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Challenges when many people moved their jobs from the office to home because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have put stress on employees' daily routine and professional lives. This article investigated the experience of individuals working not at the office and disclosed consequences of occupational stress such as mental and physical exhaustion, social deprivation, decreased work commitment, professional cynicism, and professional burnout. The preliminary study was based on a survey of 202 employees in Lithuania who were teleworking from home throughout the pandemic. According to the results, it can be assumed that teleworking had rather negative effects on employee wellbeing, as many teleworkers tended to suffer mental and physical exhaustion and social deprivation when working from home within pandemic. The psycho-emotional state of employees seems to be a key factor influencing the intellectual resources of an organization in a period of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to take a novel look to customer satisfaction with B2B service through the lens of customer perception of service quality criterions. By literature review, service quality models define sets of key factors, however, do not rank them by significance. Based on AHP analysis of expert interview results, we argue that the current models of service quality reflect business customer perceptions partially. This is a gap in B2B service quality knowledge that this study seeks to fill. The quality criterions play a role in building a positive balance between the customers' expected and perceived value of services. Thus, we propose the model of customer satisfaction with factors divided into essential, significant, sufficient, and marginal according to their level of significance. The model may encourage academics to understand customer satisfaction criteria in service quality not only as generic sets but also at the importance of the criteria themselves in relation to each other. In the aspect of practical implication, the model can help B2B enterprises to rationally manage resources on set quality priorities to achieve customer satisfaction and, hence, to ensure organization sustainability by more effective organizational resource management. The model also can benefit B2B customers when considering service providers capable of delivering service quality which meets the expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifold effects of the COVID-19 global health crisis and economic lockdowns are reflected in the insurance industry, and are predicted to expand to the post-COVID-19 era. It is expected that, within a short period of time, the current worldwide situation, in regards to the coronavirus pandemic, will be reflected in new trends, regarding customer behavior, organizational management, and culture, as well as reveal improved business management models, legacy infrastructure, and service systems in insurance organizations. Here, a focus on end-user preferences, data, and their behavior modeling in digital platforms are major practical drivers within the modern insurance concept, but there is a paucity of researches within the theoretical synthesis of consumer decision-making (CDM) models, information system theories, and behavioral economics concerning modern insurance-specific value chains and digitalized decision-making processes. Therefore, the following research aims to expand upon the existing scientific knowledge of end-user behavioral patterns and process frameworks in the Baltic insurance market, by including and examining a factor group of technological enablers and a digital environment. Research results in digitalization, personalization, and customization levels within the Baltic non-life insurance market are homogenous with a leading position of Estonia and overall evaluations ranging between Satisfied and Rather Good. There are also three major factor groups and process stages identified, which influence insurance purchase decision-making in digital insurance platforms in the Baltic market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers of the Mass Customization domain face not only challenges of proper and timeless identification of latest practical trends, but also difficulties in rational analyses on the numerous existing scientific studies in this field as well as a need for a comprehensive and multidimensional state-of-the-art overview of the Mass Customization research domain in the last three decades. Therefore, the present research article aims to provide a critical standpoint and reveal the main research directions and content at systemic, bibliometric and historical research levels in the period of 1990-2020. Four types of bibliometric clustering techniques and a visualization of results in a format of two-dimensional maps by the VOSviewer software were applied in the analysis on 1783 scientific papers from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection. The analysis reveals six historical periods in the Mass Customization research domain, from which, in the last three decades, three are identified as influencing modern Mass Customization research areas and objects. Results confirmed a shift from a stand-alone scientific approach to the customization of tangible products in the manufacturing field and their risk management, to a hybrid scientific approach with a focus on the customization of non-tangible products and personalized customer behavior in online environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the wide application of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundations of the education system have been shaken; education has entered a new era of teaching and learning on digitalized platforms. How do pedagogues evaluate their experiences when information technologies have become the main axis of carrying out their work? What impact did telework have on pedagogues as employees of an education institution or as individuals? What could be expected from older pedagogues in the shift to using digital means of teaching? These were the main questions raised in this research, the results of which are presented in this article. This research is original because the differences in experiences of telework were studied not only in terms of age and nature of work (professional/leader) but also the type of education institution. This delineation is of key importance in understanding the virtual work challenges faced by pedagogues in schools, professional education institutions, colleges, and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition from the academic setting to the turbulent labour market requires more personal resources than ever before. In order to successfully enter and perform in professional life one must be ready to respond adequately to conditions of uncertainty and complexity. The concept of planned happenstance skills presents a set of competencies to deal effectively with unplanned events generated by chaotic environment. These career-related resources are extremely important for students pursuing successful adaption to professional environments and seeking to prepare for personal career management. The present article aims to analyze the role of planned happenstance skills when predicting psychological wellbeing and academic adjustment. Lithuania was chosen as a case study since there is a high percentage of people with higher education. The study was conducted using the quantitative method of questionnaire survey. Data of the survey were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analyses. It was found that planned happenstance skills had a significant positive relationship with study variables and were a significant predictor of academic achievement and psychological wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]