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This study aims to highlight the moderating role of perceived organizational, supervisory and coworker’s support in weakening the negative relationship between fear of pandemic (FOP) and employee’s engagement in the Asian organizations. Furthermore, this study also aims to explore the role of employees’ engagement as an intervening mechanism, which mediates the relationship between FOP and employee’s performance in an Asian postpandemic context.

Based on extensive review of recent literature and sound theoretical reasoning, the authors have developed a comprehensive conceptual framework (with related theoretical propositions) which provides clear guidelines as to how Asian Business Managers/organizations can minimize the adverse effect of the employee’s fear triggered by the pandemic at the workplace and how provision of effective and timely organizational/interpersonal support (i.e. organizational, managerial and coworkers level support) can help Asian Managers address various workplace challenges created by the pandemic moving forward. This study has further validated the proposed conceptual framework and related theoretical propositions by conducting an in-depth bibliometric analysis and by developing clusters of the co-occurrences based on most recent/ relevant literature published in the area.

This study advances the knowledge in the areas of FOP and organizational support in particular. A comprehensive review of the literature clearly indicates how effective organizational, supervisory and peer support mechanism can help Asian Business Managers in alleviating the negative impact of the FOP on various employee level outcomes such as employees “engagement and performance” and how it can help Asian firms in addressing the associated challenges while working in a postpandemic context. Later on, an in-depth bibliometric analysis of the literature has revealed emerging knowledge patterns in the field and has indicated several key gaps in the existing literature which further confirms the theoretical framework and the propositions related thereto.

Though several researchers have previously examined the fear created by COVID-19 at workplace, relatively fewer researchers have tried to link it up with employees’ level of involvement/ engagement at workplace. Even fewer researchers have tried to examine the vital role that organizational, managerial and peers support can play in minimizing the adverse effects created by pandemic-induced fears for employees’ productivity and performance in an Asian workplace context. Furthermore, hardly any efforts have been made to look at this popular notion of employees’ engagement as an intervening mechanism which carries a significant potential to mediate the relationship between FOP and employees’ job performance. This study aims to bridge all these gaps by integrating the two main streams of knowledge together, i.e. Four Horsemen of Fear and Organizational Support theory. Based on strong theoretical reasoning, an in-depth review and a bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature, the authors have developed a comprehensive conceptual framework which explains how various levels of support may interact with FOP to predict different levels of employees’ engagement in a contemporary Asian workplace and how this in turn may impact employees’ job performance while at work.

This study aims to examine capital and competency variables – human capital, social capital and personal entrepreneurial competencies – in relation to social innovation development and growth of social enterprises in a developing country with an emerging social enterprise sector: Thailand.

A hypothetical-deductive approach was adopted and a quantitative survey by questionnaire was applied to collect data from owners/top management of 103 social enterprises in Thailand. The data were used to test hypotheses and further analysed using partial least squares technique.

The results revealed that there were positive direct and indirect (mediating) relationships between human capital, social capital, personal entrepreneurial competencies and social innovation development and growth of Thai social enterprises. Skills and training were key determinants of human capital, whereas social interaction, trust, social identification and shared knowledge were key determinants of social capital which affected social innovation development. Goal orientation, information seeking, opportunity seeking, persuasion and self-confidence were key determinants of entrepreneurial competencies that also affected social innovation development. This study ultimately revealed the mediating effects of social innovation development on the relationships between capital and competency variables and the growth of social enterprises.

This study fills the research gap, from the theoretical perspective, by identifying capital and competency variables as well as their additional determinants that are divergent from previous literature, which can potentially influence the social innovation development of social enterprises, and where only limited research is evidenced. From an empirical perspective, this study attempts to investigate the associations between these variables and growth indicators in the context of social enterprises in a developing nation, where its sector is in its infancy. This study further helps to clarify the existence of the direct and indirect (mediating) effects of social innovation development in the context of the economic and social accomplishments of social enterprises.