Search results

This paper aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the private label food products, specifically assessing the stability and changes in factors influencing purchasing decisions, and comparing pre-pandemic and post-pandemic datasets.

The study employs the Extra Tree Classifier method, a robust quantitative approach, to analyse data collected from questionnaires distributed among two distinct consumer samples. This methodological choice is explicitly adopted to provide a clear classification of factors influencing consumer preferences for private label products, surpassing conventional qualitative methods.

Despite the profound disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research underscores the persistent hierarchy of factors shaping consumer choices in the private label food market, showing an overall stability in consumer behaviour. At the same time, the analysis of individual variables highlights the positive increase in those related to product quality, health, taste, and communication.

The use of online surveys for data collection may introduce a self-selection bias, and the non-probabilistic sampling method could limit the generalizability of the results.

Practical implications suggest that managers in the private label industry should prioritize enhancing quality control, ensuring effective communication, and dynamically adapting strategies to meet evolving consumer preferences, with a particular emphasis on quality and health attributes.

This study contributes to the existing body of literature by providing insights into the profound transformations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour, specifically in relation to their preferences for private label food products.

The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationships between staffing the organization and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularity in this scope in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period in the HQs and foreign subsidiaries of MNCs.

The empirical research included 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. To capture the actual relations between the variables under study the raw data in the variables were adjusted with the efficiency index (EI). The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to verify the research hypotheses and assess the mediating effects.

The research findings show that, with the exception of the HQs in the pandemic period, when staffing had a negative effect on the company performance results in quality, in other cases it had a positive effect on results in HRM, finance, innovativeness and quality, both in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period, although this effect was not always statistically significant. Furthermore, the company's performance results in HRM mediate positively the relationships between staffing and the other three categories of company performance results, regardless of the organizational level (HQs' or subsidiaries') and time period under consideration. Additionally, during the pandemic, the company's performance results in HRM mediate the relationships between staffing and the other company's performance results stronger than in the pre-pandemic time.

In addition to confirming the results of some other studies, the article also provides new knowledge. It determines the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationship between staffing and company performance results in finance, innovativeness and quality. Moreover, it identifies certain regularities in the four studied contexts, which is a novelty in this type of research. It also uses an innovative approach to including employee KPIs as the efficiency index in analyzing the relationships between the variables under study.

This study investigates the role of market concentration and efficiency in banking system stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We empirically test the hypothesis that market concentration and efficiency are significant determinants of bank performance and stability during the time of crises, using a sample of 575 banks in 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The main sources of bank data are the BankScope and BankFocus (Bureau van Dijk) databases, World Bank development indicators, and official websites of banks in MENA countries. This study combined descriptive and analytical approaches. We utilize a panel dataset and adopt panel data econometric techniques such as fixed/random effects and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator.

The results reveal that market concentration negatively affects bank profitability, whereas improved efficiency further enhances bank performance and contributes to the banking sector’s overall stability. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that during the COVID-19 pandemic, bank stability strongly depended on the level of market concentration, but not on bank efficiency. However, more efficient banks are more profitable and stable if the banking institutions are Islamic. Similarly, Islamic banks with the same level of efficiency demonstrated better overall financial performance during the pandemic than their conventional peers did.

The main limitation is related to the period of COVID-19 pandemic that was covered in this paper (2020–2021). Therefore, further investigation of the COVID-19 effects on bank profitability and risk will require an extended period of the pandemic crisis, including 2022.

This study provides information that will enable bank managers and policymakers in MENA countries to assess the growing impact of market concentration and efficiency on the banking sector stability. It also helps them in formulating suitable strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recommendations are useful guides for policymakers and regulators in countries where Islamic and conventional banking systems co-exist and compete, based on different business models and risk management practices.

The authors contribute to the banking stability literature by investigating the role of market concentration and efficiency as the main determinants of bank performance and stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first to analyze banking sector stability in the MENA region, using both individual and risk-adjusted aggregated performance measures.

The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, it aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activities and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) government suppliers involved in government green procurement (GGP). Second, it examines the differences in the impact of COVID-19 between small and medium-sized groups.

The study used a questionnaire survey that was distributed to SMEs listed in the MyHIJAU directory that supply green goods and services to the government. Of the total 394 sample respondents, 126 usable questionnaires were received, representing a usable response rate of 31.98%. Descriptive analysis of mean score, standard deviation and mean score ranking was used to analyse the overall results. A t-test analysis was carried out to examine the differences between the small and medium-sized groups of companies.

The study discovers that the SME government suppliers involved in GGP were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The top ranked impacts are that “the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened health and safety practices among the employees”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced company’s turnover”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the company to implement a cost reduction strategy”, “the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the company’s ability to deliver work, supplies or services to the government” and “the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the company to incur higher production costs for green products or services provided”. However, there is no significant difference between the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the small and medium-sized group of enterprises.

The present study is among the fewer studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular focus on SME government suppliers involved in GGP.

In international business (IB), the discussion of COVID-19-related global value chain (GVC) models driving resilience has taken momentum since May 2020. The purpose of this study is to uncover insights that the pandemic provided as a unique research opportunity, holistically, revealing the significant role of non-lead firms in GVC outcomes and resilience. This allows to extend theory as the authors critically identify impact criteria and assess interdependence and valence, thus progressing the traditional (pre-pandemic) IB view of GVC governance and orchestration.

This study opts for an integrative review to help create a much-needed extension of IB theory by means of a critical perspective on GVC theory. The authors examine the extant body of IB literature as the relevant stock of collective IB knowledge prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering contributions – with a focus on the role of non-lead firms in orchestration and resilience – that allows to clarify what was not evident pre-pandemic. With this, the authors move the theory from its efficiency focus to a better recognition of the interdependencies of power and profit outcomes stemming from asymmetries of interrelationships. By design, the authors focus on the unique research period of the pandemic and orchestration complexities along the development of configurational arguments beyond simple correlations (Fiss, 2011), revealing key dependencies as key themes. The authors highlight further research avenues following Snyder (2019) that are called upon to strengthen that understanding and that helps extend theory.

This research provides a critical perspective on the application of the traditional IB views for GVC governance (designed for efficiency, cost and proximity to markets with pre-dominance for just in time), which has shifted during the pandemic to accommodate for adaptation and adjustment to resilience and just in case considerations. The holistic review reveals not only the key country- and multinational enterprise (MNE)-dependencies with residual impact determining the balance between just-in-time and just-in-case. Also, the authors advance the understanding of the (un)balance of the traditional GVC – focused on just-in-case rather than just-in-time through a lead and non-lead GVC participation and power lens yet rarely observed. The authors find that governance should not be construed as “management” such that it resolves into decisions undertaken in lead firms for execution in subordinate GVC participants. Autonomy allows to subsidiary units by MNE lead firms and/or exercised by (mainly, innovative) non-subsidiary GVC participant firms, is uncovered as a key driver in this. Greater delegation capacity appears to help provide resilience to loss in profit, with a recognition that there may be a dynamic trade-off between power and profit. In addition, the authors are able to identify correlations with innovation, demand elasticity, digital uptake, investment and other, that the authors trust will set the scene for additional research deepening and extending the findings.

Integrative literature reviews include a problem formulation (i.e. that is limited to published topics around an emerging theme) and are hence very focused in nature and approach. This applies to this paper. Data analysis in this method is not typically using statistical methods in contrast to meta-analyses. Also, the authors limit the sample to a relatively short time period with 33 publications analysed, purposefully focusing on the most prompt and “acute” insights into GVCs during the pandemic.

The traditional GVC governance model is designed for efficiency, cost and proximity to markets with pre-dominance for just in time. The authors reveal dependencies that are instrumental to better understand lead and non-lead interaction and relative autonomy, with a focus on residual impact determining the balance between just-in-time and just-in-case that, if in the sought equilibrium and agile, can allow alignment with context and this resilience. This paper specifically provides practical insights and visualization that highlights stages/“ripple” effects and their impact and the questions to ask as stakeholders look for GVC resilience. This includes, int.al., firms and their role as strategic agents, prompting participants through the learnings from exogenous shock to realign their strategies, redistributed manufacturing of production across subsidiary and non-subsidiary non-lead firms, greater competition and hence power for suppliers leveraging resilience and innovation, greater understanding of localization and regionalization of production of essential supplies, interaction with governments, and of investment impacts abroad especially to secure GVC participation.

The insights provided through this extension of theory with its literature review reveal the importance of aligning IB research into GVCs to factors that became visible through alternative or unusual settings, as they have the power to reveal the limitations of traditional views. In this case, a mainly efficiency-led, just-in-time focused GVC governance model is reviewed through the literature that emanated during the pandemic, with a critical perspective, which helped uncover and underline the complexities and evolution of GVC governance, providing fundamental support to solutioning the continuing global supply chain challenges that started as a result of the pandemic and are yet again accelerated by the Ukraine and Middle Eastern wars and its impact with, int.al., concerns over possible severe global food, labour/migration and resources crises. IB holds a social responsibility to help identify critical challenges from the disciplinary perspective and help advance resilience for social benefit.

This paper supports the original IB theory development by extending GVC theory into the lead – non-lead dynamics that may, under certain conditions, provide a “Resilience wall” for GVCs. The value created through insights stemming from a unique period of time for GVC is significant. It allows us thus also to pave the way to an emerging and critical research adaption looking into equilibrium, nuancing demand elasticity, better understanding trade and investment impacts along GVCs and more. By examining views on the sources of pandemic risks in a possibly unique setting, the authors offer added value from extant IB research insights by combining them, revealing the importance for GVCs to investigate not only key dependencies between the exogenous shock, i.e. context, and the impacts assessed through this literature but to further use their inherent value to create a framework for further conceptualization and extension of the traditional IB view on GVC governance. This work illustrates the urgency and importance for IB to take a timely and possibly more critical approach to the investigation of governance models that have, to date, shown some significant limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company innovation, specifically centering on the quantity and quality of innovation. The paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether the epidemic inhibits innovation and the role of digital transformation in mitigating this negative impact.

The paper uses a quasi-experimental study of the COVID-19 pandemic and constructs a differential model to analyze the relationship between the epidemic and firm innovation in three dimensions: total, quantity and quality. The paper also uses a difference-in-difference-in-differences model to test whether digital transformation of firms mitigates the negative impact of the epidemic and its mechanism of action.

The results show that COVID-19 significantly reduced the overall level of firm innovation, primarily in terms of quantity rather than quality. Furthermore, this study finds that digital transformation plays a pivotal role in mitigating the pandemic’s adverse impact on innovation. By addressing financing constraints and countering demand insufficiency, digital transformation acts as a catalyst for preserving and fostering innovation during and after the pandemic.

This study extends the current research on the pandemic’s impact on firm innovation at the micro level. It offers valuable insights into strategies for fostering digital transformation among Chinese enterprises in the post-pandemic era.

This study explored the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on rural municipal police in Pennsylvania.

The authors surveyed rural police chiefs and sworn officers to inquire about their intra-department organizational capabilities, police-community relations, well-being practices, and how these strategies may have developed since March 2020.

The pandemic affected rural police officers and rural policing strategies in many ways. Moreover, existing challenges to limited rural police budgets were exacerbated suggesting a need for more flexible budgetary capacities, access to wellness resources were limited suggesting better access to these resources and preparation for responding to public health emergencies was limited suggesting more complete training is warranted.

This study draws attention to the unique experiences of rural municipal police across one state by capturing specific areas of concern throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

This study aims to explore the gender differences in working from home (WFH) experiences during the pandemic from the Australia’s construction workforce perspective. Specifically, it explores gender differences in terms of: (1) the respondents’ family responsibilities during the pandemic; (2) their WFH experiences prior to and during the pandemic; and (3) their perceptions of the impacts of challenges associated with WFH on their work activities and performance along with their self-reported work performance when WFH, overall satisfaction with WFH and preference for WFH post-COVID.

This study adopted a survey design to reach the targeted sample population, i.e. construction workforce in the Australian construction industry who has had experienced WFH during the pandemic. Data was collected using an online anonymous questionnaire survey.

The results show notable gender differences in various aspects including family responsibilities, workplace arrangements and perceptions of the impacts of the challenges associated with WFH on work activities and performance. Also, statistically significant associations are detected between gender and the respondents’ self-reported work performance when WFH, overall satisfaction with WFH and preference for WFH post-COVID.

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about WFH experiences among construction workforce due to the low prevalence of regular and planned remote working in the industry. This is the first study sheds light on construction workforce WFH experiences using gender lenses. The findings have implications for construction-related firms continuing with WFH arrangement post the pandemic, which may include the formulation of policy responses to re-optimize their present WFH practices.

This paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on office space in Johannesburg. This study further explores the role of changing work practices in the office sector in South Africa because of the pandemic and its impact on future office space use planning and management.

To understand the footprints that the COVID-19 pandemic has left on the office space market in Johannesburg, this study uses semi-structured interviews, which were administered to corporate office users, and a thematic analysis was adopted to understand the views, perspectives and expectations of office users.

The study showed that space users perceive COVID-19-induced remote working as having benefits, opportunities and challenges. A notable shift in office space utilization has emerged, with employees increasingly opting for roles that permit remote work. This newfound flexibility, accommodating both on-site and remote work, often makes working from home more appealing than traditional office environments that may no longer align with users’ preferences for office spaces.

The study is limited to Johannesburg, South Africa, and may not apply to other African markets. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted, and analysis and results were deduced; this may be considered a limitation of this study.

The pandemic’s impact has brought about irreversible changes, compelling policymakers and business leaders to strategize and prepare. This proactive stance aims to prevent avoidable challenges for employees and companies during future pandemics. A thoughtful approach to the post-pandemic world can usher positive changes in the office and property sector. This includes the coexistence of both remote work and on-site working models.

This paper provides valuable insight into some of the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa that are essential for future office space use planning and management. The insights from this study extend the literature and provide novel knowledge based on an office sector in the “global south.”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant societal changes and altered how much of the construction industry operates. This study investigates the impacts of pandemic-related changes, how these changes may apply to different companies, and which changes should continue post-pandemic.

We aim to identify pandemic-driven changes that have affected the construction workplace and the advantages and challenges associated with them. We then make recommendations for what could and should endure through the pandemic and beyond, and under what circumstances. To achieve this objective, we conducted both qualitative and quantitative analyses of 40 semi-structured interviews with US-based construction professionals.

Identified through these interviews were 21 pandemic-driven changes across six categories: management and planning, technology, workforce, health and safety, supply chain, and contracts. This study noted both positive and negative impacts of the changes on cost, schedule, productivity, collaboration, employee retention, flexibility, quality, and risk mitigation. Participants indicated that some changes should remain after the pandemic and others (e.g. select safety measures, schedule adjustments) should be temporary.

By incorporating these lessons learned into recommendations, the findings of this study will help businesses identify and implement the most appropriate improvements for their organizations. The findings also provide policymakers with valuable insights on how to promote innovation in the construction industry and potentially enact more effective policies during crises to drive long-term improvements.