Dr. Onise Alpenidze

The current research explores the perceptions of academic expatriates in the UAE on higher education internationalization. A qualitative approach was applied to this study as it was believed to generate a comprehensive, actual, and thorough understanding of participants' insights on the topic. Thirty academic expatriates were selected to create focus groups to discuss the research question. Focus groups were held semi-structured, allowing researchers and participants to encourage exhaustive discussions on pre-defined questions and beyond. As a result of thematic analysis, seven main themes and 29 related codes were identified. The consistency of coding was calculated using intra-class correlation to achieve the trustworthiness of the findings. Further analysis and discussion allowed researchers to explore the topic indepth. The research has reflected on the perceived readiness of academic staff in the internationalization of higher education. Individual, institutional, and global factors are among the main variables that affect shaping faculty perceptions on internationalization and their willingness to participate in the process. The main findings of this study are that awareness of internationalization leads to faculty acceptance and engagement, as well as perceptions of challenges related to internationalization. Perceived readiness is also influenced by potential individual opportunities that may result from internationalization.

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected normalcy around the world, and has shifted traditional means of operation for businesses. With the introduction of worldwide lockdowns, consumer spending, workforce management and supply chains have been some of the areas most affected. These unexpected challenges force businesses to re-evaluate their strategies moving forward to mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic and adapt to the slowly evolving market conditions worldwide. The paper studies the effects of the pandemic on the UAE business environment and society through analyzing the employment growth rates of different sectors in the UAE for the first quarter of 2020 and compared it with their rates pre-pandemic (2010-2019). It was found that all sectors in the UAE suffered from negative growth, concluding that the pandemic has had a clear adverse economic effect on industries in the UAE. However, the uncertainty the pandemic has created has lead businesses to strategize for survival and, in doing so, focus more on organizational resilience and risk management. To steer clear from vulnerability and risk of business failure, an "entrepreneurial hustle" is needed to provide businesses with a competitive advantage in the post-pandemic era. This paper concludes with a hopeful observation that while many sectors in the UAE suffered economically, the UAE government's hands on initiatives to save businesses across the country has left many sectors on a stronger footing to withstand the after-effects post-pandemic era may throw their way. As result, this paper recommends economic diversification in the UAE to help transition its economy to a more sustainable path.

Dynamic capabilities are directed at generating, acquiring, integrating, and disseminating knowledge for reconfiguring processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate and develop a model of the way teaching strategies are shaped, in times of crisis, by dynamic capabilities. The contribution of this study to apply the theoretical framework of dynamic capabilities to the field of higher education and to develop a model which demonstrates the role of dynamic capabilities in developing teaching strategies in times of crisis. This model can then be applied to the world of education. The data is from 16 academics in this qualitative research study who participated in focus groups. The data is analysed using content analysis and inter-rater reliability. The main finding is an empirically proven model showing the adoption of new teaching strategies through dynamic capabilities, namely agility, sensing, shaping, seizing and reconfiguring opportunities and threats. Dynamic capabilities shape new teaching strategies in a context of organisational support, learning, reflection, experience and students feedback. This study provides a number of practical recommendations for academics and higher education management.

Experiential learning, whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience, in the context of crisis gives rise to emergent strategies that are unintended, flexible and open to change and evolution. The purpose of this research is to explore how emergent teaching strategies in education develop from experiential learning cycles. The emergent environmental circumstance in the context of this study is the COVID-19 crisis. A contribution of this study is that it brings together a theory that has its roots in the world of management (emergent strategies) with another that has roots in the field of education (experiential learning cycle). 16 academics are the participants in this qualitative research study that uses focus groups for data collection that is analysed using content analysis and inter-rater reliability. The main finding is that emergent teaching strategies in times of crisis develop from concrete experience, observation, reflection, active experimentation, diverging (i.e. viewing situation from many perspectives and brainstorming) and accommodation (i.e. carrying out plans and experiments and adapting to immediate circumstances). This study provides a number of practical recommendations for academics and higher education management.

Business incubators have been mushrooming in the recent past. There have been various studies on the impact of business incubators to the entrepreneurs and their diverse ideas. The major objectives of the study were to determine the factors affecting success of business incubators and identify impact level of those factors. An empirical study was conducted so as to insights and ideas. European business incubator managers interviewed, questionnaires were administered. Primary data was collected through the use of interviews with experts and questionnaires were administered to the entrepreneurs in Europe. Purposeful sampling was used to derive some expert knowledge and random sampling for the entrepreneurs. Data analysis was done using measures of central tendency, correlation analysis to identify the strength of relationship between dependent and independent variables, the ANOVA and regression analysis. The researchers found out that business incubators are of vital relevance during the start-up and growth of business. The present analysis empirically evidenced that three main factors such as availability and access to external financial resources, strong social and business networks, and internal strength including resources and capabilities positively affect and have a strong relationship with the success of business incubators.

What factors influence students to start their own business? What are the implications at the university level? This paper aims to answer to these questions and investigates, at a micro level (university), the motivation for entrepreneurial intentions among students in 10 universities from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). An online inquiry has been conducted among 500 students between April and June 2018, and 157 fully completed questionnaires were retained. Factor Analysis with Varimax (with Kaizer Normalization) rotation and logistic regression were used to identify
what factors motivate students to start their own business and, from those factors, which one is determinant in this decision. Also, age and parental self-employment status were used to determine the influence of these factors. Four factors have been identified as determinants for students to start their own business: entrepreneurial confidence, entrepreneurial orientation, university support for entrepreneurship, and cultural support for entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, the only factor significantly correlated with the intention in starting a business is entrepreneurial confidence.
This factor becomes even stronger when it is associated with age (20–25 years old) and parents’ self-employment status. These conclusions involve specific challenges on the university level, related to the role of entrepreneurial education and on country level, in link with the  effectiveness of governmental programs to enhance entrepreneurial endeavours. Further research can explore and test these findings on a representative sample for the UAE, and for other countries.

The increased international competition among higher education institutions caused by rapid globalization now requires universities to evaluate, alter or devise new and innovative strategies which will enable them to boost their international activities. There is a need to gain a competitive advantage in attracting more local and international students, involving staff in international exchange programs, conducting joint research, establishing collaborative degree and exchange programs, etc. This ongoing study aims to propose a synthesized conceptual framework of higher education internationalization which links strategic management concepts with higher education, thus consolidating various components by taking into account influential factors such as the dynamics of the external academic environment and organizational resources. The framework outlined in this paper provides a
good basis for further empirical research as well as a practical planning scheme for higher education managers.

The research in the field of international entrepreneurship has been described by various scholars as synthesis of multidisciplinary studies such as entrepreneurship and international business. The discipline is a relatively new subject and therefore there is a growing interest among researchers to come up with theories, conceptual frameworks and empirically proved theoretical concepts. This paper is a review of theoretical and empirical studies intending to discuss main insights of international entrepreneurship research on origins, speed, and modes of international activities of small firms as well as the importance of existing networks and developing new
networks in internationalization processes. In order to draw a clear picture of the selected topic, a three stage approach was derived; hence, the paper consists of three interrelated components. Firstly, the historical background and needs for conceptualizing and empirical research are being discussed followed by entrepreneurial internationalization conceptual frameworks, and finally, the results of several empirical researches have been presented. The paper draws out some managerial implications of the current research.

Nowadays internationalization can be seen as one of the main direction of higher education institutions that has been speed up by on-going globalization process in the world. Hence, internationalization became one of the main instruments to gain competitive advantage for universities. In this article, internationalization of higher education is explored from the angle of university’s business strategy. Consequently, strategic management process had been reviewed, analysed, and linked to the internationalization process of higher education. The article reviews main scientific works worldwide including theoretical and empirical research. It identifies how to link strategic management process to university’s internationalization activities.

The article reviews issues of higher education internationalization management. Particularly, various definitions, views, and importance of internationalization of universities are explored. Internationalization nowadays is seen as one of the major dimensions of a university. Hence, it is important to define comprehensive models and strategies of
internationalization for universities to compete in the global environment successfully. As the issues are relatively new for Georgia’s reality, the researcher is exploring the subject in the
framework of his doctoral research topic to come up with proper conceptual models and practical strategies of for Georgian higher education institutions.

The article touches issues of higher education internationalization management. The author reviews different models of higher education internationalization. Nowadays, internationalization is seen as one of the main directions of universities. Consequently, it is important to come up with comprehensive conceptual models of internationalization for further empirical research. Within the framework of the
Doctoral Program at the faculty of Economics and Business at Tbilisi State University, the author researches the issues of higher education internationalization, its models, and strategies. The topics reviewed in this article can be an interesting points for researchers and managers in the higher education field in Georgia and outside of the country.