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The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to describe how Lean methodology can be used, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to enhance the learning experience for non-traditional adult learners (NALs) and to explore attitudes and perceptions of students toward the integration of Lean methodology in online classes.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to collect data for the study. NALs were invited to participate in 60–75 min semi-structured interviews. These interviews allowed researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of a participant’s experience. A six-step thematic analysis framework was used to conduct the data analysis.

This paper presents a Lean model that can be implemented in an online medium of instruction. The core concepts of Lean methodology: jidoka, just-in-time, customer-centered approach, team involvement and standardization and how these can be used in online learning have been described in-depth. In total, 40 students participated in the semi-structured interviews. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: work-life balance; lack of standardization; learning online classes and connection to the workplace.

These findings could help academic institutions, instructors and course designers as they work on implementing new teaching and learning strategies for NALs.

There is extremely limited evidence on the usage of Lean methods for NALs in a public health crisis. As academic institutions move to the online medium of instruction to contain public health problems, this project can provide important practical tips to instructors.

We investigate the role of market uncertainties as determinants of the adoption of control and prediction in the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the possibility that uncertain markets may lead to trade-offs between these strategies, as suggested by the convergence between effectuation and internationalization research, we differentiate between uncertainties originated in SMEs’ home and host countries. We test our hypotheses with a cross-country data set encompassing 597 SMEs surveyed in Brazil, China, Poland, and Italy. Our results indicate that home-country uncertainty is related to the adoption of control strategies, while host-country cultural uncertainty is related to prediction efforts. Moreover, internationalization knowledge emerged not as a moderator of these relationships but as a relevant antecedent of both control and prediction. Our findings have implications for the use of effectuation in the study of SME internationalization and also for the conceptualization of the effectuation process itself.