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The purpose of this paper is to critically summarize the current data concerning the impact of obesity and micronutrient adequacy and supplementation on the risk and severity of COVID-19 disease, and their potential impact on treatment and rehabilitation.

PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were thoroughly searched to identify studies concerning obesity and nutritional status, vitamin and other micronutrients adequacy with COVID-19 severity.

Individuals with higher body mass index are in greater risk of severe disease and need for mechanical ventilation. Concerning micronutrient adequacy, no published studies at the present time have evaluated the effect of supplementation on the risk and the treatment of the novel disease.

Recently, COVID-19 has monopolized the interest of the medical community regarding diet and nutritional status and it possibly plays an important role in disease severity.

This article contributes to a better theoretical and empiric understanding of mixed results in the literature investigating the relationship between institutional confidence and adherence to recommended measures during a pandemic.

The article relies on structural equation models (SEMs) based on data from ResPOnsE COVID-19, a rolling cross-section (RCS) survey carried out in Italy from April to June 2020.

The authors’ findings show the existence of multiple pathways of confidence at the national and local level. Confidence in the institutions is positively associated with support for the performance of the Prime Minister and that of the regional institutions in the North West, which in turn, raises the likelihood of following the restrictive measures. However, in the same regions, a good appraisal of the regional system's performance also had a direct positive effect on the perception of being safe from the virus, decreasing adherence to the restrictive measures. Finally, the direct effect of confidence in the institutions on compliance is negative.

The result enlightens the crucial role both of national and local institutions in promoting or inhibiting adherence to restrictive measures during a pandemic and suggests that “one size fits all” measures for increasing overall institutional confidence might not be sufficient to reach the desired goal of achieving compliance in pandemic times.

The authors theorize and test three cognitive mechanisms – (1) the “cascade of confidence”; (2) the “paradox of support” and (3) the “paradox of confidence” – to account for both the positive and negative links between measures of political support and public acceptability of COVID-19 containment measures.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of sustainable business models in building corporate reputation and resilience. Specifically, the financial performance of listed companies will be evaluated following the beginning of the armed conflict in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Taking as a standpoint the triple bottom line (TBL) theory, the case of firms listed in the Spanish IBEX-35 index is analysed. The present paper evaluates financial performance and corporate reputation, based on the usage of Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) strategies to adhere to their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

To achieve this goal, energy firms operating in Spain are evaluated. Specifically, companies operating in the energy sector listed in the IBEX35, benchmark index of Spain’s largest trading platform are considered. The analysis comprises evaluating the fluctuation in the value of their stock and the influence of usage of renewable and other power sources that limit dependency on foreign events. In addition, communication and dissemination of non-financial information, and usage of international standards within these areas, are considered as well.

Results show long-term CSR commitments and ESG strategies significantly impact firm’s ability to overcome crises and improve financial performance. Additionally, energy firms that adhered to the energy transition into renewables display stronger performance and lower dependency on uncertain and weakened markets during the Ukraine armed conflict.

The results contribute to the advancement of the TBL theory and the creation of sustainable business models. By introducing ESG strategies, firms are able to improve the people-profit-planet balance and at the same time improve their resilience. This contributes to an overall enhancement of their capacity to overcome crises and sustain their financial performance and corporate reputation over time. Policy makers can also benefit from this knowledge, introducing regulation that promotes and supports companies’ development of their CSR through ESG strategies, to ensure more sustainable organisations that can support the economy in a context of hardship.

The analysis evaluates the results of a firm’s long-term commitment to the TBL through adequate ESG strategies when operating in unexpected and unprecedented hostile environments. Previous research has focused on the link between some variables concerning financial performance and ESG strategies yet not considering the specific context of an enhanced crisis (i.e. a pandemic and armed conflict). This can provide significant insight into the contribution that people, profit and planet can provide in building sustainable and successful organisations. Lastly, the paper outlines the key factors that contributed to the firm’s ability to overcome extreme hardships, such as operating in an environment affected by a combination of two crises.

The purpose of this study was to examine how data from the World Health Organization, United States Environmental Protection Agency and Center for Disease Control have evolved with relation to engineering controls for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to mitigate the spread of spread of aerosols (specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic) in occupied buildings.

A document analysis of the pandemic-focused position documents from the aforementioned public health agencies and national HVAC authorities was performed. This review targeted a range of evidence from recommendations, best practices, codes and regulations and peer-reviewed publications and evaluated how they cumulatively evolved over time. Data was compared between 2020 and 2021.

This research found that core information provided early in the pandemic (i.e. early 2020) for engineering controls in building HVAC systems did not vary greatly as knowledge of the pandemic evolved (i.e. in June of 2021). This indicates that regulating agencies had a good, early understanding of how airborne viruses spread through building ventilation systems. The largest evolution in knowledge came from the broader acceptance of building ventilation as a transmission route and the increase in publications and ease of access to the information for the general public over time.

The promotion of the proposed controls for ventilation in buildings, as outlined in this paper, is another step toward reducing the spread of COVID-19 and future aerosol spread viruses by means of ventilation.

After the identification of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at Wuhan, China, a pandemic was widely spread worldwide. In Italy, about 240,000 people were infected because of this virus including 34,721 deaths until the end of June 2020. To control this new pandemic, epidemiologists recommend the enforcement of serious mitigation measures like country lockdown, contact tracing or testing, social distancing and self-isolation.

This paper presents the most popular epidemic model of susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I) and recovered (R) collectively called SEIR to understand the virus spreading among the Italian population.

Developed SEIR model explains the infection growth across Italy and presents epidemic rates after and before country lockdown. The results demonstrated that follow-up of strict measures such that country lockdown along with high testing is making Italy practically a pandemic-free country.

These models largely help to estimate and understand how an infectious agent spreads in a particular country and how individual factors can affect the dynamics. Further studies like classical SEIR modeling can improve the quality of data and implementation of this modeling could represent a novelty of epidemic models.

After reading the case study, the students will be able to analyze the impact of post-pandemic “new normal” customer behavioral change on a start-up aggregator operating virtually. Recognize the need for the service marketing strategy to prepare a service provider/aggregator to sustain a dynamic and volatile consumer environment. Understand the importance of competitors’ analysis as a primary step of service marketing strategy in influencing “new normal” consumer behavior. Examine the utility of customer engagement through website blogs, social media posts, videos and continuously updated information on the mobile application in influencing the “new normal” customer behavior, from skinner operant conditioning behavior and Rusbolt’s investment model perspectives.

Rafeeg is a mobile application-based home maintenance service providing company, conceived and founded in 2017 by Khamis Alsheryani – who, as an Emirati entrepreneur, has a prior record of accomplishing successful mobile applications and business ventures since 2004. The unique selling proposition of Rafeeg in the Abu Dhabi market is its functioning as the home maintenance services aggregator bringing its suppliers and consumers under-one-roof alongside maintaining ensuring high quality, punctuality and security at competitive prices. Rafeeg has collaborated with approximately 1,000 licensed suppliers using nearly 5,000 technicians and maintenance workers with a customer base of about 70,000 households. Although it is formally situated in Al Salam St, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company communicates with its consumers virtually. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UAE in March 2020, Rafeeg witnessed a considerable decrease in service requests. Consumers’ psychological fear of the pandemics spread into their houses through the technicians and maintenance workers and the degree of hygienic practices the latter follows before their service provision acted as the major reason behind the fall in requests. Despite Alsheryani’s assurance on the provision of only those suppliers who are verified of their hygienic practices, negative COVID-19 test reports and their availability to the consumers as proof and regular temperature checks of the technicians, the consumer apprehensions remained stagnant and the loss of new service requests, as well as revenue, continued. The pandemic’s spread and consequent lockdown of services in the UAE affected Rafeeg’s business operations gravely, as projected by its sudden drop-in service requests – from 53,638 average monthly customer requests in January and February to approximately 10,000 in March and April. The sudden drop of 81% in new requests drove Alsheryani to develop a service marketing strategy in May to boost consumer behavior, encouraging them to resume their requests without further apprehensions. However, with the continuous rise in the pandemic and vaccines still under trial and research, Alsheryani contemplates the viability of the new marketing strategy. Alsheryani took measures in supplier training programs, excommunicating with suppliers who fail to comply with his strict safety regulations, developing the app with clearly stated, uniform, safety procedures and bearing the additional safety-related costs small suppliers provide quality work as part of the strategy. Despite so, will there be an increase in new requests? Will the bearing of additional costs on the suppliers’ behalf jeopardize its competitive advantage in UAE? Should he consider an alternate business model to adapt to the new normal environment?

This case is written for undergraduate students majoring in consumer behavior, consumer engagement approaches, digital marketing approaches using websites, mobile applications, social media communities and service marketing strategies. Students, through this case, can relate the importance of virtual space in engaging consumers and the importance of the latter in addressing the dynamicity of consumer behavior, especially affected by sudden environmental change, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study also subtly highlights the importance of collaboration with suppliers in an aggregator business model to capture the essence of changing consumer behavior. This case study is appropriate for students having previous knowledge of Rusbolt’s investment model and skinner’s operant behavioral model of consumer behavior and their application in service marketing. Besides, students must be aware of the online business model and aggregator businesses in the service industry of the UAE. The case study purports to motivate critical analytical thinking among students and build their understanding of the importance of consumer behavior for business sustenance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 8: Marketing.

This paper aims to describe the phenomenon of multiple simultaneous un/natural disasters (MSDs). This study also aims to describe the importance and contribution of philosophy in describing MSDs warning and alarming systems.

The paper summarizes topics in the philosophy of MSDs that were covered in detail in previous research in order to continue with the topic of the philosophy of MSDs alarming and warning. A practical solution to conceptual paradoxes is researched by means of conceptual-morphological analysis.

The paper proposes a conceptual idea for MSDs alarming system which is its main topic; namely, it offers a conceptual solution to a series of practical-conceptual paradoxes that occur before, during and after MSDs.

This is only a conceptual research, and it does not deal with particular technological solutions.

The proposed solution of this research could be implemented in various warning and alarm systems.

The proposed concept of a universal alarm system for MSDs was not previously proposed.

This chapter asks: How do COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates work? In order to provide an answer, it analyses social media artefacts that make conspiratorial claims about Bill Gates such as the ones that he manufactured the virus, makes money from COVID-19 vaccines, plans to dominate the world and erect a dictatorship, and implants surveillance microchips into humans via COVID-19 vaccinations. The focus is on artefacts that have massively spread and have reached high visibility on social media and the Internet. A critical discourse analysis was conducted of this material.

The findings show that and how COVID-19 conspiracy theories construct the existence of a secret elite that dominates the world, use ideological strategies such as the personalisation of domination, the friend/enemy scheme, rational irrationality and logical determinism. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are a necrophilic ideology, an ideology of death that advances death and increases the number of deaths. This pandemic ideology tries to convince humans that vaccines are harmful and that COVID-19 is a hoax, whereby human misery is advanced. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are to a large degree a right-wing ideology.