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Integrated Case Study, Advanced Management Accounting, Environmental Management Accounting (EMA), Human Resource Management.

This case is designed for undergraduate students in accounting, business or human resource management programmes.

The case is about Irfan, a former Production Manager in Omicron, a small and medium-sized enterprise in Selangor, Malaysia, manufacturing automotive metal parts. Irfan is truly enthusiastic for environmental and cost-reduction tools and wishes to pursue it further to his best possible. The case presents Irfan facing the dilemma of how to align his passion for these tools to his future career choice. He is faced with three options – to remain in Omicron, to accept a job offer in another company or to establish his own consultancy firm. The case highlights the heavy involvement of Irfan in the implementation of a new environmental tool, Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) in Omicron, and all the tasks, activities, benefits and challenges encountered. Being at the ground with the implementation and outputs achieved, Irfan is excited about MFCA and wants to continue with it, due to the rich and valuable experience gained from its implementation and its potential for future savings. However, he does not seem to observe a similar excitement among the higher management. The case details an example of the implementation of MFCA for one of Omicron’s products and other relevant information that could serve as a guidance to any future implementation either in Omicron, the new company or even his own company. The case also provides details about Omicron and how Irfan regard Omicron as his second family to hint a strong pulling factor for Irfan to remain in Omicron, hence providing the extra weight on the dilemma he faces.

In the process of assessing a career choice dilemma for a middle-level manager, students are expected to analyse the three career options available to this middle manager, whose dilemma also relates to his passion of pursuing environment-related and cost-reduction tools. Where the environment is concerned, some parties need extra persuasion to pursue it and this also triggers the middle-manager’s dilemma. This case is intended to provide a tool to enable students to review and discuss matters, such as overcoming obstacles of pursuing environmental-related initiatives and progressing a mid-life career that provides self-fulfilment financially, emotionally and mentally. Among the theories and concepts referred include diffusion of innovations theory, EMA concepts and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not a foodborne infectious disease, but it has dramatically impacted food safety practices worldwide due to its potential for transmission through contaminated surfaces and food. Accordingly, the Omicron variant seems to have affected food-related activities and behaviours and disturbed food supply networks since its appearance in November 2021. Hence, this paper aims to assess how the Omicron variant impacted food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices amongst adult consumers in five countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Russia.

The study is based on an online survey. The questionnaire was developed and revised based on previous research on the impact of previous COVID-19 waves on food-related activities in several countries. The questionnaire was distributed through the SurveyMonkey platform from January 15 to February 25, 2022. It consisted of 29 multiple-choice and one-option questions organised into three sections. A total of 6,483 valid responses were received. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to analyse the survey results.

According to the survey findings, food safety practices evolved during the Omicron wave in the studied countries. Firstly, less than half of the sample used a face mask whilst purchasing food. Secondly, regarding food safety knowledge, the survey results suggest that there is still a lack of knowledge in the studied countries. Thirdly, the survey indicates a lack of knowledge amongst the respondents regarding food safety attitudes. For instance, more than a third of the sample (34.4%) are unsure whether the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through food. These results are surprising and alarming, especially considering that our sample has a higher education than the population of the studied countries.

The main limitation of this research is the sample bias. Survey participants were randomly chosen, enrolled voluntarily and not rewarded. As a result, the questionnaire was self-administered and completed exclusively by people motivated by an interest in the topic. Consequently, our survey does not represent the general population of the studied countries. People with a high degree of education and women, for example, were overrepresented in our sample.

This study is unique in that it is the first to gather information and analyse people’s perceptions of the effects of the Omicron variant on food safety. As a result, the findings of this survey offer a solid basis for future investigations into the impact of the pandemic on food safety in the Balkan region and Russia. This study can help further understand the changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides crucial insights that can be used to guide future decision-making and policy development regarding improving food safety practices. This and other future studies will be a foundation for organisational and government readiness for future shocks, crises and pandemics. The effects of the present Ukrainian conflict on agricultural systems and supply chains throughout the globe (e.g. increased food prices) show that this is timely, urgent and highly required.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of travel cryptocurrency and stock markets over a long period during the pandemic.

A generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model was developed for 6 travel cryptocurrencies and the top 10 hotel, 7 airline and 26 restaurant stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. An event-study approach was applied to the emergence of the novel coronavirus and its variant, Omicron. Additionally, abnormal returns of the respective assets in response to such events were estimated.

Results indicated that the travel cryptocurrency market did not respond to the early stage of the pandemic, but NASDAQ hotel, restaurant and airline stocks revealed abnormal negative returns when the pandemic manifested in the USA. Upon the official US declaration of a pandemic, both cryptocurrencies and tourism stocks showed abnormal negative returns, but these were considerably greater among stocks than cryptocurrencies. Conversely, in response to the Omicron variant, only hotel, restaurant and airline stocks showed abnormal negative returns.

These results imply that travel cryptocurrencies are a financial instrument independent of hotel, restaurant or airline stocks. Thus, adopting travel cryptocurrencies may help investors and businesses diversify risk during long-duration crises such as COVID-19.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first empirical study to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the recently emerging travel cryptocurrency market using an event-study approach to investigate how it differs from tourism stock performances.

本文评估了 COVID 大流行在疫情期间很长一段时间对旅游加密货币和股票市场表现的影响。

为 6 种旅行加密货币和纳斯达克证券交易所上市的前 10 大酒店、7 家航空公司和 26 家餐厅股票开发了 GARCH（广义自回归条件异方差）模型。 将事件研究方法应用于新型冠状病毒及其变种 Omicron 的出现。 此外, 还估计了相应资产因此类事件而产生的异常收益。

结果表明, 旅游加密货币市场对疫情初期没有反应, 但纳斯达克酒店、餐厅和航空公司股票在美国出现疫情时出现异常负回报。 在美国正式宣布大流行后, 加密货币和旅游股均出现异常负回报, 但股票中的负回报要远高于加密货币。 相反, 作为对 Omicron 变体的回应, 只有酒店、餐厅和航空股出现异常的负回报。

这些结果表明, 旅行加密货币是一种独立于酒店、餐厅或航空公司股票的金融工具。因此, 采用旅游加密货币可能有助于投资者和企业在 COVID-19 等长期危机期间分散风险。

本文是第一份旨在调查 COVID-19 大流行对最近新兴的旅游加密货币市场的影响的实证研究, 并使用事件研究方法来调查它与旅游股票表现有何不同。