Multi-National Topics Maps for Parliamentary Debate Analysis

In recent years, automated political text processing became an indispensable requirement for providing automatic access to political debate. During the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic, this need became visible not only in social sciences but also in public opinion. We provide a path to operationalize this need in a multi-lingual topic-oriented manner. Using a publicly available data set consisting of parliamentary speeches, we create a novel process pipeline to identify a good reference model and to link national topics to the cross-national topics. We use design science research to create this process pipeline as an artifact. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Technology adaptation: micro new ventures in a COVID-19 lockdown

Purpose: There is a paucity of evidence on how small new ventures cope with shifts from physical space to cyberspace imposed by external crises, such as pandemics. Further, even though the concept of space is highly relevant to understanding entrepreneurship, the concept has been underutilised in entrepreneurship research. In particular, the potential of understanding entrepreneurship in terms of the interplay between physical space and cyberspace is yet to be explored. The authors address these research gaps by pursuing the following research question: How did micro new ventures experience the shift from physical space to cyberspace (technology adaptation) imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis? Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with founders of start-ups associated with two incubators, in Spain and Monaco. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted, approaching the data with the focus on firm positioning in "real” space and in cyberspace and on possible transformations of business models. Findings: The pandemic opened new opportunities for small new ventures, as many start-ups were successful in shifting into cyberspace by undergoing a radical digital transformation and ended up with more scalable business models and in many cases transformed themselves into micro-multinationals. Research limitations/implications: Overall, firms tended to shift from physical space to cyberspace, following the firms' customers to cyberspace, finding new and more international, customers in cyberspace or guiding the firms' existing customer base into cyberspace. Firms that maintained the pre-pandemic position were either already fully digital or had sufficient resources to hold position in the anticipation of the post-pandemic future. Originality/value: The authors introduce the concept of cyberspace in the context of entrepreneurship studies and explore the trajectories of firms in a crisis. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Multi-National Cyber Security Exercise, Case Flagship 2

Cyber security is not merely about securing devices and focusing on software and hardware. Staff members with skills and know-how are among the most valuable assets in the context of cyber security. Globally, there is a lack of competent cyber security experts available and cyber security skills should be educated more widely. One of the most effective practices for training cyber security experts is a cyber security exercise. During a cyber security exercise, the learning audience train their skills with a realistic scenario depicting a hectic and stressful cyber incident or cyber attack. In order to successfully implement a cyber security exercise, there must be sufficient technical infrastructure mimicking required systems and networks. The infrastructure should allow the use of realistic threat actors with realistic attack vectors and real malware without compromising any production environments. Facilities offering such infrastructure are widely known as the cyber ranges. There are two special requirements raised by modern cyber range exercises: (i) cyber range collaboration, including capabilities for sharing and pooling cyber range services, and (ii) on-line cyber security exercises without restrictions of being on-site on the exercise premises. The requirement of implementing on-line exercises has increased especially after the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we introduce Flagship 2, a multinational state-of-the-art on-line cyber security exercise based on cyber range federation. We analyse the technical implementation of the cyber range federation and the learning outcomes of the exercise event based on a participant survey and relevant theories. The analysed results are explained with identified future research topics. © 2022 ACM.

Talent management in the "new normal”—Case study of Indian IT services multinationals in China

Emerging market multinational corporations (MNCs) are coming under increasing scrutiny for their international performance. While the success of Indian IT multinationals in the West has been extensively researched and reported, there is a lack of research on their relative failure in China. The rise of economic nationalism and the COVID-19 pandemic pose challenges for the mobility of professionals and the global talent management (GTM) strategy of MNCs. Through in-depth interviews with senior managers from four well-known Indian IT services multinationals, this article presents an evidence-based critique of the design and implementation of their GTM strategy both inside and outside China. It focuses specifically on the quality of the IT talent pool in China, control and coordination issues, and the challenges of workforce localization. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The evolution of digital MNEs: an empirical note

UNCTAD first published a list of the top 100 digital multinationals in the World Investment Report 2017. This research note builds on the analysis and conceptual framework on digitalization and foreign direct investment set out in that report. It provides an updated list, allowing for an analysis of trends over the five-year period including the COVID-19 pandemic and adds new features to the data set that will be exploited in forthcoming UNCTAD work. The note describes the methodology to create the new and extended data set and points at possible avenues for further work. The purpose of the research note is to provide academic scholars with the basic elements needed to pursue further research in this field. © 2022 UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. All rights reserved.

Bookending ARFIS: The Development, Final Results, and Current State of the Academic Reading Format International Study

The Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS) is the largest study conducted to date on tertiary students’ reading format preferences and behaviors. It was born at the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) and has been tied intimately with it throughout its formation and development. From 2014–2017, forty-three researchers in 33 countries participated in ARFIS, many of whom first connected and networked through attendance at ECIL. As of this writing, Google Scholar shows over 30 articles and reports on results of individual ARFIS participant countries and the amalgamated ARFIS results, 15 of which appear in various ECIL proceedings. The project has generated much interest from many academic fields. This paper will present its background and highlights from the findings, a list of ARFIS and ARFIS-related publications and researchers, discussions of the current status, and future directions. We will also discuss the impact of ARFIS on future scholarship, especially in the wake of potential changes in educational practices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The potential of virtual global mobility: implications for practice and future research

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has forced global organizations to adopt technology-driven virtual solutions involving faster, less costly and more effective ways to work worldwide even after the pandemic. One potential outcome may be through virtual global mobility (VGM), defined as the replacement of personal physical international interactions for work purposes with electronic personal online interactions. The purpose of this article is to establish VGM as a theoretical concept and explore to what extent it can replace or complement physical global work assignments. Design/methodology/approach This perspectives article first explores advantages and disadvantages of global virtual work and then discusses the implementation of VGM and analyses to what extent and how VGM can replace and complement physical global mobility. Findings Representing a change of trend, long-term corporate expatriates could become necessary core players in VGM activities while the increase of the number of global travelers may be halted or reversed. VGM activities will grow and further develop due to a continued rapid development of communication and coordination technologies. Consequently, VGM is here to stay! Originality/value The authors have witnessed a massive trend of increasing physical global mobility where individuals have crossed international borders to conduct work. The authors are now observing the emergence of a counter-trend: instead of moving people to their work the authors often see organizations moving work to people. This article has explored some of the advantages, disadvantages, facilitators and barriers of such global virtual work. Given the various purposes of global work the authors chart the suitability of VGM to fulfill these organizational objectives.

Talent management in the "new normal"-Case study of Indian IT services multinationals in China

Emerging market multinational corporations (MNCs) are coming under increasing scrutiny for their international performance. While the success of Indian IT multinationals in the West has been extensively researched and reported, there is a lack of research on their relative failure in China. The rise of economic nationalism and the COVID-19 pandemic pose challenges for the mobility of professionals and the global talent management (GTM) strategy of MNCs. Through in-depth interviews with senior managers from four well-known Indian IT services multinationals, this article presents an evidence-based critique of the design and implementation of their GTM strategy both inside and outside China. It focuses specifically on the quality of the IT talent pool in China, control and coordination issues, and the challenges of workforce localization.