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This chapter explores the concept of authenticity in the context of today’s highly competitive hospitality industry. Drawing on the multi-sited ethnographic case study of Ziferblat, the world’s first pay-per-minute cafe franchise, the author examines how the imperative of authenticity is addressed by small international enterprises falling in between the categories of chain and independent. By tracing how Ziferblat’s original concept, shaped by the personal and socioeconomic background of its founder, was subsequently transformed by the local teams and adapted to different cultural-geographical contexts, this chapter adds new empirical evidence to the dynamic and pluralistic notion of multiple authenticities.

This chapter examines the micro-level dynamics of cross-innovation involving audiovisual and educational expertise through the prism of two cases: an augmented reality-based chemistry learning app developed in Estonia and a 360-degree short film project aimed at documenting and raising awareness about historical buildings in Lithuania. Based on the two cases, the chapter outlines several trends: the broadening of the notion of education beyond institutional education; the growing interest in public–private partnerships; and the emergence of heterogeneous networks feeding into the larger epistemic community of educational innovators. It also highlights a number of challenges that members of this community may face, including institutional resistance to change, schools’ lack of resources, teachers’ and administrators’ reluctance to use new technology and emerging technologies’ lack of maturity.