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PurposeBusiness relationships are considered long-term and stable. Furthermore, over time, business relationships are expected to become and remain "institutionalized". The undertone is that this process is deterministic and inevitable. While the authors do not question the long-term nature of business relationships, they argue that the process of "institutionalization" requires more construct clarity. Consequently, they ask the following: What is the source of resilience in business relationships, and how are these relationships maintained over time?Design/methodology/approachTo unravel these questions, the authors conducted an historical case study of a business relationship between a government buyer and a software seller extending over two decades.FindingsThe authors found that while the network around the business relationship is crumbling and all odds are in favor of relationship dissolution, the active maintenance work of key individuals in the relationship prevented detrimental effects and resulted in not only its continuation but also an increased degree of institutionalization.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors contribute to the Industrial Network approach (INA) by providing a non-deterministic approach to the typically taken-for-granted end phase of business relationships.Practical implicationsThe findings illustrate that the process of institutionalization is manageable but requires hard work, highlighting managers as the principle vehicle of relationship maintenance.Originality/valueThe authors provide construct clarity around the process of "institutionalization". In fact, they regard the process as reverse compared to the early interpretation in the INA literature in which a business relationship is assumed to start as a "clean slate" and then begins to represent the industry codes of practice over time. They found that "institutionalization" implies that a business relationship is no longer compared with nor is comparable to the institutional prescriptions; in contrast, the relationship has established its own rules and norms, which have been taken for granted by the buyer and seller organization.

Purpose
This paper aims to examine corporate volunteering as a form of social responsibility carried out by companies in relationships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Applying the value creation concept, the success of such relationships is based on value created between the focal company, its employees engaging in the volunteer work and the collaborating NGO actors representing the beneficiaries of the volunteer work. However, how to meaningfully engage employees and strategically manage company–NGO relationships in corporate volunteering has received less scholarly attention. The study hence asks the question: How is mutual value created in corporate volunteering collaborations between business organizations and NGOs?


Design/methodology/approach
Two qualitative case studies of company–NGO relationships involved in corporate volunteer programs for social benefit in Poland and Finland are analyzed.


Findings
Corporate volunteering offers value creation opportunities for each of the three actors in the relationships, namely, the company, the NGO and the employees who participate in the volunteer work. Particularly, employment and volunteering relationships appear to be catalysts for the creation of mutual value in the organizational relationship between a company and NGO.


Originality/value
The present study contributes to the current understanding of company–NGO relationships by emphasizing the role of individual employee volunteers in creating relationship-level value. The study adds also to existing research on corporate volunteering by identifying the way value is created in company–NGO relationships within corporate volunteering.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how employee competences can be developed through corporate volunteering (CV). Specifically, this study focuses on diversity of volunteering studies categorized according to the type of beneficiaries and intensity of volunteer contact with them. The study examines how the beneficiary-employee relation influences the development of employee competences in CV projects.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative empirical study, interview data collected in Poland about the perceived effects of CV projects on employee competences was used.FindingsThe findings suggest that to understand the competences generated in CV, attention needs to be paid to the nature of the volunteering study itself. The study proposes four different logics of competence development in CV, based on the type of the beneficiary and contact with them.Research limitations/implicationsThe study builds on managers' perceptions of competence development. For a holistic understanding, future research should include employees' perceptions of the process. Also, more research is needed regarding national and organizational settings as factors in competence development through CV.Practical implicationsThe study suggests how companies could best engage in volunteering programs and improve existing ones to make them more beneficial for all parties involved.Social implicationsThe findings build the better business case for CV and other corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, i.e. they deliver rationales for business engagement in this regard.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the conceptual understanding of CSR activities by presenting four logics of competence development in CV.

We are witnessing an emerging digital revolution. For the past 25–30 years, at an increasing pace, digital technologies—especially the internet, mobile phones and smartphones—have transformed the everyday lives of human beings. The pace of change will increase, and new digital technologies will become even more tightly entangled in human everyday lives. Artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), 6G wireless solutions, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (XR), robots and various platforms for remote and hybrid communication will become embedded in our lives at home, work and school. Digitalisation has been identified as a megatrend, for example, by the OECD (2016; 2019). While digitalisation processes permeate all aspects of life, special attention has been paid to its impact on the ageing population, everyday communication practices, education and learning and working life. For example, it has been argued that digital solutions and technologies have the potential to improve quality of life, speed up processes and increase efficiency. At the same time, digitalisation is likely to bring with it unexpected trends and challenges. For example, AI and robots will doubtlessly speed up or take over many routine-based work tasks from humans, leading to the disappearance of certain occupations and the need for re-education. This, in turn, will lead to an increased demand for skills that are unique to humans and that technologies are not able to master. Thus, developing human competences in the emerging digital era will require not only the mastering of new technical skills, but also the advancement of interpersonal, emotional, literacy and problem-solving skills. It is important to identify and describe the digitalisation phenomena—pertaining to individuals and societies—and seek human-centric answers and solutions that advance the benefits of and mitigate the possible adverse effects of digitalisation (e.g. inequality, divisions, vulnerability and unemployment). This requires directing the focus on strengthening the human skills and competences that will be needed for a sustainable digital future. Digital technologies should be seen as possibilities, not as necessities. There is a need to call attention to the co-evolutionary processes between humans and emerging digital technologies—that is, the ways in which humans grow up with and live their lives alongside digital technologies. It is imperative to gain in-depth knowledge about the natural ways in which digital technologies are embedded in human everyday lives—for example, how people learn, interact and communicate in remote and hybrid settings or with artificial intelligence; how new digital technologies could be used to support continuous learning and understand learning processes better and how health and well-being can be promoted with the help of new digital solutions. Another significant consideration revolves around the co-creation of our digital futures. Important questions to be asked are as follows: Who are the ones to co-create digital solutions for the future? How can humans and human sciences better contribute to digitalisation and define how emerging technologies shape society and the future? Although academic and business actors have recently fostered inclusion and diversity in their co-creation processes, more must be done. The empowerment of ordinary people to start acting as active makers and shapers of our digital futures is required, as is giving voice to those who have traditionally been silenced or marginalised in the development of digital technology. In the emerging co-creation processes, emphasis should be placed on social sustainability and contextual sensitivity. Such processes are always value-laden and political and intimately intertwined with ethical issues. Constant and accelerating change characterises contemporary human systems, our everyday lives and the environment. Resilience thinking has become one of the major conceptual tools for understanding and dealing with change. It is a multi-scalar idea referring to the capacity of individuals and human systems to absorb disturbances and reorganise their functionality while undergoing a change. Based on the evolving new digital technologies, there is a pressing need to understand how these technologies could be utilised for human well-being, sustainable lifestyles and a better environment. This calls for analysing different scales and types of resilience in order to develop better technology-based solutions for human-centred development in the new digital era. This white paper is a collaborative effort by researchers from six faculties and groups working on questions related to digitalisation at the University of Oulu, Finland. We have identified questions and challenges related to the emerging digital era and suggest directions that will make possible a human-centric digital future and strengthen the competences of humans and humanity in this era.