The Implementation of New Technologies in Customer Value Management—A Sustainable Development Perspective

Covid-19 and organisational development: important signs of a new pillar for sustainability

Purpose

The global pandemic has had a considerable effect on organisations’ performance and development and on the daily lives of the general population. This study aims to analyse the recent literature on the topics of Covid-19 and sustainability and proposes to rethink and redefine sustainability with the intersection of human health as a fourth sustainable pillar.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases, 119 articles were analysed in detail and classified according to concepts and principles for achieving sustainable development, based on the Brundtland Report, 1987.

Findings

The results indicate a high number of publications in the social dimension, with a relevant proportion of studies in the health sector. This study allows us to conclude that all sectors of society are being affected by the pandemic. However, the enormous tension and the immediate impact felt by the health sector during the pandemic reflect directly on the population, and there are clear signs that in the medium and long term, instability and uncertainty in the environmental, economic and social dimensions will remain. In national health systems, monitoring, innovating in human resource management and investing in information technology can ensure organizations’ reliability and sustainability. The conclusion involves the suggestion of introducing health as a new pillar for sustainability to consolidate the basis and structure of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Objectives. The use of fundamental concepts is necessary and must be aligned to reassess the results obtained in studies, in comparison with observational data.

Practical implications

The implications arising from the inclusion of health as a fourth pillar of sustainability are diverse. The need to build a new theoretical and conceptual framework for sustainability derives from the fact that health reflects the concern of many postulants in this field of practices. The determining or conditioning conditions of the observed effects of the pandemic by COVID-19, whether situated simply as factors and/or economic, environmental or social reflexes that precede them, requires a conceptual development that allows its approach, as a complex object, whose determinations are subject to variable degrees of uncertainty and diversity.

Originality/value

This study aims to redefine the concept of sustainability, considering that health has become a public health emergency of international interest. Health affects the supply chain, cash flow, interferes with the educational format and interrupts the workforce’s routine, among other aspects, showing the true nature of its importance and its impact in all spheres (economic, environmental and social).

Modeling the Influence of Information Systems on Sustainable Business Performance and Competitiveness

The necessity for sustainable development, the coronavirus pandemic, and conducting business within the frameworks of the fourth industrial revolution—Industry 4.0 create a challenging environment where enterprises have difficulties to achieve and maintain competitiveness. Information is becoming a core construct when it comes to conducting business in the modern, globalized business environment. In this paper, the influence of information systems (IS) on sustainable business performance and competitiveness is analyzed. Additionally, the influence of human resource management (HRM) and decision making (DM) on sustainable business performance and competitiveness, as two crucial constructs in the new paradigm of conducting business, are addressed. The relations are discussed from the aspect of sustainable development and future post-pandemic business trends. The main goal is to determine the relations between the noted constructs in a transitional setting. In sum, 184 manufacturing enterprises from Republika Srpska were surveyed via a structured survey, where the focus was on quantifying and modeling the influence of IS, HRM, and DM on sustainable business performance. The results indicate that IS, HRM, DM can affect business performance in a transitional economic setting. This approach is novel, as the existing body of literature does not address all the noted influencing factors on sustainable business performance and competitiveness in a transition economy. Hence, this paper significantly contributes to the existing body of literature and provides a solid basis for future research in this domain.

The Adoption of Robotic Process Automation Technology to Ensure Business Processes during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The study provides knowledge on the adoption of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology during the COVID-19 pandemic in 110 Polish service companies. As this research was the first of its kind in Poland, the objectives of the CAWI survey were to identify the technology features of the RPA technology and the related determinants and barriers influencing the adoption of the RPA as well as to determine correlations between them. Moreover, the statistical analyses involved considering whether there were differences in the evaluation of individual RPA technology features, mainly in terms of perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and functionality. The results of the study show that almost 60% of the respondents indicated that robotization tools allowed maintaining continuity of business processes during the pandemic. The highest rated were features related to usefulness of the RPA technology. Furthermore, the analysis pointed to the most frequently indicated barriers to technology implementation that were related to nonoptimized, nonstandardized and non-digitized processes with a large number of exceptions. The study contributes to scientific knowledge and has practical implications for process automation decision-makers concerned with the adoption of the Robotic Process Automation technology. The obtained results can help them to understand the potential drivers of and barriers to the adoption of software robots by enterprises and may be an important determinant for companies’ managers in the field of implementing such solutions.

Commitment Ladder in the Relationship between Service Providers and Customers as Added Value in Sustainable Services Development

The socioeconomic sphere and the relationships in which commitment occurs are important elements in the development of sustainable services. The study reported in this article identifies the elements that influence the development of the relationship between service providers and their customers and proposes a model that describes the state of the relationship between service providers and customers in terms of symmetrical commitment of both parties. Qualitative research including interviews with experts and case studies was completed, resulting in a ‘ladder of commitment’ model that identifies distinct commitment levels and specific commitment factors functioning at each of those levels. In practice, the proposed model makes it possible to assess the state of customer and provider commitment, identifying commitment deficits on the part of the customer or service provider. This article can provide practical added value for managers who are looking for ways to analyze customer commitment in order to develop sustainable services.

Social Media e-Leadership Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Education

Leadership in the age of digital transformation is facing new challenges. We observed such a case when the global coronavirus pandemic took over our lives. Leaders of Higher Education Institutions were given a unique opportunity to leverage their online presence for managing this crisis. Hence, by the means of descriptive statistics, we studied the social media accounts of 216 leaders of business schools to learn about the practices they adopted from March 2020 to March 2021. Our findings show that in this group no universal strategy of communication can be stipulated, however, some patterns are visible in different world regions.