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The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of personality traits and the ability to detect fake news on information avoidance behavior. It also examined the effect of personality traits on the ability to detect fake news.

The sample population included Shiraz University students who were studying in the second semester of academic year 2021 in different academic levels. It consisted of 242 students of Shiraz University. The Big Five theory was used as the theoretical background of the study. Moreover, the research instrument was an electronic questionnaire consisting of the three questionnaires of the ability to detect fake news (Esmaeili et al., 2019, inspired by IFLA, 2017), the Big Five personality traits (Goldberg, 1999) and information avoidance (Howell and Shepperd, 2016). The statistical methods used to analyze the data were Pearson correlation and stepwise regression, which were performed through SPSS software (version 26).

The results showed that from among the five main personality factors, only neuroticism had a positive and significant effect on information avoidance. In addition, the ability to detect fake news had a significant negative effect on information avoidance behavior. Further analyses also showed positive and significant effects of openness to experience and extraversion on the ability to detect fake news. In fact, the former had more predictive power.

Following the Big Five theory considering COVID-19 information avoidance and the ability to detect COVID-19 fake news, this study shifted the focus from environmental factors to personality factors and personality traits. Furthermore, this study introduced the ability to detect fake news as an influential factor in health information avoidance behaviors, which can be a prelude for new research studies.

The present study applied the five main personality factors theory in the context of information avoidance behavior and the ability to detect fake news, and supported the effect of personality traits on these variables.

This paper aims to analyze the dependence structure between the Green Sukuk Spread in Malaysia and uncertainty factors from January 1, 2017, to May 23, 2023, covering two main periods: the pre-COVID-19 and the COVID-19 periods.

This study contributes to the current literature by explicitly modeling nonlinear dependencies using the Regular vine copula approach to capture asymmetric characteristics of the tail dependence distribution. This study used the Archimedean copula models: Student’s-t, Gumbel, Gaussian, Clayton, Frank and Joe, which exhibit different tail dependence structures.

The empirical results suggest that Green Sukuk and various uncertainty variables have the strongest co-dependency before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Due to external uncertainties (COVID-19), the results reveal that global factors, such as the Infect-EMV-index and the higher financial stress index, significantly affect the spread of Green Sukuk. Interestingly, in times of COVID-19, its dependence on Green Sukuk and the news sentiment seems to be a symmetric tail dependence with a Student’s-t copula. This result is relevant for hedging strategies, as investors can enhance the performance of their portfolio during the COVID-19 crash period.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the dependency structure between Green Sukuk and uncertainty factors. It is relevant for market participants seeking to improve their risk management for Green Sukuk.

The pandemic has enhanced the global phenomenon of disinformation. This paper aims to study the false news concerning COVID-19, spread through social media in Spain, by using the LatamChequea database for a duration from 01/22/2020, when the first false information has been detected, up to 03/09/2021.

A quantitative analysis has been conducted with regard to the correlation between fake news stories and the pandemic state, the motive to share them, their dissemination in other countries and the effectiveness of fact checking. This study is complemented by a qualitative method: a focus group conducted with representatives of different groups within the society.

Fake news has been primarily disseminated through several social networks at the same time, with two peaks taking place in over a half of the said false stories. The first took place from March to April of 2020 during complete lockdown, and we were informed of prevention measures, the country’s situation and the origin of the virus, whereas the second was related to news revolving around the coming vaccines, which occurred between October and November. The audience tends to neither cross-check the information received nor report fake news to competent authorities, and fact-checking methods fail to stop their spread. Further awareness and digital literacy campaigns are thus required in addition to more involvement from governments and technological platforms.

The main limitation of the research is the fact that it was only possible to conduct a focus group of five individuals who do not belong to generation Z due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, although a clear contribution to the analysis of the impact of fake news on social networks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain can be seen from the privileged experiences in each of the fields of work that were identified. In this sense, the results of the study are not generalizable to a larger population. On the other hand, and with a view to future research, it would be advisable to carry out a more specific study of how fake news affects generation Z.

This research is original in nature, and the findings of this study are valuable for business practitioners and scholars, brand marketers, social media platform owners, opinion leaders and policymakers.

This study analyzes the evolution of topics related to COVID-19 on Chinese social media platforms with the aim of identifying changes in netizens' concerns during the different stages of the pandemic.

In total, 793,947 posts were collected from Zhihu, a Chinese Question and Answer website, and Dingxiangyuan, a Chinese online healthcare community, from 31 December, 2019, to 4 August, 2021. Topics were extracted during the prodromal and outbreak stages, and in the abatement–resurgence cycle.

Netizens' concerns varied in different stages. During the prodromal and outbreak stages, netizens showed greater concern about COVID-19 news, the impact of COVID-19 and the prevention and control of COVID-19. During the first round of the abatement and resurgence stage, netizens remained concerned about COVID-19 news and the prevention and control of the pandemic, however, less attention was paid to the impact of COVID-19. During later stages, popularity grew in topics concerning the impact of COVID-19, while netizens engaged more in discussions about international events and the raising of spirits to fight the global pandemic.

This study contributes to the practice by providing a way for the government and policy makers to retrospect the pandemic and thereby make a good preparation to take proper measures to communicate with citizens and address their demands in similar situations in the future.

This study contributes to the literature by applying an adapted version of Fink's (1986) crisis life cycle to create a five-stage evolution model to understand the repeated resurgence of COVID-19 in Mainland China.

We investigated the association of COVID-19 indicators and economic uncertainty indices on payment-based system cryptocurrency (i.e. Bitcoin, Ripple and Dogecoin) returns.

We used an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for panel data and performed robustness checks by utilizing a random effect model (REM) and generalized method of moments (GMM). There are 25 most adopted cryptocurrency’s countries and the data spans from 22 March 2021 to 6 May 2022.

This research discovered four findings: (1) the index of COVID-19 vaccine confidence (VCI) recovers the economic and Bitcoin has become more attractive, causing investors to shift their investment from Dogecoin to Bitcoin. However, the VCI was revealed to be insignificant to Ripple; (2) during uncertain times, Bitcoin could perform as a diversifier, while Ripple could behave as a diversifier, safe haven or hedge. Meanwhile, the movement of Dogecoin prices tended to be influenced by public figures’ actions; (3) public opinion on Twitter and government policy changes regarding COVID-19 and economy had a crucial role in investment decision making; and (4) the COVID-19 variants revealed insignificant results to payment-based system cryptocurrency returns.

This study contributed to verifying the vaccine confidence index effect on payment-based system cryptocurrency returns. Also, we further investigated the uncertainty indicators impacting on cryptocurrency returns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, we utilized the COVID-19 variants as a cryptocurrency returns’ new determinant.

This study aims to test the market anomaly of herding behavior driven by the response to supply chain disruptions in extreme market conditions such as those observed during COVID-19. The authors empirically test the response of the capital market participants for B2B firms, resulting in herding behavior.

Using the event study approach based on the market model, the authors test the impact of supply chain disruptions and resultant herding behavior across six sectors and among different B2B firms. The authors used cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR) and cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) to examine the significance of herding behavior across sectors.

The event study results show a significant effect of COVID-19 due to supply chain disruptions across specific sectors. Herding was detected across the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. The authors also provide evidence of sector-specific disruption impact and herding behavior based on the black swan event and social learning theory.

The authors examine the impact of COVID-19 on herding in the stock market of an emerging economy due to extreme market conditions. This is one of the first studies analyzing lockdown-driven supply chain disruptions and subsequent sector-specific herding behavior. Investors and regulators should take sector-specific responses that are sophisticated during extreme market conditions, such as a pandemic, and update their responses as the situation unfolds.

In the digital era individuals are overwhelmed by huge amount of readily available information. The information provided at the time of COVID-19 crisis is increasingly available. The purpose of this paper was to investigate individuals’ perceived feelings due to the plethora of information during COVID-19 pandemic in Greece in Spring 2020.

This study was conducted through a Web-based questionnaire survey posted on the Google Forms platform. The questionnaire consisted of closed-ended, seven-point Likert-scale questions. The data collected were subjected to a principal component analysis. The retained principal components (PCs) were subjected to statistical analysis between genders and among age groups and professional status with the nonparametric criteria Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis.

Responses by 776 individuals were obtained. Seventeen original variables from the questionnaire were summarized into three PCs that explained the 71.7% of total variance: “affective disorders,” “uncertainty issues and inaccurate information worries” and “satisfaction and optimism.” Participants partly agree that the received amount of information on the disease caused them feelings of uncertainty about the future and worries about relatives’ lives, but also satisfaction with developments in the country. Females seem to experience stronger perceived feelings of “affective disorders” (p < 0.001) and reported higher degree of agreement about “uncertainty issues and inaccurate information worries.”

The recorded feelings caused by the volume of available information may have forced people accept the necessary precautionary behavioral changes that had contributed to the Greek success in preventing spread of the disease in Spring 2020.

This paper aims to conduct an interdisciplinary systematic literature review (SLR) of fake news research and to advance the socio-technical understanding of digital information practices and platforms in business and management studies.

The paper applies a focused, SLR method to analyze articles on fake news in business and management journals from 2010 to 2020.

The paper analyzes the definition, theoretical frameworks, methods and research gaps of fake news in the business and management domains. It also identifies some promising research opportunities for future scholars.

The paper offers practical implications for various stakeholders who are affected by or involved in fake news dissemination, such as brands, consumers and policymakers. It provides recommendations to cope with the challenges and risks of fake news.

The paper discusses the social consequences and future threats of fake news, especially in relation to social networking and social media. It calls for more awareness and responsibility from online communities to prevent and combat fake news.

The paper contributes to the literature on information management by showing the importance and consequences of fake news sharing for societies. It is among the frontier systematic reviews in the field that covers studies from different disciplines and focuses on business and management studies.

This study aims to assess the sources of COVID-19 information respondents relied for COVID-19 pandemic information access and use, forms of misinformation and their influence on COVID-19 vaccine uptake hesitancy among frontline workers.

A Google Form developed questionnaire, distributed conveniently through link shared through WhatsApp groups was used to collect data from frontline workers from Dar es Salaam and Dodoma cities. Analysis was done using a binary regression analysis.

It was found that it was not the source that mattered for one to be hesitancy or not on COVID-19 vaccination, but the extent to which the information the source channels was manipulated or false.

Relying only Google Form questionnaire sent through a link on WhatsApp may have compromised the quality of information gathered and the quality of conclusion. Another study may have conducted through researcher administered questionnaire to a bigger sample to increase conclusion reliability and validity.

This study urges that to increase the COVID-19 vaccine uptake, it is important to ensure that the quality of information from the revealed dependable sources is checked to avoid possible consequential disquiet resulting from misinformation.

As the world is striving toward combating the COVID-19 or at least lessening its effects, this paper is of its own kind, using the theory of informative fictions to guide the assessment of the sources of information and the extent to which they influence misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine uptake hesitancy.

This study aims to understand the patterns of content-sharing behaviour on major social media platforms by young adult users with reference to how these sharing patterns are influenced by two main sociocultural factors in their lives, religiosity and social conformity.

Online surveys including both the ATSCI test for social conformity as well as the Hoge test for religiosity were filled out by 590 participants. In-depth interviews with six participants representative of the same population were conducted to deepen analysis of key variables explored in the surveys. The design of the interviews was semi-structured, whereby the focus was to achieve a general overview of participants' intentions and habits regarding sharing information via social media.

The findings show a significant positive impact of religiosity and social conformity on users' sharing intention which, in turn, affects their inclination towards verifying the content they share.

The authors' findings emphasise how users bear the onus of correcting the online information space. It paves the way for future research by recognising the value of independent corroboration amongst users.

This study lends key support to the growing body of research on social media use in societies in which shared religious and cultural values tend to clearly impact everyday social interaction.