Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on business model (BM) design by deepening the relationship between BM design themes and performance in a sample of firms based in a developing country. In particular, the authors deepen the relationship between business model novelty (BMN), business model efficiency (BME), the trade-off between novelty and efficiencythat the authors call BM ambidexterityand performance. Design/methodology/approach-Data are drawn from a sample of 107 manufacturing and service firms based in a developing country (Albania). Hierarchical regression is used to assess the impact on firm performance from the two BM design themes and their interaction. Findings-The authors find novelty-centred BM design is significantly related to firm performance while efficiency-centred design has no direct effect on performance. However, the authors also find that BME positively moderates the relationship between BMN and firm performance. Research limitations/implications-The relationship between BM design and firm performance can be better understood if contextualised. In the paper, the authors find that different types of BM designs have different impacts on the performance of firms based in a developing economy. While novelty matters, quite surprisingly the authors find no support for efficiency. Additionally, the authors find the interaction between the two design themes (BM ambidexterity) to have a positive impact on firm performance. Practical implications-The surveyed firms based in a developing economy appear to benefit from novelty-centred BM designs. Efficiency-centred designs have a more ambiguous role: while efficiency alone seems not to pay off, an efficient BM design may facilitate the market exploitation of a novel design. Originality/value-This study responds to a precise call for additional quantitative empirical studies on the relationship between BM and performance. The study also contributes to an emerging stream of research focused on BM ambidexterity.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the value chain governance in the fruit sector in Albania. Particular attention was paid to the nature of relations between agricultural producers and marketing channel chosen by them, distinguishing between big wholesalers, local collectors and exporters, longer-term relations, commitment and trust, and contracting along the value chain. Given the absence of, or weak, contract enforcement and the clear evidence of embeddedness in dyadic relationships in this chain, we focused our analysis on sustained relationships, contracting and personal bonds as a determinant factor to improve business relationship quality. This paper is based on a structured survey targeting 182 orchard farmers in two leading fruit production regions in Albania, namely Korca and Peshkopia. The survey showed a weak prevalence of verbal contracts in embedded relationships. The percentage of contracts between farmers and local collectors is slightly higher compared to wholesalers. This evidence is much stronger when we investigate the incidence of contracts in stable relationships (i.e. selling to the same buyer). We also find that mature relationships generate higher sustainability-a result which does not come as a surprise, although the coordination between farmers and other actors downstream is only at early stages. The main implications which arise from our analysis are relevant for agribusinesses, farmers and policy makers.

Building on transaction cost economics theoretical framework, we examined the determinants of long-term business relationships between farmers and buyers in the Albanian dairy chain in a context characterised by weak institutions and lack of formal contract. Logistic regression analysis was employed to test the model on primary data collected from a sample of 315 Albanian farmers engaged in the production of sheep and goat milk. The study results support our hypotheses that trust, uncertainty and levels are discussed. At a managerial level, dairy owners and managers need to build trust with farmers and mitigate uncertainties as a precondition for long-term relationships. At the policy level, the government subsidy schemes need to be further latter being a precondition also to achieve traceability and improve standards.

Emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a new concept that describes the context in which instructional delivery is switched entirely online due to crisis circumstances. Recent research in such a context has been focused either on exploring the unique learning environment and enabling factors or on instructors’ intended behavior, with few studies exploring the students’ perspective. This study aims to contribute to the literature on technology-mediated teaching and learning by deepening the knowledge of the factors determining students’ behavioral intentions (BI) in ERT settings, using a survey of 487 graduate students attending public and non-public universities in Albania conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed to explore the chain relationship between ease of use (EASYUSE), expected efficiency (EE), attitudes (ATT), and BI. We expand the TAM model and increase its explanatory power by introducing new variables, such as co-presence (CP), and emergent variables, such as lack of learning materials and time constraints. Variance-based partial least squares techniques were used to validate our conceptual model. As hypothesized, EE and EASYUSE have a direct, positive effect on BI and an indirect effect via ATT. CP does not influence the BI directly but only indirectly via ATT and EE. Finally, the lack of learning materials is shown to negatively affect EE. While some of the findings have limited generalizability the specific research setting provides a unique opportunity to investigate the critical role of interactive teaching methods and learning barriers on students’ intentions and ATT. The fresh insights gained from the extended TAM model have important implications concerning the effective and systematic use of online modalities in similar settings. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s40692-022-00239-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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This study aims to provide a comparative analysis between non-transition and transition countries, with focus on exploring the life satisfaction costs of deprivation aspects, i.e., material, subjective and relative deprivation. For the latter, we calculate the Gini index at the regional (city) level since the Gini index at the country level is unable to capture the influence of income inequality on life satisfaction for both sets of countries. A negative association between these measures and life satisfaction is suggestive of deprivation measures being quality-of-life important considerations in the EU and neighbouring candidate countries. The relative importance of such indicators is also of particular interest because it is driven by social mobility considerations. The study is based on a comparative analysis of data taken by nationally representative household database from the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey. We evaluate the hypotheses using a two-level linear mixed-effects model of individual responses collected in 33 European countries (28 EU countries plus Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey). Estimates are generated for the pooled sample and separately for the non-transition (West-EU) and transition post-communist (East-EU and non-EU) countries. The results suggest that there are significant life satisfaction costs attached to all the three aspects of deprivation. However, the relative importance of subjective deprivation, as a measure of income inequality at the city level, is significantly larger than material and subjective deprivation, even after we control for equivalised household income. This relationship is more pronounced for transition countries as compared to non-transition ones.

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