The Digital Transformation of Georgia

One of the important innovations in the labor market in the last decade is the emergence and development of digital work platforms. Based on a review of scientific literature and materials, this paper presents the essence and definition of digital work platforms, types, and classification of services, business models of the platform and the scale of dissemination. The benefits and challenges of digital work platforms are also discussed in this manuscript. In the overview of the Georgian labor market, I have briefly outlined the available data on digital work platforms in Georgia. Digital work platforms in Georgia are at the initial stage of development. We believe that digital work platforms will play an important role in the labor market of Georgia in the future. However, according to our conclusion, the development of digital work platforms requires training of the necessary personnel, changes in the education system, employment status-related changes in the legislation, promotion of the development of relevant skills, e.g., foreign languages and IT, in society, and many more related adjustments.

An attractive investment climate is a key tool for a country’s economic development, especially in developing and poor countries that are unable to develop their economies with local resources.

However, foreign investment is not always directed unilaterally to the well-being of the local economy as expected. Employment, technology, taxation, import substitution and competition, these are the most important aspects of foreign direct investment that foreign companies bring to the host country. In addition, local businesses are being developed and supported, including local industry upgrades.

Over the last 20 years, foreign direct investment has played a major role in Georgia's economic transformation process. There are still many questions about what is the motivation and what is the impact of foreign direct investment on the host economy? To what extent do foreign direct investments contribute to the development and modernization of local industries? How deeply are they integrated in different sectors of the Georgian economy?

Trends in the development of foreign direct investment in Georgia are analyzed, in particular: the dynamics of foreign direct investment in recent years and the ways to regulate the investment environment.

According to the World Economic Forum, the value that start-ups create globally is nearly on par with the GDP of a G7 country. In 2021, start-up funding exceeded USD 600 billion and the number of unicorns (start-ups with a valuation in excess of USD 1 billion) is above 1000 (Jurgens, How start-ups drive economic recovery while growing responsibly, 2022). Well-known start-up hubs are the Silicon Valley, Berlin, or London. The ranking and attractiveness of such hubs is changing constantly. Therefore, it is natural that responsible persons of potential future hubs ask themselves, how a portion of start-ups and young companies can be attracted. This chapter provides an overview of the importance of start-ups for the global economy. Then, the role of start-ups for the German economy and the key success factors for developing an attractive and prospering start-up hub are outlined, with a focus on Berlin as the major German start-up hub in the 2020s. In addition to the macroeconomic view, a case study of a cleantech start-up is presented from the idea creation to funding and bringing a viable product to market. The analysis of the German start-up cosmos and the findings from the case study together with an analysis of the current environment in Georgia—including the results of a survey showing how the Georgian start-up cosmos is seen by international investors—is then used to draw conclusions: What does it take to make Georgia an attractive international start-up hub and what is the outlook for the Georgian start-up economy.

Over the last 20 years, Georgia has made impressive economic progress. With an average annual growth rate of 5.4%, the country has been classified as an upper middle-income country since 2019 (World Bank, Georgia: Towards green and resilient growth, 2020). This development draws on the Georgian education system: Georgia’s young people need to get a state-of-the-art education that provides them with the skills demanded by today’s industry.

Linking industry needs and academics is what the newly founded Kutaisi International University (KIU) regards as its third mission besides the two academic missions, teaching, and research. KIU aims at instilling entrepreneurship and innovation in the DNA of the new university. KIUInnovate is the landmark initiative that steers the university to working closely with industry partners and building up a strong and lively innovation ecosystem with the university at its core.

We live in a VUCA world—a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Megatrends, such as digitalization, require companies to consistently rethink their strategic direction so that they can continue to operate successfully in the market. Due to the disruptive changes of our time, there is a greater need than ever for models that help companies deal with these changes effectively and efficiently and that can be used flexibly. An excellent way to respond to the challenges of the VUCA world is the enterprise transformation cycle model. This model offers flexibility, adaptability, clarity, and simplicity, all while taking into account the cultural specificities of companies. The enterprise transformation cycle has been tested and refined in countless projects over the last 15 years. The following article describes this model and the underlying considerations in the context of a successful (digital) transformation.

This study explores the agile project management methodology as a key tool that significantly contributes to a project success. It presents the challenges and reasons of implementing an agile approach. The focus is on the analysis of international studies conducted from 2002 to 2022. In addition, the quantitative and qualitative data was obtained from the companies, which operate in Georgia. Despite the fact that the research showed the effectiveness of agile project management and positive correlation between this methodology and project success, the presented findings only describe the current situation and they cannot be generalized on the whole population. The recommendation for the future researchers is to conduct qualitative research, such as observation and interviews, to get more in-depth analysis behind the use of the agile method.

The problem is further complicated due to the fact that there is a lack of scientific literature and reliable market research in Georgia. Therefore, this paper has even more value and significance.

Responding to dramatic changes in the global external environment of an organization requires a thorough preparation to assure the competitive survival of the enterprise. This chapter informs about conceptualizing organizational change based on novel approaches avoiding the traps of applying well-known, off-the-shelf models of change resulting in usually unsatisfactory or disappointing outcomes. The transition to a new positive future state is a continuous process and calls for an integrated approach that reflects the insights provided by a new change paradigm and enables enterprises to cope with and ultimately seize opportunities arising from change. The novel approach presented in this chapter describes a context-sensitive and dynamic way of managing change based on the nature of the organization culture including its perceived emotions and its interdependencies to a change initiative. Investigating the power of emotion-based responses to change, the potential influence of digital technology in the change process as well as the impact of this approach on change communication will be discussed.

Trust is an important part of leading virtual teams and also represents a major challenge. As the COVID-19 pandemic supports the digital trend toward virtual collaboration, this paper aims to provide action recommendations for leaders of virtual teams to build trust. The opportunities available to a leader in a virtual team can be many and varied. Therefore, a theoretical overview of the areas of virtual teams, leadership, and trust is given, and approaches to building trust in virtual teams are examined based on a literature review. Finally, these approaches are examined for practicality and feasibility through a qualitative analysis by using expert interviews. The results of the survey and the comparison with existing literature show that especially selected competences like social and media competence play an important role in building trust in order to lead a virtual team.

Covid-19 accelerated the increase of remote work. Not only do employees work from home instead of doing their daily commute to the office. Today, office jobs can literally be done from anywhere in the world where a sufficient infrastructure in terms of Internet access is available.

This book chapter analyses to what extent geographical location and remote work influence motivation, stress, and efficiency of work, based on an employee survey conducted at the company iGaming.​com Group GmbH, Berlin, with teams mainly in Germany and Bulgaria—countries that have substantially different economic environments and salary levels. Interestingly, the survey results show that location of work and different salary levels are almost negligible for motivation, stress, and work efficiency in comparison to management and leadership factors.

In a summary, key success factors for remote work are outlined and conclusions are drawn for the further development of Georgia, which is already listed among the top five countries for remote work. The pre-requisites to support a prospering digital labour market from qualification, company culture, and organization to salary levels are outlined and combined with an outlook.

This chapter provides a short overview of the history of remote work, discusses the impact of the recent pandemic with lockdown scenarios, the pros and cons of this very special time period for employees and management. Discussing the learnings from Cov19 home office regulations, the authors analyze contemporary requirements of companies and candidates and provide advice for a future hiring and retention strategy.

The chapter discusses the impact of a 2-year lockdown during the pandemic on performing arts and arts management. The authors elaborate on the nature of arts, the historical and philosophical roots, the peculiarities that separate arts and culture from mainstream digitalization. Risks, threads, and opportunities are specified and perspectives expounded. Recommendations for arts and culture managers round out this compilation.

Over the past decades, digitalization became an ever-more important feature of economies around the globe. Associated with this development are many opportunities, but also several challenges, not only for developed, but also for developing countries. In this chapter, we take the perspective of economics and identify the most important structural factors for the exploitation of the potentials digitalization offers. These fall into three groups: availability of an adequate IT infrastructure, high levels of human capital, and an institutional environment which assures effective competition among firms of the digital economy. In reference to selected case studies, we show how governments may actively shape each of these. We then apply these factors to the case of Georgia to identify specific strengths and weaknesses of this developing country, based on available data. We find that, while Georgia has already taken several big and important steps, particularly human capital remains to be insufficiently developed.