Research and Innovation Forum 2022

Today, large amounts of data are being continuously produced, collected, and exchanged between systems. As the number of devices, systems and data produced grows up, the risk of security breaches increases. This is all the more relevant in times of Covid-19, which has affected not only the health and lives of human beings’ but also the lifestyle of society, i.e. the digital environment has replaced the physical. This has led to an increase in cyber security threats of various nature. While security breaches and different security protection mechanisms have been widely covered in the literature, the concept of a “primitive” artifact such as data management system seems to have been more neglected by researchers and practitioners. But are data management systems always protected by default? Previous research and regular updates on data leakages suggest that the number and nature of these vulnerabilities are high. It also refers to little or no DBMS protection, especially in case of NoSQL, which are thus vulnerable to attacks. The aim of this paper is to examine whether “traditional” vulnerability registries provide a sufficiently comprehensive view of DBMS security, or they should be intensively and dynamically inspected by DBMS owners by referring to Internet of Things Search Engines moving towards a sustainable and resilient digitized environment. The paper brings attention to this problem and makes the reader think about data security before looking for and introducing more advanced security and protection mechanisms, which, in the absence of the above, may bring no value.

During the 20th Century, designers mainly focused on products’ form and function to improve their value on markets. In recent times, design has becoming a discipline more and more used to tackle more complex problems and to produce and promote strategic innovation not only inside products but on a wider scale. The systematization of the design process in the concept of Design Thinking widen the application of this methodology in a big scale of sectors and departments. In the last two decades, society has been transforming itself dramatically due to the pace of technology, demography and globalization with an accelerating speed never experienced in the recent past. It is for this reason that analyzing and foreseeing macrotrends has become a strategic key factor for their development and adaptation to a complete mutating environment. Design Thinking methodologies have common phases, patterns and key points that can be considered as a user centered creative processes that lead to an innovation of the status quo. This process emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization of ideas, rapid concept prototyping, and concurrent business analysis, which ultimately influences innovation and business strategy. The idea of the research paper is matching three territories of research (Design Thinking Process, Trends Foresighting and Analysis, and Visual Mapping) to justify that the foresighting and analysis of a macrotrend—together with a visual representation of a system of complex phenomena—plays a strategic role in orientating and facilitating design process methodologies aimed to produce better design driven innovation inside organizations.

There has been an ongoing debate whether the possibility of cyberspace becoming both a weapon and a battlefield should be treated as an act of war. Although NATO recognized in 2014 that an armed response can be invoked following a cyberattack, the anonymous nature of the Internet makes it extremely difficult to attribute the attack to a specific nation-state, which makes the chances of retaliation slim. The events of the war in Ukraine have proved that yet again. On top of that, there emerged new ways of weaponizing cyberspace. In this context, the current concept of cybersecurity must be revised and enhanced. This situation emphasizes the necessity to put a spotlight on the threats posed to the Internet of Things devices, due to their ubiquity in the modern world and the possibility of weaponizing them. Online disinformation campaigns being employed as part of warfare in Ukraine have also inspired considerations on broadening the concept of cybersecurity, by acknowledging the significance of fake news. This paper analyses both aspects from the perspective of threat actors and their motivations.

Nowadays, the adoption of digital technology for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) has become essential and unavoidable no matter how small the NGO are. Using technology come with its risk and opportunities; to control the risk an appropriate information security risk assessment methodology should be adopted. It helps to assess the risks and identify security requirements to protect information as well as maintain its confidentiality, integrity and availability. Furthermore, discovering vulnerabilities on the systems and defending threats help reduce risks and control the level of uncertainty NGOs facing. However, complying with information system risk assessments standards requires knowledge and experience on information security management which is a challenge for most of NGOs in Saudi Arabia as often lack resources. This paper contributes to demonstrates an analysis approach providing insight into the current awareness of information security risks in NGOs in Saudi Arabia. A survey was conducted on a sample of 168 NGOs accredited by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) in Saudi Arabia were selected using a multi-stage stratified sampling approach. The results show a lack of security awareness in terms of protecting information security and the need for a straightforward tool to help assisting the information security risk with limited expertise and recourses.

The study seeks to address the following research objectives: (1) to reveal how smart tourism ecosystems (STE) can be redefined through a data-driven approach for digital transformation; (2) to assess the impact of data-driven approach on the development of sustainability and innovation. Methodology: The empirical research is based on a case study methodology performed through the technique of qualitative content analysis. The key data-driven strategies and practices implemented through the Project “Smart Tourism” are analyzed. Findings: The findings reveal that data-driven smart tourism ecosystems can create innovation and sustainability based on the activation of a data culture, of different kinds of resources and digital skills and on users’ participation. Originality: The identification of the drivers for the digital redefinition of smart tourism ecosystems can be useful for researchers and managers that should face the acceleration of digitalization processes caused by Covid-19.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused some long-term consequences in various fields, including science, technology and innovation (STI). The main objective of the article is to present the position of the United States during the pandemic in the light of the Global Innovation Index and to present the STI policy measures implemented in the USA to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis shows that the United States is doing relatively well in terms of STI, which is reflected in its position in the GII. Still, in some areas, STI outperforms its main competitor, the EU. However, it cannot be ignored that the effects of a pandemic may be seen over a longer period of time due to the nature of innovation processes. In the USA, during the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 40 STI policy initiatives were implemented with a focus on drug development and others to maintain the stability of the STI system during turbulent times with multiple pandemic shocks.

Meningitis is an infectious disease that can lead to neurocognitive impairments due to an inflammatory process in the meninges caused by various agents, mainly viruses and bacteria. Early diagnosis, especially when dealing with bacterial meningitis, reduces the risk of complications and mortality. Able to identify the most relevant features in the early diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. The model is designed to explore the prediction of specific data through the Logistic Regression, K Nearest Neighbour, and Random Forest algorithms. Early identification of the patient’s clinical evolution, cure, or death is essential to offer more effective and agile therapy. Random Forest Algorithm is the best performing algorithm with 90.6% accuracy, Logistic Regression with 90.3% performance and KNN with 90.1%. The most relevant characteristics to predict deaths are low education level and red blood cells in the CSF, suggesting intracranial haemorrhage. The best-performing algorithm will predict the evolution of the clinical condition that the patient will present at the end of hospitalisation and help health professionals identify the most relevant characteristics capable of predicting an improvement or worsening of your general clinical condition early on.

This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of assistive technology (AT) research development by investigating relationships between related keywords and concepts and uncovering how trends change over time. This study employed network analysis to identify the relationships between frequently cited papers and keywords in the AT literature and concept-linking analysis to uncover the key concepts and classifies them into clusters determining the changing trends in AT research. The network analysis results on author keywords co-occurrence and citation indicate that the development trend of AT is primarily observed in medicine and is related to medical devices used in rehabilitation or available for disabled and people for well-being improvement. Meanwhile, the concept linking analysis identifies seven groups of key AT concepts, including technical issues, education, health and disability, policy, user/people, and ways/medium. We also depict the yearly changes of the key concepts in AT research development. This research extracts the strongest key concepts, the most productive authors and countries, and the connecting relationship between authors and literature within the big data. It provides a comprehensive view of temporal patterns of AT developments and their development in terms of human–computer interactions.

Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is an infectious respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Among the symptoms, the respiratory system of the sufferer is affected. This respiratory condition suggests that the chest imaging plays a key role in the diagnosis of the disease. Several pre-trained deep learning models have been developed to detect Covid-19 through chest radiographs. These models provide high precision for binary detection, however, when combined with other diseases such as pneumonia that also affect the respiratory system and lungs, they offer poorer quality performance and reduce screening performance. In this study, we analyze some neural networks models for binary and multiclass classification of X-ray images in order to find out the best accuracy of classification. The models are based on deep learning methodology to learn and classify images. They are extracted from well-known repositories such as Kaggle. The conducted experiments compare their performance in several scenarios: a multiclass classification model versus the combination of several binary classification models. Two methods for combining the output of the binary models are proposed to achieve the best performance. The results show that the best results are obtained with a well-trained multiclass model. However, a preliminary screening can be obtained from the binary models without creating and training a more complex model.

A biological passport collects the physiological parameters of athletes, through various blood and urine tests over a period of time. This passport includes two modules: the hematological and the endocrine (which also includes the steroidal data). A mathematical algorithm is applied to these data to calculate the profile of the person. This profile establishes the range of values within the biological controls and tests should move and if there were any anomaly in order to detect doping since the normal limits are exceeded. This work describes a distributed registration method based on blockchain technology to provide a solution to the previous challenges with clear benefits for all participants. The purpose of the proposed blockchain network is to consolidate a tamper-proof and distributed registry database, where anti-doping processes can be implemented through the development of distributed applications and smart contracts. Blockchain technology is a promising disruptive technology to address government policies and access control rules by a consortium of sports organizations in order to conduct the continuous doping controls and health revisions of athletes.

This paper explores the 5S management concept, its advantages and the framework required to implement the system in the Apparel Industry. The 5S method is a Japanese system that involves workplace management improvements. It further analyses the effect of the 5S method in the apparel & textile industry as a case study and how its implementation directly impacts saving time and costs. 5S process helps to eliminate waste, reduce defects, and help in improving the productivity of the business. Further, reducing clutter and junk at the workplace is hygienic and ergonomic. This research paper identifies how the 5S method is implemented in the Apparel industry and how it has helped the industry improve its waste reduction targets, profitability, and productivity. The apparel industry uses the 5S to dispose of the wastage and use the factory production layout to smooth working, wastages are cleared, and regularly maintained space. This would help minimize handling time, moving part used in apparel from one process to another quickly, and final apparel can be stitched and packed in a faster time process. This will improve the business’s profitability and enhance its competitiveness in the local and international market sectors.

Quality inspection processes are an essential part of most industrial systems. These are repetitive and precise operations that are often very complex and require multiple steps to be performed correctly by different inspectors or operators. Augmented Reality (AR), one of the most promising and enabling technologies for assisting employees and engineers in the manufacturing workplace, has the potential to help operators to better focus on tasks while having virtual data at their disposal. Therefore, it is important to verify whether, with the support of this technology, it is possible to help workers perform these activities faster, more efficiently, and with less mental effort than with traditional paper-based documents. This paper describes a pilot interactive AR tool designed to support quality controllers in their inspection of welded products in the manufacturing environment. This tool is designed to guide the employee through the inspection process, provide them with all relevant information and help them find any discrepancies or deviations. The presented AR tool is created with the game engine Unity 3D and SDK Vuforia to assure compatibility with commonly used devices, such as tablets or smartphones. It does not use markers, but uses the object tracking method instead. A pilot study was conducted with a group of five probands to test the usability and functionality of the solution using SUS (System Usability Scale) standard questionnaires. The average SUS value rated by the probands was 78, confirming both a high level of usability and user satisfaction.

This paper presents an approach for classification of the power quality disturbances (PQDs). The classification of real-time power quality disturbances (PQDs) is proposed in this work. The PQD signals are modelled based on the IEEE 1159–2019 standard. The outcome of the used PQD model is employed for analyzing the performance of suggested classification method. Firstly, the PQD signals are segmented and then each segment is further processed by machine learning based classifiers for identification of PQDs. The study is conducted for six major classes of the PQDs. The highest identification precision is secured by the Support Vector Machine classifier. It respectively attains the Accuracy = 94.32%, Precision =  84.55%, Recall = 84.33%, Specificity = 96.52%, F-measure = 84.19%, Kappa = 92.59%, and Area Under the Curve (AUC) = 97.83%.

The increasing pace of urbanization is posing multi-scalar challenges to cities and urban ecosystems worldwide. Sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) has a pervasive influence on society, and ICT-enhanced solutions impact every aspect of our lives. In the urban context, this results in an, usually incremental, evolution of cities into smart cities. This, one of its kind, digital transformation, influences all facets of a city’s functioning. Interestingly, in the otherwise rich body of research on smart cities, enquiries into business activity, innovation, competitiveness, seen especially as a function of economic growth, have been largely overlooked. Clearly, however, in a smart city there is a close positive relationship between ICT-based solutions, innovation, competitiveness, economic growth, and a thriving business sector. The ability to define and delineate the related to these concepts research field and the ability to recognize the mechanisms that underpin the relationships that unfold among the objects populating that field, bears the promise of identifying the gaps that exists in the literature, as well as the tools and strategies decision-makers may embark on to improve the functioning of a smart city. This paper delves into these issues. The value added of this paper is three-fold. First, it justifies the need to engage with the question of economic performance in the smart city. Second, it represents a rare attempt to add some metatheoretical order to the, at times unruly, smart city debate. Third, it highlights the new research avenues that need to be explored.

Quality of life, or Livability, is one of the most important objectives for any community worldwide. Over decades, people have recognized that some features can make places more or less livable. Whereas urbanism is the transformation of rural society into an urban one, the smart city is a paradigm that aims at employing technology to improve, in essence, Livability through sustainable integration of technology, the natural environment, and people’s needs. In line with the Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, which aim to take its cities to a level of sustainable urbanization that improves the Quality of Life, the Saudi Green initiative was announced early in 2021 to be the solid foundation for livable cities. This paper examines these developments and, against this backdrop, introduces a new feature to the smart cities paradigm, i.e., Livability.

The governments of cities around the world are taking the green city approach into account by turning their cities’ weaknesses into opportunities. The Saudi Vision 2030 continues to support the concepts of smart growth with the vision of promoting economic growth and development. At the same time, it ensures that natural resources continue to provide the resources and environmental services that strengthen the foundation of the country. The paper gives an overview of the concepts and principles of green cities and examines the available green sustainable urban tools that may be appropriate for Jeddah City. to help it transform into a green city. The current research adopts the triangulation model of mixed methods that include analytical literature review, questionnaire, and case study analysis. The paper reviews the most common and important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the global Green Rating Systems (GRS) for sustainable cities. The analytical literature review for the tools' official technical manuals and professional exploratory surveys that preceded this research has been critical to confirm the applicability of the suggested system and its KPIs. The sustainable city in UAE has been selected as a case study to be analyzed and employed in developing the suggested SGRS. The results suggested a Saudi Green Rating System (SGRS) that includes eight categories (One required category, 6 mandatory credit categories, and one optional category) with thirty-one KPI, a total weight of 80 points. The suggested GSRS can aid the required transformation in Saudi Cities.

The evolution of information and communication technologies is the basis of smart cities’ progress. They emerge as a potential solution for citizens’ problems that live in large urban centres and provide access to various services and products. But all these technologies consume resources and are sources of pollution. Many electronic and electric devices have sensors to perceive the world around them. They collect a large volume of data. In this context, minimizing the effect of these processes and actions on the environment is a big challenge. It requires the involvement of citizens, companies, and the government of smart cities as users or both as users and developers. This paper analyses the necessity of green software development and its characteristics in the context of smart cities evolution.

Today, half of the world’s population lives in urban areas where information and communication technology (ICT) are natural catalysts for innovations. Progressing urbanization requires improved urban planning and management to make urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, as outlined in SDG11. The concept of smart city offers a way of reconciling the diversity of challenges that the urban space is exposed to today, whereby ICT is considered a tool in this respect. Arguably, smart cities create the opportunity to integrate advances in ICT in the fabric of the city, thus creatively and innovatively provide improved quality of life. The domains of mobility, economy, environment, etc. are just a few examples. The objective of this paper is to focus on the domain of mobility in the smart city and to examine it from a historical perspective, i.e. starting by introducing the concept of smart mobility and its role in creating smart cities, identifying the related technologies and challenges, exploring the different types of smart mobility, and outlining international initiatives. The application of smart mobility in the Saudi Arabia context is highlighted.

In the last years, the concept of “smart city” has been the subject of increasing attention in urban planning and governance due to the sustainability challenges and great technological advancements. Although the relevant literature highlights those smart cities can create a fertile environment to drive innovation from a technological, managerial and organizational, and policy point of view how smart cities function, in terms of their value chain and in light of sustainability and circularity is still an open question. Based on these considerations, this work aims to investigate how smart cities deliver value by combining environmental, societal, and financial priorities to re-imagine their core business models and shift the boundaries of urban competition in light of circular economy principles. To reach this goal, the tool Sustainable Business Model Innovation Canvas has been applied in the urban context with the aim to create and leverage an environmental and societal surplus in light of circularity in the smart city framework. Preliminary results shed light on new vistas on the future and new challenges of smart cities particularly relevant for facing the current complexity of the economy, social, and environmental changes.

The diffusion of social networks has made it possible to utilize human users as sensors to inspect the city environment and human activities. The increasing availability of data and the possibility of exploiting them with analytics has sparked an interesting discussion: how social media can provide valuable information for smart city planners? Such insights, related to economic activities, sustainable city design, environmental impacts, and responses to climate change, may contribute to the improvement in the quality of human life within a smart city? Thus, this paper aims to perform a Systematic Literature Review regarding the data collected and analyzed from social media and their use within smart cities, examining the extent to which this particular data source is considered in the current literature and how it is characterized in terms of benefits and challenges. The insights derived from the critical review of the literature point out gaps, which may inform future research and theory development in this area and support practitioners’ decision-making on the reconfiguration of smart cities.

Around the world, cities have become the hub of shaping the post-Covid world by taking inclusive measures in combining economic recovery with environmental sustainability. Many cities have become more active in using various smart city tools due to the crucial role of digitalization. In China, the trend towards the introduction of digital technologies in the processes of urban management is becoming more noticeable than in any other part of the world. The purpose of this article is to analyze and identify trends in the development of smart cities in China, as well as to assess the relationship between technological and human aspects. This article is an empirical study that was carried out to analyze and evaluate the model of urban development in China. The authors focused on cluster development and determined the geographical distribution of Chinese smart cities. The authors concluded that smart cities in China have their own characteristics, which can bring great benefits to citizens and income growth. But the development is uneven, there is a certain imbalance that does not correspond to the original list of intellectual infrastructures and social requirements. The study confirms that technological aspects are more developed than infrastructure, which slows down the sustainable development of smart cities in China. Of course, this opens great opportunities for effective city management and decision-making, but, on the other hand, such efforts to monitor all the actions of city-dwellers raise many concerns for the psychological safety and privacy.

Since the beginning of the pandemic (at the end of 2019), papers have been published in journals firstly around the topic of medical area (such as clinical futures and complications, non-pharmaceutical interventions, treatment, virology, etc.), then around other topics (financial, economic, managerial and tourist). Covid-19 has generated impacts that have propagated from the medical field to the depths of human and relational behavior, modifying thought and action even in consumption. Many territories have reacted with specific policies of social limitations, others have devoted attention to technology to monitor the pandemic. This paper focuses on deepening the relationship between the Covid-19 and the Smart cities in the context of tourism. A bibliometric analysis and word concepts (word co-occurrences matrix) has been used to answer the research questions. A VOSviewer software has been used to process 4818 journal papers extracted from WoS (Web of Science) database between November 2019 and March 2022.

Heritage interpretation plays a vital role in understanding and perceiving heritage values. This research investigates the role of Augmented Reality (AR) in the heritage interpretation process through conducting a pilot AR study in historic Jeddah by simulating the old images of existing buildings through an interactive augmentation in an instantaneous mobile. The study measures the users’ experience in five aspects: Informative, Interactive & enjoyable, Realistic & intuitive, Convenience, and Memorable, which have been addressed in the literature to describe AR’s influence on visitors’ experience in cultural heritage sites. The study verifies the links between heritage sites' interpretation and visitor experience. It also proposes five factors leading to an enhanced visitor experience through the employment of AR in cultural heritage sites. To verify the viability of the AR model in the interpretation of cultural heritage values and the overall visitor experience, a survey was conducted among a group of local visitors and foreign tourists. The survey's analysis helps trace the reactions and responses to using AR interpretation in a specific cultural context like Saudi Arabia. It confirms the acceptance of the visitors and tourists of the AR interpretation model in simulating lost physical urban memory and confirms that implementing AR in cultural heritage interpretation contributes positively to the overall experience and interaction of the heritage site visitors.

Video streaming over VANETs is a very challenging task due both to the network characteristics (packet-loss-prone networks), and to the video streaming requirements (high bandwidth), and so, solutions need to be provided in order to keep the received video over a minimum quality threshold. The specific case of use studied applies video streaming over VANETs to Automatic Accident Notification in Smart Cities. When a vehicle suffers an accident it sends an automatic notification to the emergency services and also to the surrounding vehicles in order to warn them (this notification can also be sent by a vehicle whose driver witnesses the accident). Then, a short video is recorded and sent to the emergency services. This video can be very useful to evaluate the seriousness of the situation. In this work, a simulation framework is implemented and several alternatives to improve the quality of the video received are proposed and evaluated, so it can be as much useful as possible, maintaining the quality of the reconstructed video over a minimum acceptable threshold.

The city of Jeddah faces an increase in motorization and car dependency in transportation systems, resulting in increased traffic congestion and more negative effects such as an increase in pollution and car accidents. Nowadays, the citizens are not in favour of using public transportation services due to the lack of several factors, which include but are not limited to mal-planning in the land use distribution causing long journeys from one destination to another, quality of hygiene, safety, destination and location, affordability, and other factors that this research aspires to determine and highlight. The interpretation of "smart city" should not be limited to using advanced technology in transportation but should also include the smartness in adopting different transit options to satisfy the different social needs of the different community sectors. The execution methodology of this research is based on exploring the current understanding of Transit-Oriented Developments (TOD) that contributed to bettering the transportation issues that occurred in car-dependent cities. Following that, an empirical case study of Jeddah city will be conducted to divide the city into homogeneous zones supported by a qualitative data gathering of different stakeholder’s opinion that aims to gain a better understanding of Jeddah's condition with public transportation modes up to this date. The city of Jeddah is experiencing a surge of car dependency, given the increasing traffic congestion, which causes the city to suffer from increased pollution and vehicle accidents.

Urban planning and architecture have always played a fundamental role in videogames, directly or indirectly. Together with the characters and the historical plot of the game, they have made it possible to create attractive virtual worlds in which to enjoy experiences that go beyond fiction. Today, we are at a turning point. New technologies applied to the development of videogames provide a great opportunity to rethink new smart ways of planning and managing the city that are more participatory and inclusive in the post-Covid world. Within this context, the main objective of this paper is to explore and highlight the experimental possibilities that virtual space can offer to urban planning and architecture of a smart city. In this sense, it is proposed the integration in the urban planning process of a methodology that seeks to speculate on the possibilities that virtual models can offer, merging virtual space and real space in a collaborative work. As a result, the existence of a symbiotic relationship between reality and virtuality is confirmed, making possible new resilient ways of understanding space, as well as testing new strategies, systems and complex social, political and/or economic organizations in virtual urban environments very close to reality.

In recent years, numerous attempts have been documented in the smart city context to make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by combining the power of ICT tools with AI/Machine Learning backed remote sensing technologies. Using remote sensing technologies, this study aims to enhance methodologies for mapping and monitoring changes in terrestrial Landcover resources in Thailand’s Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai National Park. The goal is to investigate and develop a remote sensing technique for classifying terrestrial Landcover by compensating for topographic effects. Changes were detected using the Landsat 5-TM and Landsat 8 OLI satellites, and deviations from solar and terrain were rectified before the satellite imagery was identified using a Random Forest classifier. It improves efficiency in identifying terrestrial forest regions by combining high-level numerical modelling data (Digital Elevation Model: DEM) with it. The results showed that in the Khao Yai National Park area, the extraction of terrestrial Landcover areas using Long-term Landsat satellite photos performed significantly, with an accuracy of 82.05 percent. The goal of this study is to leverage the power of AI to make the best use of a wide range of terrestrial forest resources. This includes the significance of conducting a comprehensive evaluation of legislation governing the management of terrestrial forest resources.

Higher education has recently undergone changes in the didactics of education caused mainly by the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority of universities have changed the form of education from stationary to remote. Academic teachers and students have faced serious challenges in fulfilling their tasks when face-to-face communication is very difficult or impossible. The aim of the article was to find out students’ opinions on the effectiveness of remote learning in the context of a change in the paradigm of education. In order to more fully understand the issue of the effectiveness of remote learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a diagnostic survey method was used and the tool was a survey questionnaire. Responses from respondents were collected using Google Forms electronic form. The survey revealed that students rated the effectiveness of remote learning moderately. In their opinion, remote learning as a permanent form of education raises controversies and concerns. These concerns are due to the stability of the internet connection during remote classes both on the part of the lecturers and the students themselves and the moderate psychological support received from the university. The study was conducted in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic, an emergency situation. Therefore, the authors do not usurp the right to construct conclusions from the research on a general level in normal conditions of student education.

This paper aims to analyse whether acquisition of students’ generic competences has been influenced by Covid-19 pandemic in an online higher education environment. In order to analyse these effects we present an empirical study to know the influence of Covid-19 pandemic in generic competences of business and economics students. A quantitative analysis is conducted in a sample of 221 students from the online bachelor’s degree programme on Business and Economics at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The analyses show that the achievement of most part of competences has been affected by the pandemic, but in different levels. Moreover, the analyses also show which competences are affected in higher levels and which one in lower levels. Moreover the study analyses the possible differences depending on whether the students were at the beginning of the studies or at the end. The key finding is the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on generic competences, which creates an opportunity to undertake actions to address the lowest achieved and to generate strategies in order to adapt to this new situation.

The development of human capital is a driver for economic growth. Future educational systems, based on digital platforms, can make us more resilient when confronting unforeseen crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, which gave a sudden boost to digital transformation in society, in order to access services which had to be digitalized for external circumstances of isolation, highlighting gaps and the need to adapt to a new context. A great barrier is represented by the lack or insufficiency of digital skills in different age groups, which underlines the fundamental importance of training to improve quick access to these skills, and adequately face one’s daily activities without running the risk of being expelled from the labor market. It is up to universities to deliver digital skills, to assess skills demand from job market to address right policies. In this work, we explore digital needs in Colombia and consider the alarming lack of skills in this sector, with its serious implications on social life. We administered a questionnaire to students of the Catholic University of Pereira (Colombia) to verify whether the high educational level they are involved in corresponds to an adequate development of digital skills. The study highlighted a gender gap in terms of perception by the students, especially related to advanced digital skills, such as the creation of new digital content, knowledge of programming languages and management of given tools.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the digital divide was often identified as an obstacle to online teaching, and inequalities in education were sometimes observed. This challenge could be addressed by making online teaching more efficient through the application of good practices. Given that there are similarities between diplomatic negotiating practice and teaching practice, it is worth examining whether good practices developed in online diplomatic negotiation are transferable to online teaching. The aim of this paper is to examine good practices in online negotiation and explore how such good online practices could be transferred to teaching. The research is informed by the author’s first-hand experience from practice in both international diplomatic negotiation and academic teaching. The paper identifies a number of practices from online negotiation that are equally effective in online teaching. It focuses on communicational aspects, mutual understanding (monitoring and optimisation of understanding), motivation to listen, attention, active participation, and non-verbal communication. Some unresolved challenges of online teaching remain though, which are not addressed in this paper.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted more than 1.1 billion ( 68%) learners worldwide. Schools were partially or fully closed depending on the health restrictions implemented by each government. Online learning was the obvious solution for ensuring education continuity. In developing countries, it was particularly difficult for institutions and instructors to transition to online teaching. Institutions had no infrastructures and practices in place; instructors did not have the required material in digital form and were not trained. The majority of students did not have computers and Internet access. In some cases, electricity was an additional obstacle. Instructors require training not only on mastering tools and practices but also on how to design their courses to adapt to the online format. In particular, they need to be exposed to strategies for interacting with and engaging students. We present our findings related to the obstacles encountered by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) instructors to transition to online teaching in Senegal. This study is based on a 6-week training for 79 STEM high school instructors. We also explore the potential and shortcomings of leveraging mobile technology for online teaching in this context.

The growth of online learning platforms has transformed the educational world, and the research community is now more interested than ever in discovering optimal ways to exploit online education repositories, including students’ interactions with such platforms. Early prediction of student academic success has been a prevalent study issue, and multiple studies have articulated several measures and predictors for such analysis. In this work, we hand-engineer numerous factors relevant to a student’s first evaluation in a course using data obtained from the Open University in the United Kingdom. A series of typical machine learning methods runs an array of trials on two feature sets, incorporating demographics with interactions and assessment data and ignoring demographics. The outcomes are examined to find key characteristics and determinants of student success. Such research is expected to aid in developing appropriate educational policies for an active layer of student support and intervention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disruptive event in many industries while providing innovation opportunities as well. The transition to remote working in the educational context, on one side, has found universities unprepared, and on the other side has tested their creativity. The aim of this study is to explore emerging innovations and new dynamic capabilities aroused at universities during the pandemic and the quasi- Covid-19 period. In this study, the term “vicariant innovation” is used to express the way innovations themselves have been subject to frequent changes while stimulating more dynamic capabilities for institutions’ management, professors, and students. The methodology used in this study is a qualitative one by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews. The sample consists of 12 students per university, respectively: EPOKA University in Albania and the University of Salerno in Italy. Findings show that the Covid-19 vicariant innovation changed students’ habits of studying and although the universities are from 2 different countries the students’ thoughts towards this phenomenon are almost the same. Furthermore, vicariant innovations are seen as the future of the education system. The originality of this work consists of the methodology used to explain the vicariance of innovation under the umbrella of educational context during the quasi- Covid-19 period.

In this paper, the use of virtual reality (VR) in the education of future hotel and tourism industry employees is explored. Through interdisciplinary co-operation of researchers and practitioners in the field of technology, hospitality, and pedagogy, a 3D training module simulating the environment of a hotel reception was developed. As a part of the project, the key elements of communication between/among hotel staff and various types of guests were identified, and variant scenarios of communication situations were built. The development of scenarios followed the principles of effective simulation, including realism (immersion), drama (involvement), and challenge (motivation). The methodology of training communication skills of students using VR was compiled against the backdrop of the leading sources existing in the literature and practice. The latter embraces the principle of the “action review cycle”, which contains (1) a description of expectations from the simulation, (2) a description of experience, and (3) an analysis of differences between expectations and actual experience. In this study, the basic action review cycle was extended by “reflection”, i.e. quality of communication and professional accuracy. The VR tool elaborated on this paper remains a pilot and so more research and testing are needed to make it marketable.

The article aims to analyze the digital forms of education about Sinti and Roma persecution during World War II, its challenges. Digital media has increasingly become a valuable tool used by educators, academic lecturers in Holocaust, Genocide studies education, including the Sinti and Roma. The paper discusses various digital commemoration forms, digital mapping discovering historical sites online, virtual reality, its application in Holocaust education, digital storytelling, testimonials archives, digital archives, social media. Digital media, its application in Holocaust education might be challenging for educators. However, innovative technologies create a range of various educational tools, practices, diverse approaches, which might significantly improve the process of learning about the Holocaust, Genocide. Digital media has vast potential in Holocaust education. Using this framework allows for identifying, discussing digital media in education about the Sinti and Roma Genocide.

We are now in the post-confinement phase, a confinement decreed by the authorities in many countries due to COVID-19, which has led to the suspension of face-to-face teaching at all educational stages. Educational institutions and teachers have worked together to provide online teaching to enable students to achieve the required competencies at each educational level during the period of confinement. In this paper we show an online education proposal focused on preschool education that began to be developed in the period of confinement, for students between 3 and 5 years old. The adaptation and successful use of this proposal for the post-confinement period is presented, in which the return to face-to-face education has taken place. This proposal is a significant part of a curriculum design conceived as a game-based project in which the part related to computer games is presented here. It is important to note that this proposal focuses on generations that are already digital natives, so it is necessary to pay attention to both the content and the design of the proposed computer games, as well as to maintain the motivation of the students. The methodology presented allows for live resources that evolve along with the trainees.

The popularity of online teaching has increased in the last decade, especially in the last two years, where many institutions were forced to close their campuses due to Covid-19 restrictions. Although online teaching may provide an easy alternative to on-campus teaching, it often introduces a number of challenges. One of the major challenges is the lack of student engagement. Teachers typically use student engagement as an indicator to identify student strengths and weaknesses to tailor their teaching and delivery methods to meet student needs. Hence, the success of the learning process often relies on student engagement. Educational games are typically used in schools, especially during early years, to enhance student engagement. However, they are rarely used in universities as the games are typically designed for children. Recently, a number of advanced educational video games, such as Microsoft Minecraft Education Edition (MC:EE), have been released. Unlike traditional educational games, designed for children, these games can be used in universities. To provide insight into how educational video games can be used in a university setting, we ran an experiment on a group of university students to teach them fundamental programming concepts using Python programming language. In this experiment, MC:EE was used as the main delivery tool. The feedback received after the experiment were mainly positive. Based on the feedback and experimental results, educational video games can enhance student engagement during online lessons.

In close co-operation with training experts using virtual reality and teachers of the faculty preparing teachers, a training module called the “Virtual Classroom” was created. Users from the ranks of future teachers put on the head display and find themselves in an immersive classroom environment. There is common school equipment that is normally found in the classroom, and there are avatars—pupils or avatars—parents. The avatars are controlled by the teachers, or students who assist the teachers, and respond to avatars in specific situations given by framework-prepared scenarios. Avatars communicate with the future teacher, and also implement several events that have a visual representation (e.g. reporting, interrupting—talking together, etc.). The future teacher always has a specific assignment—what to tell the students or parents, and at the same time, he/she is forced to improvise in various partial communication situations initiated verbally, or by visual action by didactics and avatars. The paper presents the gradual development of the virtual classroom, as the model was improved during testing, and also presents the results of pilot studies. The paper also describes a three-phase model of training, which proved successful in working with a virtual classroom during pilot studies.

Contexts of uncertainty, such as the pandemic, cause exogenous shocks for different players in the global economic system. Some actors, however, react by turning crises into opportunities: a property called antifragility. This study has the goal to identify antecedents of antifragility in innovative start-ups. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted on Italian innovative start-ups during the Covid-19 crisis to investigate the links between the antifragile reaction and factors as intangible capital, availability of uncommitted tangible resources (or slack), technologies and absorptive capacity.

During Covid-19, some innovative start-ups not only absorbed the shock but also improved afterwards through the development of capabilities related to antifragility. Drawing on the antifragility literature we have selected a set of internal capabilities that influence the survival of start-ups. Then, we applied qualitative benchmarking of the fuzzy-set to examine which interactions between the aforementioned internal capabilities affect the survival of innovative start-ups. We used a unique dataset of 37 innovative start-ups that survived in Italy after the Covid-19 lockdown. Our results suggest the interaction between some specific capabilities (creativity, flexibility and collaboration) are antecedents of antifragility. The interaction between these capabilities enables start-ups to survive during a crisis.

The paper aims to provide an overview of the state-of- the-art interplay between digital readiness (DR), business model innovation (BMI), and organizational resilience (OR), by analysing how digital technology-enabled BMI influences the achievement of OR at a different intensity of DR. A qualitative study was conducted on three digitally servitized manufacturers of different industries. Research findings demonstrate that a heterogenous DR’s intensity of the firms implies that different BMI’s components are affected, entailing the achievement of a distinct form of OR. The investigation serves as pilot study which deeps the link between BMI and OR at the light of the role played by digital technologies. The investment in factory-integrated level of DR innovates all BM’s components by increasing the possibility to reach a transformative OR.

Covid-19 has restrained the managerial and innovative capacities of startuppers, forcing them to downsize their businesses or close them down altogether. Most resilient startups only, those able to manage changes, have been able to endure. The present study aims to understand how startup founders make their decisions in adverse contexts, such as the one during and after Covid-19. Therefore, following an in-depth study of relevant literature, this paper seeks to investigate the dynamics that lead startuppers to opt for a “pivot” of their business and, consequently, what are the main difficulties encountered in this process. A qualitative survey was conducted, following the Yin methodology for a case study, where data were collected through interview. The study aims to demonstrate what are the dynamics that drive a startup to change its business model and what characteristics the company must have in order for this change to produce positive performance. The study lays the foundations for future research on the topic of resilience and pivoting in the startup environment, representing a guideline for scholars and managers to ensure that the change in strategy and corporate mission guarantees the survival of the startup.

Business environments are getting increasingly dynamic and data-intensive because of the emerging technologies and advances in data science, and information and communication technologies, which require enterprises to make regular and quick decisions to cope with the changes. This paper explores how big data influences decision-making processes and, consequently, organizational design in turbulent business environments. This study uses a qualitative approach (multiple case-study) by applying interviews to gain rich and illuminating data from organizations that use large data sets as a source of information based in the UK. In total, 12 participants from 9 organizations were chosen for the interviews who had a deep understanding of organizational and information-processing mechanisms, such as CEOs (chief executive officers), data analysts, data consultants, CIOs (chief information officers) and middle managers. This study contributes to decision-making theory by providing new insights about dynamic decision making in the context of big data and a better understanding of organizational strategies (either developing new dynamic capabilities or reconfiguring the current ones) for working with and leveraging value from big data. In addition, for the practical aspect, it contributes to guiding decision-makers in evaluating their organizations in terms of required capabilities and processes to become better enabled to reap value from big data.

Local government networks often develop in unpredictable environments and, as a consequence, their abilities and resources have to be prepared for flexible responses, the so-called “dynamic capabilities”. One of the most desirable capacities they might reach is resilience, understood as the skill to cope with unpredicted dangers after they become real. This paper reviews literature and conceptual outcomes resulting from the analysis and contextualization of the Dynamic Capabilities (DCs) Theory, providing a contribution to an effective improvement of resilient governance for performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) within local government networks. The fusion of the concepts of resilience, governance, and DCs applied to PMMS offers both theoretical and practical implications. Regarding the theoretical implications, the presence of DCs in resilient inter-municipal governance might help sense, shape and seize opportunities, as well as enhance, combine and reconfigure assets, not only for the single local government but also for the whole community. Concerning the practical implications, the work suggests that DCs applied to resilient governance al-low and facilitate the overcoming of bureaucratic resistances typical of public sector organizations through the networking of local governments that pursue compatible objectives.

As a result of Covid-19 and the ensuing sharp decline in economic activity, business leaders had to quickly adapt to a disruptive marketplace, changing consumer behaviour, and new internal processes. The crisis accelerated adoption of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) which could help to improve business processes and evolve new business models, products and services. This exploratory research reports on a preliminary survey with 81 SME owners from various sectors who undertook a seven-week programme to build foundational knowledge on the opportunities of AI for their business and sector. Of those surveyed, 49% turned to AI due to the impact of Covid-19 on their business, sector, and economy. Our results demonstrate the extent of changes small businesses have made as a result of the pandemic, for example, 64% expanded existing services and developed new products and services, with 45% expanding existing product lines. We anticipate the research will directly contribute to existing knowledge by challenging prevailing beliefs about productivity and the role of digital technology adoption. We show that by contributing to the limited literature on micro-enterprise digital technology adoption and demonstrating how a dual approach of implementation of cutting-edge technologies and new management practices can help overcome repercussions of global crises. Our findings suggest that SMEs are currently facing a wide variety of business challenges. However, the integration of a newly developed AI innovation may enable them to overcome these challenges, if adopted with the right level of support.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the environmental crisis in which our ecosystem is posed. In this context, the call to reorganize the production and consumption models to implement sustainable economic models is emerging. Accordingly, the Circular Economy paradigm, based on the reduction, reuse and recycling practices, has spurred as one of the best ways to manage this emergency state. The scientific literature has highlighted that, to shift from a traditional linear economic model to a circular economic one, the involvement of the whole supply chain is required, especially in the agri-food sector. In this perspective, the stakeholders’ engagement plays a pivotal role in reaching the global goal. The present research aims to explore the stakeholders’ perception of messages conveyed through social media on circular economy in agri-food, using a coding framework based on the reclassification of the “Glossary of Circular Economy” according to a 4-R paradigm (reduce, reuse, recycle and reduce). In particular, the study analyses the stakeholders’ reactions to Twitter posts focused on agri-food and circular economy from the beginning of the pandemic until now.

The aim of the Circular economy (CE) business models is to reuse materials and decrease the need for virgin materials in the value chains. This, in turn, requires close collaboration and information sharing between the value chain stakeholders. For this, digitalization and data play a crucial role. This paper studies how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in CE can utilize digitalization and data in managing and optimizing the material flows that are central to their production processes. The paper focuses on four case companies, all operating in CE business in Finland, and analyses how these companies have been able to enhance their material flow management by means of data-driven logistics optimization in a research-based university-industry collaboration. The solutions range from conceptual solutions to mathematical optimization and a tool supported solution concept.

The purpose of the article is to examine the relationship between corporate revenue and sustainability. The article consists of two parts. The first part analyses the literature on the subject; the second part presents the study of the principles of sustainable development and financial efficiency of enterprises. The survey covered 563 of the biggest industrial and service enterprises operating in Poland (Polska in Największe firmy w Polsce 2021, [1]). This study assesses the contribution that companies have made to the global sustainability concept. It is focused on issues related to the analysis of the dependent variable economic growth and independent variables, i.e.: determinants which described the engagement in sustainable development. In the article, the methods of descriptive statistics have been used. They show the differences in economic growth between different groups of companies engaged in sustainable development. The analysis was completed with selected examples of good practices that companies can use in the future. The article shows, that the implementation of sustainable development at the level of enterprises is not at a satisfactory level. Attention should be paid to the need to introduce state guidelines, which should motivate enterprises to work more intensively in this direction. Therefore, it is necessary to educate and promote the idea of sustainability in order to improve the environmental awareness of consumers. Only their conscious choice of more ecological products can induce companies to work on sustainability.

The insured market requires accuracy and agility to meet the requirements of customers, insurers, and other service providers. Some catastrophic events are impossible to avoid, and their negative effects impede the economic recovery of people and companies. Theft, illnesses, accidents, pandemics, and natural disasters are events that affect the possibility of ruin. In this context, the acquisition of an insurance contract allows the risk to be transferred to an insurance company and reduces uninsured losses. This market needs to maintain an audit trail of transactions, preserving the transparency of the information exchange process and the responsibility for the behavior of its participants. However, this segment faces new limitations related to market policies and risk coverage. Not all people can purchase insurance because they do not have banking services, which impedes the creation of economic resilience in populations that suffer from extreme poverty. Technologies such as blockchain offer a solution to financial exclusion and provide global financial access to anyone, without any discrimination. Blockchain technology provides reliability, transparency, and immutability to transactions using cryptographic techniques and distributed consensus methods, without the need for third parties to testify to the veracity of the events. With this consideration, the paper assesses how technology can address challenges, and identifies the future direction in terms of adoption within the insurance value chain. Finally, conclusions are provided for taking advantage of the versatility of blockchain in this business area.

The current economic situation in many countries, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced local organizations to downsize the number of employees, reduce working hours or rely on temporary workers to perform the job by means of gig workers. While these conditions could be considered as a threat, some workforce vulnerable groups, like women, grasped this opportunity to develop entrepreneurial behavior and start-up their businesses. This paper aims to investigate the factors that under the explained circumstances encourage women to be entrepreneurs, proposing a theoretical model of relationships between gig economy practices and opportunistic and necessity women’s entrepreneurship start-ups.

An analysis of the professional experiences of Central Europe’s first R&D purpose vertical farm is presented in the paper, which was formed through the Triple Helix innovation model with a collaboration of a wide variety of partners in Hungary. The aim of the article is threefold. Firstly, since sustainable food production is a worldwide problem, the scientific and practical knowledge of potential business models of agricultural innovations are further expanded in the paper using Porter’s generic strategies framework. Secondly, whereas agricultural innovations are becoming more valuable in the future, most of these innovations are yet unprofitable. Therefore, the challenges of transforming R&D results to profitable commercial products and services from an ecosystem management point of view is analyzed. Thirdly, the research provides interesting insights on how Covid-19 influenced the diffusion of vertical agriculture technology. The research was conducted using qualitative methods, the findings of the case study is based on twenty-six semi-structured interviews.

This paper examines the military supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic especially as viewed from the perspective of food purchase and delivery processes. Specifically, the objective is to identify the conditions necessary to ascertain the continuity of fresh food supplies and against this backdrop to develop a model of supplying military units with fresh food under conditions of emergency, e.g. a pandemic. The research methods employed included qualitative methods, such as mapping the processes related to the supply of fresh food to military units on a selected case, observation, expert interviews and analysis of literature and documents. As a result of the research, key areas of the supply process exposed to continuity disturbances and their determinants were identified. The conclusions relate to the possibility of improving activities in the field of supplier relationship management, taking into account the specificity of civil-military cooperation. The article concerns civil-military cooperation and disruptions in specific circumstances of the initial phase of a pandemic crisis. It is argued that there is a need for flexible, adaptive shaping of relations in terms of readiness to implement changes in food supplies in crisis situations.

The strategic alignment tenets describe the generic processes/mechanisms for the Information Technology (IT) domain to be impactful to the ascertainment of business strategies within organizations. However, an in-depth reassessment of the level of integration between the organizational IT approach and the business convolutions needs to be performed in times of crisis such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, the present research aims to explore the impact of the pandemic on the state of strategic alignment maturity within the logistics sector. To this end, the Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM), composed by Luftman, was used to measure the pre-, and post-pandemic strategic alignment maturity levels in four production and distribution facilities in Belgium. This model was chosen due to its capacity to assign strategic alignment maturity scores in a wide spectrum of individual alignment dimensions. For the application of the SAMM, we performed semi-structured interviews to determine an overall strategic alignment maturity score for each company, for the stages before, and after the outset of the pandemic. Despite some fluctuations amongst the companies’ alignment maturity trends between the two stages, our results suggest an aggregate increase in the average alignment maturity level for all the surveyed companies after the start of the pandemic.

Digital Identity refers to the set of information that defines an entity, generally a person, which can be presented to other entities of digital world. This information represents different information such as skills, biological, activities and other data that may result useful. There are currently several projects developing digital identity systems for personal use and aiming to standardize its use among the population. Digital Identity finds in blockchain the support technology to enable this decentralized management in a secure and reliable way. Blockchain allows citizens identification to each application, contract or business, by providing only the information requested, and avoiding unnecessarily exposing of other private information about citizens. However, there are no digital identity systems for legal entities. Currently, the digital identity concept for business and corporations is limited to its appearance in the digital environment and their corporate image on internet. The objective of this work is the proposal and development of a digital identity for legal entities based on a blockchain network. The methodology is based on applying the same idea of personal digital identity. In addition, the proposal considers Ethereum blockchain since it is strongly accepted for the deployment of smart contracts. As a result, the proposed corporate digital identity provides companies the control of the information they share with government, people and other companies. In addition, the relationships between entities can be defined, and eventually automate, through smart contracts in the blockchain. The main limitation of this idea is the technology adoption by institutions and public administrations in order to normalizing digital relations between all agent involved: corporates, citizens and administrations.

This research bridges two streams of research that have not been linked before: reverse knowledge transfer from subsidiaries to parent companies in service industry and service offshoring evolution from simple tasks to value-creating activities. The review of existing classifications of offshoring service centers shows that research into evolutionary path of their development has not covered intensity and characteristics of reverse knowledge transfer (RKT). This creates a rationale for development of the new taxonomy offshoring service centers. Moreover, the results indicate under-researched area of knowledge transfers, in particular reverse knowledge transfers, in service theory and business practice. The research has important implications for management practices by providing managers with new insight into knowledge creation and diffusion in international corporate networks.

Managing disruption, resilience and recovery means investing in culture, ICT and networking. Public administration and cultural institutions must also develop efficient networks and innovation ecosystems with an open innovation approach to overcome the crisis. In the cultural field, mainly in museums one, it could bring to light an integrated ecosystem based on a digital platform which creates a new sustainable business model for museum shops, fitting to a new experience for system actors. An experience reaching outside the traditional museum boundaries, that crosses the logic of the eco-museum and through which the user has the feeling of never leaving that place—even when he or she returns home, combining physical and digital resources: Phygital. With a conceptual approach, by reviewing the literature on systems, digital eco-systems and retail digitization, we try to suggest an original integration of theoretical patterns that could lead to a sustainable reconfiguration of museum shops to improve visitor engagement.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to understand if augmented intelligence may be considered a driver of antifragility that can be allegorically represented by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which consists of the use of gold or silver to repair broken objects in ceramic to get a better aesthetic form. Covid-19, like a black swan, represented, for many companies, understood as systems, a complex situation capable of upsetting their equilibrium. It had thus forced them to accelerate the digitization process. Digitalization, based on artificial intelligence (AI) tools, brings in many fields new perspectives, such as new business scenarios and models. By using the Viable System Approach (vSa) lens, we investigated the impact of smart working, widely spread to manage a complex situation (Covid-19), in allowing companies to cope with changes and to be antifragile. A remote smart working model is proposed, as an evolution of smart working, based on a new culture of “doing business” to search for new viable conditions. It can allow companies a more efficient resources management, an endless orientation towards results, but also new synergies in new contexts thanks to new and increased networks, for new collaborations and new forms of interactions, as well as more profitable relationships with employees, based on a strong relationship of trust and on better opportunities for work-life balance.

The paper deals with the evaluation of the ergonomic risks of an injection moulding machine which is used to foam components for car interiors. RULA and NIOSH analyses and methods for assessing working positions according to current legislation were performed as part of the risk assessment. The muscle load on the forearm was also measured while working with the upper limbs in compliance with legislative regulations. Integrated electromyography was used to measure local muscle loading. The Tecnomatix Jack software program was used for the analyses. After identifying the problem areas, corrective measures were then proposed and visualised. After the rationalisation, the workplace was re-measured and evaluated. It was found that the proposed corrective measures would enable the company to improve working conditions for their employees, which would, among other things, enable the company to streamline production, eliminate worker sickness and reduce the potential for occupational illness and injury. The case studies were carried out in the Czech Republic.

There is a vested interest in applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to fashion. However, studies have mainly focused on Western fashion. More inclusive automated fashion classification processes are required to categorize, organize, identify, advertise, recommend, and detect counterfeits for the global fashion industry. African fashion is a $31 billion industry, the second-largest economic sector of the continent after agriculture. This paper focused on a case study that relates to African culture, authenticity, living, and heritage. It presents a small Senegalese fashion dataset and a model capable of classifying various Senegalese apparels, called Boubous and Taille Mames by using transfer learning for image classification with MobileNetV2 as the base model. This paper raises the issue of the need of less western-centric datasets and proposes a preliminary reflection on addressing global AI-related fashion issues.

Over the past two years, ripple effects from the Covid-19 pandemic have amplified disconnection and loss while also fueling greater human creativity and connection through technological mediums. How can leaders continue maximizing technology and collaboration to best support and foster interpersonal connection and innovation while also navigating the human conditions and emotions present during times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)? The unpredictable nature of these times requires leaders and change agents to continue learning and refining ways to help their teams, organizations, and communities to flourish. Within the current context of Covid-19 rebuilding and repair, this paper explores how participation in digital or virtual communities of practice (VCoP) and leadership centered on psychological safety and humanistic principles have been experienced by leaders and coaches. An informal discussion was facilitated, and a qualitative survey was conducted to begin exploring questions pertinent to VCoP and humanistic leadership (HL). Practitioner testimonials and key insights are shared. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that the main benefits of VCoP have been leader exposure to diverse industry practices and the bridging of physical and professional disconnection caused by Covid-19 social distancing and remote working requirements. Findings related to HL indicate that the leaders surveyed believe HL is essential in the work they do and that HL and fostering resilience entail both practicing and promoting holistic self-care and relational connection. Meaningful participation in VCoP and HL practices are framed as vital tools for leading and evolving in a post-Covid-19 world.

Motivated by the imperatives enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5, SDG 9, SDG 10) the study applies the concept of digital divide to the willingness of individuals to undertake entrepreneurial activities. The aim is to explore the relationship between digital skills, propensity to adopt technology, and entrepreneurial orientation of individuals in developing countries. By adopting a quantitative approach, this study seeks to identify the weight (and so the impact) of digital skills (therefore, the possible digital gap) in the dual context of entrepreneurship-related technology adoption in entrepreneurial activities. This paper, including its conceptual approach and findings (including the managerial implications), adds to the broader debate on digital divide and ways of addressing it, all in context of the SDG debate.

Since the 2019 outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ecuador was challenged by a combination of high health risk and serious economic and social impact. A need emerged to evaluate the resilience of the population in a social situation at the level of health and public safety unprecedented since the term resilience appeared in the scientific literature. The aim of this study is to create an instrument to assess resilience during the period when traumatic events are occurring due to the pandemic. Furthermore, it will consider the fact that the researchers conducting this study are themselves immersed in the same traumatic events provoked by Covid-19. For the development of the instrument, Ungar's Ecological Model has been taken as a reference, which encompasses several theories from the behavioural, cognitive, systemic, and functionalist currents. The instrument consists of 29 items that provide information on 4 dimensions associated with resilience: (1). interpersonal resources, (2). formal support networks, (3). informal support networks and 4. facing the risk situation. The instrument was validated by the “Judges Method” using the Aiken coefficient, in which 10 professionals from various universities in Ecuador participated. As for the reliability of the instrument, internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.

One of the areas of care for environmental protection is the reduction of greenhouse gases. The production of electricity primarily based on conventional energy sources, which are high emitters, significantly contributes to their formation. The use of renewable energy meets these needs. Along with environmental security, the security of individuals, society, and the state is paramount, and we are talking about energy security. In the article, the literature analysis and case study method were used. Due to the threats that appear there, selected cases of the blackout were presented, and it was shown that a complete transition to renewable energy sources, despite the introduction of modern technological solutions, may still be the cause of the blackout. Therefore, technological solutions should be sought, energy storage should be built, and local security systems should be established to ensure energy security.

The Covid-19 pandemic reinforced changes that had been taking place over the past decade. These changes were triggered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR does affect the industry and the human being as we know it. In this way, it is not hard to envision a society where technology is so developed and integrated into our lives that it increases humanity's capacity and threshold for human intelligence, cognition, and physical abilities. This research proposes a teaching–learning framework for the techno-humanist ecosystem by developing the demanded soft skills with the design process methodology. The first step of this research is to understand the essential elements to conceptualise a framework. To reach this objective, we started with a systematic review of the literature to analyse, and the second item is understanding the evolution of job offer asking for soft skills. We are investigating soft skills, design thinking and digital humanism, and the job market evolution. Then, considering the state of the art, this research will study how those ideas converge and affect each other. Finally, the primary outcome of this research will be a visual matrix representing the point of junction of these concepts. It will help to build the initial elements of a framework of a teaching–learning model that can help adapt to and face the challenges of a human-digital society.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, time had become legato, if not stationary for many. This included secondary school students who were about to finish high school and transition to a new phase in their life, be that work, higher education or other activities. Many feared they are missing out or lost opportunities. In this paper, we explore how Latvian secondary school graduates perceive their mobility opportunities and intentions using survey data gathered during years 2019, 2020 and 2021, i.e., the year before Covid-19 and during two years of pandemic. This will provide insight into Generation Z students’ plans for the future as well as how they adopt to a world that is freer of restrictions but not what it used to be.

The Covid-19 pandemic restricted people's movement but also changed their course of life. For some migrants, this meant re-evaluating opportunities abroad and back home. This paper uses findings from interviews with those who returned to Latvia during the pandemic to gain insight into the ways the pandemic influenced their decision to return. We find that the pandemic impacted how people think of return. It was both a reason and a catalyst, accelerating life events and leading to decisions to return. For some who contemplated return the pandemic accelerated decision, motivated by missing people, loneliness, and missing community. The pandemic and its immediate consequences also directly affected migrants; livelihood and work; some returned quickly. For some of these migrants, the pandemic also acted as a barrier to leaving again soon after a return. Circular migration journeys of coming back and leaving again feed into the narrative that for many migrants returning is more a stop in their journey than the destination itself. The much anticipated great wave of return, it seems was more like a tide. People moved back and forth between borders, seeking safety and community in times of uncertainty while trying to maintain their work and studies.

As of late, “STAY AT HOME” is the main slogan; household needs are constantly changing for many reasons, such as the change in the human life cycle, the shift to smart cities, and adopting new modern technologies to reduce the risks. However, while moving to a smart solution, many forgotten social dimensions are being interpreted into the design of many services, including housing. Accordingly, this study aims to explore housing flexibility through a review of relevant literature and how housing design will change to accommodate new needs through quarantine and spread of Corona virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) to formulate new design codes for stakeholders and real-estate developers to consider in the future. It examines the impact of quarantine on personal household priorities, house design, and how they innovate in their interior design to suit their new needs by conducting a wide online social survey. The research uses an online survey to evaluate the importance of the new arrangement of household requirements using quantitative analysis tools and techniques. The findings display housing guidelines to apply housing design flexibility to cope with any external or internal changes that may happen in the next period and affect household needs in smart cities and others.

Occupational diseases and specifically musculoskeletal disorders are great issues even in modern factories. Consequences (i.e. occupational diseases or generally lower worker performance) cost a lot of financial and mental funds of employees and employers. The correct way is the prevention using ergonomic analyses of workplaces. We have developed a unique methodological base using modern technologies for an effective and efficient way for quick and precise validation of a particular workplace. The procedure can also be used for employee training. We involve virtual reality (next VR) headset, motion capture, and self-developed VR software (next SW). The validation can be also performed for a virtual (artificial) workplace, thus the proposed technological framework can be used also for learning purposed. We have also proposed a method of validation. We have limited the original research on a representative assembly station and the use of the Perception Neuron suit. This paper extends the original paper. In this research, we are using a different motion capture suit TEA CAPTIV in the scope of the same experimental methods, conditions, and limitations as in the original study. The result is extrapolated to the scope of the full working shift and then compared with the original results.Using of a different Motion Capture suit is reliable, but there are aspects that still needs deeper research. The process of measuring and software processing differs. Those issues are discussed in the paper.

Many research and development teams around the world have developed and continue to improve Covid-19 vaccines. As vaccines are produced, preparedness and planning for mass vaccination and immunization has become an important aspect of the pandemic management. Mass vaccination has been used by public health agencies in the past and is a viable option for Covid-19 immunization. To be able to rapidly and safely immunize a large number of people against Covid-19, mass vaccination centres are accessible in the UK. Careful planning of these centres is a difficult and important job. Two key considerations are the capacity of each centre (measured as the number of patients served per hour) and the time (in minutes) spent by patients in the centre. This paper discusses a simulation study done to support this planning effort. In this paper, we explore the operations of a vaccination centre and use a simulation tool to enhance patient flow. The discrete event simulation (DES) tool outputs visually and numerically show the average and maximum patient flow times and the number of people that can be served (throughput values) under different number of patient arrivals (hourly). With some experimentation, the results show that marginally reducing the hourly arrival rate, patient congestion reduces enabling good patient service levels to be achieved.

The importance of threats such as terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, hybrid warfare and natural disasters is growing. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) must adapt and respond to these different types of challenges, which could severely impact societies and collective defense. Therefore, the subject of research in this article is building the allies’ resilience understood as the first line of defense. The purpose of the research was to explore the significance, role and development of resilience particularly in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the research show that coordination of tasks and solidarity improved NATO’s response to the Covid-19. The conclusion is that NATO should develop its crisis management capabilities. The need of building resilience to non-military threats in the military and civil spheres of allies was indicated. The issues raised in the article may complement the debate on role and tasks of NATO in responding to the emerging challenges, especially in the context of the newly adopted strategic concept.

This paper explores the role of the Polish National Revenue Administration (NRA) in cultural heritage protection in Poland. In this context, the challenges the civil servants and officers employed in NRA face are examined. The key question that this paper addresses is: To what extern and how organizational, legal and technical features of the NRA influence the scope and effectiveness of the NRA in the domain of combating and preventing illegal trade of art works, smuggling of art works, and other illegal activities related to cultural heritage? While the literature of the subject focuses mostly on legal issues in heritage protection, the organizational and technical challenges are only rarely discussed. Against the backdrop of the literature on the subject, legal acts analysis, expert interviews, this paper adds to the discussion.

The subject of the article concerns the involvement of the armed forces in the processes of evacuating patients from nursing homes in the event of contracting coronavirus. The analysis concerned the evacuation of patients from social welfare homes, a Covid-19 carried out in the first stage of the study as part of the “Resistant Spring” action coordinated by the Polish Army. These activities required external resource support. The aim of the article is to develop a model procedure for evacuating patients from care centres in a pandemic situation involving many entities, including military units. The research methods employed included qualitative methods, such as analysis of literature and documents, expert interviews a case study, observation and process mapping. It was found that it is necessary to develop a model evacuation procedure, its implementation among all participants, as well as regular practical exercises increasing the efficiency of the process and communication. In addition, planning and organisational conditions for the efficiency of processes under civil-military cooperation for the purposes of preventing the spread of the Covid-19 were identified. The article concerns civil-military cooperation in special circumstances by considering Conid-19 conditions. The results suggest that it is necessary to consciously shape civil-military relations in terms of readiness to cooperate in crisis situations. The article presents the socio-organisational changes caused by Covid-19, in particular in terms of practical implications at the operational level, as well as the directions of further theoretical considerations regarding decision-making and cooperation between the civil and military spheres.Article classification Case study.