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Information technology (IT) is a new service sector characterised by an intensive dynamic that puts high demands of learning, flexibility and mobility on IT specialists. This article identifies two features that are decisive for the formation of work identities of employees working in the sector: first, an “entrepreneurial” employment model that transfers responsibilities for skills acquisition, professional development and risk management to the individual; and second, a conflict between a strong identification with IT‐related technology and flexibility requirements. The article analyses the implications these features have in terms of the role of initial and continuing vocational training, skills demands and the professional development of employees working in the sector. It also discusses how boundaryless career paths, characterised by ambiguity and uncertainty, influence work‐related identities of IT specialists.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how strategic decisions have resulted in innovation in the context of the organizational environment. The author studies connections between strategic decision making and innovation to find out what kinds of factors of the organizational environment influence strategic decisions that lead an organization to innovate.

The theoretical and empirical part proceeds from dividing strategic decisions into proactive and reactive; the environment into internal and external, including primary and secondary environment, and dynamic capabilities; and innovation into product, process, marketing and organizational innovation. The study uses qualitative research and case study methodologies to analyse the case of an Estonian IT company, MicroLink.

The results show that even if innovation is not strategically managed in a company, it can still be innovative. However, the potential for different types of innovation at the organizational and local and global market level is very often determined by the company's general strategic vision and its proactive nature, which should be supported by its dynamic capabilities.

Based on the results, some conclusions are also presented for other Estonian IT companies in terms of what aspects they should keep in mind when making strategic decisions and implementing innovation.

The paper contributes to the understanding of how innovation evolves and it is presumed that innovation is not always a purposeful, but rather an episodic manifestation that could be a result of strategic decisions. Besides, product and process innovation, this study also helps to highlight the role of marketing and organizational innovation, which have gained much less attention in the literature.

Estonian companies have been in a continuous state of change for the past 15 years, and there is still a lot to be done to achieve welfare levels comparable with developed countries in the European Union. The crucial question is how to achieve employee commitment to organisational change. The aim of this research is to highlight employee attitudes toward organisational change and how organisational culture can influence these attitudes in a rapidly changing environment.

A model showing the connections between organisational culture and employee attitudes in the organisational change process has been developed as the theoretical conceptual frame for the study. The empirical study was conducted by the authors in 26 Estonian organisations with 412 respondents. A tool for measuring employee attitudes in the process of organisational change and a questionnaire for measuring organisational culture were developed by the authors.

Under the conditions of economic transition, employees with higher job satisfaction are more willing to participate in an organisational change process than employees with a lower level of job satisfaction. Employees who evaluated their organisational culture as being stronger were more willing to participate in implementing organisational changes and were more satisfied with their jobs and managers. The attitudes of those managers who were younger than 45 were more strongly related to a positive organisational culture than to a strong organisational culture.

The most significant finding was that in a transition economy a strong organisational culture influences attitudes to change in a positive way. This is different from countries with more stable economies, where a strong organisational culture is considered to promote stability.

The aim is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the article in context.

When people think of innovation it is generally in terms of new products or services. This may be especially so in the context of IT where recent decades have seen a constant stream of new offerings, usually marketed with the prefix “innovative”.

The piece provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to participate in the discussion of a relatively new field of corporate governance (CG) and its development. The aim of the research is to discover how well‐known Estonian business leaders perceive the purpose of business activities, corporate relations with the society and environment and who they consider the most significant stakeholders. These issues are studied and analyzed during a ten‐year period in the real‐life Estonian business environment.

The empirical part of the paper is based on the results of in‐depth interviews with 26 top Estonian managers and owners, often known as generalists. The paper discusses the results of qualitative research conducted among these business leaders, owners and top‐managers in Estonian organizations, exploring how business purposes and interests, relations with the society and environment as well as different stakeholders are perceived and how these perceptions have changed in Estonia during the period of ten years (1995‐2004).

This paper shows how business purposes, interests, corporate relations with the society and environment as well as with different stakeholders are perceived in a rapidly developing former post‐socialist and now EU member state, Estonia. It was revealed that stakeholder interests and corporate relations with the society and environment in business have not yet been considered important issues in business organizations. According to the results, the stakeholder thinking and stakeholder concepts have just recently became recognized and understood among the Estonian business leaders. There is a clear difference seen in two periods studied in this research.

The main limitation of the study is related to survey methodology. In‐depth interviews are conducted with 26 representatives; this sets limits to the possibility to generalize the results. In further research, the aim is to get more data through structured questionnaires thus enabling to conduct quantitative analysis and draw conclusions based on larger amount of respondents.

In order to stay sustainable and be able to develop further there is a need for Estonian business leaders and organizations to start paying more attention to the different stakeholders, and see the organizations as a part of the environment and society.

The main contribution of the paper can be found in the in‐depth discussion of the concept of CG particularly from the perspective of stakeholder theory.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how Estonian enterprises understand their position in the value chain, and to explore what kind of behaviour patterns correspond to the different positions. It also aims to focus on the question of whether and how Estonian enterprises see the need to improve their position in the value chain.

The approach is based on an empirical study in the course of which original interviews were conducted on the basis of a common plan (primary sources), and expert opinions were gathered on the basis of earlier studies. Two kinds of sources were analyzed to obtain an overview of the situation in Estonian companies in respect to strategy, and more specifically how companies evaluate their position in the value chain and what their aspirations for future are. First, the figureheads from the enterprises were interviewed in 14 enterprises. Second, expert assessments were drawn up about 25 enterprises. Those compiling the expert opinions possessed prior direct contacts with the enterprises under focus.

First, it was discovered that Estonian enterprises presented three types of behaviour patterns along with their interest in and/or potential for changing their position in the value chain. Second, several behavioural patterns were indicated by what the figureheads had to say about the current economic situation. Third, the main problems in Estonian enterprises were identified.

The study has limitations due to the number of companies that were investigated, and therefore the authors also admit a certain degree of subjectivity in the defining of the behaviour patterns. Nevertheless, this study highlights various issues that Estonian enterprises consider in respect to strategy.

The main value of the paper is its contribution to our understanding of which factors impact the development of Estonian enterprises. This knowledge allows us to analyze how organizations from former Soviet bloc countries can better manage their position in the value chain.

The purpose of this paper is to participate in the convergence‐divergence debate related to the trends in European human resource management (HRM). The paper evaluates the converging vs diverging implications in Estonia and Finland by comparing HR strategies, policies and practices between the two countries in the context of HRM in the Nordic and EU‐15 countries.

The research is part of a large international comparative HRM project (CRANET), which covers over 30 countries. Empirical data were collected by a survey questionnaire mailed to large private and public organisations employing over 200 employees. The Estonian survey data involve 69 organisations and the Finnish data 269. The data cover private companies and public sector organisations.

The comparison of HRM in Estonia and Finland revealed a few interesting empirical observations: First, in spite of Estonia's short history as an independent Baltic state, HRM has stabilised its position at both strategic and policy level's as well as in HR practices. Second, there is a converging (directional) trend between Estonian and Finnish HRM. Third, the Estonian HRM matches with the EU‐15 HRM; Estonia does not increase diversity in the European HRM.

The main limitation of the study is related to survey methodology. In further research longitudinal data as well as case studies and triangulation are needed to open country‐level trends in the convergence‐divergence debate.

Estonian companies and public organisations might need to pay more attention to equality/diversity policy. Special attention should be paid to HRM in public organisations.

The main value of the paper is related to the contribution to the convergence debate in HRM.

The purpose of this paper is to discover and compare the implementation of crisis management in Chinese and Estonian companies and the strategies the managers have used to prevent or manage crises.

An empirical study was conducted in two economies in transition: China and Estonia, in 2008. Interview data were collected from 102 Chinese companies and 67 Estonian companies. The data were analyzed applying content analysis.

The results indicate that the managers of Chinese and Estonian organizations have identified different crises reflecting the politico‐socio‐economic situation of the countries. The most common type of crises in Chinese organizations is those related to economy, while in Estonian organizations, they are related to human resources. Estonian companies are better prepared for handling crises beforehand than Chinese companies. However, the majority of companies in both countries started reacting after a crisis had already come true. A triangular model of crisis management is presented.

The empirical study is tentative focusing on major differences and similarities in crisis management between two countries in transition. The differences are interpreted from societal‐level development. More in‐depth research in needed based on the results of this study.

The transfer of market‐economy practices often fails due to institutional and cultural tensions and conflict. The study of crisis management in Chinese and Estonian companies tries to increase understanding of the different routes of transition economies and its impact on management and, specifically, on crisis management. The crisis management model based on the study illustrates the interconnection between different elements of crisis management.

The software industry, especially software development (SD), in Estonia is at the present moment in the phase of expansion: first level of life cycle of the industry. Initial maturity level of the industry is among other factors characterized by lower maturity level of development process in companies/development teams. The goal of this paper is to analyze the maturity level of SD process in Estonian companies. Usually, poorly managed processes and low‐development performance are the major reasons for overrun deadlines and insufficient competitive advantages. Therefore, improved performance is the key factor of SD industry competitiveness.

The methodology used in the paper is semi‐structured interviews with experienced software developers/project managers in Estonian SD enterprises. On the basis of the interviews, authors were analyzing the usability of capability maturity model integration (CMMI) in Estonian SD companies to perform/apply the software process improvement (SPI).

Results based on self‐evaluation are describing the current level of SD process maturity in sense of CMMI in Estonian SD enterprises. Also, the difficulties of collecting process performance data were discovered. SD companies did not find it necessary to collect and save development process performance data, such as number of (corrected) errors, number of lines of code, etc.

The paper describes structured performance as SD process maturity in sense of CMMI together with development process performance as project characteristics: product quality, cycle‐time, development effort, product maintainability, etc.