which economies and individual organizations operate. The light-asset nature of digital technologies provides the potential to not only facilitate an immediate crisis response, but also to catalyze novel innovation types to address the societal and economic changes caused by exogenous shocks. As digital innovation became a relevant part of organizations' COVID-19 responses, and given that a corresponding structured knowledge base did not exist, we found the need to better understand crisis-driven digital innovation. Drawing on prior knowledge from crisis management and organizational ambidexterity as a theoretical lens, we present four patterns of crisis-driven digital innovation, classified along two dimensions: (1) driven by a sense of urgency or ambition and (2) focusing on exploitative or explorative innovation. Based on a thorough analysis of digital innovation cases during the COVID-19 crisis, we illustrate and discuss these four patterns and their emerging properties to explain how and why they led to digital innovation in the context of the crisis. Our work contributes to the explanatory knowledge on digital innovation in times of crisis, helping researchers and practitioners to understand and develop digital innovation in response to exogenous shocks.
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This chapter analyzes the digital interventions of various ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) in five broad areas which MFAs have prioritized during the pandemic: crisis management, international collaboration, foreign policy continuity, countering disinformation, and digital innovation. The pandemic has posed new questions for diplomats in each of these areas. After outlining broader themes of research in global trends of diplomatic adaptation during COVID-19, each of the areas above will be discussed in turn, drawing on illustrative examples and summarizing key lessons. This chapter will conclude with recommendations for the collective reform of diplomacy in the post-pandemic period. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The Covid-19 pandemic played a relevant role in the diffusion of distance learning alternatives to "traditional" learning based on classroom activities, to allow university students to continue attending lessons during the most severe phases of the pandemic. In such a context, investigating the students' perspective on distance learning provides useful information to stakeholders to improve effective educational strategies, which could be useful also after the end of the emergency to favor the digital transformation in the higher educational setting. Here we focus on the satisfaction in distance learning for Italian university students. We rely on data comprising students enrolled in various Italian universities, which were inquired about several aspects related to learning distance. We explicitly take into account the hierarchical nature of data (i.e., students nested in universities) and the latent nature of the variable of interest (i.e., students' learning satisfaction) through a multilevel Item Response Theory model with students' and universities' covariates. As the main results of our study, we find out that distance learning satisfaction of students: (i) depends on the University where they study; (ii) is affected by some students' socio-demographic characteristics, among which psychological factors related to Covid-19; (iii) is affected by some observable university characteristics.
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Over the past two decades, different drivers have prompted institutional players to adopt digital innovations in healthcare systems. Telemedicine represents a digital innovation solution to guaranteeing the continuity of care, and patient and personnel safety. However, despite its potential benefits (such as improving care access in rural areas, reduction in hospitalization stay, and saving time for patients and healthcare professionals) and its rapid acceleration in use during the Covid-19 pandemic, the diffusion of telemedicine services remains limited and uneven across Europe. Adopting an explorative approach, this paper analyzes the implementation of telemedicine projects, investigating not only the factors but also the ways in which the analyzed organizations, in order to move from the design to implementation phase, managed the change needed to overcome barriers and to leverage enabling factors. Our research focus is on Southern Italy;a disadvantaged area in comparison to other Italian and European regions. The goal of the paper is to shed light on the characterization of leverages and barriers, as well as the related managerial actions for change implemented in a context whereby the diffusion of telemedicine remains limited. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
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Due to the exponential growth of the internet, smartphones, and communication technologies during the last two decades, the digital banking sector has enormously advanced in terms of user-friendly, efficient, and fast financial transactions. Digital banking also plays a significant role as an enabler of cashless transactions in the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigates the challenges, technology, and future research agenda of digital banking. The paper follows the manifestation of Kitchenham's SLR protocol. Six databases were used to determine articles that match the criteria. The study considers recent articles, which have been published from 2015 to 2021. Sixty-seven papers have been selected, extracted, and analyzed. The result highlights issues related to technology, organization, people, process, environment, customers, security, and risk, which become challenges in digital banking innovation. This research presents suggestions for future research directions, which will be beneficial to practitioners and scholars around the globe.
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Purpose: The objective of this study is to examine the effect of company resources on digital innovation, collaboration strategy, and business performance, as well as the effect of company resources on business performance through digital innovation and collaboration strategy. Research Design: This study uses a quantitative research approach. Observations were made in a cross-section time horizon, in 2022. The Population of this study is the ISP industry, which amounted to 474 companies, and the unit of observation was the management. Sampling used stratified random sampling. ISPs are grouped based on the size of each company based on the number of customers and branch cities are divided into 3 groups: small, medium, and large. Samples were taken many as 100 respondents. Sampling from each classification is done randomly based on a list of population members. Testing the causality hypothesis in this study used PLS (Partial Least Square). Results: the hypothesis testing reveals that company resources play a significant role in developing digital innovation and collaboration strategies. Company resources do not significantly directly affect business performance, but significantly affect business performance through digital innovation and collaboration strategy. Findings: The study provided managerial implications for ISP company management in Indonesia, that collaboration strategy and digital innovation can increase the influence of the development and utilization of company resources on business performance so that companies no longer have to develop and own all of their resources independently. By elaborating their collaboration strategy and digital innovation, companies can focus on developing key resources and additional digital innovations needed to increase the company's competitive advantage. Limitation: the measurement of variables was carried out based on the management's perception of the conditions and situations faced during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021-2022. To get a deeper understanding and truly describe the details of the empirical conditions, it is necessary to complement qualitative research through confirmatory and in-depth interviews. © 2023, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved.
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) have intensified their digitalisation initiatives. However, in many cases these measures only include enabling remote work. The lack of IT skills or expertise is often a strong barrier for pursuing a holistic digital strategy. In this context, Low-Code Development Platforms (LCDP) are seen as a forward-looking technology that facilitates the rapid and agile development of software applications. Accordingly, low-code programming is designed to empower non-programmers to create digital innovations by developing customized business applications in their own departments. Gartner predicts that by 2024, 65 % of all companies will be developing their applications in a LCDP. But will this be true? We investigate the gap between hype and reality. Our research results show that a more in-depth investigation of low-code concepts is needed to conclusively clarify key issues such as data protection or vendor lock-in. © 2022 IEEE.
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Theoretical Framework:During Covid-19, IndCzech invented numerous digital business transformations to maintain its sustainability in the global economy. IndCzech's digital innovations (New normal) through online safety study workshops, business meetings, Factory Acceptance test, 3D Model review, Design review, Quality audit, project implementation and business transformation through work sharing possibilities in different places, integrated work culture, changes in native infrastructure have been analyzed the possibilities to implement. Based on the study, conceptual model proposes with Digital innovation, Business Transformation, Emotional Resilience, Challenges in workplace and Organizational growth. Design / Methodology/approach:129 agile leaders in the workplace in MSME sector data's were collected through questionnaire and data analyzed with descriptive analysis, t-test, one way ANOVA, Correlation analysis, Regression analysis through SPSS and SEM model through SPSS AMOS. Copyright © 2022 by Animal Bioscience.
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COVID-19 has developed chaos and uncertainty for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) causing mass downsizing. Under such uncertainty, innovation is key to survival and agility to growth. This study examines role of knowledge coupling and business process digitization (BPD) in sustaining innovation through market capitalizing agility (MCA) besides downsizing strategy. Data have been collected from top and mid management of Chinese manufacturing SMEs and analyzed with knowledge-based view and self-tuning model through Smart-PLS 4. Knowledge coupling positively contributes to MCA and innovation irrespective of downsizing strategy. Effect of BPD on innovation performance is same;however, insignificant on MCA in no-downsizing sample. Likewise, MCA positively influences innovation performance and positively mediates between knowledge coupling (BPD) and innovation performance only during downsizing. This study is first of its kind to establish mediating effect of MCA between knowledge coupling (BPD) and innovation performance during downsizing phase and offers significant theoretical and practical implications. JEL Classification: J63, O31
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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a greater use of digital technologies as part of the health care response in many countries, including Indonesia. It is the world's fourth-most populous nation and Southeast Asia's most populous country, with considerable public health pressures. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study is to identify and review the use of digital health technologies in COVID-19 detection and response management in Indonesia. METHODS: We conducted a literature review of publicly accessible information in technical and scientific journals, as well as news articles from September 2020 to August 2022 to identify the use case examples of digital technologies in COVID-19 detection and response management in Indonesia. RESULTS: The results are presented in 3 groups, namely (1) big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning (technologies for the collection or processing of data); (2) health care system technologies (acting at the public health level); and (3) COVID-19 screening, population treatment, and prevention population treatment (acting at the individual patient level). Some of these technologies are the result of government-academia-private sector collaborations during the pandemic, which represent a novel, multisectoral practice in Indonesia within the public health care ecosystem. A small number of the identified technologies pre-existed the pandemic but were upgraded and adapted for current needs. CONCLUSIONS: Digital technologies were developed in Indonesia during the pandemic, with a direct impact on supporting COVID-19 management, detection, response, and treatment. They addressed different areas of the technological spectrum and with different levels of adoption, ranging from local to regional to national. The indirect impact of this wave of technological creation and use is a strong foundation for fostering future multisectoral collaboration within the national health care system of Indonesia.
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Due to the pervasiveness and intensifying nature of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, social distancing may be the most effective method for preventing its transmission. However, the activities make conventional trades and interactions more stimulating and unattractive. In light of this, several global industrial corporations have boosted their commitment to accelerating the development of digital technologies and integrating them into existing operations. In this study, we examine the critical issue of how manufacturing organizations may develop a solid supply chain management capability to adapt to the dynamic and unpredictable global economic climate and achieve sustainable growth. Determining the mediating effect of supply chain management capabilities (SCMC) on the link between digital innovation (DI), digital technology (TEI), and sustainable corporate performance (CSP) of manufacturing enterprises in Iraq was the purpose of this study. The data was acquired from 300 manufacturing industry managers in Iraq using a straightforward sampling technique. Using Smart PLS, the researchers employed a quantitative research strategy, a cross-sectional study design, and a Partial Least Square (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) tool. Indicators of TEI have positive and statistically significant effects on CSP and SCMC, although TEI itself does not affect CSP and SCMC. On the other side, SCMC also mediates the association between TEI indicators and CSP, but with a negligible impact on the relationship between TEI and CSP. The data reveal that SCMC is a substantial mediating variable;consequently, this should be regarded as an important contribution to the study, which is regarded as a pioneering effort. © 2022, International Forum of Management Scholars. All rights reserved.
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Technologies utilizing cutting-edge methodologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), present powerful opportunities to help evaluate, predict, and improve patient outcomes by drawing insights from real-world data (RWD) generated during medical care. They played a role during and following the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by helping protect healthcare providers, prioritize care for vulnerable populations, predict disease trends, and find optimal therapies. Potential applications across therapeutic areas include diagnosis, disease management and patient journey mapping. Use of fit-for-purpose datasets for ML models is seeing growth and may potentially help additional enterprises develop AI strategies. However, biopharmaceutical companies often face specific challenges, including multi-setting data, system interoperability, data governance, and patient privacy requirements. There remains a need for evolving regulatory frameworks, operating models, and data governance to enable further developments and additional research. We explore recent literature and examine the hurdles faced by researchers in the biopharmaceutical industry to fully realize the promise of AI/ML/DL for patient-centric purposes.
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In all countries with advanced welfare systems, healthcare organizations operate in complex institutional systems, which define their space of autonomy in relation to health policy choices and affect their strategic choices, organizational design and management. Healthcare systems are a particularly fruitful context in which to examine how a range of contrasting norms and practices shape innovation. They are in fact confronted with multiple values and demands and the challenge is to simultaneously enhance the quality and reduce the costs of care. The paper examines how competing institutional logics shape innovation development through the use of digital technologies in healthcare organizations responding to emerging events, such as Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, we adopt an institutional logics perspective to provide insight into the process of innovation, with a focus on the role of telemedicine. The need for social distancing and minimal physical contact challenged and interrupted hospital practices and, in response, digital technologies lead to new processes and services. Remote audio-visual functionality of digital technologies were appropriated in different ways, as stakeholders (state actors, managers, health professionals, and family members) sought to improvise and enhance the protection of persons concerned. Through remote monitoring of patients, telehealth works as a preventative measure to avoid admissions and is therefore a carrier of the managerialist logic of reducing costs by enabling, at the same time, a fast and accurate response to patients’ needs. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Digital innovation is not a technology in itself but businesses’ ability to exploit digital technology to resolve outmoded problems. Digital innovation is leveraging improvements or innovating technology to reimagine business practice. The Coronavirus disease 2019 exerted enormous effects on people's physical and psychological health. In addition, this pandemic adversely affected the global economy, from sole proprietors to multinational firms. However, such an effect did not hinder versatile products, services, and upgraded versions of technologies. Modern firms rely heavily on available data sets to make decisions through analytics. Manufacturing is one of the most dynamic industries due to market pressures and continually changing customer demands. This study examines the relationship between business analytics competencies and digital innovation and explores the mediating role of absorptive capacity and firm agility. Data are collected from 493 managers of manufacturing firms and analyzed by using structural equation modeling through smart-PLS. Results reveal a positive relationship between business analytics competence and digital innovation mediated by absorptive capacity and firm agility. With its theoretical contributions, this study can initiate practical research outcomes in manufacturing firms.
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This research aims to develop a conceptual model to establish the influence of digital core investment and digital innovation on digital resilience at the enterprise level. The data were collected through a questionnaire-based survey of managers and IT specialists of companies. The analysis was performed using structural equation modeling with SPSS Statistics and Amos software. Based on the literature review, the study identifies the main factors that can ensure digital resilience and assesses their impact on Romania’s private and public companies. The research results confirm the hypotheses presented in the article, emphasizing that digital resilience is the result of the collaboration of several factors with different effects, determined by using Industry 4.0 technologies. Thus, digital core and digital innovation investments help improve digital resilience. Moreover, digital core investments have a positive impact on the digital resilience of enterprises, mediated by digital innovation investments. The study’s novelty consists in the realization of a model of interconnected analysis of several variables specific to digital and innovative technologies to ensure the resilience framework at the company level. The research offers valuable results which can be used by companies in Romania or other European Union countries to ensure their digital resilience.
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Exogenous shocks, such as COVID-19, significantly change fundamental premises on which economies and individual organizations operate. The light-asset nature of digital technologies provides the potential to not only facilitate an immediate crisis response, but also to catalyze novel innovation types to address the societal and economic changes caused by exogenous shocks. As digital innovation became a relevant part of organizations’ COVID-19 responses, and given that a corresponding structured knowledge base did not exist, we found the need to better understand crisis-driven digital innovation. Drawing on prior knowledge from crisis management and organizational ambidexterity as a theoretical lens, we present four patterns of crisis-driven digital innovation, classified along two dimensions: (1) driven by a sense of urgency or ambition and (2) focusing on exploitative or explorative innovation. Based on a thorough analysis of digital innovation cases during the COVID-19 crisis, we illustrate and discuss these four patterns and their emerging properties to explain how and why they led to digital innovation in the context of the crisis. Our work contributes to the explanatory knowledge on digital innovation in times of crisis, helping researchers and practitioners to understand and develop digital innovation in response to exogenous shocks. © 2022 by the Association for Information Systems.