Digital Management in Covid-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Times

This research examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economies of Georgian regions, particularly with respect to disclosing to what extent digital tools were used for copying from the risks and sustainable development of the regions. According to the research findings, the impact of the pandemic on international tourism-oriented regions has been profound, and this has flowed into other fields through the supply chain, affecting tourism-related production significantly, despite of relatively well-equipped modern internet technologies for customer relations. Medium-sized enterprises proved to be relatively stable in the business sector, but, the decline in entrepreneurial activity in municipalities was partially caused due to insufficient resources available for remote business management and the weak usage of digital operational and marketing instruments. The pandemic had a particularly strong impact on small enterprises making labor-intensive products where digital tools have no usage. The paper defines the main barriers to the development of digital economy, partially a lack of collaboration between the business entities and IT, inability to collaborate quickly and a lack of interoperability, a lack of strategic planning culture and e-literacy, and a lack of financial resources. The research identified the effective mechanisms applied to combat the pandemic and proved that remote communication between customers and businesses requires further support in terms of resources and the development of strategic management based on the use of digital technologies, as well as it requires raising awareness among society. Supporting entrepreneurs through various institutional and organizational mechanisms (e.g. supporting projects, organizing conferences and trainings for entrepreneurs, attracting IT experts to develop the digital economy) from the central government and municipalities will promote introduction of anti-crisis management practices in businesses operating on local level. Moreover, the paper shows that alongside of development of digital economy the new challenge of Georgia is a formation of circular economy which in connection with digital technologies will increase sustainability and economic growth.

The corona crisis so far has had among many other things an enormous impact on consumer behaviour and corporate responsibility alike. Consumers were especially affected by the crisis as stationary shops were closed during long times of a national lockdown and during these phases online shopping became the norm. Although this trend has definitely started many years before COVID-19 the pandemic has clearly reinforced certain developments.

Incubators have become an important factor in the national economy, especially in recent years, and are thus also drivers of economic recovery (BMWi 2018, p. 26). The use of different resources, whether monetary, intellectual or material, can lead to disproportionate success, because startups with digital and highly scalable business models are often found in incubators. These require an optimal support landscape within the incubators, which is created by the various stakeholders, each with their own interests. The interests of the stakeholders, which also include the startups themselves, result in their goals. The degree to which goals can be achieved is limited by the availability of various resources or factors such as time, money and infrastructure. This creates conflicts of interest among the various stakeholders. Therefore, it is important that in the first step the interests of the key stakeholders overlap as much as possible. So that synergies can be used among each other. In this way, success can be fundamentally guaranteed for all stakeholders involved.

The world of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has grown considerably in importance and developed at great speed in recent years. This rapid development relates not only to the constantly growing sales volume of e-commerce, which has been further accelerated in particular by the Corona pandemic, but also to the different facets and manifestations in which e-commerce presents itself today.

The digital transformation is pervasive, ubiquitous, and changing not only the market, but also its people and environment. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic speeded up the adoption of digital technologies significantly. The entire world population was confronted with an unpredictable situation and had to immediately adapt their daily lives completely. It had a significant impact on the work environment and transformed the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. Also, in the area of B2B sales, the pandemic forced buyers and sellers to undergo a huge digital transformation. These changes confront sales with new customer requirements, diverse opportunities and challenges of digital transformation, and various new possibilities to support and accelerate B2B sales through digital modules.

Social platforms are no longer exclusively about connecting users. More and more companies realize the potential of using social media as a marketing channel and interacting with their target groups. It has never been easier to spread advertising messages, attract attention for a brand, and obtain immediate feedback. Social media platforms become accessible storefronts putting traditional shopping structures to the shade. With the success of using social platforms as an additional sales channel, a new form of e-commerce is emerging—social commerce.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the linkage among E-commerce, digital transformation, and the environment, in the context of Covid-19. The online world accelerated digital purchases and opened the doors to international markets, creating both positive and negative outcomes for the environment. Pandemic resulted in increased food ordering and E-commerce activity, and thus countless cardboard boxes and polythene bags appeared in our streets and landfills. COVID19, limitations on mobility, intensification of ghost kitchens, and revenge shopping have greatly affected waste management. As per the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency, the cargo volume has increased in a year by 5.67% reaching 1,131,749 tons in 01.2021. When the world is only 8.6% circular, one of the best solutions to implement the UN SDGs, especially SDG 12, lays in the transition from linear to the circular economy and the collaboration among academia, private sector, and the government, hence the qualitative research plays a significant role in this regard. This paper explores published online sources.

This chapter evaluates intrapreneurship as a method to drive business innovation in big corporations as well as in start-up, and scale-up businesses. In particular, the focus is about the implementation of intrapreneurship methods and their effectiveness. The lead research question “Does intrapreneurship make businesses more innovative?” is answered with the help of interdisciplinary literature analysis and qualitative research in form of structured expert interviews in the following chapter. The assumption that intrapreneurship helps businesses to be more innovative, keep up with competition, and even outperform them, is confirmed by the experts. Additionally, the most influential factors such as leadership and organizational structure, to make intrapreneurship and innovative environments flourish, are supported. Intrapreneurship is not only enhancing the success of the business, but also increases attractivity of the company for existing and potential talents. Innovation is constantly happening, even without the companies’ awareness. Hence, why intrapreneurship can be used as an effective method to foster innovation from within and integrate it into the culture, so it flourishes more naturally. Leadership and management are facing challenges they must overcome, creating an outstanding innovative environment.

Digital Area is the tech/innovative business unit of Bank of Georgia Group. In 2021 Digital Area manages three online companies.

The following paper deals with the challenges of digital leadership in times of disruptive changes, using the example of the current crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic. The research objective is to examine most important challenges of digital leadership by focusing on changes that have emerged through Covid-19, and to show leaders solutions how they could efficiently overcome the challenging times. The topic of digital leadership is more important and more present nowadays than ever. Companies and employees are experiencing a change in a new way of work. It is not that the trend towards remote work did not exist before, but the pandemic led to major consequences that have accelerated this process. In addition to a literature-based study of the topic, an empirical study was carried out. Seven experts from different industries and backgrounds were asked about the subject in a semi-structured interview. Above all, it stood out leaders especially place value on social skills and self-competences, as for instance: empathy, conflict management, self-reflection, transdisciplinary, openness to innovation and change, resilience and being communicative. Distinctly those competences help them in times of crisis to better respond to the needs and concerns of their employees.

Digitalization is increasingly covering more and more sectors including the healthcare sector. Nowadays, medicine and patient management are becoming progressively digitalized and in order to ensure medical operations and surgeries continually and regularly, more human and financial resources are needed. The transformation of medical records of patients from paper into electronic records, the automated invoice processes, the control of the patient outside the doctor’s office during the care process, etc. are becoming an even greater necessity. Digitalization offers a range of new opportunities in medicine; it is already a reality and an international race for innovation. This study is concerned with the subject of digitalization in medicine. The purpose is to analyze the chances and challenges of digitalization in medicine by examining some different fields in which digitalization can help medicine and hospitals and others it cannot support and to explore, in addition, the different points of view and beliefs of experts from different medical fields in regards of digitalization, the adoption of digital technologies as well as Artificial Intelligence in medicine.

The way we learn has changed dramatically due to the COVID-19 related requirements for social distancing. Lectures and trainings had to be digital formats from one day to the next. How does this shift influence corporate learning? In the corporate world, many learning initiatives have been shifted to online formats at the beginning of the pandemic without following a strategic approach. Often, they are just a one-to-one copy from what happened in on-site physical seminars to the same content being taught online. Hence, the potential benefits of fully automated, self-paced E-Learnings have not been leveraged. This is also because the cost of creating E-Learning content is at least four times higher than delivering a physical on-site learning experience. However, digital learnings formats are here to stay. How the mix between Physical On-Site Learning, pure E-Learning and Blended Learning will evolve is a crucial question for corporate HR departments as well as for employees and leaders in their role as a learner. This paper examines, how the tidal shift towards digital changes the way corporate employees, leaders and teams learn today and, in the future, given some real-world examples including Best Practices. In addition, it gives corporate decision makers an orientation on how to conceptualize and thus implement future learning programs to sustainably build the skills and competencies for their successful digital transformation.

Business development, economic growth and improving the well-being of the population are largely based on the level of the country's innovative potential, depending on various external or internal processes. It is especially crucial in Georgia to effectively implement the “knowledge triangle” in higher education—to conduct research focused on business needs and utilize the results in training programs, which boost to increasing the country's innovative potential. The effectiveness of the “knowledge triangle” in modern pandemic and post-pandemic conditions is determined by the targeted usage of digital management, digital economy, digital marketing and digital information technology. Launching a Joint Master's Degree Program in Digital Management at East European University in collaboration with Fresenius University, introducing a Business Problem Solving Platform at the University Multi-Functional Research Center, and setting up an information network is oriented on:

These activities are intended to improve the quality of research activities at the university, to integrate teaching and research activities, to improve international scientific connections, to promote business development, to train qualified personnel and to increase the income received from orders.

For the last decade, higher education institutions have faced substantial obstructions. COVID-19 has created several serious challenges for educational institutions and increased the impact of different external factors, like political, demographical, financial and the most important—technological trends on the sector. University leaders’ effort to maintain the core mission in these severe challenges is quite intense, however in the post-Covid situation, it is inevitable for higher education institutions to rethink of their mission, value proposition and operating models to successfully meet their strategic objectives. University executives deal with the tough decision-making process, their financial and human resources need to be reshuffled to resist the multi-faceted crisis. Besides providing staff with necessary tools and working environment, university leaders need to develop new working methods, intensify the communication and provide right directions. Simultaneously, institutions should not forget the wellbeing of their staff and students’ communities. For this purpose, number of funding schemes have been elaborated to support them financially. This process will require new approach of managerial decision-making, which will be aligned with the corresponding Management Information Systems (MIS). Differently from the classical methods, the process now requires the engagement with all members of the academic community and all of the stakeholders. The main goal of the leadership will be bringing in all different perspectives together and finding the best possible solutions for the “new normal”.

In the twenty-first century universities, as intellectual potential formative institutions and tool for creating effective national system are needed to be much more focused on innovation and creativity, rather than on stability and standardization. An innovative and creative universities boost to the development of globally competitive economics, through forming productive and flexible workforce, idea generation, creating technologies and their dissemination. Hence, those who want to create a world class university will need to develop an organizational environment which boosts to innovative and creative behavior of its members leading to university performance and the economic development of the country. In terms of innovation capability and Skills, Georgia takes quite law positions that is proved by “The Global Competitiveness Report, 2019” according to which it takes 91st and 46th places out of 141 countries. Thereof it’s vitally important to investigate the leading countries’ (USA, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Italy, Israel, Japan, Luxemburg and South Korea) world-class universities’ (THE World University Rankings 2021) key determinants of innovative and creative organizational environment as well as to outline and analyze possible strategies and pathways for elaborating model of innovative and creative environment that will fit to Georgian reality.

At the end of the twentieth century, revolutionary shifts in Information Technology changed the way in which old, practically approved knowledge could be assimilated, identified, and effectively solved. Digital transformations are one of its demonstrations. An integral part of digital learning is the intelligent computer systems of knowledge acquisition, control and assessment. The computer system for knowledge acquisition, control and assessment developed by us is a combination of Cyber 3 web applications: Cyber 3S (Kiber3S.tsu.ge), Cyber 3SE, Cyber 3T, Cyber 3E, Cyber 3A. An effective way of using Cyber3 is achieved by the combined method—creative processes are mastered in the traditional way, and knowledge of the technique, problem-solving techniques and technology is mastered, identified and evaluated by a computer system. The purpose of “Cyber 3S” is to master the subjects provided in the curriculum independently, remotely in self-learning mode. Here the subject is taught by selecting the topics and certain tasks and tests by students. In Cyber3S it is possible to present a task/test with text, image and video. An integral part of the knowledge base of Cyber 3S is so-called “Reminder” as an assistance dealing with the task/test in the form of text or graphics or video or any combination of them, also, present the thematic assistance in the form of Pdf file as well as recommend advice when giving a wrong answer to a test. Cyber 3SE provides self-monitoring of issues mastered by Cyber 3S. It is a trial rehearsal for the exam. In Cyber 3SE as opposed to Cyber 3S: First—The self-examination trajectory changes according to the results of solving the assessment criteria selected by the student, in particular, if the assessment criterion is satisfied as a result of solving the given difficulty, the system automatically shifts the student to the next level of difficulty. Second—it is impossible for a student to stop self-examination at any time and solve problems according to the principle of difficulties as desired. Third—the teacher envisages obtaining a self-control protocol for conducting the debriefing. In Cyber3S, the student can: display the protocol describing the teaching process in the Excel environment on his/her computer, the test provides 3 correct answers out of 7 possible answers, the number of answers to the task is not limited. Answers can be represented by a number, a sentence written in natural language.