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The chapter explores the challenges in the financial education of the new generation under the influence of digital transformation, building awareness, and compliance with the new model of society. The rapid development of technology significantly influences our daily lives, thus making us look at the progress of various processes differently, thus facilitating the social and professional performance of subjects. The need for a comprehensive, fast, and logical personality is growing in a society that can analyse a set of different interconnections, draw logical conclusions, and assess risks. The impact of technology is particularly felt in educating future financiers, as accounting, financial analysis, and financial management decision-making have long been unthinkable without the skills to use various computer programmes, big data processing, and visualisation of financial information using the latest information technology tools. The survey was organised to collect data from student questionnaires. The questionnaire analysis allows for assessing students’ digital competences, advantages and drawbacks of the digitalisation process, and university challenges in the digital transformation process as well as detecting the areas that require additional attention to make digital transformation effective. Digital transformation significantly changes the ecosystem, and the level of students’ abilities and skills is also a variable. Therefore, it is important to identify the readiness of the participants in the higher education system for new challenges and to use the limited resources as efficiently as possible to prepare the financial specialists necessary for the development of society.

The chapter sheds light on how top management teams (TMTs) across multinational firms tackle the ongoing disruptive digital transformation during the pandemic era. The chapter includes basic definitions and global and regional trends on data governance and digital transformation across multinational firms from advanced and emerging markets. Finally, it provides several case studies demonstrating the theoretical and practical applicability of how data governance and digital transformation emerged from top management team perspectives. The chapter outlines the importance of leadership and top management in dealing with emerging technologies and business processes across global firms.

Creating organisational resilience and creating a positive social impact is becoming a condition for sustainable business development. The adoption of digital technologies requires specific leadership characteristics to resolve complex societal challenges. The purpose of the research is to identify the critical strategic leadership characteristics for developing organisational resilience while creating social- and financial value. There is a research gap in strategic leadership, digital technologies, social impact, and organisational resilience studies which will be addressed in this research. The methodology embeds a critical literature review, complemented by bibliometric analysis. The adoption of digital technology is seen to be a key driver in the societal question and a tool to boost organisational resilience. Sensing, seizing, and driving digital adoption agenda as well as digital adoption are critical and require unique leadership characteristics where contextual ambidexterity was key to the strategic leader when building organisational resilience and creating social- and financial value. The research results can be used for identifying which characteristics strategic leaders must develop for digital technology adaptation to generate both a profit and positive social impact while boosting organisational resilience.

The current chapter deals with the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration issue that should contribute to the higher expected investment returns as different kinds of risk are managed in a better and more sufficient way. The goal is to study the ESG risks integration into the decision-making process and test the results. The research chapter intends to contribute to the existing discussion by evaluating some integration techniques. Following the development of the European Taxonomy, one can expect increased interest in integrating ESG risks into the financial forecast and asset valuation. The current chapter deals with Berger and UniCredit Bank’s (2010) proposal to include the ESG data as factors influencing the foretasted financial data in terms of direct costs (like energy, waste, water, and paper expenses; payments for sick leaves and employees’ turnover costs); externality costs (like CO₂ compliance costs) and opportunity costs (ESG provisions; expenses for board compensations). The chapter provides an overview of some integration approaches and discusses the idea of incorporating the ESG criteria into the stock valuation and portfolio management process. It is evident that the classical value investing approach is no more suitable. Nevertheless, the tested sample does not show significantly different results based on the backtesting. The research results could be interesting for authors preparing research on the field of sustainability and risk management as well as for portfolio managers considering the ESG integration to achieve the positive alpha.

Metacognitive strategies are learning strategies that involve planning, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation. Metacognition is characterised as a build that alludes to considering one’s reasoning or the human capacity to be aware of one’s mental processes. According to Flavell (1976) metacognitive learning is ‘one’s learning concerning one’s own particular intellectual procedures and items or anything identified with them, e.g., the learning-applicable properties of data or information’. The purpose of the study is to investigate to what extent the university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners employ metacognitive reading strategies in reading comprehension. Further, it aims to research the most used strategy of MARSI inventory subscale: reading performance in reading EFL. Statistical analysis has been calculated by using ANOVA, correlation, and metacognitive awareness reading strategy inventory (MARSI), which in fact is the self-report instrument. The study has identified that EFL students of Kosovo universities possess considerable amount of awareness over metacognitive strategies in reading comprehension.

The chapter evaluates how the demise of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange may result from the issue of digital money by central banks. To evaluate the likelihood that central bank digital money would cause the demise of cryptocurrencies, the research employs discourse analysis and literature review. In this chapter, I demonstrate how the issuing of a digital currency by a central bank might result in the demise of private digital currencies like bitcoin. I contend that central banks will make use of their monetary authority and the confidence that people have in currency guaranteed by the government. This might provide considerable motivation for central banks to launch their own digital money. The creation of a digital currency by a central bank has the potential to reduce confidence in cryptocurrencies, which might eventually cause them to collapse. The chapter is the first to argue that fiat digital money should prevail over private digital currency.

The purpose of the chapter is to identify the fundamental characteristics of organisational resilience in management science with particular emphasis on selected approaches to the concept of resilience and organisational resilience in management, development of the definition of organisational resilience, comparison of the definitions of the concept of organisational resilience according to the adopted features, location of the defined features of organisational resilience in the planning perspective of the organisation and application of the concept of resilience to entrepreneurs, enterprises, and their strategies. Understanding resilience differs between disciplines and research contexts. In the management theory, the perception of resilience and organisational resilience is broadly diversified, which implies a niche for discussing their crucial pivot, which will be addressed in this chapter. A systematic literature review was conducted as well as a critical analysis of literature sources, as a result of which relevant significant foundation of organisational resilience area within the theory of management was determined. Analysed directions significantly indicate the importance of organisational resilience in management, enriching its heritage in accordance with current scientific discoveries. Entrepreneurs can use the selection of the theoretical foundation of organisational resilience as an indication of the management areas that may be developed to search for organisational excellence.

The COVID-19 pandemic deteriorated the economic situation and raised the issue of the quality of banks’ assets and, in particular, the growth of non-performing loans (NPLs). The study approaches a topical subject that is of interest to banks and society at large, as credit availability is likely to be reduced. Over the last 10 years, the Baltic countries’ banking sector has significantly improved its risk management policies and practices, increased capital ratios on its balance sheets, and created risk reserves. The current chapter examines the factors affecting NPLs in the Baltic States based on advanced econometric modelling applied to data extracted from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eurostat. The study results show that credit risk management in the Baltic States has significantly improved compared to the period before the global financial crisis (GFC), the capitalisation of credit institutions is one of the highest in the European Union (EU), and banks are liquid and profitable. Lending recovered from the downturn in the first phase of the pandemic, and credit institutions have taken advantage of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) long-term funding programme ITRMO III to improve the liquidity outlook. Although the credit quality of commercial banks has not deteriorated, as the exposures of credit institutions in the most affected sectors are insignificant and governments have provided fiscal support to businesses and households, some challenges remain. The increase in credit risk is expected due to rising production prices as well as the rebuilding of disrupted supply chains. The findings allow conclusions to be drawn on the necessary actions to mitigate the credit risk of the banking sector.

The study explores the impact of the general insurance industry’s financial soundness on Sri Lanka’s financial performance by using the CARAMELS approach for seven years (2011–2019) and using secondary data. The study utilised panel data regression analysis. Return on Asset was used as the proxy of financial performance while the 10 dimensions were employed. The best-fitted model is the fixed effect model (FEM), which indicates capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and profitability ratio has a positive impact and that the retention ratio (RR), claims ratio, and expenses ratio harm financial performance in the general insurance sector. The study concluded that capital adequacy, earnings and profitability, reinsurance, and actuaries are important predictors of financial performance for general insurers. The findings help the regulator and general insurers set better performance targets and enable insurance company managers to allocate capital more efficiently.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted companies both ways, negatively by testing their ability to adapt in uncertain situations and positively by accelerating the adoption of technology systems. One of the new technologies is represented by blockchain which brings decentralised control, transparency between the involved parties, and two-ways security checks on transactions. The Romanian market has been selected to provide an early assessment of the potential the market has on implementing blockchain technology and becoming more transparent within customer and state interactions. As part of the blockchain network, it brings both numerous benefits such as transparency in interactions with other parties and freedom as it is not regulated by any kind of authority yet.