Conference tracks

Track co-chairs: Dr. Richard Adams, Cranfield University, United Kingdom; Prof. Dr. Christine Volkmann, University of Wuppertal, Germany

Track assoc. co-chairs: Dr. Sergey Portyanko, Cranfield University, United Kingdom; Julian Bafera, University of Wuppertal, Germany; Dr. Ieva Anuziene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Egle Vaiciukynaite, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

The development and adoption of digital technologies continues to transform the ways in which businesses operate and perform. Recently, attention has turned towards how entrepreneurs are mobilizing and exploiting the affordances of digital technologies in the service of the sustainability agenda.

The track looks to extend this body of work and invites contributions that further explore the links and possibilities of innovation, entrepreneurship, digital technologies, grand challenges and sustainable business growth, including, but not limited to:
| Digital business model innovation for sustainability;
| Digital intrapreneurship and sustainability;
| Growing and scaling sustainable enterprises through digital transformation;
| Forms of entrepreneurship successfully exploiting digital technologies for sustainability;
| Data-driven entrepreneurship and sustainability;
| Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems and digital technology;
| Entrepreneurship and the digital divide: implications for inclusion, access, equity and voice;
| Evaluating the social and environmental value and the intended and unintended consequences data-driven and digital technologies;
| Role of transparency, responsibility and trust in new value creation;
| Business ethics, entrepreneurship and sustainability;
| Scalability of digital entrepreneurship addressing global challenges;
| Carbon, waste and energy footprints of digital entrepreneurship and sustainability;
| Pandemics, wellbeing, sustainable development and digital entrepreneurship;
| Digitally instilling ethical principles into corporate governance: micro, meso and macro perspectives;
| Dynamic capabilities and digital transformation in entrepreneurship.

Track co-chairs: Prof. dr. Lina Dagiliene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Assoc. prof. dr. Renatas Kizys, University of Southampton, United Kingdom; Assoc. prof. dr. Ruta Valusyte, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Track assoc. co-chairs: Dr. Viktorija Varaniute, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; PhD student Justina Banionienė, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

The Paris Agreement on climate change compels organizations to seek to devise ways to become self-sustaining and environmentally friendly while still being profitable. The reality is that common practices driven by economic growth ambitions, consumption patterns, financial systems, and other aspects of the broader political economy still perpetuate unsustainable behaviours. In this track we explore recent advances towards the broader field of a sustainable environment and a circular economy with special emphasis on digital technologies. We aim to understand whether digitalization is conducive to the circular economy on the levels of products, technologies, business processes, business models and related ecosystems.

The track invites submissions that explore and explain these themes:
| Corporate environmental sustainability;
| Circular design;
| Financial instruments for circular economy;
| Environmental strategies, performance and reporting;
| Digital technologies and eco-innovation enhancing circularity;
| Circular business models; value chains and trade;
| Impacts of circular economy policies.

Track co-chairs: Prof. dr. Christopher Mathieu, Lund University, Sweden; Dr. Alpo Värri, Tampere University, Finland; Prof. dr. Asta Pundziene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Track assoc. co-chairs: Neringa Gerulaitiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Laura Vilutiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Muhammad Faraz Mubarak, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Lukas Geryba, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Jurgita Giniuniene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Farrukh Qureshi, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Rima Sermontyte-Baniule, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Sandra Trinkuniene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.

The rise of digital healthcare services is evident worldwide, especially now with the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Digital transformation is providing extensive opportunities for various healthcare stakeholders to create and receive added value. However, the progress of adoption of digital healthcare innovations is quite slow and insufficient. Thus, it is necessary to consider how the application of digital healthcare innovations allows co-creating additional value for different stakeholders, and what are the barriers and drivers of adaptation of digital healthcare innovations. The aim of this track is to explore connected healthcare innovations and the added value that they co-create for various stakeholders across publicly and privately based health-care ecosystems.

The track welcomes all proposals that look at:
| How to advance connected healthcare innovations;
| Digital platforms business model innovations;
| Digital healthcare ecosystems development;
| Application of advanced technologies (AI, IoT, VR/AR, etc.) in healthcare;
| Barriers and drivers of digital healthcare adoption.

Track co-chairs: Prof. dr. Panagiotis (Takis) Damaskopoulos, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Assoc. prof. dr. Kęstutis Duoba, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Prof. dr. Mantas Vilkas, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Track assoc. co-chairs: Dr. Morteza Ghobakhloo, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Gediminas Marcinkevičius, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Manuel Eduardo Morales, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Anna Sadowska, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Peiman Alipour Sarvari, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania and Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxemburg; Vaiva Stanisauskaite, University of Vaasa, Finland; Dr. Alessandro Stefanini, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania and University of Pisa, Italy.

It is a commonplace conception today that digital infrastructures and capabilities constitute the operational and organizational foundation of business, economic, social, and increasingly political systems. The process of digitization spans several decades. However, the growing maturation of digitization over the last decade – and its acceleration in the context of COVID-19 – has given rise to a new historical phase of business and entrepreneurial practices, and challenges of competitiveness and economic development. The core driving force in this process of change is the concept and practice of Industry 4.0, that is, the technological evolution from embedded systems to cyber-physical systems (CPS), a paradigm shift from “centralized” to “decentralized” production. Industry 4.0 also involves the organisation of production processes based on technology and devices autonomously communicating with each other along the value chain: a model of the ‘smart’ factory of the future where computer-driven systems monitor physical processes, create virtual copies of the physical world and make decentralised decisions based on self-organisation mechanisms.

In this context, the objective of this track is to explore the management and policy challenges – and adaptive capacity-building strategies – associated with Industry 4.0 for individual business organizations, regional economic and innovation ecosystems, and systems of regulation, governance and sustainability. It is desired, but not necessary, that such explorations focus on the transition from recuperation in the context of the COVID-19 crisis to a “new normal”.

The track hereby invites contributions on the following areas (not exclusive):
| The decomposition/re-composition of production and the changing value composition of Global Value Chains. Emphasis: the changing calculus of opportunities and threats of specific business profiles and value propositions.
| AI, the cloud, big data, algorithmic models, and the Internet of Everything. Emphasis: the functions and uses of predictive analytics; “smart factories”; implications for different business activities such as knowledge management, marketing and human resources.
| Platform economy business models. Emphasis: technological, organizational, and strategic management challenges; business model (re)design; skills development; challenges concerning security and protection of know-how; risks of loss of control, reduced independence, flexibility and adaptability, performance measurement methodologies.
| The changing economic geography and its implications for regional economic ecosystems. Emphasis: the dynamics of concentration of economic capacities few economic centers and the implications for management in regional business ecosystems (e.g., clusters etc.).
| Comparative readiness for Industry 4.0: assessment and measurement methodologies. Emphasis: how countries and regions across the EU and internationally respond to the management and policy challenges of Industry 4.0 and their strategies to leverage production as a national capability.
| The future of work: Industry 4.0 skillsets. Emphasis: skillset requirements of Industry 4.0; comparative vulnerability of skills and occupational profiles to obsolescence due to Industry 4.0 and automation; design of work processes and workplaces, skills and training needs at firm level; human resources management.

References:
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Andrew McAfee, (2014). The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Evans, S. David and Richard Schmalensee. (2016). Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Grundke, R. et al. (2017), “Having the right mix: The role of skill bundles for comparative advantage and industry performance in GVCs”, OECD Science, Technology and Industry.
Schwab, Klaus, and Nicholas Davis, (2018). Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.
World Economic Forum, (2018). Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018.

Track Chairs: Assoc. prof. dr. Agne Gadeikiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Assoc. prof. dr. Aiste Dovaliene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Laura Salciuviene, Lancaster University, UK

Track assoc. co-chairs: Asta Svarcaite, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Jurgita Radzavice, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Digital transformation puts a new spotlight on behavior and lifestyles of so-called digital society which is shaped by two conflicting consumption patterns (Piligrimiene et al., 2020). On the one hand, consumption is influenced by sustainability-related consumer consciousness and knowledge, reflected by reduced product acquisition, resource usage/consumption, disposal decisions along with environmental and socio-economic concerns of energy, food or mobility consumption (Geiger et al., 2018). On the other hand, consumer psychology and consumerism result in higher consumption that is expected to be especially noticeable in the post-COVID19 world. In this regard, United Nations (UN, n.d.) call for social change with the aim to “build back better” after pandemics.

Business marketing, affected by digital technologies, approaches the New Era where AI, IoT, big data analytics, shared value co-creation affect product innovation, omnichannel retailing and communication and overall marketing strategy (MSI, 2020). In this digital context, sustainability and ethical issues become even more relevant and require special attention (Fernandez-Rovira et al., 2021).

Considering the sustainability-related issues mentioned above, this track aims to bring together academics and researchers to discuss sustainable consumption priorities in the context of digital transformation.
The track welcomes submissions that investigate a wide range of marketing and consumer behavior topics.

The most welcomed, but not limited to, are the following topics:
| Co-creation for sustainable consumption;
| Collaborative and circular consumption;
| Consumer decision-making, shaped by artificiality and big data analytics;
| Consumer psychology and lifestyles;
| Digital transformation in marketing decisions;
| Omnichannel retailing and consumer behavior;
| Product and packaging innovation;
| Relationship marketing;
| Sustainable consumption patterns.

References
Fernandez-Rovira, C., Valdes, J. A.; Mollevi, G.; Nicolas-Sans, R. (2021). The digital transformation of business. Towards the datafication of the relationship with customers. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 162, 120339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120339
Geiger, S. M.; Fischer, D.; Schrader, U. (2018). Measuring what matters in sustainable consumption: An integrative framework for the selection of relevant behaviors. Sustainable Development, 26, p. 18-33. DOI: 10.1002/sd.1688
MSI (2020). Marketing science institute: research priorities 2020-2022. Available online: https://www.msi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MSI-2020-22-Research-Priorities-final.pdf
Piligrimiene, Z.; Zukauskaite, A.; Korzilius, H.; Banyte, J.; Dovaliene, A. (2020). Internal and external determinants of consumer engagement in sustainable consumption. Sustainability, 12, 1349. doi:10.3390/su12041349
UN (n.d.). United Nations sustainable development goals. Goal 12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns: COVID-19 response. Available online: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/

Track co-chairs: Prof. dr. Monika Petraite, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Prof. dr. Max von Zedtwitz, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania and Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; Prof. dr. Jurgita Sekliuckiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Track assoc. co-chairs: Dr. Jolita Ceicyte, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; PhD student Mubarak Muhammad Faraz, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Dr. Rita Juceviciene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Digitization, innovation and entrepreneurship stand at the core of business dynamics and competitiveness. The internationalization of new entrepreneurial ventures, connectivity of business models and innovation, supported by digital solutions, cause the rapid transformation of the entrepreneurial ecosystems, rise of the new business models, knowledge and technology sourcing and co-creation across international networks and locations. International integration and digitization of entrepreneurial ecosystems has opened entirely new perspective in terms of opportunity recognition, creation and exploitation across new digital business realities, in the same time causing digital “oasis” and “deserts” and transforming entire business models towards greater connectivity and interdependence along value chain and innovation. The latter is associated with the increasing specialization across technologies, markets, and entire entrepreneurial ecosystems that aim to foster systemic innovation dynamics, and integrate in global technology systems and value chains. Given this complexity of innovating, managing knowledge and executing entrepreneurial orientation in international digital business settings, we seek for the contributions that would shed light on this new business landscape.
These might look at but are not limited to the following questions:
| Transformation and digitization of entrepreneurial ecosystems;
| Digitally interconnected business models;
| Open innovation in digital age;
| Internationalization and digitization of open innovation networks;
| Digitalization of innovation, R&D and creativity processes;
| Knowledge ecosystems in digital age;
| Upgrading in global value chains via digitalization, greening, and responsible innovation.
We welcome theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions, based on qualitative and quantitative approaches, and mixed methods. Research, devoted to the development of digital entrepreneurial ecosystems and opening of innovation across digital networks and platforms would be of special interest as we seek to evaluate the changes in business landscape and understand the motivations behind them. Sectorial, multilevel, as well as single and multi- case studies are welcome as well.

References:
Mubarak, M.F. & Petraite, M. (2020). Industry 4.0 technologies, digital trust and technological orientation: What matters in open innovation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 161;
Lee, J.D., Lee, K., Meissner, D., Radosevic, S. & Vonortas, N.S. (2020). Local capacity, innovative entrepreneurial places and global connections: an overview, The Journal of Technology Transfer.

Track co-chairs: Prof. Gerda Zigienė, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania; Prof. John Paul Broussard, University of Oklahoma, Price College of Business, USA; Dr. Nabi Omidvar, University of Leeds, Leeds University Business School and School of Computing, Centre for Financial Technology and Innovation, United Kingdom

Track assoc. co-chairs: Brigita Mazenyte, Kaunas University of Technology Business School, Lithuania

The financial sector has been the object of many innovations in recent years. Starting with fintech 1.0, an era of infrastructure, globalisation, transatlantic cable Fedwire, and credit cards, following fintech 2.0 – period, marked the shift from analog to digital banking, first ATM, SWIFT, and digital stock exchange, we are facing fintech 3.0 transformation effect, triggered by the financial crisis of 2008, led by digital payments, crowdfunding, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence solutions. The causal nexus that led to the digital transformation of the financial sector is disintermediation. New development trends are gaining momentum, accelerated by Covid-19, which is a crossroad between surviving a vortex and a universe of opportunities.

This era is marked by the emergence of new players, disrupting traditional financial players. While Fintech offers so many opportunities for reforming and democratizing finance, it also is affecting business and society in positive and negative ways: from disruptive innovation to greater financial inclusion; from destroying business models to inclusive and sustainable finance and markets; from eliminating to creating jobs; from transparency to ethical issues; from deregulation to regulatory issues.

Submissions for this track should focus on:
| Financial system impact of disruptive innovation;
| Greater financial inclusion; fintech regulatory issues;
| Fintech decisions for risk management, risk transfer, and risk diversification;
| Greening the financial system;
| Enhancing economic development;
| Ethical, cultural, and social implications of finance digitization;
| Covid-19: financial technologies supporting economic resilience.