The virtual way of working is becoming increasingly popular due to its potential for cost savings; it is also a way for an organization to be more agile and adapt to crises such as global pandemics. This innovative way of working brings new challenges to organizations that suddenly have to switch to telework. In fact, telework raises quite a few issues for employees, related to communication, collaboration, and the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). This study examined the evaluation of telework through a questionnaire by different conditional groups of 436 teleworkers in Lithuania. Through a correlation analysis between the study variables, the findings suggest that there are differences in the evaluation of factors affecting telework efficiency and qualities required from a remote worker, depending on gender, age, education, work experience, and experience of telework. The results are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the most satisfied and the most dissatisfied teleworkers.

Recent results of the Digital Economy and Society Index (52, 45%) and the European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (EIDES) (48%) illustrate an improved level of the digital performance in European Union countries and a significant progress towards unlocking the productivity of digital value co-creation and collaborative networks. It is also agreed that the rapid digitalization of the economy and the digital entrepreneurship approach fosters a transition of traditional business models to networked and integrated digital platform business models. Despite the well-recognized benefits of the digital entrepreneurship and the digital business ecosystem, application of emerging technologies and modern business models also brings inevitable sustainable management challenges. The main negative outcomes are in the disruption or exposure of vulnerabilities within collaborative organizational and social networks, the additional socio-technical pressure for both network supervisors and incumbents, and the asymmetry of digital information and resources, etc. Therefore, the present research provides a critical review on the scientific literature, a reconceptualization within the multi-level side effects, and an overview of the influence of the digital entrepreneurship within the sustainability and digital business ecosystem domains. The present paper delineates the sustainable digital entrepreneurship term and the combined conceptual framework of the digital sustainable value cycle.

International activities of firms contribute to environmental socio-economic development and have a positive influence on prosperity of countries. The novelty of this study is to extend prevailing theory on the performance measurement of internationalized firms by suggesting a hybrid decision-making model based on interval type 2 fuzzy sets for the Baltic states. The integrated method is defined as the interval type-2 (IT2) decision making trial and evaluation laboratory qualitative flexible multiple criteria method (DEMATEL-QUALIFLEX). IT2 DEMATEL is used for weighting each criterion of internationalized firms and IT2 QUALIFLEX is applied for ranking the Baltic states, respectively. Within this context, six different criteria are defined for ranking the internationalized firms of the Baltic states. The ranking of all three countries enable us to conclude that Estonia demonstrates the best results of internationalized firms. Meanwhile, Latvia has the worst performance of internationalized firms. The findings are useful for decision makers responsible for supportive policies focused on the research and development (R&D) and internationalization of firms. The implications for managers lie in the awareness of necessary conditions for successful internationalization. The study extends prevailing knowledge on the performance measurement of internationalized firms and provides findings on multinational companies (MNCs) in the Baltic states’ context.

Despite the huge number of studies on telework in 2020, the influence of socio-demographic characteristics of workers on their attitudes towards telework continues to raise questions. Researchers agree on some aspects, such as younger individuals being better at absorbing new technologies. However, given that not only those who wanted to but also those who were obliged to switched to teleworking, it appears that younger people may not be as effective at working remotely as previously thought. The relevance of our study is based on the contradictory findings of research conducted during the pandemic. With this article, we contribute to the accumulation of knowledge about the change that takes place in telework. The paper aims to examine the relationship between socio-demographic indicators and the evaluation of telework. Our study confirms that the gender and age of employees are important factors in an employee’s attitude to telecommuting. Mostly, the attitudes vary in terms of gender. At least in the case of Lithuania where the research was conducted, Millennial men, unlike other generations and significantly more than Millennial women, see personal career development problems working remotely. Meanwhile, older generations do not declare greater dissatisfaction working remotely, although they do not express much favour for this approach. The results of the study indicate that in the circumstances created by the pandemic, organizations should update their human resource management strategies to achieve employee work efficiency and maintain employee motivation. The practical implication of our study in terms of open innovation is that in the future, the development of virtual working relationships will need to focus not on the technological training of older workers but on the specific provision of feedback to younger workers. In this regard, our insights may be useful for leaders in human resource management and open innovation teams.

Despite the promising ideas of lead users, the success rate of the open innovation process remains low if no proper personal characteristics are attached to the external contributor. The knowledge about the essential characteristic elements of lead users is crucial to select the right lead users in the early stage of the NPD. By filling the research gap, we performed a systematic literature review about the required personal characteristics of lead users. The resulting 45 studies demonstrated that diverse characteristics are required in different stages of an NDP which vary in the consumer and industrial context. According to our research results, we made a contribution to the theory by extending the lead user method in the form of a partial theory. We also found that in the case of incremental innovations, companies apply their technical knowledge and do not require additional expertise from users, while in the case of radical innovations, firms only involve external users with high technological competencies in the development stage of the NDP. We identified similarities and differences of the required lead users’ personal characteristics in the consumer and industrial contexts. Thus, our study provides a better awareness for business leaders on the selection of lead users for their NPD process, reducing the time-to-market ratio of the product and increasing profit.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected all spheres of services-related business, including the higher education sector. As a pre-emptive measure, almost all traditional educational institutions have been transformed into virtual organizations. This pandemic-induced work transition has created stress among academic staff and has hampered their performance. The present study aims to examine the impact of leadership behaviors, e-training, and employment security on the stress management process, consequently improving employee performance during and after the pandemic. Based on the IPO (input–process–output) model, this study examines the effect of leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security on teaching staff’s tasks and adaptive and contextual performance, mediated by stress management. To test the conceptual model, data were collected from the teaching staff of Malaysian universities. The structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis, while bootstrapping with the maximum likelihood estimator was used to confirm the mediational role of stress management. The study revealed that task- and relation-oriented leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security positively influence stress management and employee performance in virtual organizations. Moreover, stress management acts as a full mediator in the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance, while partial mediation occurs between e-training, employment security, and employee performance. This study offers valuable insights into the literature by proposing leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security as input in the stress management process to attain the performance output of teaching staff. Higher education institutions should come forward to assist their teaching employees in managing their stress levels for better outcomes.