Chances and Challenges of Digital Management

The digitization of healthcare is advancing worldwide. The COVID19 pandemic has reinforced the trend while patients increasingly expect and use digital offerings, legislators and providers are scrambling to find solutions to promote and fund digital health solutions. Used correctly, digitization can help achieve four important goals: higher quality of care, greater cost efficiency, an improved patient experience, and an optimized work experience for healthcare staff. Germany has also embarked on the path of digitization: telemedicine, the billing of digital health applications (DiGA), online appointment bookings, electronic patient records (ePA) and e-prescriptions are just a few examples of the digital transformation in the German healthcare system. Nevertheless, not all the potential in this country has been tapped by a long shot. According to a study by McKinsey, the potential benefits of digitization in the German healthcare system have increased significantly in recent years and currently amount to around EUR 42 billion p.a. This is almost a quarter more than the EUR 34 billion in 2018. This noticeable increase is attributable to three influencing factors in total: In the realization of benefits, initial successes have been achieved in recent years, but not yet any drastic ones. The benefits realized are also offset by significantly stronger growth in healthcare spending. In addition, it has become apparent that some technologies promise significantly greater benefits than was assumed in 2018.This paper has examined, from the perspective of gkvi–a large IT service company–what contribution can be made and where the current limits of possible support lie.

A significant amount of merchandise sales is conducted in large shopping centers. It is convenient and easy for customers to find many suppliers concentrated in one place an in this way they can cover a very large part of their needs at once. For the shopping center operators and for the individual stores, the shoppers are initially anonymous, because they go into the stores, buy the goods they want and leave again. This means that the centers and the stores cannot specifically address the respective customers an improve the shopping experience for them, because they do not know the customers and do not understand their shopping habits and personal preferences. This challenge can be solved by introducing an attractive digital loyalty program. In this program, customer receive points for their purchases and can then exchange the collected points for rewards. In this way, customers are incentivized to both visit the center and the stores more often, but also to buy more from these stores, as they are rewarded for doing so. This digital loyalty program is to be automated as far as possible, putting the customer at the center. This article describes the experience gained with custom software development and with the implementation of the program in two shopping centers. In the process, the lessons learned are evaluated and critically reflected with regards to the achievement of objectives.

The large health insurance market in Germany is divided into those with statutory insurance and those with private insurance. The vast majority of people with health insurance are insured through a statutory health insurance fund. These statutory health insurers are increasingly focusing on their core business of looking after their members and outsourcing service and support functions. The most important service functions include, in particular, IT technical support for all relevant IT processes and IT procedures. This study refers to the company “gkvi—Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung Informatik”, which specializes in the planning, management, and control of IT processes for statutory health insurance companies. On the one hand, gkvi has to ensure the provision of services to its clients, and on the other hand, it has to outsource services that are not within its own competence focus to subordinate service providers. Two major changes were therefore implemented as part of the transformation. First, a service catalog was agreed with the five major health insurance customers and a service team was set up for each service. The gkvi organization was thus restructured in terms of the key service teams. One of the aims of this is to ensure end-to-end.

The modern era and especially the pandemic period has caused the need to make certain changes in all areas, especially in the business sector. The purpose of our research is to determine the stages of digital transformation of small and medium-sized businesses, identify given opportunities, highlight inevitable changes and transformations, and develop a transformation action plan based on the example of a specific business unit. 30 Georgian small and medium companies participated in our research. With the received information, we will be able to determine the need for their digital transformation, the possibilities of transformation and the sequence of changes, and we can generalize the obtained results to the sector. In the current period, it has become clear that digital transformation is of crucial importance: to accelerate changes, ensure stability and better understand the needs of clients. All this adds more relevance to the issue. The study will also discuss studies, practices and guidelines to demonstrate that digital transformation is today's priority, which involves transforming awareness, skills and tools.

The subject of the present paper is the use and the importance of the telemedicine in Georgia during pandemic (2020–2022). During the pandemic, the use of telemedicine has increased in different countries, Including USA and the members of the European Union. In Georgia, the implementation of the telemedicine is still at the early stage. There are different reasons for the underdeveloped telemedicine. Problem is that most of the healthcare providers are the private organizations. Most of these organizations have no telemedicine services. No public institutions can effect on the implementation of the telemedicine services in those organizations, if the owners of the healthcare providers have no interest to use telemedicine. Meanwhile, the ministry of the healthcare of Georgia had some interesting initiatives linked with the implementation of the telemedicine services in those organizations. Thus, the representatives of the healthcare sector did not welcome the initiatives of the ministry. On the other side, the providers of the healthcare services had no need for telemedicine before pandemic. After the pandemic started, the need for the telemedicine increased. Patients were not able to get to the healthcare providers for the services. Only few healthcare providers offer telemedicine in Georgia, including the Giorgi Eliava Pago therapy center. Those organizations who has no telemedicine services risk losing the clients and the income if the pandemic starts again. The present conference topic focuses on the benefits of the telemedicine services during pandemic and on the reasons for the aggravation of the implementation of those services in the healthcare sector of Georgia.

The work deals with the problem of managing and selling clothes through e-commerce systems and studying the main reason for returning goods, namely knitwear, hats, etc. The impossibility of remotely fitting the body and significantly reducing the return rate of goods. The objective of the study was to find out the details of the problems that caused the buyer to mistrust to make a choice in favor of e-commerce in clothing items, as well as the reasons for the increase in the volume of returned goods if such a choice had already been made. The study of these problems is seen as providing sufficient data for scientists interested in creating and managing digital platforms to solve these problems in favor of intensifying virtual trading networks as reliably as in the field of electronics, household appliances, etc. It is also a challenge to create opportunities for remote orders that correspond to the real characteristics of the customer's body with the specified ranges of deviations from the real dimensions in the body regions. Despite the many inventions created to create these types of services for the consumer, none have caught on that reduce garment return rates. For this purpose, the characteristic flaws of the virtual measurement platforms of clothing created for the solution of the problem were studied and the ways of their possible solution were outlined.

The spread of blockchain technology within industrialized countries has progressed increasingly in recent years, revealing numerous potentials. In consideration of the numerous challenges that developing countries are facing on a social, economic and environmental level, it is necessary to explore the opportunities of the new technology for these countries. The goal of this paper is to identify ways in which developing countries can benefit from the use of blockchain technology. For this purpose, the following research question is posed: What are the opportunities for societies in developing countries through blockchain technology? To answer the central question, an integrative review was conducted. Specifically, the work examined the opportunities and risks of three application areas: supply chains, the public sector, and cryptocurrencies. The focus is primarily on the area of supply chains. The results show that the use of blockchains in supply chains can increase transparency, reduce companies' running costs and make logistics processes more efficient. This is offset by high implementation costs. For the use of blockchains in politics and administration, opportunities for fighting corruption as well as increasing the efficiency of the systems could be shown. The research on the scope of cryptocurrencies found that the use of decentralized cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies can promote the financial inclusion of developing countries. Future research could concretize the evidence of cost savings from blockchains in supply chains using business metrics. An investigation of the cost-benefit ratio by means of ex-post analyses of existing projects could empirically consolidate the findings.

The purpose of this study is to gain insights into how the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5, addressing Gender Equality, can be connected to the Smart City concept. Recently, Smart Cities have attracted substantial attention and funding, positively impacting the urban economic process. In this regard, the report delves into how Smart Cities can help cities be innovative, safe, and secure to promote gender equality. Furthermore, the objective of this study is to address the Smart City concept as an innovation promoting greater inclusion, safety, resilience, and sustainability so that cities may prosper and provide equal opportunities to all their residents, whilst putting it into the context of the need to address gender equality on a national level. Moreover, the elimination of gender inequality nationally will have a positive impact on a global scale, providing the relevance of this body of work given the scope of globalization. To analyze these conditions, a case study encompassing the startup Safe & The City is used to illustrate the theoretical framework established. Additionally, two interviews with women in the startup and/or Smart City industry were conducted to reach a conclusion in terms of opinions and suggestions for future action. The findings include that networks exist for entrepreneurs and innovators to build and improve their businesses, which is especially of importance for female entrepreneurs. Additionally, initiatives facilitating communities online help to bring marginalized groups together, which may be inevitably important to improve the prerequisites for female founders in the startup industry. This report highlights that the main idea behind Smart Cities, general awareness, and knowledge of SDGs among the public will most likely speed up the process to a more sustainable world. Lastly, issues discovered in this research may be considered in policymaking, showing their relevance for the social, environmental, and economic sphere.

From the first stamp-based loyalty system in the late nineteenth century up to today's digital cards and barcode coupled systems, loyalty programs have come a long way. With the aim to create incentives and to reward recurring customers, digitisation has changed and eased many processes around loyalty programs but its intentions. Nevertheless, digitisation by means of using OCR offers more than an easily created incentive for customers to either increase or repeat their purchases but offer the additional potential for detailed customer insights, personalised promotions, as well as a huge potential for the reduction of manual labour and reduced turnaround times for the verification and clearing processes within such programs. Within this article we will outline the roll-out of an artificial intelligence (AI) based optical character recognition application programming interface (API) used within a localised loyalty campaign for two shopping centres and highlight the core benefits of a fully automated process. Lastly, we will elaborate on the potential usage of such technologies for the generation of broader customer insights analysis.

Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, is revolutionizing various aspects of life, particularly in the finance sector. This study aims to bridge the gap between blockchain and its applications in the financial industry. It explores the concept of Cryptonomics, wherein cryptocurrency miners and users seek to transform the current financial payment structure into digital currency. The study draws information from academic and non-academic sources, utilizing qualitative analysis. Through informative articles, the paper examines the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets, providing readers with up-to-date developments. Numerous ongoing studies and financial use cases demonstrate the numerous advantages of blockchain technology. However, challenges related to security, regulation, and industry application persist alongside its efficiency and self-governance benefits. The paper presents case studies of technology and financial companies utilizing blockchain applications in their business processes and suggests potential future directions for further exploration. Overall, this research sheds light on the transformative potential of blockchain in the financial industry.

The main goal of the research is to find out what influence different mechanisms of digital marketing have on the consumer's buying decision. The purpose of the research is to analyze different platforms and find out how they work in the Georgian market. This study investigates digital marketing channels, including, mobile marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. It examines how various channels affect consumers purchasing decisions in the Georgia market. Questionnaires were compiled based on a simple sampling technique. 200 questionnaires were distributed and 104 completed copies were collected, excluding those that were not filled in completely. The findings of this study showed that digital marketing, including that done through Gmail, social media, and mobile platforms, has a significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions. As the research results showed, In order to maintain their competitiveness in the modern business environment, organizations should develop strategies to use the digital world and technology to influence customer buying decisions.

The dangerous hydrometeorological phenomenon—drought is frequent in Georgia. The SPI and SPEI 3, 6 and 12 month drought indices were used to analyze drought frequency and intensity on the territory of Georgia for 1991–2020 year period. The structured data that is the part of big data, of ground hydrometeorological observation network of Georgia have been used to conduct research. The following statistical parameters were calculated: Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), determination coefficient (R²), and root mean square error (RMSE) both for the entire period and for months. The correlation coefficient is in a good agreement for all cases, and the absolute deviation shows data scattering, which should be related to the complex relief of Georgia, as well as the heterogeneity of precipitation data distribution. The calculated Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for 3 months of Kakheti region was subjected to Machine Learning. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) was selected in the Matlab space—the algorithm for Supervised Machine Learning method. The tenth model showed the best result; using of mentioned model it became possible to determine the drought probability by months at each point. Despite of obtained good parameters, it was necessary to add additional stations, because there was not enough information in the Kakheti region for the correct analysis of Machine Learning avoiding overfitting. The study is important for climate change assessment and hydrometeorological disaster early warning system implementation.

The study reviews the dynamics of the digital economy's transformation process in Georgia, as well as its impediments throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. According to a comparative analysis, the digital economy transition in Georgia is characterized by four major components and ten indicators, which include infrastructure building, the creation, usage, and global distribution of technology and digital services, and the growth of human resources and security. It is demonstrated that in contrast to other nations where digital business was founded on the implementation of internal company projects and then spread throughout the world, its emergence in Georgia was founded on the active engagement and intervention of the state. Its growth follows a “from top to bottom” pattern. The introduction of digital technologies in the public service sector has been rapid, especially in the prior pandemic period, which ensured providing of big data operations and large amounts of needed medical information and state services during the pandemic, while funding, lack of staff, outdated technologies, reliance on foreign innovations and digital business model shortages remained major problems for entrepreneurs. These issues have been exacerbated in the post-pandemic period when the lessons learned during the pandemic are being corrected by inertia.

Many factors, such as, wars, crises or pandemics strongly contribute to modern economic processes to become more and more unpredictable. Nevertheless, statistics remain the science that must study these processes in whatever direction economic events develop. Thus, it is not enough for statistics to simply play the role of an observer of events. It must itself be designed in such a way as to be somewhat ahead of events in order to be able to assess them immediately and supply policymakers, businesses or academics with necessary information. On the other hand, the production of digital financial system statistics definitely requires the transformation and digitization of the entire statistical business process model. National Bank of Georgia (NBG) applies such a principled approach to the development of statistics under its mandate. In order to realize the mentioned approach, NBG implemented the project SebStat which stands for statistics of NBG. This study shows how the SebStat project solved the above problem by digitizing the statistical business process at the central bank.

The purpose of this study is to delve into the personalities and the values that make up German entrepreneurs. The rising awareness regarding sustainability issues and the wish to counteract them led to the creation of what is known as sustainable entrepreneurship. This type of entrepreneurship tries to solve current sustainability issues through market innovation. With this said, the objective of this study is to find whether a relationship exists between an entrepreneur’s sustainability orientation and the existence of sustainable entrepreneurship. Additionally, it sets out to see how a psychological concept like grit, meaning the Perseverance of Effort and Consistency of Interest over a long period of time, influences the relationship between them. To analyze these relationships, the three topics were viewed through the lens of literature review, especially focusing on the perspective offered through the Triple Bottom Line. Moreover, empirical research was conducted by using a questionnaire that had 29 German respondents, defining themselves as entrepreneurs. The results indicate that sustainability orientation is an antecedent for sustainable entrepreneurship. However, a positive relationship between sustainability orientation and grit could not be detected. Therefore, it was found that grit does not play a mediating role between the independent variable (sustainability orientation) and the dependent variable (sustainable entrepreneurship). Moreover, this study highlights the importance of psychological research into the personality of entrepreneurs to foster entrepreneurial action in the future. The second valuable area being the implementation of sustainable behavior into the economy and personal life, benefitting the individual’s state of mind, as well as society.

This research deals with international academic collaborations in higher education, primarily focusing on the Trans-Atlantic Virtual Exchange and Collaboration (TAVEC) project. The “Corona Virus Disease 2019” (COVID-19) pandemic did not only have an impact on the economy, such as remote working within companies but also on higher education institutions, such as methods to enable distance learning. The educational system had to accomplish a paradigm shift that had an impact on both students and the faculty staff. To conduct an international academic collaboration with another universities, higher education institutions had to decide on a concept for collaborating virtually. Therefore, the international Business school of Hochschule Fresenius (HSF) and the Adelphi University (AU) in New York started a collaboration that consisted out of a virtual collaboration and a mobile component. This concept, which is a fusion of virtual collaboration and a physical meeting between the project partners, is called “Blended Mobility”. Still, international academic collaborations, such as TAVEC may face challenges during the process. Aspects such as time difference and cultural backgrounds need to be considered while implementing such an international academic collaboration. The research of this thesis has shown that the mobility component of the TAVEC project did have an impact on the students’ learning experiences. In addition to that, the integrated workshops and lectures held by faculty staff from both universities and guest speakers, led to a knowledge increase and exchange, as well for the students and the faculty staff. Further recommendations, can be given, based on a number of surveys, that have been conducted concerning the previous two TAVEC projects (TAVEC I and II). Further recommendations for potential marketing strategies can be given and new marketing tools are being introduced. Furthermore, the potential process of TAVEC III is being explored and suggested.

COVID-19 is considered to be one of the biggest crises in modern history and has become the main challenge for businesses. Due to the pandemic, digital transformations accelerated significantly. Commercial activities and social interactions were also shifted to digital space. Despite the contact restrictions, most companies survived their businesses by actively using digital technologies as an alternative channel to interact with their consumers. Moreover, some research presented that consumers indicated a preference for online retailing over physical shopping in the post-COVID-19 future. Of course, this fact will bring to the fore the significance of e-commerce in trade even once the pandemic is over. This paper assesses the impact of COVID-19 on e-commerce businesses across developed or developing countries and analyses the gaps in Georgian legislation to meet the expectations of the digitalization process in light of relevant EU legal acts. Although by Association Agreement Member states of the European Union and Georgia agree that electronic commerce increases trade opportunities in many sectors and Georgia undertakes to introduce new regulations in e-commerce, the initiated draft law of Georgia on “electronic commerce” has not been adopted yet. Furthermore, this paper reviews the effectiveness of the Georgian regulatory framework on electronic contracts and electronic signatures, since they are the main legal mechanisms to regulate e-commerce dealings, identifies ongoing Georgian legislative problems in this field, and indicates more national commitment toward e-commerce reforms to satisfy the fast-growing demands in digital space.

The global textile industry is part of a complex market that plays an important role in the global economy: in the European Union alone the manufacturing industry, employs 1.7 million people and generates a turnover of EUR 166 billion. On the other hand, it is a highly saturated industry on a global scale, as there is an abundance of suppliers in the production process that has led to a constant demand of cheap products and a growing number of shops that sell their products online on the other hand. Due to ever decreasing prices, continuous product innovations are necessary to attract customers. In the light of the fast fashion excesses and their problems ranging from poor quality, defective recycling to human rights problems, customers in recent years are also continuously demanding better quality and sustainable production processes. In the following paper I aim to demonstrate how an individual local player from Germany with stores in Düsseldorf and Essen, can be successful in the fashion market online and in-store with the help of digital solutions alone and attracts customers with a range of special products and a highly individual marketing strategy.

This study aims revealing culture types that the academicians as well as administrative personnel of Georgian private and public higher educational institutions (HEIs) perceive at their organizations on the basis of the four types of cultures (Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchy, and Market) given in the Competing Values Framework-CVF by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn and to identify current problems, barriers, features, trends, and directions of digital transformation of organizational culture of HEIs. The study encompasses totally185 academicians of different faculties and positions (Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Assistant) and administrative personnel (from Rectors to technical staff) as participants. The data was obtained through the Quantitative research, mainly—Self-Assessment Questionnaire of organizational culture. Data results was calculated in the Ms. Excel file based on the calculation method. According to the findings obtained by research, dominant type of organizational culture in Georgian Private HEIs is Market culture and as for public universities’ preferable culture is Adhocracy culture.

Georgia joined the Bologna process in 2005 at the Bergen summit. In addition, the country signed the association agreement with Europe in 2014, where the country's commitment to developing digital infrastructure in the country was outlined. In this regard, according to the 2021–2027 agenda of the association agreement between the European Union and Georgia, the importance of stimulating the digital economy and innovation in the country, promoting the development of e-governance and digital services, along with the development of digital skills and e-literacy of the broad strata of the population, was specified. Consequently, the reforms in the Georgian educational sector were actively launched, and the need for the digital transformation of educational institutions, including higher education institutions, was on the agenda. Taking into account the recent Covid pandemic, on June 12, 2020, amendments were made to the Law of Georgia on “Higher Education,” where 47⁷ articles specified the essence of distance learning and the features of its implementation. In particular, paragraphs 3 and 4 of this article define the obligation to select and properly use a distance learning application/platform for higher educational institutions, develop instructions/video guide for the use of the selected distance learning application/platform, and introduce it to students and staff of higher education institutions. Based on the abovementioned changes, the higher educational institutions operating in Georgia (in the 2021–2022 academic year, 19 state and 45 private higher educational institutions are operating in Georgia.) have actively started to take care of meeting the existing requirements. In particular, first of all, to conduct educational processes interactively, higher education institutions purchased electronic online training programs. The choice was mainly made on such software as zoom, jitsi, google meet, and Microsoft Teams. In addition, the e-learning programs for internal use owned by the universities were activated and functionally improved; the book fund was updated/supplemented with digital resources, the digitization of student services and management processes of higher education institutions became the top priorities, etc. It is worth noting that, along with the implementation of the mentioned processes, the problems accompanying the digitization process appeared consequently, in particular, the lack of digital skills, both among students and among the staff of higher educational institutions, less willingness to observe the norms of academic integrity in the process of online education; problems of infrastructural provision of universities and students, access to an unlimited Internet, etc. With these mentioned problems in view, higher education institutions actively started working on developing and implementing digital development strategies and action plans, which are clearly not a one-time process and require constant development. In this paper, we will discuss distinctive characteristics of the digital transformation implementation process that has taken place in HEIs in Georgia.

Current figures from the German Federal Statistical Office point to significant growth in the number of students enrolled at private universities in Germany since 1995.