4IpaUJbnm

FOREWORD
On April 28, 2016 over forty Conference presenters from all over the world came together
to Vilnius to present the most leading-edge insights and scholarly discussions related to
innovative and creativity-driven business solutions at the International Business Conference
2016: Searching for Innovative and Creative Business Solutions. The Conference aimed to
represent the most leading-edge insights and scholarly discussions related to innovative and
creativity-driven business solutions that may have a high impact on the business of
tomorrow. Conference participants had an opportunity to listen to the leading-edge
research insights and ideas presented by the scholars representing many foreign universities
and research institutions from Belgium, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Georgia, United
States, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Finland, Poland, Lithuania and others.
The Conference was organized and hosted by the Faculty of Business Management at
Vilniaus Kolegija / University of Applied Sciences to mark its 70 th anniversary since the
establishment of the Faculty. The Conference welcomed papers from a variety of disciplines
and perspectives that could potentially contribute to the Conference discourse: theoretical,
conceptual, empirical, managerial, case-study or methodological research perspectives. The
call for papers was initiated along the following five thematic tracks: 1) Innovative and
creative business solutions in international business; 2) Innovation and creativity
management; 3) Innovative and creative business management models and approaches; 4)
Creative and innovative marketing, branding and business communication approaches; 5)
Innovative and creative hospitality and tourism. This multi-directionality of paper calls gave
us an opportunity to gather insights on innovative and creative business solutions within
different domains of business and perspectives.
The Conference proved to be an important networking event, and created an international
platform for the exchange of ideas and research findings on contemporary issues and trends
facing the rapidly changing global business environments. Indeed, Conference presentations
strongly supported the fact that creativity and innovation are the driving forces not only for
adapting to changing business contexts, but also for proactively making an impact on
existing markets and industries, and exploiting new opportunities and trends. Faced with
complex, ever-changing challenges and opportunities, businesses realize that constant,
ongoing innovation and adaptive creativity are essential to stay ahead of the competition
and gain a competitive advantage.
Indeed, this Conference inspired us towards launching an annual conference on the creative
and innovative aspect of business; therefore, Vilnius is projected to be a hot spot of
creativity and business innovation for the upcoming years. I would like to express great
appreciation for all the Conference presenters and participants who made this Conference a
great event and supported our further commitment to advance business creativity and
innovation. In turn, we will seek to do our best to operate as a transitioning and
transforming platform for creative business ideas and innovative approaches.
Giedrė Brazdauskaitė, Editor.
7