In the UAE, the initiative of the private sector of the economy plays an important role in the model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – a willingness to voluntarily incur optional social spending beyond the limits established by tax, labor, environmental and other legislation. Moreover, large corporations are beginning to view engagement with society as a tool to find new business opportunities in frames of CSR (Rettab & Mellahi, 2019). For many companies, the attractiveness of CSR is associated with real economic benefits – increasing the attractiveness for potential investors, getting into such international ratings as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Accordingly, these trends require using appropriate intra-corporate practices for planning, implementing, and evaluating activity and performance. These are, in particular, the AEIOU framework allowing assessment of CSR performance by five elements – activity, environment, interaction, object, and user – thus linking interaction, communication, and processes in the internal and external company environment, for proper implementation of CSR.
The emergence of a knowledge-based economy has led to a second trend – a significant change in the behavior of entrepreneurs and the nature of their business activities: today, companies’ value and competitive advantage are increasingly dependent on intangible capital and knowledge (Alfaki & Ahmed, 2015). Accordingly, the efforts of entrepreneurs are aimed at improving knowledge management and accelerating innovation activity in frames of design thinking. A valuable model for effective implementation of knowledge management practices is Belbin’s theory of team roles, built on the fact that any company, even the smallest one, should take advantage of teamwork, where everyone plays only their own role (Isaac & Carson, 2016). This is important in today’s flat organizational structures and Agile environments.
The next trend is digital transformation – a rethinking of how employees work to effectively interact with customers through the use of modern technology and data analysis. The rapid development of the digital economy has led to the fact that today’s market leadership is determined not by the value of assets or access to capital, but by the ability to change the business model in the wake of digital transformation (PwC, 2018). Today, the peculiarity of the activities of modern enterprises is that digital technologies have become an endogenous factor in the effectiveness of their development. Accordingly, in the processes of digital transformation, comprehensive models of change acquire crucial importance. In particular, the ADKAR model, consisting of five stages – awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement – is used in the implementation of Agile, in the process of digital transformation, and in other similar changes.
References
Alfaki, I., & Ahmed, A. (2015). From oil to knowledge: Transforming the United Arab Emirates into a knowledge-based economy. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Isaac, M., & Carson, K. (2016). A guide to Belbin team roles: How to increase personal and team performance. Los Angeles, CA: Bridge Publishing.
PwC (2018). Preparing for the digital era: The state of digitalization in GCC businesses.
Rettab, B., & Mellahi, K. (Eds.) (2019). Practising CSR in the Middle East. New York, NY: Springer.