Department of Business Administration

Event: Workshop: "Exploring ESG Reporting Requirements" | TalTech

Wednesday, 18 December 2024 at 14:00-15:30 room SOC-322 / MS Teams

The seminar is in English.

This engaging session will focus on the critical topic of ESG Reporting Requirements from the Perspective of Professional Accountants, as explored within the framework of a CIMA research grant proposal.

During this workshop, we will discuss several important questions, including:

• Are Estonian companies prepared for the new ESG reporting requirements? 
• What are the primary concerns and potential benefits associated with these new requirements?
• Do relevant stakeholders identify any barriers to implementing the new ESG reporting standards?
• What type of assistance do companies need to establish effective ESG reporting practices that align with the new regulations?
   

This is a valuable opportunity to share opinions and ideas with fellow professionals in the field. Your insights and experiences will contribute greatly to the discussion and help shape our understanding of the current landscape and future needs in ESG reporting. 

Please register on December 13th at the latest. Further information: koidu.saia@taltech.ee

The Project „Readiness of companies for the new ESG reporting requirements: the case of Czech Republic and Estonia“ 
is supported by The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants’ General Charitable Trust Fund, No. R560.

Event: Research seminar: "How to manage the twin challenge of digital and sustainable transformation?" | TalTech

Thursday, 21 November 2024 at 14:00-17:00 room SOC-322 / MS Teams

The seminar is in English.

Register here

This event offers an opportunity for attendees to engage with leading experts and gain knowledge on cutting-edge topics in sustainability, digital transformation, and environmental restoration.

• Presentation of the book “Digital and Sustainable Transformation” by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Gerstlberger and Prof. Dr. Gunnar Prause (Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG). The book is published in the frame of the project by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Gerstlberger titled “TalTech Junior Researcher LAB for Digital and Sustainable Transformation”.
• Guest lecture “Land Ethics and Forest Restoration Ecology in the Digital Age” by Prof. Dr. Marcel Robischon (Humboldt University of Berlin). In his talk, Prof. Robischon will address the importance of ethical land management and sustainable forest restoration, highlighting how modern digital tools can support ecological recovery and sustainable land stewardship in a time of rapid environmental change. Marcel Robischon is a professor at Humboldt University of Berlin in the Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences.
• Presentation “LIFE IP CleanEST Project - Breaking Free from the Soviet Legacy in the Aquatic Environment” by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Üllas Ehrlich (Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG). Üllas Ehrlich will discuss this significant project aimed at cleaning and restoring water bodies affected by industrial pollution, showcasing successful strategies and the impact of collaborative efforts in ecological restoration.

The project "Junior Researcher LAB on Digital and Sustainable Transformation" (agreement no 2024/7, May 2024 - November 2024) was funded by the Baltic-German University Liaison Office in cooperation with the DAAD-German Academic Exchange Service".

Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: Jiří Strouhal "Derivatives and hedging – accounting perspectives" | TalTech

Wednesday, 13 november 2024 at 16:30-18:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Jiří Strouhal (Head of the Accounting Research Group at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG).

SMEs as well as large companies are affected by various financial risks. To hedge against these risks there might be used either natural hedging or they may opt for derivative contracts to be secured from forex risks, interest rate risks or commodity price risks. This presentation is focusing on derivatives and hedging from the accounting perspective showing how to measure financial derivatives, resp. if companies can do it themselves and how to report them on the face of balance sheet and income statement. There will be also shown some real documents from banks or other derivative providers to show how looks the derivative confirmation in real practice.

The presentation will also focus on hedge accounting showing the major issues from the practical point of view and showing also the differences between fair value hedge and cash flow hedge on certain typical cases (hedge of exporting businesses, hedge of developers, hedge of bond issuer, hedge of loan with swap). There will be discussed challenges with the fair value measurement and revaluation of derivatives through the equity at the year-end and how to use the revaluation surplus to reach the precise profit/loss impact.

Jiří Strouhal, PhD. Head of an accounting research unit and a visiting professor of the Department of Business Administration at TalTech School of Business and Governance since August 2024. He finished his PhD studies in 2005 with thesis focused on financial and accounting aspects of financial options. Jiri focuses on derivatives reporting and hedge accounting not only from the research perspective, but also from professional perspective preparing hedge documentations for SMEs and large companies and acting as auditors’ expert in this field. He worked between 2005 till 2017 at University of Economics and Business in Prague (Czechia), where he was lecturer at the Department of Financial Accounting and Auditing (2005-2011), later associate (2012-2015) and full professor (since 2016) of the Department of Business Economics. Since 2017 he is with Skoda Auto University (Czechia). Between 2011-2021 he served as a President of the Association of Czech Professional Accountants and he is also an author of the currently run scheme for the accounting certification in Czechia. His research focuses on accounting harmonisation, financial performance and ESG reporting.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: Daria Podmetina “New insights to responsible innovation and sustainability” | TalTech

Wednesday, 30 October 2024 at 16:00-17:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Daria Podmetina, D. Sc. (Senior Researcher at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG).

Companies are increasingly encouraged to enlarge their vision of innovation to encompass environmental and societal challenges rather than purely financial ones. Thus, firms, especially in smaller economies, like Estonia, look for tools to balance their innovation and economic goals with sustainability requirements. 
 

This presentation introduces new ETAG project: Aiming for Responsible innovation and Sustainability: looking for new insights from open innovation, circular design, and design thinking with focus on Estonia.
 

This project studies how companies can succeed in sustainability contributing to both – firm impact and financial performance by adopting new approaches to new product development (NPD) such as circular design for the technical and sensible approach to environmental and societal issues; design thinking to enhance creativity and problem-solving; and open innovation to enhance innovation process through collaboration. This study will suggest an innovative route to balance the competing requirements to develop new products and services with the broader considerations of responsible innovation, excel in sustainability performance, as well as derive outstanding financial outcomes. 
 

Daria Podmetina, D. Sc. (Tech.) joined Tallinn University of Technology, School of Business and Governance in October 2024 as senior researcher and PI for ETAG project focused on innovation and sustainability. Her research is in an interdisciplinary field of strategy, management and technology with a focus on innovation, sustainability, internationalization and entrepreneurship. After finishing her doctoral studies in 2011, she worked as postdoctoral researcher, and later as associate professor (2019-2023) at LUT University, Finland, where she also holds a docent position. Daria is an active member of the Academy of Management community, scientific board member of ISPIM and WOIC conferences, and serves as a reviewer for several top academic journals. Being an education innovation enthusiast, she made an impact in integrating arts into STEM education, challenge-based education and developing 21st century skills for innovation management professionals and entrepreneurs. Daria promotes sustainability and collaborative innovation principles in research and teaching through international projects, collaboration with industry, presentations at international conferences, and publishing research results in academic journals such as Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Management Decisions, Journal of Small Business Management and others. Daria has also professional expertise in developing and coordinating research, industry, education and consulting projects and managing projects portfolio.
 

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

This research was supported by the Estonian Research Council grant (KOHTO3).

Event: Research seminar: Viktor Prokop "What drives firms’ greenness in Central and Eastern Europe? Insights from the current and future research agenda" | TalTech

Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 16:30-18:00 MS Teams

Event: Meet the Editors. Journal of Management Education (JME) | TalTech

Wednesday, 21 February 2024 at 16:00-17:15 MS Teams

Jennifer Leigh (Co-editor of JME and Professor of Management at Nazareth University in Rochester, NY, USA)
Melanie Robinson (Co-editor of JME and Associate Professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montréal, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Basel Hammoda (Lecturer and PhD candidate in Entrepreneurship in the Department of Business Administration at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia)

“Meet the Editors” webinar is an opportunity to understand more about the requirements for publishing with the Journal of Management Education (JME), the type of articles they publish, and the peer review process. It is a safe space to ask questions and discuss paper ideas with the editors and colleagues. The webinar is aimed for researchers and educators at any level in Estonia, working in the management education disciplines. This includes but not limited to entrepreneurship, business administration, organization management, strategy, international business, innovation management, accounting, finance, economics, marketing, law, and human resources. The Journal of Management Education (JME) is a leading voice in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) for over 40 years. It is dedicated to enhancing teaching and learning in the management and organizational disciplines. Articles published in JME reflect changes and developments in the conceptualization, organization, and practice of management education. JME maintains a long-standing editorial commitment to growth, learning, and innovation and uses a developmental approach in working with authors throughout the review process so that they may communicate their ideas and insights to others.

Keywords (5 – 8): Management Education, Pedagogy, Research, Publishing, Meet the Editors, Peer Review

Jennifer S. A. Leigh is a Professor of Management at Nazareth University in Rochester, NY, USA. Her editorial roles have spanned open-access publications, peer-reviewed journals, edited books, and a book series. Currently, she is a Co-Editor of the Journal of Management Education (JME), the 9-book Teaching Methods in Business Education Series (Edgar Elgar), and is a past Co-Editor for Business Ethics, Environment and Responsibility (BEER). She has been honored for her teaching and learning innovations by AOM’s MED Division (2021), QS-Reimagine Education Gold Award – (Sustainability, 2021), MOBTS – the Lasting Impact Award (2020), and X-Culture – a Global Educator Award (2019). 

Melanie A. Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montréal, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her research interests center on leadership, followership, and management education (with a particular focus on experiential learning and the development of instructional innovations). Her work has been published in a number of journals and books. She presently serves as Co-Editor for the Journal of Management Education.

Basel Hammoda is a Lecturer and PhD candidate in entrepreneurship at the department of business administration at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). He focuses on innovative approaches to entrepreneurial learning in his research and the broader field of entrepreneurship. He’s the co-editor of the Routledge book: “Contemporary Entrepreneurship: Global Perspective and Cases” and has several publications on entrepreneurship and education.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee

Event: Research seminar: Istemi Demirag "Role of reciprocity in managing performance measure changes in the hybrid organisational contracts" | TalTech

Tuesday, 28 November 2023 at 16:00-17:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Istemi Demirag (Adjunct Professor at Tallinn University of Technology and an Emeritus Professor at Keele University, United Kingdom).

Adapting Callon’s four moments of translation, this paper investigates the management of performance measure changes in public private hybrid organisational contracts (Private Finance Initiative UK contract). It also maps the contract negotiation phase to understand mechanism that actors in hybrid organisational relationship uses in practice to manage change. The findings indicate that in contrast to extant hybrid management control literature that showed the fundamental role of trust in managing hybrid relations; instead hybrid organisational actors manage performance measures changes in PFI contract through relational mechanism of reciprocity for long-term sustainable relationship because as organisational agents the organisational objectives (profit making and cost savings) mitigate their ability to prioritise trust based on good working relationship. The findings have important implications for the designers of PFI contracts: On the one hand, designing specific contracts can provide clear guidelines regarding expected performance. On the other hand, strict contracts hinder shifting boundaries and does not allow organisations to achieve the benefit that can be availed through technological innovations. We conclude that hybridity influence reciprocity due to the existence of long-term contracts between hybrid organisational parties.

Keywords: hybrids, hybrid organization relations, public and private organisations, PFI, trust, reciprocity

Istemi Demirag is an Adjunct Professor of Accounting at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and an Emeritus Professor at Keele University, United Kingdom. His research and teaching focus on the behavioural and ethical issues of control, accountability, and sustainability in Hybrid organisations, such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Previously he worked as a Professor of Accounting at Keele University Management School and helped to develop the School’s post-graduate research and teaching programmes. Before joining Keele, he worked as a Professor in Accounting at Hull University and Queen’s University Belfast, Management School and has served in several senior roles, such as head of accounting in several universities with demonstrable achievements, performance, and results. He has published over 100 outputs, of which more than 50 per cent have appeared in the top ABS  4*/3*, and ABDC A*/A journals on the topics of Innovation, Governance, Accountability and Sustainability that have been cited widely by academics, governments, policymakers/regulators such as United Nations and UK Treasury and World Bank. He has, with others, raised and been successful in raising over €1.5m in research funds including EU Horizon, Erasmus, and ESRC/SERC and from professional accounting firms such as CIMA. His research has had an impact on changes in accountability, good governance, performance management, and implementation of public policy in Public Private Partnerships. More recently he has been advising and contributing to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in developing guidelines for PPPs in extraordinary circumstances.  He currently serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability (AAAJ) and the Journal of Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. He is also an ad hoc reviewer of several leading management and accounting journals.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research seminar: Bruno Brandão Fischer "Foundations of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Configurations" | TalTech

Thusrday, 26 October 2023 at 16:00-17:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Bruno Brandão Fischer (Associate Professor, School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Brazil).

The literature on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EE) originated from assessments of highly successful cases. While this has produced useful insights, it has also generated a sense of isomorphism, seldomly reflecting the entrepreneurial dynamics taking place in a variety of contexts. In this article we critically discuss a selection of underlying issues associated with the configurations of entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as influential dimensions that are attached to their respective structures, components, and interaction dynamics. Here, we argue that ‘generic’ configurations of EE can only offer a limited (if not inaccurate) comprehension of EE dynamics. We propose that ecosystems configurations emerge as outcomes of an interplay involving two layers of determinants. First, a group of ‘foreground’ drivers, namely: Historical Trajectory, Sectoral Orientation, and Spatiality. Second, two ‘background’ conditions with pervasive impacts: Entrepreneurial Agency and Digitalization Trends. As we demonstrate, these dimensions conform a background that deeply affects the configurations of EE in terms of agents, institutions, and interaction dynamics. From this debate, we outline a meta-configurational framework to guide future research on this topic of growing relevance.

Bruno Brandão Fischer (PhD in Economics and Innovation Management, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas. Bruno Fischer acts as Associate Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Administration. His research is oriented to the theme of entrepreneurial ecosystems. He is an Associate Researcher of the Insyspo Project, an initiative based at Unicamp in collaboration with George Washington University, Utrecht University, Leiden University. He was coordinator of the Laboratory of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and International Trade (LEICI) and the Center for Business Research at the University of Campinas (2017-2021). Associate Editor of the Brazilian Administration Review (BAR) in the area of Science, Technology Innovation Management. Member of the Editorial Review Board of Small Business Economics magazine. He was guest editor of special issues in journals such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Technovation, Small Business Economics, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and Journal of Business Research. He is a researcher at the Catchain Project (Catching-up Along the Global Value Chain), funded by the Marie Curie actions of the European Commission (grant agreement No. 778398) and involving institutions from the Americas, Europe, Africa and

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: Minna Saunila “Perspectives On Using Digital Technologies in Facilitating Sustainable Business” | TalTech

Wednesday, 27 September 2023 at 16:00-17:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Minna Saunila (Associate Professor, LUT University).

The presentation focuses on the role of different digital technologies in facilitating sustainable business transition. While the application of digital technologies has placed a strong emphasis on improving productivity and efficiency and supporting daily engineering, production, and decision-making; more recently organizations have also begun to pay attention to leveraging digitalization as part of their sustainability activities. Technological developments are being leveraged as part of sustainable production facilitation in terms of energy efficiency, waste reduction or worker well-being among others. The presentation identifies several perspectives on how digital technologies can be used to facilitate sustainable business.

Minna Saunila (D.Sc. Tech.) is an Associate Professor at LUT University, School of Engineering Sciences, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. Her research covers topics related to sustainable operations and production, innovation, performance management, as well as service operations. Recently, her research projects have been related to digitisation of services and production. She has previously published in International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Technovation, Computers in Industry, and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management among others. Since 2018 she is also a docent of the University of Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: Luigi Proserpio "Digital Business Transformation" | TalTech

Tuesday, 6 June 2023 at 10:00-11:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Luigi Proserpio (Associate Professor, Management and Technology department, Bocconi University).

Digital business transformation can be roughly defined as the profound and accelerating transformation of business models, processes, competences to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across the focal company in a strategic and prioritized way. Such a wide definition poses a set of challenges in terms of what to consider to understand the phenomenon and at which level conducing the theoretical and empirical research. This workshop will focus on the main aspects of digital transformation that can be interesting for researchers. And on what are the theories that are usually adopted to analyze them. In particular, the seminar will also discuss the contact-points between Business needs, and available Technology capabilities such as AI, IoT, and Cloud.

Luigi Proserpio, PhD. Creator of methodologies for technology-based learning as well as simulations and business games. Member of the Board of Academy of Management Learning & Educations, the Journal of Management Education and of the Journal of Management Inquiry. Founder of BETA (Bocconi Education and Teaching Alliance - now BUILT), Bocconi’s lab on teaching and learning methodologies. Former Rector’s Delegate for teaching and learning innovation. Former director of the SDA learning lab. Paper published on Research Policy, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Product Innovation Management and others. Lectures (master level) on technology mediated communication, organizational behaviour, distance learning and organizational change through information technology. PhD in management at Università Bocconi. Visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

LinkedIn

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona “Tourism in Barcelona: Milestones and Challenges” | TalTech

Wednesday, 31 May 2023 at 16:00-17:30 in room SOC-356 / Zoom

A presentation by Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona (Associate Professor at the Business Department of the University of Barcelona).

The negative effects of tourism in mature destinations becomes a central debate in academia and daily life of citizens. The rise of the tourist phenomenon in the city of Barcelona had its momentum in the 1992 Olympic Games. At that time, it is placed on the map of potential visitors as a destination of interest, and then the number of international tourists increased year after year. At the same time, it meant an increase of tourist houses in the city centre and the nearest neighbourhoods, the rise of tourismophobia and the reaction of local administration for institutional actions and public strategies. Specifically, this presentation aims to show the volume and growth of tourist houses in the central touristic neighbourhoods of Barcelona and its effects related to gentrification, social movement protests, political reactions, heritage attractiveness and community atmosphere. The main objective delves into the interests of different stakeholders and the way to keep the centre for both users, residents, and tourists, preserving the sense of belonging and attachment to the place. Results show priorities for key actors to design policies to harmonize all different interests.

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona, researcher and associate professor at the Business Department of the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain. Head of Studies of International Business Degree. In addition, member of the Business Research Group (UB) and also researcher at different Investigation Projects (I+D), such as “Social changes and processes of urban transformation in a crisis context”, “New mobilities and socio-residential reconfiguration in the post-crisis: socioeconomic and demographic consequences in Spanish urban areas” or “Influence of changes in production regimes and access to housing on the social restructuring of large Spanish cities”. As a result, the impact of tourism on economic, social, cultural, and urban structures of the territory are analyzed. Governance, gentrification, sustainability are the key words. Many articles, books and book chapters have been published: ‪Montserrat Crespi Vallbona - ‪Google Acadèmic

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research Seminar: “Enablers and Barriers in Circular Economy: The Case of Estonia” | TalTech

Wednesday, 5 April 2023 at 16:00-17:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Department of Business Administration, TalTech

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11590/taltech.circular.economy.report.2021

The circular economy aims to create a circular system of production and consumption with the lowest possible losses. This involves managing resources more efficiently, creating more value from them and generating less waste. At the same time, a more resource-efficient circular economy will require changes in attitudes and behaviour of businesses, consumers and society, as well as in decisions and support at national level.

The purpose of the study was to find out CE business models for four industrial sectors (computer & electronics, chemicals, electric equipment and metal industry). These models are expected to be suitable for applying to already existing Estonian SMEs, still operating mainly according to the linear economy principles or applying CE to a small extent, depending on the specifics of each studied industrial field. In addition, the aim was to identify the enablers and barriers for the transformation of existing SME business models into CE compatible business models and also to identify factors that require state intervention and support.

The understanding of circular economy (CE) used in the study stems from the theoretical model developed by the European Environment Agency's report Business Models in a Circular Economy (EEA Report, 2021). This analytical framework describes the CE life cycle, in which a product or service is divided into five phases: materials, product design, production & distribution, use and the final phase (end-of-life). For the each of the mentioned phase, it is possible to distinguish different levels, i.e. internal and external factors (business model innovation, technological innovation, social innovation, political factors, educational or behavioural change) and their elements, including enablers and barriers.

A survey of was conducted among SMEs of the four industries (n=440), using an online questionnaire based on the document analysis and on theoretical models, statements and scales from existing studies (EEA report, 2021; Moraga et al., 2019; Nuñez-Cacho et al., 2018; Valliant et al., 2018).

This study on the uptake of circular economy practices by Estonian SMEs concluded that there are a number of circular economy practices that enterprises are already implementing. In addition, there are also practices that are of high interest for future implementation. However, investment in circular economy technologies is mainly ad hoc and future increases in investment were also considered rather unlikely. Practices such as voluntary eco-labelling, quality labels on recycled products, participation in green public procurements and the use of financial mechanisms to introduce circular economy practices were seen as factors for accelerated development. The main challenges in implementing circular business models and their elements were seen both in terms of their low strategic priority and, in some cases, a lack of know-how.

As a general pattern, the expansion of different social innovation practices was also seen as necessary - including closer cooperation with customers, green NGOs, universities and local authorities. Again, low priority of activities, lack of expertise and lack of partners were seen as obstacles.

The study was carried out at the end of 2021 by Tallinn University of Technology on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

Wolfgang Gerstlberger CV in ETIS

Merle Küttim CV in ETIS

Tarmo Tuisk CV in ETIS

Ulrika Hurt CV in ETIS

Tarvo Niine CV in ETIS

Tarlan Ahmadov CV in ETIS

Margit Kull CV in ETIS

Jana Liiv

Anastassia Andrijaškina

Jekaterina Bavõkina

Hanna Pentsa

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research seminar: Christopher Meyer “Creativity As a Key Constituent for Smart Specialization Strategies (S3), What Is in It for Peripheral Regions? Co-Creating Sustainable and Resilient Tourism with Cultural and Creative Industries” | TalTech

Wednesday, 22 February 2023 at 16:00-17:30 Zoom

A presentation by Christopher Meyer (PhD candidate at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech)

Sustainable tourism is one of the key sectors in the South Baltic Sea Region (SBSR), which belongs to the role model for sustainability—the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). In this context, resilience, recovery and sustainability become key common threads calling for new approaches mitigating negative impacts, upscaling resilience capacity and boosting recovery in the post-pandemic era. The present work aims at revealing conceptual and practical pathways for policy makers and businesses in revitalizing sustainable tourism in the region by emphasizing cultural and creative industries (CCIs) as strong contributors to sustainable development and economic ecosystems, such as tourism. Tourism is also one of the key thematic areas of the smart specialization strategies (S3) in the SBSR. However, there is almost no link between CCIs’ potential for sustainable and resilient tourism and their contribution to the co-design and co-creation of S3. CCIs are rather absent agents in quadruple helix networks supporting S3 policy implementation. The literature on this topic is still premature and represents a clear gap in knowledge. By virtue of these circumstances, the present research investigates how CCIs contribute and reveal new linkages between local assets, potential markets and societal challenges by engaging them as proven sustainable innovation and transition brokers in transnational quadruple helix partnerships following S3 policies in accordance with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), thus supporting sustainable and resilient tourism. Moreover, this paper aims at advocating for development of rural and peripheral regions, thus reducing the so-called “rural marginalization”. In addition, this paper also supports ongoing recent discussions on related vs. unrelated diversification policy within the S3 realm.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063469

Christopher Meyer, PhD candidate at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, supervised by Prof. Dr. Gunnar Prause. He is currently working on his PhD thesis “Re-Shaping Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3): Design and Implementation of Regional Innovation for Sustainability Transition” elaborating S3 as European and regional innovation policy and improve its understanding on research, policy and business level. As Project Coordinator at the University of Wismar, he is regularly working in European Research & Innovation projects across various fields such as CCI innovation, maritime sector or regional development. Recently, he has founded his own company FundBroker GmbH to assist different public and private entities to design and implement projects and acquire necessary fundings across different programmes.

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research Seminar: Christoph Lütge “On Experimental Philosophy and (Business) Ethics” | TalTech

Monday, 20 February 2023 at 16:00-17:30 in room SOC-356 / Zoom

A presentation by Prof. Dr. Christoph Lütge (Technical University of Munich)

Academic philosophy has experienced a major upheaval during the last decade. Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have begun to challenge the traditional stance that philosophy is an undertaking best pursued from the safety of the armchair. Instead, they took the gloves off and brought philosophical questions to the experimental laboratory. Recently, especially the empirical study of human moral reasoning, i.e., „Experimental Ethics“, has come into focus. This lecture will explore the historical and systematic background of experimental ethics as well as some of the chances and opportunities that experimental philosophy and experimental (business) ethics hold.

Christoph Lütge studied business informatics and philosophy. Since 2010, he holds the Chair in Business Ethics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and since 2019, he is also the Director of the TUM Institute for Ethics in AI. Recent books include “An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI” (with coauthors) and “Business Ethics: an Economically Informed Perspective” (with M. Uhl). He is a member of the Scientific Board of the European AI Ethics initiative AI4People as well as of the German Ethics Commission on Automated and Connected Driving.

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Hla Thel Phyu "Voluntary financial disclosure in special purpose vehicles: Evidence from the UK's Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) for roads" | TalTech

Thursday, 8 December 2022 at 16:00-17:30 in room SOC-356 / Zoom

A presentation by Hla Thel Phyu (PhD candidate at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

This study examines the voluntary financial disclosure of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) involved in the UK's first design, build, finance, maintain, operate (DBFMO) road projects and attempts to understand some of the driving factors behind such disclosures by examining them through the lens of political economy theory. A content analysis of annual reports from 2004–2019 was conducted using Shaoul et al.'s (2010a) financial disclosure checklist to determine whether the financial disclosures provided by ten samples SPVs have improved and whether the information reported by those operating in environmentally controversial projects is more detailed than those not involved in environmentally controversial projects. The findings show that none of the ten SPVs provided full financial disclosure for all the desirable items deemed necessary for greater transparency by Shaoul et al. A significant majority of the SPVs (eight out of ten) increased their disclosure of related parties' transactions and values of assets and liabilities disclosures either in detail (full disclosure) or on a limited basis (partial disclosure). However, the disclosure of cash flow statements by the SPVs has declined over the years, with all of them failing to disclose performance deductions deemed necessary for controlling contractors’ services. Contrary to political economy theory, three SPVs involved in environmentally controversial projects either partially or fully reported fewer desirable disclosures than the non-involved seven SPVs. This comparative study contributes to the literature on transparency in information disclosure of SPVs by identifying information deficiencies and the lack of harmonised accounting practices, which is important for the accountability process in PFI. The study also describes the external factors that can facilitate transparency in the private sector reporting under PFI in the absence of government and market controls.

Hla Thel Phyu is a PhD candidate at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology. She is supervised by Professor Istemi Demirag and Associate Professor Natalie Gurvitš-Suits, and the topic of her project is “Transparency and Financial accountability in Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)”. She received a Bachelor of Commerce (Specializing in Accounting and Finance) from the University of Newcastle (Australia) and a Master's degree (Specializing in Accounting and Finance) from Umeå University (Sweden). She worked as an accountant in Singapore for over six years. In her research, she focuses on transparency, financial accountability and governance in SPVs, which are micro-level of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), also known as Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Event: Research seminar: Jason Burton & Mari-Klara Stein "Human Workforce in the Digital Age" | TalTech

Wednesday, 16 November 2022 at 16:00-17:30 Zoom

A presentation by Jason Burton (PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School) and Mari-Klara Stein (PhD, Professor at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

The people who comprise an organization’s workforce are conventionally referred to as human resources. While the term human resources was originally introduced to emphasize the value of human beings as an asset in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the label’s connotation has evolved over time, with some arguing it evokes an outdated view of labor as a commodity. In turn, many organizations have rebranded human resources with terms like people and culture or employee experience. What does this linguistic shift tell us about the state of human resources, and what might it foreshadow for the digital workplace? In this paper, we present an exploratory analysis of the Google Books Ngram Corpus in which we map the rise and fall of human resource-related terminology from 1900-2019. We show how the prevalence of different terms associate with various workplace trends and propose a computational methodology for studying the semantics of human resources as it relates to said trends. Such study may lend new insights as to how technological developments and path-altering events (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) change the way we view the workforce.

Jason Burton is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Digitalization of Copenhagen Business School. His research uses computational methods to study human behavior in the context of a digital society. This involves topics ranging from how people fundamentally reason with information and make decisions, to how the structure of online information environments influences the beliefs people form, to how online environments can be (re)designed to promote collective intelligence. Jason holds a PhD in Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London and an MSc in Organizational Psychiatry & Psychology from King’s College London.

Event: Research seminar: Airi Freimuth “Stakeholder engagement in blockchain-based technology in social media platforms” | TalTech

Wednesday, 02 November 2022 at 16:00-17:30 Zoom

A presentation by Airi Freimuth (PhD candidate at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

Social media platforms comprise billions of users and stakeholders that use those platforms for pleasure, business, education, politics etc. Social media platforms are the main platforms that are targeted by data breachers. Moreover, due to the increase of recent data breaches, the scientists believed that social media platforms are not paying enough attention to ensure the safety of their databases.

Proponents of blockchain technology state that the technology offers a solution to data security and validity issues in social media platforms. Centralized storage of information is no safer than the servers on which the data is stored. Practitioners have moved to blockchain technology to create alternative social media platforms that aim to be safer for all the stakeholders.

Blockchain technology creates trust among stakeholders. Lack of trust creates limited stakeholder engagement. Moreover, scientific literature lacks of clear classification of blockchain stakeholders.

The aim of stakeholder theory is to achieve a win-win outcome. However, implementing blockchain technology can be expensive for the stakeholders and the stakeholder engagement’s output remains unknown.

Airi Freimuth, PhD candidate at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology. She is supervised by Adjunct Prof. Linda D. Hollebeek and Associate Prof. Iivi Riivits-Arkonsuo and the topic of her project is “Customer engagement in service/product innovation: the stakeholders’ interplay”. She received a bachelor's degree in social sciences from Estonian Business School and a master's degree in marketing from Tallinn University of Technology. She has been working as the for Venden Group (Saku Läte in Estonia) for more than 10 years as a Head of Marketing and she is also responsible for different IT-projects and innovation management. Her research focus is mainly on stakeholder engagement and innovative technologies from a marketing perspective.

The seminar is in English.

Thursday, 4 August 2022 at 13:00-14:00 Zoom

A presentation by Roberta Sgariglia (Lead Data Scientist) and India Kerle (Junior Data Scientist) in the Data Analytics Practice at Nesta in London, United Kingdom.

In this seminar, Nesta will present its approach to multidisciplinary data analytics projects, examples of how this has led to inclusive impact, as well as the challenges and opportunities of working with colleagues from different backgrounds. We will cover examples of the most common data sources, methods and outputs data scientists work with to showcase what’s possible, as well as what delivering a real world data science project looks like. You will leave the workshop with a taste of the tradeoffs and sources of uncertainty inherent to our work, as well as some steps to build a shared language in your organisation, to help you improve collaboration with your data analytics colleagues. 

Roberta is a Lead Data Scientist in the Healthy Life Mission team. She works closely with other teams to implement data science projects that concern health and mental health. Roberta has a background in economics and applied statistics at Bocconi in Milan and Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, with a special focus on forecasting and macroeconomic modelling. She retrained as a data scientist at a later stage, but still strives to retain her statistical “forma mentis”. She has experience applying data analytics and data science techniques in different industries, including finance, data journalism and data science education.

India is a Junior Data Scientist in the Data Analytics Practice. Prior to Nesta, India worked in open data and APIs, from both a product development and data perspective. Her interest in data science and public policy stems from a number of projects she conducted during her masters, where she used data science methodologies to explore research questions within public health and fiscal policy.  She holds a BA from Wellesley College and a dual MPA-MPP from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

TalTech Industrial LinkedIn

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Nicoletta Corrocher “International collaboration in green energy technologies: Empirical evidence on OECD and BRIIC countries” | TalTech

Monday, 6 June 2022 at 12:00-13:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Nicoletta Corrocher (PhD, Lecturer and Research Fellow at Bocconi University).

The presentation investigates the intensity of international collaborations in energy-related technologies across OECD and BRIICS countries, by disentangling the role of the distance in environmental policy stringency between countries, controlling for the more traditional measures of technological, social, institutional and geographical distance. In doing so, it distinguishes between the stringency in demand-pull and the stringency in technology push policy instruments. The analysis relies upon an original dataset, with data on patents and co-patents in climate change and mitigation technologies over the period 1995–2014, with a focus on technologies related to energy generation, transmission or distribution. The results show that the distance in the stringency of environmental policy between countries hinders the intensity of technological collaborations in energy-related technologies and this occurs specifically with reference to demand-pull policy instruments. We also find that while the availability of local technological capabilities positively affects the intensity of international collaborations, if two countries are distant in terms of technological development, the co-patenting activity is hindered. Finally, BRIICS countries display a lower ability to participate in international co-patenting activity, particularly so in collaboration with other BRIICS countries.

Nicoletta Corrocher is Lecturer in Applied Economics at Bocconi University and Research Fellow at ICRIOS (Invernizzi Center for Research on Innovation, Organization, Strategy and Entrepreneurship), Bocconi University. She obtained a PhD in Economics and Management of Innovation at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and an MSc in Science and Technology Policy at SPRU, University of Sussex. Her main research interests concern the diffusion of innovations and industrial dynamics - particularly in ICT industries and service sectors – and the emergence of eco-innovations in the framework of sustainable development. She has published in international journals such as Research Policy, Regional Studies, Energy Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Industry and Innovation, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

TalTech Industrial LinkedIn

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Heesang Ryu "FDI Spillovers in Vietnam: The Role of CEO Ability" | TalTech

Wednesday, 25 May 2022 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Heesang Ryu (Research Fellow at the Department of Management and Technology at Bocconi University).

This presentation examines the relationship between CEO ability and FDI spillovers in Vietnam during the period 2004--2013 after WTO accession. Using firm-level panel data, I investigate the importance of CEO ability, proxied by educational attainment, in dealing with external FDI shocks and in managing internal resources, including the adoption of IT systems and the hiring of skilled workers. First, I find that better-educated CEOs in sectors with a higher share of foreign firms take advantage of the increasing FDI in their industry which results in higher productivity growth. Second, I also find that CEO ability is positively associated with the use of both IT technologies and skilled workers. Third, firms with highly educated CEOs utilize digital resources better than other firms, and thus show higher productivity growth than firms with CEOs with lower education levels.

Heesang Ryu is a Research Fellow at the Department of Management and Technology at Bocconi University. The main focus of her research is on innovation, knowledge spillovers and productivity. She studied Economics at ESSEC Business School in France and received her bachelor's degree from Yonsei University in Korea. Before starting her graduate studies, she was a policy analyst at the OECD.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

TalTech Industrial LinkedIn

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Nicoletta Corrocher “Technological regimes, patent growth and catch up in green technologies” | TalTech

Monday, 16 May 2022 at 13:00-14:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Nicoletta Corrocher (PhD, Lecturer and Research Fellow at Bocconi University).

In the workshop it is explored how the components of the technological regime affect catching-up and leadership change in green technologies in countries that are leaders and successful latecomers. We look at the extent to which technological opportunity, cumulativeness, originality and complexity of the knowledge base, and the maturity of technology contribute to the growth of patenting in green technologies. We test the relationships using USPTO patent data in green technologies over a 40-yeartime span (1975–2015), distinguishing two periods (1975–1999 and 2000–2015) and controlling for country-specific variables. Our results show that opportunity, complexity, originality, and maturity of the technology are positively associated with countries’ growth of patenting in green technologies, while cumulativeness has a negative effect, but only in the second period (2000–2015). The stock of  knowledge has a positive effect in the first period and a negative effect in the second one. Furthermore, we find confirmation that the process of growth in green patenting has been remarkable in successful latecomer countries (i.e., South Korea, Taiwan, and China).

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Giuseppe Grossi "Accounting for Evolving Public Governance" | TalTech

Tuesday, 26 April 2022 at 14:00 in room SOC-312 / Zoom

A presentation by Dr Giuseppe Grossi (Professor at the Department of Economic Analysis and Accounting of Nord University, Norway).

The purpose of this paper is to explain how public sector accounting has changed, is changing and will change due to public governance evolution.

This paper draws upon literature in the fields of public management, public administration and accounting. The aim is to explain how diverse forms of public governance influence public sector accounting, including accountability, performance measurement, budgeting, and reporting. Public governance is evolving into more inclusive but also complex forms, resulting in network, collaborative and digital governance. Consequently, the focus and dimensions of public sector accounting have changed, as reflected in new types of accountability, performance measurement, budgeting, and reporting. Drawing upon literature from different fields (public management, public administration, accounting) enables analysis of the changes in public sector accounting. Nevertheless, the intention is not to execute a systematic literature review but to provide an overview. In addition, the areas of risk management and auditing deserve further attention. This paper discusses the need to continually re-assess the role of public sector accounting for evolving public governance by recognising the interdependencies between different actors, citizens, and digital technologies.

Giuseppe Grossi is Research Professor in Accounting at Nord University (Norway), Kristianstad University (Sweden) and Kozminski University (Poland). His research focuses on governmental accounting and auditing, hybrid organisations, and smart cities. He is member of the editorial board and guest editor in several public management and accounting journals (as Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting Forum, British Accounting Review, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, and Public Management Review), editor in chief of the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, and associate editor of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. He is also vice-Chair of the CIGAR Network. He collaborates as expert with national governments, Supreme Audit Institutions, and the European Court of Auditors. He is technical advisor of International Public Sector Accounting Standard Board (IPSASB) of IFAC.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee. For issues relating academic content contact Prof. Istemi Demirag (istemi.demirag@taltech.ee).

The seminar has received funding from the ASTRA Project “TTÜ arenguprogramm aastateks 2016-2022” (Project code: 2014-2020.4.01.16-0032).

Event: Research seminar: Naghmeh Nik Bakhsh "Joint recovery management in Business-to-Business settings: Antecedents, process and relational outcome" | TalTech

Wednesday, 20 April 2022 at 15:30-16:45 via Zoom

A presentation by Naghmeh Nik Bakhsh (PhD candidate at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

The presentation addresses the process, antecedents, and relational outcome of joint recovery management in business-to-business markets. Despite the recent studies in the services recovery management literature have helped firms to encompass failure detection, failure analysis, and response design recovery strategies in the business-to-business (B2B) context, service recovery often fails to provide appropriate recovery because of unresolved tensions that arise from the uncovered expectations and needs of customers relating to process and outcome of recovery management  One of the main barriers that retard effective recovery management is attributed to the poor understanding of customers’ problems and changing nature of customers' needs and expectations. Supplier firms can bridge this gap through knowledge sourcing and the high level of interaction with their customers to reveal the customers' explicit and implicit needs and expectations. The value of co-creation joint recovery activities has well-recognized benefits for understanding the customer expectations and hidden needs and recovery management is vital to secure post-failure relationship quality. In this research seminar, we will discuss the concept of joint recovery management, the antecedents, and the outcome of it from the supplier's and customer's perspective and point out the managerial implication of this research.

Publication: Nik Bakhsh, N. & Riivits-Arkonsuo, I. (2022). Joint B2B Recovery Management: Resource Integration and Value Co-creation. Journal of Value Creation. [forthcoming]

Naghmeh Nik Bakhsh, PhD candidate at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology. She is supervised by Assoc. Prof. Iivi Riivits-Arkonsuo and the topic of her project is “Joint recovery management in Business-to-Business settings: Antecedents, process, and relational outcome”. She received a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Iran university of science and technology and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Mazandaran. Her papers have been published in the Journal of Service Science Research and Eurasian Journal of Business and Management. She has been working in the customer success, marketing, and technical support engineering team in Geniussports and Pipedrive companies where she has had the opportunity to communicate with customers closely for 4 years. Her research focus is mainly on customer behavior and recovery management.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research seminar: Juan Mateos-Garcia "Developing new mapping methods to enable better R&I policies and enhance our understanding of innovation systems and data business" | TalTech

TalTech Industrial workshop on the EURITO project.

Monday, 18 April 2022 at 13:30-14:30 Zoom

A presentation by Juan Mateos-Garcia (Director of the Data Analytics Practice at Nesta in London, United Kingdom).

In this seminar, Nesta will present the results of EURITO (EU Relevant, Inclusive, Trusted and Open indicators for research and Innovation policy), a 3-year Horizon 2020 project to develop relevant, inclusive, trusted and open indicators to inform research and innovation policy in the EU. We will talk about the rationale for the project, how it was organised and the outputs we generated with a specific focus on our work to produce indicators about emerging technologies, sustainability and the R&D response to Covid-19. We will conclude with some reflections about lessons learned and policy implications for the evidence production system for research and innovation policy.

Juan Mateos-Garcia is the Director of the Data Analytics Practice at Nesta. He leads a team of data engineers, data scientists, data visualisation developers, policy experts and ethicists using data analytics to advance Nesta’s missions. Juan is interested in how data analytics techniques such as machine learning can be combined with other methods to achieve social impact, in how scientific research and innovation are being transformed by emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, and in the role of policy in ensuring that these emerging technologies evolve in directions consistent with the public interest and conducive towards a fairer society.

The seminar is in English.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

Event: Research seminar: Stefano Breschi "Knowledge Complementarity between Seed Investors and Startup Founders: Lessons from Accelerators" | TalTech

Monday, 11 April 2022 at 14:30 MS Teams

A presentation by Stefano Breschi (Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Management and Technology at Bocconi University).

Which entrepreneurs benefit most from accelerator programs? In this paper, we argue that the value-added by startup accelerators depends critically on whether the knowledge these supporting institutions provide is complementary to or a substitute for that of the founding entrepreneurs themselves. As the main value-adding activity of accelerators is the paced and intense business training offered to participants, we hypothesize that such intervention is either redundant or not very beneficial if the entrepreneurial team already has a business education background. Conversely, accelerator programs are particularly efficient channels through which early-stage entrepreneurs, equipped with strong technological competence but lacking business knowledge, can access this valuable complementary resource. We test our ideas using a matched sample of 956 entrepreneurial teams, combining in­formation from Crunch­base and LinkedIn.

Stefano Breschi is Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Management and Technology at Bocconi University. He is Director of ICRIOS research centre, Bocconi University. After obtaining a bachelor degree in Economics at Bocconi University, a Master Degree in "Technology, Policy and Innovation Management" at University of Limburg, Maastricht, he obtained a PhD in Economics at the University of Pavia. He is Associate editor of the journal Industrial and Corporate Change and Advisory editor of the journal Research Policy.

The seminar is in English.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

Event: Research seminar: Karlis Kanders "Innovation Sweet Spots: Which green technologies are at a tipping point?" | TalTech

Wednesday, 16 March 2022 at 13:00-14:00 via Zoom

A presentation by Dr Karlis Kanders (Senior Data Foresight Lead in the Discovery Hub at Nesta in London, United Kingdom).

In this seminar, Nesta will present an experimental, data-driven horizon scanning approach for tracking the trajectory of innovations and technologies. This approach leverages data science and machine-learning methods, and evaluates trends in research funding, business investment, news coverage and parliamentary debates. By combining insights across several large datasets that are commonly only analysed in isolation, we paint a multi-dimensional picture of the innovations indicating the resources they are attracting and how they are perceived.

As the first application of Innovation Sweet Spots, we examined ‘green’ technologies, particularly focusing on those that can help decarbonise heating and reduce household carbon emissions. Our findings suggest that, in the UK, low-carbon heating stands out among green technologies in terms of attracting significant public investment in research and development, and it shows a growing presence in the public discourse. However, we do not see similarly strong signals from venture capital investment. Based on our findings and interviews with investors, we have developed recommendations for action, which highlight the need for a more supportive policy environment in the UK, and innovative business and financing models, in order to achieve successful deployment and scaling of technologies for decarbonising heating.

Karlis Kanders is a Senior Data Foresight Lead working in Nesta’s Discovery Hub. He uses machine learning and network analysis to uncover emerging trends, promising technologies and interventions that will shape our future. Previously, Karlis has been working on data-driven innovations for navigating the labour market and connecting people to good work, as part of Nesta’s Open Jobs programme. Karlis holds a PhD in Computational Neuroscience at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

The seminar is in English.

Event: Research seminar: Durst, Gerstlberger, Davies "SMEs: Be Prepared for Supply Chain Risks!" | TalTech

Monday, 28 February 2022 at 16:00-17:30 via Zoom

A presentation by Susanne Durst (PhD), Wolfgang Gerstlberger (PhD) and Lidia Davies (all Department of Business Administration, TalTech).

This presentation will introduce the audience to the EU ERASMUS+ project “SMEs: Be Prepared for Supply Chain Risks” and its preliminary results. This current project at the Department of Business Administration with a runtime of two years (01. September 2020 - 31. August 2022) deals with different SME supply chain risks and possibilities for the identification and management of such risks. Based on the results, a Training Curriculum for Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) in SMEs will be developed.

Susanne Durst is a Full Professor of Management at the Department of Business Administration at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia. Her research interests include small business management, SME business transfers, knowledge (risk) management, and corporate governance. She has been conducting several national and international research projects on knowledge management, SME business transfers, marketing, corporate governance, and innovation management.

Wolfgang Gerstlberger is a Professor for Operations at the same department. His research interests are in sustainable supply chain management, innovation and operations management, digital transformation of businesses, and innovation systems on different levels. He has been leading and was involved in different EU and national research projects on (sustainable) operations and innovation management, corporate social responsibility and Public-Private Partnership for technology transfer.

Lidia Davies is a PhD Student at the Department of Business Administration at TalTech. She is supervised by Professor Susanne Durst and the topic of her PhD project is “Developing more crisis-proof organizations and business models”.

A project funded by European Union's Erasmus+ Programme under Project Reference: 2020-1-EE01-KA202-077891.

The seminar is in English. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Event: Research seminar: Chantale Tippett "The Politics of Algorithms" | TalTech

Thursday, 10 February 2022 at 11:00-12:00 via Zoom

A presentation by Chantale Tippett (Nesta Research Fellow at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture).

In the wake of mounting societal concerns, many organisations working to develop novel data technologies such as artificial intelligence have rushed to adopt ethical principles, engage in algorithmic auditing, or increase the transparency of their work. Welcomed by some as a step in the right direction, critics have nonetheless argued that most of these initiatives are ineffective at best, and at worst constitute forms of ‘ethics washing’ to avoid regulation and public scrutiny. In order to leverage these technologies for the common good, critics argue, we must reckon with the ways in which they are fundamentally political: in determining whose CV is reviewed when they apply for a job, which children are flagged as ‘at risk’ in a child welfare office, and what news people see, novel data technologies increasingly shape the infrastructure that determines who gets what, when, and how. Attempting to remain neutral on how such questions are answered is not only impossible, but it also risks perpetuating an often unjust status quo. How, then, should the developers of such technologies proceed? In this seminar, we’ll explore the current state of the debate around the ethics and politics of novel data technologies, and how this is shaping new prescriptions for action.

Chantale Tippett is the Nesta Research Fellow at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, where she currently explores new approaches to integrating social, moral and political values into innovation in general, and data science in particular. Prior to joining the University of Oslo, Chantale spent several years working in Nesta’s Data Analytics Practice where she led and contributed to projects on topics ranging from the future of public interest news, mapping innovation in health, and developing novel indicators to inform research and innovation policy. Chantale holds an MSc in Public Health Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she first developed an interest in innovation for the common good.

This workshop is organised by TalTech Industrial project. TalTech Industrial has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952410.

Wednesday, 09 june 2021 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Istemi Demirag (PhD, professor at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how localized (organization-level) actors of policy initiatives that are inspired by neoliberal ideologies use management accounting and control practices. Specifically, it addresses the operational stages of a case study Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract within the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) transport sector of roads for embedding government objectives in the underlying project road.

This paper adopts Dean’s (2010) analytics of government to unpack the accounting-based control practices within the case study contract to articulate how, at the micro level, the government’s objective of improving road-users’ safety is enacted, modified, and maintained through such regimes.

Drawing on a content-based analysis of UK government PFI policy and extensive case study specific documents, together with interviews and observations, this research provides theoretical insights about how control practices, at a distance without direct intervention, function as forms of power for government for shaping the performance of the PFI contractor. The authors find that the public sector’s accounting control regimes in the case study project have a constraining effect on “real partnership working” between the government and private contractors and on the private sector’s incentive to innovate.

By analysing a single road case study PFI contract, the findings may not be generalizable. However, the paper provides significant theoretically informed insights about how public service delivery that is outsourced to private contractors is controlled by government at a distance within complex organizational arrangements (e.g. PFI).

Authors: Salman Ahmad (University of Aston, UK), Ciaran Connolly (QUB, Belfast, UK), Istemi Demirag (TalTech)

Istemi Demirag is Professor of Accounting at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. Previously he was a Professor of Accounting at Keele University Management School where led the Accounting Group and developed the School’s post graduate research programmes. Before joining Keele, he worked as Professor in Accounting at Hull University and Queen’s University Belfast, Management School. His research interests are in accountability and good governance, performance management, implementation of public policy and its unexpected consequences. More recently he has been exploring the role of accounting in controlling hybrid organisations, using political economy framework to analyse some of above key themes, using critical methodologies with the aim of understanding power related issues in strategic and management control in organisations. He was an Associate Editor of The European Journal of Finance from 2000 to 2013 and was also one of the Associate Editors of Accounting Forum for almost ten years. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting (QJFA) and on the Editorial Review Boards of Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability and Journal of Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. He is also an ad hoc reviewer of several leading management and accounting journals. He initiated, organised, and contributed to the European Accounting Association’s (EAA) funded research methodology seminars entitled “Early Career Academics’ Research Development Program” designed for developing research skills of accounting lecturers from the Eastern European countries. 

He raised and/or contributed to research funding approximately £1 million from leading research councils including Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), ESRC, European Union, SERC, ICAS and the World Bank. Professor Demirag published consistently at an outstanding level, some in “A” ranked international Accounting and Management  journals including: Accounting and Business Research (ABR); Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (JBFA); International Journal of Accounting (IJA); British Accounting Review (BAR); Public Administration (PA); Financial Accountability and Management (FAM); Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); Accounting Forum (AF); Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA); Accounting Review (AR); Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and Public Management Review (PMR).  He published over one hundred refereed and professional journal articles and edited, authored and/or co-authored six books.

Google Scholar

The seminar is in English and lasts up to 90 minutes. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Wednesday, 28 April 2021 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Katrin Paadam, PhD and Liis Ojamäe, PhD (Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

Asserting that living in a city is an art (Raban 1974) tends to be even more true when viewed in an experience of post-gentrified iconic heritage context with built-in contradictions between the promise of high-quality residential space and that of the seductive tourism destination. As it opens to the gaze with the magic and charm symbolic capital consecrated in the built heritage (Bourdieu 2005, 2000) the Old Town of Tallinn represents a resource and challenge, anticipated enjoyment of the oeuvre (Lefebvre 1968) and yet inescapable tensions accruing from colliding interests of stakeholders in the intention of domesticating the place.

Drawing on findings of the recently (2021) completed mixed-method case study, the discussion focuses on Old Town property owners’ – residents and landlords – assessments and dispositions towards the practice of residing and acting in heritage space contested on all its scales by the ambition and responsibility to preserve heritage and the process of touristification (i.e. growing tourist flows, mass tourism, tourism oriented businesses, incl. accommodation, and the related municipal strategies). The analysis allows viewing the property owners’ (re)interpretations of their practice and future prospects in time-space dynamic as of personal experiences as well as along the ‘normality’ of high tourism seasons and unprecedently enduring COVID-19 pandemic circumstances.

Key-words: post-gentrification, heritage, touristification, symbolic capital

Katrin Paadam, PhD, Professor. With integrated approach towards urban and residential dynamics, her research embraces the transforming nature of actors’ practices and cultures in the interplay of material structures and larger socio-spatial processes in the city. Among other publications, she is the co-editor and author of “Ways of Residing in Transformation. Interdisciplinary Perspectives”, Routledge 2017 and “Enabling the City: Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Encounters in Research and Practice”, Routledge 2021.

Liis Ojamäe, PhD, Associate Professor. Her research interests have been related to urban housing: residential culture, housing policy and markets, housing reconstruction and sustainability. Among other publications, she is the author of a chapter in “Ways of Residing in Transformation. Interdisciplinary Perspectives”, Routledge 2017 and co-editor and author “Enabling the City: Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Encounters in Research and Practice”, Routledge 2021.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to 90 minutes. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Antti Ainamo (PhD, professor at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech).

‘Radical circles’ is an approach to organize for innovation, alternative in comparison to innovation teams and innovation communities, superior to these when detailed managerial guidance is not readily available because of high uncertainty, high ambiguity, or both. Earlier research on radical circles has established also that a common sense of malaise with a current situation can bring a small group of creative individuals together in a joint effort to change their industry’s dominant paradigm.  In this paper, our empirical case analysis of Angry Birds finds that this “fun” video game attracted players around the world in unprecedented numbers immediately upon launch. An innovative brand community volunteered themselves as participants in the circle’s change effort so that the global video-games market and industry were transformed. Besides supporting and strengthening earlier findings, this study finds that membership in the Angry Birds radical circles was more fluid than what earlier radical-circles research has found. We call for further research also to specify (1) who engages in visionary innovation in a radical circle; (2) why, how, in what ways, and when they do so; (3) as well as to what extent radical circles may be a good approach also in more immediate-term innovation than visionary innovation, such as in development of a particular product a service.

This paper is written by Antti Ainamo (TalTech and Aalto University), Claudio Dell’Era (Politecnico Milan), and Roberto Verganti (Stockholm University, Harvard University, and Politecnico Milan).

Antti Ainamo, PhD (Management), Lic.Sc. (Int.Business), Ms.Sc.(Marketing) Helsinki School of Economics 1996, 1993, 1988. Antti has published in e.g. Organization Science, Industry and Innovation, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Claudio in e.g. Long Range Planning, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Creativity and Innovation Management; and Roberto in e.g. Harvard Business Review, Management Science, and Design Issues.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to 90 minutes. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Wednesday, 27 January 2021 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Rein Riisalu (lecturer at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech)

Haapsalu, the capital of Läänemaa and a city well known as a resort for more than century, is striving to be connected to the world by railway. The latest news are positive, suggesting this venture may succeed. Some optimists believe this may be realised as early as the end of 2023, while others point to 2026. The electric railway to Haapsalu enabling passenger trains to run at speeds of up to 160 km/h is going to be the most modern rail infrastructure across the entire Baltic region, before the launch of Rail Baltica. A question has to be asked: if this investment is realised, could it be possible to increase the footprint of railway on a significant level in an example of that community which is an EU-wide target? The presentation concentrates on the Haapsalu railway story from 1995 to 2020 which incorporates periods of difficulties in public railway, privatisation, hassles for the private owner, railroad dismantling, and attempts for restauration. Additionally, the ideas about CityRail in Haapsalu, integration of public rail and public railway museum, intermodality of rail and harbour will be discussed as platforms for further development.

Rein Riisalu has been a lecturer at Tallinn University of Technology since 1999. His main teaching subject area is marketing.  His pedagogical approach prioritises the development of students’ team-work and problem solving skills, including through the application of case-method and simulation games. Rein retains a dual role in academia and management/consultancy. His involvement in the railway industry started in 2001 when Rein acted as a member of the management board of the Estonian Electric Railways Ltd. with responsibility for marketing and strategy (a leading suburban public transport company operating in the capital city area). As a consultant, he has conducted several transportation projects including engagements with Rail Baltica and rail connections between Tallinn-Riga and Tallinn-St Petersburg. Since 2005, Rein has collaborated in a project aimed at restoring the Haapsalu railway.  Rein has had several leading positions and running EEC/Norway-funded project for railway CBA. Currently he is engaged as Director of the railway program at Läänemaa Foundation.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to 90 minutes. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

Wednesday, 2 December 2020 at 16:00 MS Teams

A presentation by Assoc. Prof. Tarvo Niine (lecturer at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech). The themes in his research include competencies in logistics, modern challenges in logistics and contemporary challenges as well as new opportunities in education.

Logistics industry and its operating environment is rapidly changing and evolving. The European Logistics Association, ELA, is actively keeping standards of logistics competence up to date to meet these challenges. This presentation reflects on two sessions of experimental workshops working with logistics industry leaders to formulate modern era required competencies in emerging areas of logistics. The purpose of this research is twofold: first, to identify and understand industry expectations regarding skillsets in employing logistics specialists as well as managers in terms of digitalization, resilience and sustainability. Moreover, it is intended to observe the commonalities in perceived competence requirements as stated by involved stakeholders in order to evaluate the maturity of the developed focal future concepts in a practical field. This study contrasts three methods of workshop practice on formulating these expectations and allows additional observations of the homogeneity / heterogeneity of the three developed focal future concepts as expressed by industry leaders. The results emerged have practical implications for specialists working in the field, companies, HR departments, Universities and ELA itself.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to 90 minutes. Further information: pia.riips@taltech.ee.

The Accounting Group in Department of Business Administration is organizing research workshops/seminars from October 2019 in order to further develop awareness of our own research work among the accounting group members and other relevant academic colleagues within the Business School. The workshops aim to help colleagues to develop new ideas and provide support for speculative ideas/methods in a friendly and a supportive manner; not only aiming to seek completed or nearly completed piece work, but also new plans for research or first draft papers/ideas. Moreover, the purpose of the seminars is to stimulate further discussion and to seek research co-operation among colleagues in a friendly and supportive manner, involving empirical and/or interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting and business research with an ultimate aim for 3 or 4* ABS publications or similar ranked journal outputs.

Seminar schedule for autumn semester 2019/2020

Questions regarding the internal accounting seminars can be addressed to Istemi Demirag. If you wish to submit your papers for the seminars please e-mail anup.saha@taltech.ee

On Wednesday, September 11 at 12.00 (room SOC-316)

Assoc. prof., dr. Rasa Daugėlienė – the member of scientific group of Public Governance at Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities of Kaunas University of Technology. The main research fields are EU external economic relations; Economics of European integration; Functioning of EU internal market; EU as a World player, economic relations between EU, USA, Russia; macroeconomic coordination of state’s economy. She is editor-in-chief of international scientific journal European Integration Studies, which is refereed in Web of Science Core Collection and indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index, EBSCO (Business Source Complete basis; Central & Eastern European Academic Source Database Coverage List), DOAJ, EconBib Index (Economics Bibliography), Index Copernicus International, etc.

Brief description of the seminar

“Design Thinking” – from problems to solution. Design thinking is an approach to complex problems that always focuses on the target group of the product or service and their requirements. To this end, an interdisciplinary group of people work together in an environment that promotes creativity. As a team, they want to develop the right questions with which they can develop solutions to convince the user. The principle of method will be presented in twenty minutes though the understanding of application of method needs at least two working days.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour and thirty minutes. Further information: Natalie Aleksandra Gurvitš-Suits

On Wednesday, September 4 at 16.00 (room SOC-311)

Linda Desiree Hollebeek (Adjunct Professor, Department of Business Administration)
 
The service sector has seen significant developments in recent decades, including the increasing adoption of automated (computerized) forms of interactivity in service delivery, customer relationship management, and back-end processing activities (e.g. automated booking systems; Ostrom et al. 2015; Bitner et al. 2000). Each of these trends reflects the adoption of particular emerging technologies, including service robotics or intelligent assistants (Teixeira et al. 2017; Van Doorn et al. 2017), which are predicted to be increasingly adopted in service-based customer-firm interactions (Kumar et al. 2016).

While automization has traditionally implied a degree of standardization of service processes and/or offerings (Kurzweil 2005), automated service interactions in today’s world offer a growing opportunity for service personalization, while simultaneously capitalizing on the benefits of service automation (e.g. enhanced service efficiency, reduced variability; Glas et al. 2017; Rabbitt et al. 2015). Not surprisingly, various commentators acclaim the vast future potential for engaging customers through automated service interactions (e.g. Foster et al. 2017; Hollebeek et al. 2017). For example, IBM (2017) predicts that by 2020, 85% of customer-firm interactions will be conducted via computerized technologies, without human involvement. Customer engagement enabled through automated customer-to-machine interactions is thus forecast to increase, and may even replace specific forms of traditional customer-to-employee service interactions altogether (Shi et al. 2015; Singh et al. 2017). However, despite its acclaimed benefits, little remains known regarding customer engagement (CE) in automated service interactions, which is a key research gap addressed in this paper. We develop a set of propositions to guide further work in the area and discuss important implications that ensue from our analyses (to appear as a forthcoming piece by Hollebeek, Sprott and Andreassen in Journal of Service Research).
 
The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour. Further information: Marii Haak

On Thursday, April 18 at 11.00 (room SOC-415)

Steffen Roth (Professor at La Rochelle Business School, France)

This paper explores the potential of big data, such as those compiled by the Google Books project, to inform the dominant theories of the firm and strategic management that tend to be grounded on strong assumptions about the capitalist nature of the modern society. Combining the novel methodologies of the digital age with Niklas Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation, we draw on big data-driven abductive reasoning to redirect the attention of management scholars away from the dominant contract-based and competence theories of capitalist firms toward organizations navigating the regime of functional differentiation which is marked by contingent and historically evolving prominence of individual function systems. We conclude that this navigation requires appropriate strategic management tools which are no longer primarily geared to the economic function system but rather entail a radical reconfiguration of the firm as a multifunctional organization.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour. Further information: Marii Haak

On Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 15.00 (room SOC-415)

Merle Küttim (Research Scientist, Department of Business Administration)

Iivi Riivits-Arkonsuo (Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration)

Jelena Hartšenko (Lecturer, Department of Business Administration)

The presentation summarizes the results of the study aimed at analysing the success of university graduates in the labour market regarding their income and added value of acquired education 2006-2017. The data obtained from various national registries indicate that when looking at higher education institutions as a whole (i.e. a combination of all levels of study and programmes) nominal and real wages are the highest for EBS graduates, followed by TalTech graduates. In terms of disciplines and study levels, TalTech's graduates in engineering and information technology have the highest earnings at PhD, Master and Bachelor levels. Regarding added value of higher education, studying at TalTech between 2013 and 2016 has influenced income change positively in the areas of information technology and economics, but not in engineering and natural sciences.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour. Further information: Marii Haak

On Friday, November 30, 2018 at 15.00 (room SOC-314)

Jens Heger (Assistant Professor at Leuphana University of Lüneburg)

Decentralized scheduling with dispatching rules is applied in many fields of production and logistics, especially in highly complex manufacturing systems. Since dispatching rules are restricted to their local information horizon, there is no rule that outperforms other rules across various objectives, scenarios and system conditions. An approach to dynamically adjust the parameters of a dispatching rule depending on the current system conditions. The influence of different parameter settings of the chosen rule on the system performance is estimated by a machine learning method, whose learning data is generated by preliminary simulation runs. Using a dynamic flow shop scenario with sequence-dependent set-up times, it is demonstrated that this approach is capable of significantly reducing the mean tardiness of jobs. Further extensions to scheduling in cellular manufacturing with automated guided vehicles are presented.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour. Further information: Marii Haak

On Monday, May 21, 2018 at 16.00 (room SOC-307)

Merle Küttim (Research Scientist, Department of Business Administration)

The nature of innovation in different industries has been found to depend on sectoral characteristics. Sectoral differences play an important role in accessing innovation resources and lead to differences in terms of needs and timing of support from the policy framework. By bringing together literature on organisational knowledge bases and social networks, the configurations of different sectoral knowledge networks can be studied. The aim of the study is to explore the differences between the knowledge networks in biotechnology and information technology representing analytical and synthetic knowledge bases. The research focuses more specifically on the differences in institutional and geographical proximity and other network characteristics in these sectors. The study makes use of social network analysis, which enables to understand the ‘density’ and ‘texture’ of social networks, and applies it to the EU research projects funded from 1995 to 2016 (from 4th framework programme up to Horizon 2020), where Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian organisations have participated. The results indicate that the more active sector has been information technology in terms of number of projects and participating organisations. In biotechnology networks, higher education and research institutions have dominated, while in information technology the distribution between universities and enterprises was almost equal. The geographical location of organisations was quite similar as in both sectors as the majority of partners came from Western Europe. In terms of network characteristics, the density of the network was higher in biotechnology as the overall network was divided into large segments. The information technology network, on the other hand, was scattered more into smaller un-connected parts. The results confirm the greater importance of universities in a sector with analytical knowledge base (biotechnology), but not the exchange of knowledge over greater geographical distances.

The seminar is in English and lasts up to one hour.