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1 – 10 of over 9000The purpose of this paper is as follows: the first objective is to help illuminate part of the international archival sector’s initial responses to the crisis at its commencement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is as follows: the first objective is to help illuminate part of the international archival sector’s initial responses to the crisis at its commencement, particularly by thematically analyzing the announcements made by national archives, which are arguably the leading archival institutions in their respective countries and the second objective is to help establish a joint contemporary understanding and historical snapshot of the positions of national archives during the first few months of the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative thematic analysis of national archives’ first formal public-facing COVID-19 announcements, released between March and May 2020, is conducted, specifically from the official websites of Australia’s National Archives of Australia, Canada’s Library and Archives Canada, New Zealand’s Archives New Zealand, the United Kingdom’s (UK) The National Archives and the United States of America’s (USA) National Archives.
Findings
Notwithstanding their diverse contexts, all the announcements thematically converge in discussing the closure of physical locations and spaces, as well as maintaining (reduced) services and offering remote access. Another theme appearing across most announcements is the concern for the protection of the health, welfare and safety of their communities. Additional themes featured in some of the announcements include considerations about the handling of paper records and physical materials, the removal and/or return of materials and the provision of further COVID-19 information. Unique themes appearing only once include steps for enacting precautions, furloughing staff and reopening and post-pandemic planning.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations to the article’s purview include its small sample size, focus on mainly English-speaking contexts and analysis of only official websites. Nevertheless, this sample arguably includes some of the major and leading archival institutions, not only in their respective countries but also internationally, namely, two national archives from North America (Canada and the USA), one from the wider European region (the UK) and two from Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). Further studies could expand the cohort size, diversify the focus for instance by analyzing social media postings and metrics and extend the timeframe.
Practical implications
This study could be of interest to archival academics and professionals, as well as library and information science scholars and practitioners, public health researchers and policymakers, cultural studies scholars and historians, exploring international and intersectional initiatives that have informed or are currently informing, approaches to and understandings of this pandemic and other similar health crises. It is further hoped that this study will humbly show support and supply solidarity with the wider archival community as it continues responding to and dealing with COVID-19.
Social implications
Capturing and analyzing aspects of national archives’ communication strategies related to the coronavirus pandemic is a topic of interest, not only for contemporary attempts for dealing with and understanding the crisis but also as a historical snapshot of their responses at this particular point in time.
Originality/value
By contributing to ongoing conversations about the coronavirus pandemic, this study provides the beginning of an analysis of the international archival sector’s initial interventions within it. As the first article in the archival literature on this topic, a baseline and point of reference are established for other studies that will hopefully follow on this topic. In these ways, it can also contribute to debates on how archives and other cultural memory institutions including libraries, museums and galleries, have reacted to the coronavirus pandemic and their resulting communication strategies and impacts upon their institutions, missions, collections, services and communities.
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Omid Abdolazimi, Mitra Salehi Esfandarani, Maryam Salehi, Davood Shishebori and Majid Shakhsi-Niaei
This study evaluated the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on the healthcare and non-cold pharmaceutical care distribution supply chain.
Abstract
Purpose
This study evaluated the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on the healthcare and non-cold pharmaceutical care distribution supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
The model involves four objective functions to minimize the total costs, environmental impacts, lead time and the probability of a healthcare provider being infected by a sick person was developed. An improved version of the augmented e-constraint method was applied to solve the proposed model for a case study of a distribution company to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the sensitive parameters. Finally, two robust models were developed to overcome the innate uncertainty of sensitive parameters.
Findings
The result demonstrated a significant reduction in total costs, environmental impacts, lead time and probability of a healthcare worker being infected from a sick person by 40%, 30%, 75% and 54%, respectively, under the coronavirus pandemic compared to the normal condition. It should be noted that decreasing lead time and disease infection rate could reduce mortality and promote the model's effectiveness.
Practical implications
Implementing this model could assist the healthcare and pharmaceutical distributors to make more informed decisions to minimize the cost, lead time, environmental impacts and enhance their supply chain resiliency.
Originality/value
This study introduced an objective function to consider the coronavirus infection rates among the healthcare workers impacted by the pharmaceutical/healthcare products supply chain. This study considered both economic and environmental consequences caused by the coronavirus pandemic condition, which occurred on a significantly larger scale than past pandemic and epidemic crises.
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This paper examines the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and the policy response in African countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and the policy response in African countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses discourse analysis to analyse the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in Africa.
Findings
The findings reveal that African countries have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and the effect was more severe for African regions compared to other regions. The rising pandemic affected social interaction and economic activities through the imposed social distancing policies that have different levels of strictness in several African countries
Practical implications
The implication of the findings is that social policies can affect the social and economic well-being of citizens. Secondly, the coronavirus outbreak has revealed how a biological crisis can be transformed to a sociological subject. The most important sociological consequence of the coronavirus outbreak for African citizens is the creation of social anxiety among families and households in the region. The outbreak has also shown how vulnerable African societies are in facing health hazards. Policymakers should enforce social policies that unite communities in bad times, to reduce social anxiety.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that explore the socio-economic impact of coronavirus and the policy response in African countries.
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The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure coronavirus shopping anxiety. Numerous studies have developed a scale for measuring coronavirus anxiety and fear…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure coronavirus shopping anxiety. Numerous studies have developed a scale for measuring coronavirus anxiety and fear, notably absent is a concerted effort to review and assess the impact of coronavirus on the shopping anxiety of consumers. This scale fulfills this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The steps taken for checking the various psychometrics of the scale include item generation, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis through AMOS. The data were collected from over 208 respondents.
Findings
This study resulted in the development of a nine-item scale with robust psychometric properties. The scale resulted in highlighting two factors related to anxiety: in-store shopping anxiety and online shopping anxiety.
Research limitations/implications
The scale developed has the desirable reliable and valid properties that could be used by aspiring researchers.
Practical implications
The scale developed highlighted that the restrictions in shopping impact the mental health and psychology of consumers. The scale resulted in analyzing the factors related to shopping anxiety, which could give top management a perspective and vision to look into the minds of the consumer's shopping anxiety behaviors.
Social implications
Companies, firms, health professionals and marketers could use this scale to investigate the various shopping anxiety perceptions among consumers in society.
Originality/value
This research fills the gap by developing a first nine-item scale based on the qualitative research and quantitative assessment for measuring shopping anxiety caused due to the pandemic.
研究目的
本研究擬設計一個等級表、以量度新型冠狀病毒肺炎肆虐期間之購物焦慮和不安。至目前為止,已有很多研究成功設計等級表、以量度人們對新型冠狀病毒肺炎的焦慮和恐懼。唯就學術研究而言,顯然缺乏協同一致的努力、去仔細審核和評估新型冠狀病毒肺炎對消費者購物焦慮的影響。本研究擬設計一個有關的等級表,以填補這個研究缺口。
研究設計/方法/理念
研究人員檢查其設計之等級表的各個心理測量學時所採用的步驟包括:項目生成,以及透過統計產品與服務解決方案軟件 (SPSS) 而進行的探索性因素分析、和透過AMOS而進行的驗證性因素分析。數據取自208名以上的受訪者。
研究結果
本研究成功設計了一個具有嚴格心理測量特性的九項目等級表。這個等級表、使人注意到與焦慮相關的兩個因素,就是:店內購物的焦慮和網絡購物的焦慮。
研究的原創性/價值
本研究透過定性研究和定量評估、設計了首個九項目等級表、來量度大流行病導致的購物焦慮; 就此而言,本研究填補了有關的研究缺口。
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Faheem Uddin Syed, Raffaele Donvito and Gaetano Aiello
The consequences of a media-shaped perceptual destination attribute during the pandemic on a commitment to embrace and thread trip intent are explored in this research. The…
Abstract
The consequences of a media-shaped perceptual destination attribute during the pandemic on a commitment to embrace and thread trip intent are explored in this research. The influence of four elements related to the choice of destination, involving reliability, strategic planning, health service, and friendly relationship on tourism performance expectancy are chosen depending on visitors' previous experience of a certain place, using the notion of psychological tourist satisfaction and an interactive personality questionnaire. Industry 4.0 paradigms are either viewed with skepticism or eagerness by organizations. Organizations that develop different innovative strategies to leverage the digital world doing and offering greater opportunity will certainly drive the evolution in tourism. Any revolutionary technology has the potential to benefit or harm enterprises. An Industry “4.0” data type depicts the technological transformation occurring inside a given business, from Industrial Revolution 4.0 to dealing with customers 4.0. However, one instance is Tourism 4.0. Social networking is not unique. Hospitality organizations, especially, must be acutely conscious of the customer's power as a result of social networking sites. The increase in security concerns by preventing the rate of cybercrime and by enhancing the secure money transactions in online reputation management consolidates the socioeconomic relationship. The comparative study has been propagated in relevance to the pre- and post-pandemic effects on the tourism industry.
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Introducing immunity or vaccine passports is one non-pharmaceutical intervention that governments are considering to exempt immune, vaccinated or otherwise risk-free individuals…
Abstract
Purpose
Introducing immunity or vaccine passports is one non-pharmaceutical intervention that governments are considering to exempt immune, vaccinated or otherwise risk-free individuals from lockdowns and other public health restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. The primary objective of these documents would be to begin reopening societies, restarting economies and returning to a pre-pandemic normalcy. This article aims to present the start of a conceptual documentary analysis of (proposed and existing) COVID-19 immunity passports in order to more fully center their documentary status within research, considerations and conversations about their potential roles, impacts and implications.
Design/methodology/approach
Inspired by Paula A. Treichler's argument for the importance of theoretical thought for untangling the socio-cultural phenomena of epidemics, and drawing upon interdisciplinary theories of documentation, identity and public health, combined with recent news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, this article provides a contemporary overview and conceptual analysis of emerging documentary regimes of COVID-19 immunity verification involving immunity or vaccine passports.
Findings
Three major interconnected objectives could be fulfilled by immunity passports. First, they would establish and materialize an official identity of COVID-19 immune for people possessing the formal document. Second, they would serve as material evidence establishing and verifying individuals' immunity, vaccination or risk-free status from the coronavirus that would, in term, determine and regulate their movements and other privileges. Third, they would create tangible links between individuals and governments' official or recognized identity category of COVID-19 immune. Immunity passports would, therefore, help enable and enforce governmental authority and power by situating individuals within documentary regimes of COVID-19 immunity verification.
Research limitations/implications
In the expanding interdisciplinary literature on COVID-19 immunity passports, sometimes also called certificates, licenses, or passes, there appears to be only minimal reference to their documentary instantiations, whether physical, digital, and/or hybrid documents. As yet, there is not any specific documentary approach to or analysis of immunity passports as kinds of documentation. A documentary approach helps to illuminate and emphasize the materiality of and ontological considerations concerning the coronavirus pandemic and its associated kinds of immunity or vaccination.
Social implications
By beginning an exploration of what makes immunity passports thinkable as a public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, this article illuminates these health and identity documents' material implications for, and effects on, individuals and societies. This article, therefore, helps shed light on what immunity passports reveal about the complicated and contested intersections of identity, documentation, public health and socio-political control and discipline.
Originality/value
This article contributes the start of a documentary analysis of (proposed and existing) COVID-19 immunity passports in order to more fully center their documentary status within research and conversations about them.
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While fighting with the novel coronavirus will not be the main goal of sectoral regulators, different regulatory authorities join the struggle by providing a regulatory response…
Abstract
Purpose
While fighting with the novel coronavirus will not be the main goal of sectoral regulators, different regulatory authorities join the struggle by providing a regulatory response. The purpose of this paper is to address this regulatory response in pandemic gathered around eight thematic areas.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses the regulatory response in pandemic gathered around eight thematic areas, namely, the objectives, rules and standards, authorization and permits, procedure, monitoring and surveillance, enforcement, accountability and an institution presenting regulatory actions to tackle coronavirus (COVID-19) in reference to day-watchman type regulation.
Findings
Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic should be a knowledge-based approach (taking as much as possible from best available practices with respect to the novel coronavirus) with a framework of rules, standards, authorization, permits and guidance, monitored and enforced in a way adjusted to conditions of the pandemic, being as safe (as non-physical, as online) as possible, with suspended or extended deadlines, free of unnecessary administrative burdens. In this way, regulation should be pragmatic and flexible, as under the day-watchman model.
Research limitations/implications
In a post-pandemic regime, in the short run, the regulators should try to minimize the social and economic challenges faced by consumers and entrepreneurs. Among them, one may find scaling back, at least temporarily, the rules developed in non-disaster contexts. However, in the end, the post-disaster reforms tended to strengthen regulators’ hands, also under the deregulated government. The day-watchman type regulation balances both, as a middle ground approach, being a bridge between “a total subordination” and “a complete release.”
Practical implications
The disaster management (including public law regulation) provided by public authorities when tackling the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis can be a benchmark for regulatory responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This concerns the support offered to entities and individuals affected by the negative consequences of reducing or stopping their businesses and staying in isolation.
Social implications
The day-watchman approach, visible in certain examples of public response to COVID-19 may serve as a framework for establishing a regulatory regime that would automatically take effect in case of another pandemic, limiting delays in regulatory actions, reducing non-compliance and accelerating recovery.
Originality/value
This study provides an analysis of different theories on public regulation addressing the notion of regulation using the day-watchman theory, which could be applied in regulatory actions during a pandemic. The paper discusses concrete steps taken by regulatory authorities worldwide, bringing examples from the USA, Canada, the UK, France, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. It juxtaposes the regulatory experiences derived from different catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis with the regulatory response in a pandemic.
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Isaac Akomea-Frimpong, Xiaohua Jin, Robert Osei-Kyei and Roksana Jahan Tumpa
Undoubtedly, coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has released unprecedented disruptions and health crisis on people and activities everywhere. The impacts extend to public–private…
Abstract
Purpose
Undoubtedly, coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has released unprecedented disruptions and health crisis on people and activities everywhere. The impacts extend to public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements in the construction industry. Concomitantly, PPP pacts are contributing to combat the pandemic. However, literature on the PPP concept in the COVID-19 era remain under-researched. This study aims to review the current literature on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic and present the key themes, research gaps and future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 29 highly relevant literature were sourced from Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed search engines within the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. With the aid of qualitative content analysis, the 29 articles were critically analysed leading to the extraction of hot research themes on PPPs in the coronavirus pandemic.
Findings
The results of the SLR produced eight themes such as major changes in PPP contracts, development of the COVID-19 vaccines, economic recession, facemasks and testing kits, governance and sustainability of PPPs. In addition, the study reveals seven research gaps that need further investigations among the scientific research community on mental health and post-pandemic recovery plans.
Research limitations/implications
The articles selected for this review were limited to only peer-reviewed journal papers written in English excluding conference papers. This restriction may have taken out some relevant literature but they had insignificant impact on the overall outcome of this research.
Practical implications
To improve the understanding of practitioners in the construction industry on key issues on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic, the study provides them a checklist of relevant themes.
Originality/value
As a novel literature review relating PPPs to the coronavirus, it sets the foundation for further research and contributes to practical measures to control the virus.
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Sergio Moldes-Anaya, Harlan Koff, Angelica Da Porto and Tara Lipovina
The purpose of this article is to understand how coronavirus impacts relate to existing vulnerabilities in different world regions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to understand how coronavirus impacts relate to existing vulnerabilities in different world regions.
Design/methodology/approach
The article utilizes quantitative analysis to examine regional variations in coronavirus risk assessment. It then qualitatively employs a policy coherence for development (PCD) approach to analyze how public policies contribute to or mitigate vulnerability, defined as the product of exposure to external shocks, institutional coping capabilities and risk associated with social divisions in societies.
Findings
The research presented below shows that significant regional variance exists in terms of coronavirus risk, based on statistical analysis of the INFORM COVID-19 Risk Report prepared by the European Commission. The PCD analysis highlights important relationships between public policy strategies and the construction of both underlying vulnerabilities and coronavirus impacts.
Practical implications
The PCD approach presented here focuses on the reconciliation of trade-offs. It shows how policy interactions affect vulnerabilities and suggests that coherent policy strategies aimed at reducing vulnerabilities are necessary in order to adequately respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Originality/value
This analysis frames vulnerability as a socially constructed condition and through implementation of a PCD approach, it indicates how policy strategies contribute to or mitigate vulnerabilities. In doing so, it intends to contribute conceptually to the literature on vulnerability by showing how policy incoherences contribute to the construction of this condition. Empirically, the originality of this article is its statistical analysis of regional variance of coronavirus risk and the qualitative analysis of policy strategies in representative cases and how they have affected vulnerabilities and coronavirus impacts.
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The COVID-19 pandemic created not only a public health crisis but also the largest disruption to the global economies. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the adverse…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic created not only a public health crisis but also the largest disruption to the global economies. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic on self-employment including job loss, income reduction and cut back in work hours and how these impacts were related to the well-being the self-employed. The authors also examine how self-employers responded to adversity in different cultural settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The main sample was obtained the Gallup World Poll that covers more than 39,000 individuals across 55 countries over the period from October 2020 to June 2021. The ordinary least square was the main choice of methodology. The paper employs the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique to quantify the gap in financial loss between self-employed and employed individuals. Finally, the moderated mediation analysis allows the authors to examine how financial loss mediates the reduction in well-being of self-employers.
Findings
The paper finds that self-employers were 29% more likely to lose their businesses than paid individuals to lose their jobs and perhaps as a result, they were 50% more likely to experience lower work hours and less income. The findings suggest that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic varied across countries. The financial gap between self-employment and full-time employment was narrower in countries with individualism, low uncertainty avoidance and propensity for long-term future. Finally, the paper shows that although financial loss associated with the coronavirus situation mediated the relationship between self-employment and reduced wellbeing, the positive relationship between self-employment and life satisfaction (wellbeing) held amid the pandemic. Despite all the pecuniary setbacks relative to full-time employment, self-employers report higher subjective wellbeing than regular wage earners during difficult times.
Practical implications
The earnings gap between self-employers and employees persists (and increase) during adverse conditions may cast into doubt the efficiency of the economic system that ensures no one is left behind. In addition, contextual factors such as cultural values should also be taken into consideration in reducing the earning gap between self-employment and regular employment. It is also implied that the self-employed choose to engage in self-employment due to psychological and emotion benefits rather than material achievements.
Originality/value
This study has quantified the income gap between self-employment and employed individuals in the context of adverse economic conditions. This study also highlights the fact that despite all the financial setbacks, self-employers are happier than employed individuals and they engage in self-employment as an important way to pursue happiness. This highlights well-being as the critical non-pecuniary benefits of the career choice of and transition into self-employment that have been confirmed in extant entrepreneurship literature.
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