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The COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan region of China has significantly affected the exports and production of countries. Digitalization and technological developments have increased with the Industry 4.0, and COVID-19 measures accelerated this process. In this study, the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have been investigated on international trade and production in European countries and Turkey. Accordingly, the cointegration relations between variables were examined with Westerlund panel cointegration test. As a result of the cointegration test, it is determined that there are long-term relationships between variables. The causality relationships between variables are analyzed with the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test. Causality analyses show that there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases and deaths to export, while there is a unidirectional causality relationship from COVID-19 cases to production. The empirical findings demonstrate that COVID-19 outbreak has a significant impact on production and export processes in European countries and Turkey.

This chapter examined the financial effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian tourism by disaggregating the tourism sector into transportation industry, accommodation industry, travelling agencies, resorts/tourist site and regulatory agencies. Specifically, this study only targeted 240 key players in the Nigerian Tourism sector in Lagos state while the sourced data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis. The result revealed that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has a negative statistical influence on both the transportation and accommodation industry. The financial implication of this result is that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into the transportation and accommodation industry Again, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive significant influence on Travel agency and resort/tourist site. However, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive insignificance influence on regulatory agency. Hence, the study concluded that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into accommodation industry, increased travel agency and resort/tourist site costs. Premised on this, the study recommends that the federal government should ensure that the cost of transportation is subsidized, as this would help to correct the negative effect of COVID-19 on the Nigerian transportation industry.

This study aims to conduct an extensive bibliometric analysis of research across COVID-19 and human resource management (HRM). It captures an exhaustive conceptual understanding of theoretical foundations, research trends, developments and research directions in the HRM domain.

A set of 505 HRM and COVID-19-specific articles collected from the Scopus database were systematically analyzed using a two-tier method. In the first tier of analysis, the evolution and current state of research are identified using citation analysis. In the second tier, network analysis and content analysis of research clusters and thematic mapping are done to identify the prominent research themes and research gaps and suggest future research directions.

The study highlights the emergence of six research clusters: SHRM and competitive advantage, employer branding and employee engagement, crisis management and resilience, challenges, career shock and job demand resources and burnout. The thematic mapping categorizes the themes into four categories: motor, basic, emerging or declining, and niche research themes published on COVID-19 and HRM. To understand the socio-cultural dynamics and cross-cultural issues during human resource management, the findings emphasized the need for the increased contribution of researchers and practitioners, especially from the developing and emerging nation’s context. Increased co-authorship among influential authors and institutions will also help formulate strategies and policies to effectively deal with similar pandemics.

Unlike the previous literature review, the present findings provide meaningful insights for formulating people management techniques, policies, and practices in response to COVID-19 or similar pandemics.

This study assesses the impact of online grocery shopping and food delivery services on food insecurity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses an online survey of 1,532 respondents. Respondents’ sociodemographics, food consumption, purchasing behavior, food security status, food insecurity coping mechanisms and concerns associated with food safety were asked before and during COVID-19.

Online grocery shopping and food delivery services increase food insecurity. Moreover, households with female primary shoppers were less likely to be food insecure than households with male primary shoppers. Furthermore, households with children were more likely to be food insecure. Minority households, such as Black, Hispanic, Native American and younger households, were more likely to be food insecure.

Panel data with the same households surveyed before and after COVID-19 would be a better approach. Similarly, the impact of online shopping on food insecurity needs further research, as many factors could be associated with online shopping that impact food insecurity, especially during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a study of the long-term impact of online shopping on food insecurity would be interesting and could present broader and more generalizable results.

The impact of online shopping on food insecurity before and during COVID-19 has yet to be studied sufficiently. Given the increase in popularity of online grocery shopping, its impact on food insecurity still needs to be discovered. Besides online grocery shopping, we also study online food delivery services whose demand has gained momentum over the past few years, including during the pandemic.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of anxiety levels of adults on their nutritional status during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kayseri province, Turkey.

A total of 898 adults consisting of 479 individuals with and 419 individuals without a positive diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in the study. The individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics, health status, nutritional habits, anthropometric measurement and Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) information were obtained online.

The mean FCV-19S score of the participants was 17.49 ± 6.02. FCV-19S score was higher in those who reduced their consumption of protein sources compared to those who did not change and those who increased (p < 0.001). It was determined that FCV-19S scores of participants who increased their consumption of fruit/vegetables, sweets and sugar were higher than those who did not change their consumption of such items (p = 0.007). The FCV-19S scores of individuals who did not change their onion/garlic and snack consumption were lower than those who decreased or increased the consumption of these nutrients (p = 0.001, p = 0.002).

Education programs can be organized especially targeting vulnerable populations, such as women, individuals with chronic diseases and those experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. These programs can be conducted by dietitians and psychologists in collaboration, focusing on promoting healthy eating habits and coping strategies during stressful times.

It was determined that those who changed their nutrition habits during the COVID-19 pandemic had higher fear levels than those who did not. Individuals with high fear paid more attention to healthy nutrition than individuals without fear.

This study explored the ramifications of COVID-19 on construction operations in Malaysia.

Following a detailed literature review, 37 ramifications are identified and divided into nine aspects. A self-designed survey is then employed to seek the perceptions of construction practitioners around the Klang Valley region regarding the significance of the ramifications. A total of 203 valid responses are subjected to statistical analyses to prioritise the ramifications.

All the potential ramifications are perceived to be significant, with the five utmost critical ramifications being rescheduling the project timeline, compliance with government SOP, delay in the handover project, compulsory COVID-19 test for all workers and the extra cost incurred to provide COVID-19 test for workers.

This study highlights the ramifications of COVID-19 on construction operations and deliberately informs construction organizations regarding the shortcomings of recent construction management. Besides, the insights suggested that industry practitioners devise corresponding strategies for project sustainability in future similar crises.

The findings serve as a valuable reference and are benign to industry professionals and researchers from developing nations, especially nations that share similar characteristics to Malaysia.

Forecasting outpatient volume during a significant security crisis can provide reasonable decision-making references for hospital managers to prevent sudden outbreaks and dispatch medical resources on time. Based on the background of standard hospital operation and Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) periods, this paper constructs a hybrid grey model to forecast the outpatient volume to provide foresight decision support for hospital decision-makers.

This paper proposes an improved hybrid grey model for two stages. In the non-COVID-19 stage, the Aquila Optimizer (AO) is selected to optimize the modeling parameters. Fourier correction is applied to revise the stochastic disturbance. In the COVID-19 stage, this model adds the COVID-19 impact factor to improve the grey model forecasting results based on the dummy variables. The cycle of the dummy variables modifies the COVID-19 factor.

This paper tests the hybrid grey model on a large Chinese hospital in Jiangsu. The fitting MAPE is 2.48%, and the RMSE is 16463.69 in the training group. The test MAPE is 1.91%, and the RMSE is 9354.93 in the test group. The results of both groups are better than those of the comparative models.

The two-stage hybrid grey model can solve traditional hospitals' seasonal outpatient volume forecasting and provide future policy formulation references for sudden large-scale epidemics.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been accompanied by a massive “infodemic”, characterized by an overabundance of information, both accurate and inaccurate, making it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance. This study aims to investigate how the COVID-19 infodemic (i.e. information overload and untrustworthiness) influences consumers’ emotions (i.e. fear, anxiety and hope) by shaping their cognitive appraisals of the pandemic (i.e. perceived risk and uncertainty). Additionally, this study also investigates how individual differences (i.e. COVID-19 involvement and infection experience) impact their emotion formation process.

Data were collected from 815 US consumers aged between 18 and 65 in November 2021 via an online survey. Structural equation modeling and multi-group comparison from AMOS 23 were used to test the proposed relationships.

Information overload increased one’s perceived risk and perceived uncertainty of COVID-19, which, in turn, structured the emotional states of fear, anxiety and hope. Information untrustworthiness had a significant impact on risk perception, which led to an increased feeling of fear. Additionally, individuals’ COVID-19 involvement and their infection experience with the coronavirus were found to moderate the cognitive appraisal process in developing emotions.

This study offers insights into the relationships between the information landscape and cognitive appraisals regarding health crises, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only enriching emotional well-being literature, it also lends managerial implications for effective communication strategies in global health emergencies.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2023-0616

The study assesses the livelihood resilience strategies among street hawkers during COVID-19 lockdown in the Awutu Senya East Municipality in Ghana.

Using the explanatory case study approach, 12 participants (hawkers) were sampled with the aid of the purposive and convenience sampling techniques. An interview guide was used to collect data.

The study found that street hawking business, prior to the COVID-19 lockdown was a lucrative venture. The COVID-19 lockdown however had mental, psychological and economic effects on the street hawkers in ASEM causing stress, anxiety. loneliness, loss of business capital, and loss of jobs. Hawkers nevertheless demonstrated resilience in their psychological well-being by adopting strategies such as patronizing digital/social media platforms for funny content and entertainment. Hawkers also showed economic resilience through selling products on digital/social media platforms, relied on personal savings, received social support from family members and religious bodies. Government policies and interventions in the form of free water and electricity played a crucial role in building resilience of street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The study shows that hawking is a vital avenue for entrepreneurial engagement reducing barriers to entry in formal trading, hence should be considered as key economic venture in the country’s economy. Again, the findings of the study deepen the understanding of stakeholders on the effects of COVID-19 on the psychological and economic life of street hawkers and offers insights into managing both psychosocial and financial stress during crises, emphasizing the potential benefits of resilient strategies for more effective crisis management. The study findings provide insights for government and policymakers on the experiences and coping mechanisms of the vulnerable groups and communities, particularly hawkers during the pandemic.

The study qualitatively assesses the psychological and economic effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and the livelihood resilience strategies employed by street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown in ASEM, Ghana.

The investigation goal is the analysis of the relation between healthcare expenditures and other resources, and COVID-19 fatality rates among European countries to design effective health policies for crisis management.

Research methodology is based on descriptive statistics and various parametric methods, also including a linear model of regression to analyze basic relationships of variables under study.

Results show that a lower COVID-19 fatality rate is associated with higher levels of health expenditure (% GDP), of healthcare expenditure per capita, health expenditure in preventive care (% GDP), hospitals per million inhabitants, physicians, nurses, hospital beds and curative acute care beds per 1,000 inhabitants. Regression analysis shows that a 1% increase in healthcare expenditures per capita of countries, it reduces the level of COVID-19 fatality rate by 0.74%. In fact, many countries in Eastern Europe with low healthcare expenditures per capita in 2019 (e.g., Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, etc.), they have experienced high COVID-19 fatality rates. Instead, a lot of countries in Western Europe, with high healthcare expenditures per capita, such as Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the Netherlands, they had resilient health systems to face pandemic crisis and lower COVID-19 fatality rates.

These findings suggest strategies of systematic and continuous investments in healthcare, medical technologies, and ICT infrastructures to support effective health policy of crisis management in countries to face future pandemic crisis and other emergencies in society.

The explanation of critical role of high health expenditure (% GDP) and healthcare expenditure per capita to support robust health systems that bolster the resilience in nations to face health emergencies and worldwide crises.