Digital Economy

Digital technology-enabled business processes are integrated into the digital economy. Such technologies also enable the internet to conduct digital commerce in a trustless network and decentralized environment. This chapter also draws attention to the new form of economy, which focuses on the development and functions of the digital economy as a new growth engine for Society 5.0 and sheds light on emerging technologies and how the disruptive element of blockchain technology challenges the status quo of the old economy and the underpinning digital disruption imposed by decentralize platformisation. The core components of the digital economy, including digital technologies that serve as the new engine of growth for Society 5.0, were identified. The chapter concluded by highlighting the implications of digital technologies, and how standardisation, upgrading curriculum, legislative frameworks, and policies remedy the impediment of growing the digital economy for Society 5.0.

Management Game

Digital disruption and continuous productivity improvement require more from people management, thus raising the bar for leadership competencies. International studies indicate that leadership competence gaps are large and traditional leadership training methods does not seem to solve this problem. This article's findings supports this situation. The authors will open the complexity behind organizational productivity development and present game theoretical architecture that simulates management behavior effects to human performance. New methods enable practice-based learning that enables formatting leaders' behavior so that it will create long-term success with continuous change. The authors will present gamified leadership training procedure and discuss the practical learning experiences from a management simulation game. The authors' study reveals challenges at interactive leadership skills, thus, it is argued, that there seems to be problems at the leadership mind-set. Therefore, more sophisticated learning methods and tools should be used.

Journalism Innovation

ABSTRACT – This paper discusses journalism innovation through experimental units known as “media labs”, addressing motivations, processes and outputs related to them. It is based on collaborative four-year research projects that mapped 123 labs within industry, civic society, and academia globally, with a focus on Latin America, North America and Europe. The data spans 45 interviews and 54 survey answers from lab leaders across 17 countries and covers 60 innovation outputs, with 30 closely related to media and journalism. The paper’s main theoretical frames incorporate open innovation and constructs from media innovation and media management. The results indicate that media labs are either within organisations or alongside them, producing projects systematically and experimentally as a reaction to digital disruption. Within an environment of scarcity, they catalyse innovation and combine technical and creative skills, unveiling solutions beyond new narratives or content-related innovations. RESUMO – Este artigo discute inovação em jornalismo através de laboratórios experimentais denominados media labs, abordando motivações, processos e resultados relacionados a eles. A investigação é baseada em quatro anos de projetos de pesquisa colaborativos que mapearam 123 laboratórios na indústria, sociedade civil e academia em âmbito global, especialmente na América Latina, América do Norte e Europa. Os dados abrangem 45 entrevistas e 54 questionários com líderes de laboratório de 17 países, assim como 60 resultados de inovação, 30 deles mais estreitamente relacionados à mídia e ao jornalismo. Os principais quadros teóricos incorporam inovação aberta e constructos da pesquisa em inovação e gerenciamento de mídia. Os resultados indicam que media labs estão dentro ou próximo de organizações, produzindo projetos de forma sistemática e experimental como uma reação à disrupção digital. Em um contexto de escassez, eles catalisam a inovação combinando habilidades técnicas e criativas, desenvolvendo soluções além da inovação em narrativas. RESUMEN – Este artículo analiza la Innovación en Periodismo a través de laboratorios experimentales denominados media labs, abordando motivaciones, procesos y resultados relacionados con ellos. La investigación se basa en cuatro años de proyectos de investigación colaborativa que mapearon 123 laboratorios en la industria, la sociedad civil y la academia a nivel mundial, especialmente en América Latina, América del Norte y Europa. Los datos comprenden 45 entrevistas y 54 cuestionarios con líderes de laboratorio de 17 países, así como 60 resultados de innovación, con especial atención a 30 de los cuales están más estrechamente relacionados con los medios y el periodismo. Los principales marcos teóricos incorporan la innovación abierta y los constructos de investigación en innovación y gestión de medios. Los resultados indican que los media labs están dentro o cerca de las organizaciones, produciendo proyectos de forma sistemática y experimental como reacción a la disrupción digital. En un contexto de escasez, catalizan la innovación combinando habilidades técnicas y creativas, desarrollando soluciones más allá de la innovación narrativa.

CROWDFUNDING AS AN ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FOR SMES AND START-UPS IN MALAYSIA: AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE FROM THE LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups have consistently contributed to a country’s tax revenue, technology advancement, and innovation, job creation as well as economic outputs. However, they are facing great challenges or setbacks in securing funding from external sources. To overcome the fundraising issues or financing lacuna, many entrepreneurs have resorted to crowdfunding as an alternative source of their equity or debt financing. Crowdfunding, being a significant aspect of the recent fintech innovation and digital disruption, has been put under the spotlight and received high expectations from all stakeholders to be an effective solution to SMEs and start-ups. This article would be focusing on crowdfunding with financial returns, namely, equity crowdfunding (ECF) and crowdlending/peer-to-peer lending (P2P). The research methodology employed by this article is primarily based on the literature review of various legislations, scholarly articles, research papers, government policies, books, and other publications concerning the ECF and P2P from different disciplines. At the end of this article, the author opined that crowdfunding could be a useful alternative financing method for SMEs and start-ups in Malaysia as it helps the capital formation and bridges the financing gaps for them. Countless benefits could also be offered to the society and economy at large with the proper crowdfunding regulations in place. Upon reviewing the Guidelines on Recognised Markets issued by the Securities Commission Malaysia (Guidelines), the author argues that the Guidelines is a carefully crafted and balanced regulation, albeit there is room for improvement.

Saffron Interactive, Create Your Own Future

This is a case study detailing the 2021 IELA Gold award winner for Blended Learning, Saffron Interactive’s Create Your Own Future. This project was developed to support those most at risk from digital disruption into the labour market and towards sustainable employment.

Shaping a View on the Influence of Technologies on Sustainable Tourism

To date, tourism is the fastest growing industry globally, but one of the least developed in terms of environmentally sustainable practices. However, only a small portion of documents elaborate on how the introduction of new technologies can impact a more sustainable development route for tourism. This study’s objective is to provide an overview on literature state-of-the-art related to sustainable tourism and technological innovations, offering insights for further advancing this domain. We employ a bibliometric analysis and a comprehensive review of 139 articles, collected from Web of Science and Scopus databases, for the purpose of: (i) exploring and discussing the most relevant contributions in the publication network: (ii) highlighting key issues and emerging topics; (iii) uncovering open questions for the future. Our findings reveal contradictory views on the risks and benefits of technology adoption. Artificial intelligence, internet of things, circular economy, big data, augmented and virtual reality emerge as major trends. Five work streams are identified and described, leading to a broader perspective on how technology can shape the future of sustainable tourism. Relevant theoretical and managerial implications are derived. Finally, a research agenda is proposed as guidance for future studies addressing the outcomes of digital disruption on sustainable tourism.

The Shifting Role of Accountants in the Era of Digital Disruption

Pandemic and industrial revolution 4.0 made almost of all business activities and professional moved to digital way. People have to adapted to work with many innovations that emerged in the field of business which they work, including accountant. The era of digital disruption made the fundamental role of the accountant taken over by system or software. This phenomenon raises anxiety for a number of accountants, because their jobs are replaced by system, so companies can reduce the number of workers which classified as accountants. Whether the accountant will die along with the development of technological innovation? Certainly not. The purpose of this research is giving insight that accountants are required to be agile-learners who enrich skills with the aim of managing creativity and reasoning so that they are able to create infrastructure, platforms, and digital software that can control the automation in business. Using qualitative explanatory research method with literature review, observation, and interview, researcher found that the functional role of accountants is increasing, not only in financial reporting system proficiency, but especially in strategic business analysts with the help of business intelligence as the basis of decision making for business. Likewise technological innovation gave birth to another scientific field of business and accountant which enlarge job opportunities and threats as the results and implications. Keeping financial data and confidential information safe and secure should be the top priority for any business.