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Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a revolutionary innovation in the construction industry to virtually design and mange projects throughout the building lifecycle. Although Estonia is one of the foremost countries in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, BIM adoption in the Estonian construction industry is still lagging behind other countries. This paper is part of doctoral research that aims to determine the barriers to BIM adoption and develop a framework for effective implementation of BIM in the Estonian construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of BIM adoption, BIM benefits and common barriers to BIM adoption in the construction industry worldwide.

The methodology used in this study is a literature review of journal articles, conference proceedings and published reports from various sources.

This study showed BIM benefits through building lifecycle phases and explored the BIM adoption rate in the construction industry of various countries. Eighteen barriers to BIM adoption were also identified.

The study presented is limited to a literature review – some related literature may have been missed.

The main practical significance of this study is that the findings can be used to inform a further survey to model the barriers to BIM adoption in the Estonian construction industry.

This study offers information on BIM adoption in the construction industry and will form the basis of further research.

The study critically evaluates the theory of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Using the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 79 articles, and in particular the topic-related 57 articles were analysed. Nine journals contribute to 51% of articles (29 of 57 articles). In particular, the three journals published 15 articles: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (7), Accounting, Organizations and Society (4), and Journal of Applied Accounting Research (4). In total, 83% (47 of 57) of the articles were published 2009–2018. A total of 1,168 citations were found from 45 articles since 12 articles were without citations. The highest cited authors were Ball (2006) – 410 citations, Kothari, Ramanna, and Skinner (2010) – 135 citations, and Napier (1989) – 85 citations. In particular, five theories have been used widely: institutional theory (13), accounting theory (6), agency theory (3), positive accounting theory (3), and process theory (2). Future studies’ focus could be on theory implications in IFRS adoption/implementation studies in a country or a group of countries’ experience. Future studies could also focus on various theories rather depending on a single theory (i.e. institutional theory).

Over the last decade, the accounting convergence process with the development and adoption of IFRS as national standards has become the focus of governments, professionals, and researchers. In 2005, the EU (including Germany) and Australia adopted IFRS. A survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2010) reported that 89 countries have adopted or intend to adopt IFRS for all their domestic listed companies. Currently, more than 100 jurisdictions require or permit the use of IFRS, with countries such as Canada, Brazil, and Argentina being the most recent adopters (IFRS Foundation, 2011b). This growing number of countries implementing IFRS and their experiences and emerging challenges have further raised researchers' interest in this controversial topic (Ashbaugh & Pincus, 2001; Atwood et al., 2011; Byard et al., 2011; Christensen et al., 2007; Daske et al., 2008; Ding et al., 2007; Hail et al., 2010a, 2010b; Kvaal & Nobes, 2010; McAnally et al., 2010; Mechelli, 2009; Niskanen, Kinnunen, & Kasanen, 2000; Stolowy, Haller, & Klockhaus, 2001; Tyrrall et al., 2007). However, these studies have concentrated on the development and application of specific accounting standards and practices and/or cross-national and cross-cultural issues concerning adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of IFRS. Moreover, an increasing number of studies have been devoted to classifications of accounting models and categorization of accounting standards, principles, and values (Chanchani & Willett, 2004; D'Arcy, 2000, 2001; Doupnik & Richter, 2004; Doupnik & Salter, 1993; Gray, 1988; Kamla, Gallhofer, & Haslam, 2006; Nair & Frank, 1980; Patel, 2003, 2007; Perera & Mathews, 1990; Salter & Doupnik, 1992). However, very few studies have critically examined the historical development of accounting practices and issues related to convergence in its socioeconomic context and, importantly, we are not aware of any study that has rigorously examined the institutionalization of Anglo-American accounting practices as international practice with an emphasis on power and legitimacy in the move toward convergence of accounting standards.

This study examines to what extent Internet firms have globalized and the key factors that have enabled some firms to globalize more than others. Contrary to arguments that Internet-based firms automatically benefit from a global market, this study shows that most Internet firms serve regional markets, consistent with Rugman's (2000) findings for firms in the FT500. However, there are a few notable exceptions. In these cases a combination of early mover advantages, unique product, technology standards and complementary products and services have created a ‘winner-takes-all’ market in which a few firms dominate markets worldwide. Implications for globalization theories are discussed.

Nowadays, the Internet usage rate is rising continuously with the impact of globalization which has led to a significant increase in the use of e-commerce and social commerce. Since the fast spread of Internet usage, globalization has affected all areas of life. Especially with the Covid-19 pandemic, lots of social, commercial, and economic transformations have occurred, and many activities transferred to online environment worldwide. However, in this period, people try to avoid physical contact, staying at home, and started to use e-commerce and social commerce more than before. Therefore, with Covid-19 pandemic, the structure and the relations of globalization, e-commerce, and social commerce has changed. In this regard, within the pandemic period, globalization is going through a great transformation, and, therefore, commercial activities have to be not only global-oriented but also local-oriented. Since many countries closed their borders to protect themselves, the pandemic period has turned into the global crisis which forced nations and companies to focus on the local environment. In this study, it is argued that advancements in Internet technologies affect globalization; globalization affects e-commerce and social commerce usage positively. But, with the discovery of social media platforms, e-commerce has shifted to customer-oriented social commerce, and this has turned people's tendency toward localization, not globalization, especially with the effect of Covid-19 pandemic period. Also, this study discusses how pandemic period changed globalization, e-commerce, and social commerce from global-oriented to local-oriented.

Purpose – Since the introduction of the concept of the balanced scorecard (BSC) in the early 1990s, researchers and practitioners have been discussing its impact on managerial and organizational performance. However, there are still few empirical results available in favor of the effectiveness of the BSC to justify its high rate of diffusion among companies. The central aim of this paper is to substantiate the claim for more empirical studies on performance implications of BSC use and to derive recommendations how to conduct such research effectively.

Approach – We review existing research on costs and benefits of the BSC in order to pinpoint to the necessity to do more large-scale empirical work on this topic. Moreover, we discuss important methodological challenges researchers are confronted with when analyzing performance consequences of the system.

Findings – Empirical studies have found both, evidence in favor and against the BSC by investigating specific elements constituting the system. However, no large-scale empirical evidence exists so far that unambiguously shows that companies using a fully developed BSC outperform non-users. We argue in the paper that this might be explainable by the holistic nature of the concept and particularly the methodological difficulties associated with analyzing its effects on performance.

Contribution – The paper is supposed to motivate researchers to conduct more large-sale empirical studies in the area and offers recommendations how to effectively design such studies. It emphasizes the opportunities structural equation modeling offers to investigate possible indirect effects and moderating effects stemming from the BSC.

Purpose – Health information exchange (HIE), the process of electronically moving patient-level information between different organizations, is viewed as a solution to the fragmentation of data in health care. This review provides a description of the current state of HIE in seven nations, as well was three international HIE efforts, with a particular focus on the relation of exchange efforts to national health care systems, common challenges, and the implications of cross-border information sharing.

Design/methodology/approach – National and international efforts highlighted in English language informatics journals, professional associations, and government reports are described.

Findings – Fully functioning HIE is not yet a common phenomenon worldwide. However, multiple nations see the potential benefits of HIE and that has led to national and international efforts of varying scope, scale, and purview. National efforts continue to work to overcome the challenges of interoperability, record linking, insufficient infrastructures, governance, and interorganizational relationships, but have created architectural strategies, oversight agencies, and incentives to foster exchange. The three international HIE efforts reviewed represent very different approaches to the same problem of ensuring the availability of health information across borders.

Originality/value – The potential of HIE to address many cost and quality issues will ensure HIE remains on many national agendas. In many instances, health care executives and leaders have opportunities to work within national programs to help shape local exchange governance and decide technology partners. Furthermore, HIE raises policy questions concerning the role of centralized planning, national identifiers, standards, and types of information exchanged, each of which are vital issues to individual health organizations and worthy of their attention.

Brazil has one of the largest millennial populations in the world and offers a key case study of an important slice of time: the adolescence of millennials in the 2000s. This case study offers important insight into a unique Brazilian dynamic, the LAN house phenomenon: a Brazilian solution to spreading digital technologies to the economically disadvantaged. This chapter explores the social roles and functions LAN houses played to the Brazilian youth, ages 12–15, in the 2000s, when they were first introduced in Brazil. Three research questions guided this investigation.

RQ1. What were the main uses and gratifications of LAN house use among the youth in Brazil in the early 2000s?

RQ2. What was the social construction of “Internet” and “LAN house” among the Brazilian user of LAN houses and its potential to foster advancement?

RQ3. What key roles do LAN houses play today?

RQ1. What were the main uses and gratifications of LAN house use among the youth in Brazil in the early 2000s?

RQ2. What was the social construction of “Internet” and “LAN house” among the Brazilian user of LAN houses and its potential to foster advancement?

RQ3. What key roles do LAN houses play today?

Two distinct methods of the study were employed: a survey and textual analysis. The results showed that Brazilian youth used the LAN houses to check Orkut (a social network site), e-mails and the Microsoft System Network (MSN chat), download music and play games. The internet was mostly perceived to have a negative influence, have bad content and serve as a distraction. With the changes in telecommunication and mobile use, the LAN houses have diversified their services, still offering opportunities for gaming and socialization, but also catering to older and working class by providing services such as government document digitalization and preparation. This case study has implications or the introduction of digital technologies to adolescent populations in the growing economies and developing nations.

Talent is a critical factor for organizational success. Multinational corporations (MNCs) face the challenge of fierce competition for talent worldwide by increasing their efforts in global talent management (GTM). To improve the strategic alignment of GTM, organizations increasingly incorporate information and communication technology (ICT) applications to support their GTM system. However, not every organization is successful at applying these new opportunities (e-GTM) and aligning them successfully with their organizational strategy. This chapter aims at conceptualizing the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in an aligned effort. It presents a conceptual framework that identifies four types of MNC approaches to e-GTM.

By means of a review of, both the GTM literature as well as the ICT literature, we connect the two concepts, GTM and ICT into e-GTM, into a framework along two axes: the extent to which MNCs apply GTM (ad hoc vs. strategic) and the scope of ICT in MNCs (operational vs. strategic).

Although the framework identifies four approaches to e-GTM in MNCs, the framework is less black and white than as presented. Companies can display e-GTM characteristics which place them in the gray areas in between each of the profiles. Additionally, we assume that achieving the alignment of strategic GTM and strategic ICT is an iterative process.

Since strategic alignment is not static but continuously changing, it requires companies to reevaluate their current GTM practices and ICT applications constantly while scanning the external market for new developments in the field of GTM and ICT to ensure the innovative state of their system. Furthermore, we assume that MNCs from high-tech sectors are more successful in supporting their strategic GTM applications with suitable ICT applications than MNCs from low-tech sectors. The study presents a first step toward researching the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in MNCs. The proposed framework might be used as a foundation for further research studies.

The framework presented in this chapter can help MNCs to address the issue of connecting GTM and ICT.

The relationship between GTM and ICT have not been conceptualized before. Furthermore, the typology presented in this chapter, with four approaches to ICT-enabled GTM, is a new way of looking at the GTM–ICT relationship.

In confining the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing was key, with traditional, bricks-and-mortar retailing being shut-down for weeks, and have nearly universally moved into online channels. At the same time, online players have started to operate physical stores. This chapter provides an analysis of how COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of retailing, focusing on the shift towards the online and mobile shopping channel. On the basis of success stories and failures in retail business practice, lessons are distilled for developing effective future phygital scenarios.