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Disruptive technologies have integrated into all aspects of our modern lives, rapidly transforming industries and economies on a global scale. Although this phenomenon has attracted considerable attention from researchers and specialists across various fields, there is still an acute need for a detailed and comprehensive analysis. These technologies are both expansive, having a large-scale impact, and specific, acting differently depending on the sector in which they are implemented. This research aims to conduct a rigorous bibliographic analysis, using the Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer, to understand the fundamental concepts underlying these innovative technologies and their disruptive nature. The study will deeply investigate how disruptive technologies modify traditional economic structures, causing essential changes in the way businesses operate and how economies develop. Additionally, the key findings include the identification of major conceptual clusters, such as innovation management, digital transformation, and sustainability, and the emergence of technologies like blockchain, cloud computing, and additive manufacturing. Trend analysis also highlights a shift in focus over time, with formerly central topics like the internet declining in prominence.

The Metaverse, an evolving concept that fuses physical reality with digital virtuality, offers a dynamic environment for exploration. This paper reports the panel discussion on the Metaverse and its potential implications for individuals and research. This discussion was held at the Digitization of the Individual (DOTI) workshop at the International Conference on Information Systems in December 2022. Four scientists who have researched virtual reality, immersiveness, and corresponding user behavior were invited to the panel discussion. The panelists offered their perspectives on the unique characteristics of the Metaverse, how it differs from earlier digital worlds, and the implications that the Metaverse will bring for individuals. This paper provides an introduction to the emerging phenomenon of “Metaverse” and summarizes the discussion and expert perspectives on the topic. Furthermore, this paper links the discussion to the ongoing discourse in the literature, setting the stage for further investigations by providing explicit research avenues and questions.

Digital assistants (DA) perform routine tasks for users by interacting with the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and digital services. To do so, such assistants rely heavily on personal data, e.g. to provide personalized responses. This leads to privacy concerns for users and makes privacy features an important component of digital assistants.This study examines user preferences for three attributes of the design of privacy features in digital assistants, namely (1) the amount of information on personal data that is shown to the user, (2) explainability of the DA’s decision, and (3) the degree of gamification of the user interface (UI). In addition, it estimates users’ willingness to pay (WTP) for different versions of privacy features.The results for the full sample show that users prefer to understand the rationale behind the DA’s decisions based on the personal information involved, while being given information about the potential impacts of disclosing specific data. Further, the results indicate that users prefer to interact with the DA’s privacy features in a serious game. For this product, users are willing to pay €21.39 per month. In general, a playful design of privacy features is strongly preferred, as users are willing to pay 23.8% more compared to an option without any gamified elements. A detailed analysis identifies two customer clusters “Best Agers” and “DA Advocates”, which differ mainly in their average age and willingness to pay. Further, “DA Advocates” are mainly male and more privacy sensitive, whereas “Best Agers” show a higher affinity for a playful design of privacy features.

The paper presents the issues of wearable technology, their role and use in the current economy. Ubiquitous digital transformation and universal access to broadband Internet are the foundation for the creation of interoperable ecosystems, where wearable technology is responsible for communication often in the relationship between machine to machine and machine to human. The authors researched the level of knowledge about these devices and the degree of their use. It turned out that despite the knowledge of worn devices and relatively positive attitudes, the degree of their use is low. The article is theoretical and empirical.

This paper demonstrates the impact of the forensic accountant's combined technical skills; information technology skills, digital evidence discovery skills, analysis skill, information delivery skill on fraud detection in the digital environment and the mediating role of internal control from the perspective of Jordanian auditors. The descriptive method is used to achieve the research objectives. A 3-section questionnaire used as a research instrument is prepared and distributed to 200 legal auditors in Jordan, and 162 questionnaires are returned. The 5-point Likert scale is utilized for data analysis and variables' measurement. The Baron and Kenny (1986) method is also used to test the mediation of the mediating variable. The findings indicate a statistically significant effect of the skills of the forensic accountant on fraud detection in the digital environment with a direct impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The results also show an impact of the mediating variable 'internal control\" on the dependent variable \"fraud detection in the digital environment\". Besides, the results demonstrate that when mediated by internal control, the independent variable \"technical skills of the forensic accountant\" do not predict fraud detection in the digital environment, and this is considered an indirect effect in the Baron and Kenny (1986) method. Given the findings, the study recommends developing and establishing a forensic accounting department whose tasks are the periodic and continuous evaluation of control procedures and internal controls for all sectors and making cooperation between internal control and risk management to observe the technological environment in all sectors and issue professional standards to regulate the forensic accounting profession.

Used car market platforms are interested in extending their offering from information provision to the whole customer journey. Providing certified data on the car’s state and history enables this extension by eliminating the need to physically inspect the car before buying it. Hence, communication and negotiations can move entirely to a used car platform to cover the entire value chain. How can such a market communication be designed when certified data come into play? This study designs and develops a certified data chat for the selective and controlled exchange of blockchain-based certified data in used car negotiations. An experimental market game is played with students to evaluate the usefulness of the chat. The study contributes to the augmentation of market communication with valuable and sensitive data exchange and demonstrates what a key component of a future used car market can look like. It offers three design principles and insight into why certified data chats are useful.

This article aims to identify the main approach to robotic process automation (RPA) method and trends in the scientific literature in the field of RPA. Moreover, this analysis is needed to build a model of automation of a certain class of business processes. The author focuses on an analysis of publications from 2012 to 2022, collected from the Web of Science, Scopus, and IEEE Xplore databases. The methodology includes source selection, main search limited to RPA, narrowing criteria, adding criteria for subject area, cluster analysis, and limitation to RPA shortcut to achieve most to the point results. The study presents analysis of publication year, type of publication, cluster analysis, as well as the most cited articles. The cluster analysis allowed identification of four primary areas for which publication analysis was conducted. The main value resulting from the creation of this article is the cluster analysis of the most cited publications in the context of RPA seen in the topics of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. On the top of that, it proves how well RPA is defined as a method and whether description of the RPA implementation model is available.

This paper studies multilevel determinants of product innovation by incumbent firms with data from 68 countries, covering over 25,000 firms in eight manufacturing sectors. The author assesses the predictions of interdisciplinary research on firm behavior in different contexts, which have emphasized that product innovation is affected by three sets of factors: the extent of global engagement, information spillovers, and market structure. The empirical model of the probability of observing a product innovation, a probit model, by a firm considers three levels of analysis: firm characteristics, industry characteristics, and the national context. The econometric evidence supports the global engagement and information spillovers hypotheses, but the evidence on the role of market structure is mixed. Regarding global engagement, the evidence suggests that product innovation by incumbent firms is positively correlated with the act of investing in R&D and licensing of foreign technologies, and country-level average import tariffs reduce the probability of product innovation. Regarding information spillovers, the evidence also shows that a country's patent density is positively correlated with product innovation. In contrast, concerning the market structure hypotheses, country-level indicators of business density and of policy-induced costs of entry are not robustly correlated with product innovation.

Objective: Assessment is a crucial part of language teaching, with great effect on learners’ motivation, willingness to study and learning success. Since language assessment is rooted in local policies and cultures of learning, it seems pertinent to look at how opinions on assessment can differ depending on the country of teacher training. The purpose of the paper is to compare Polish and Turkish teacher trainees’ on L1 use and translation in testing.Methodology: The methodology applied in the paper is a qualitative action research study, where the groups of teacher trainees from Poland and Turkey participating in a telecollaborative project were prompted for reflection on different aspects of cultural appropriacy of language assessment. The data were collected via private diaries and public discussion forums. The corpus of student reflections was subject to qualitative analysis for key concepts, recurrent themes, similarities and differences across the two countries involved in analysis.Findings: The effect of the local setting in which language instruction is to take place on assessment beliefs and strategies is stronger than that of teacher training. The language testing procedures of the Communicative Approach vary in the two countries under consideration (Poland and Turkey) due to a differing role and status of English in the country, cultural orientations of the society, preferred learning styles and habits, country openness to the Western culture and values as well as societal expectations towards the language teacher. Despite much standardization in language teacher education, significant variation in the shape of language teaching methodology can be attributed to the effect of cultural differences.Value Added: Telecollaboration in teacher training is promoted as an instructional technique enabling expansion of teacher trainees’ intercultural competence, intercultural communication skills, awareness of the effect of cultural differences on preferred ways of learning and teaching. The cultural appropriacy of language assessment can be achieved through filtering testing methods and techniques to adapt them to the cultural, political and social reality of target users.Recommendations: The telecollaborative exchange as described in the present paper proves to be an effective vehicle to achieve the purpose of increasing internalization of teacher education and creating better skilled professionals. Since language teaching has become a largely multicultural and multilingual experience, it is necessary to increase teacher trainees’ awareness of cultural appropriacy of its different aspects, including assessment, throughout the teacher training programme.

This paper assesses the implications of large-scale investments in biofuels for growth and income distribution. We find that biofuels investment enhances growth and poverty reduction despite some displacement of food crops by biofuels. Overall, the biofuel investment trajectory analyzed increases Mozambique's annual economic growth by 0.6 percentage points and reduces the incidence of poverty by about 6 percentage points over a 12-year phase-in period. Benefits depend on production technology. An outgrower approach to producing biofuels is more pro-poor, due to the greater use of unskilled labor and accrual of land rents to smallholders, compared with the more capital-intensive plantation approach. Moreover, the benefits of outgrower schemes are enhanced if they result in technology spillovers to other crops. These results should not be taken as a green light for unrestrained biofuels development. Rather, they indicate that a carefully designed and managed biofuels policy holds the potential for substantial gains.