Search results

This systematic review aims to synthesize the literature reporting the motives, sociodemographic, attitude/behavior and impacts of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic, targeting the general population worldwide.

A systematic review approach was adopted based on PRISMA, targeting articles published in five databases from January 2020 to November 2021. The screening resulted in 46 eligible papers.

Results indicate low level of awareness, knowledge, media/health literacy, low trust in science/scientists and entertainment/socialization to be the main motivating drivers for fake news dissemination, whereas the phenomenon is more prominent among those with low socio-economic status, and males. Negative impacts were reported due to fake news dissemination, especially violation to precautionary measures, negative affections, and low trust in government/news, with many believing that others are more susceptible to fake news than themselves.

Considering the pandemic is still on-going and the deleterious consequences of fake news, there is a need for cohort-based interventions from the concerned authorities.

The systematic review covers a wide timeline of 23 months (i.e. up to end of 2022) targeting five well-known databases, hence articles examined are deemed extensive and comprehensive. The review specifically focused on the general population with results revealing interesting motives, sociodemographic profiles, attitude and impact of this phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-02-2022-0082.

Professional touching behavior (PTB), defined as intentional touching behavior that occurs between organizational members and that falls within the boundaries of appropriateness and professionalism in the workplace, is prevalent in organizations. Scholars from multiple disciplines, including human resources researchers, have acknowledged the importance of physical contact for facilitating interpersonal communication and relationship-building. However, PTB may not only elicit positive reactions from those who receive it but also negative reactions as well, with implications for social dynamics in organizations. PTB can, on the one hand, fulfill employees’ desires for interpersonal connection; at the same time, such physical contact at work can represent a threat to employees’ health. To explain the nature and implications of these divergent effects of receiving PTB, the authors draw upon sociometer theory and behavioral immune system (BIS) theory to model the emotional, cognitive, and physiological processes via which, and the conditions under which, receiving such behavior will result in socially functional responses and prompt subsequent prosocial behavior, and when PTB will be perceived as a health risk and prompt withdrawal behavior. The theoretical framework of this chapter expands our conceptual understanding of the consequences of interpersonal physical contact at work and has important human resources management (HRM) implications for organizational managers.

This study examines the significance of the hybrid offerings of servitization by manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study also examines why and how hybrid offerings matter for manufacturing SMEs. The study also investigates the moderating role of risk-taking ability (RA) and technology turbulence (TT) on manufacturing SMEs' performance.

This study has used literature from the areas of servitization, hybrid offerings and internationalization related to SMEs. Also, with the help of theories and literature, a model has been developed conceptually. This model has been validated using a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique on survey data collected from manufacturing SMEs.

This study finds the significance of manufacturing SMEs' servitization for internationalization effort. Also, this study highlights the moderating impacts of RA and TT on the performance of manufacturing SMEs.

This study provides valuable inputs to the management of SMEs, especially practitioners that are involved in formulating strategies for hybrid offerings, including servitization activities for the manufacturing SMEs. This study also contributes to the overall body of literature on hybrid offering and servitization.

The study adds values to the overall body of literature for both servitization and internationalization. This study focuses mainly on the significance of hybrid offerings, including servitization by the manufacturing SMEs. Few studies have dealt with such hybrid offerings by manufacturing SMEs as part of the SMEs' internationalization effort. Thus, this study can be considered unique. Moreover, the study investigates the moderating role of RA and TT for SME performance, which adds value toward the body of knowledge in the extant literature.

Dynamic technologies have revolutionized human socio-economic activities, including health care, higher education, business and improved customer service in academic sectors. Leveraging the latest technology leads to high productivity, confidence, improved management skills, satisfactory performance and innovative academic services. In the era of technocentrism, the purpose of this paper is to find out whether useful technologies and competent user managers support users in the use of resources, increasing research productivity and improving academic library services.

This study is based on primary data collected from students at universities in the provincial capital using a printed research questionnaire. The authors followed the Likert scale for instrument development and contacted service professionals prior to distribution to test the applicability. Based on the technology acceptance model, this study established a conceptual model with multiple associated hypotheses to test the suitability of the research model. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling software for path analysis and model development.

The results of this study show that technological advances greatly accelerate the use of library resources, strengthen management skills, improve user performance and ultimately enhance academic performance and services. In addition to deploying and leveraging technology, expert leadership has also had a positive impact on improving user productivity and maintaining proactive academic library services.

The TAM-based theoretical model will prove to be a useful tool in the future for delivering technology, improving management skills, promoting the use of library resources, increasing user productivity and providing advanced library services.

Based on primary data collected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa degree students, this study provides an insight into the actual state of technology used to improve academic performance for the first time. In addition, the study also explores executive collaboration to improve employee and user efficiency and service reform in academic libraries.

In the post-pandemic period and following widespread inoculation against the infection, this research aims to pinpoint the variables that affect consumers' behavioural intentions (BIs) towards online food delivery (OFD) services. The study goes further to investigate the potential impact of vaccine confidence (VC) in modifying the association between consumers' BI to utilise OFD services and their actual usage behaviour (UB).

Using information gathered through a structured questionnaire from 372 Indian customers, a proposed model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) models was put to the test using structural equation modelling (SEM).

Results demonstrate that perceptions of ease of use, attitude (ATT) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have a favourable and significant impact on behaviour intention amongst Indian OFD users. Contrary to what the TAM and TPB models had predicted, perceived usefulness (PU) and subjective norms (SN) did not significantly affect the BI of the sample of Indian OFD users. Furthermore, the association between BI and actual UB of OFD users is not moderated by the consumers' VC.

The study contributes by shedding light on the variables that affect Indian OFD users' BIs after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic era and mass immunisation and whether VC has a role to play in affecting consumer behaviour, which will aid OFD service providers, eateries and marketers in redesigning their marketing plans.

The present study is the first in making a literary contribution through analysis of the moderating effect of VC on the relationship between BI and actual UB. Additionally, this study presents evidence from India, one of the first nations to implement widespread COVID-19 inoculation.

Interrelationships among some common factors of human resource (HR) management and quality management are still unexplored. Changes in work patterns due to the Covid-19 pandemic have aroused interest in some of these factors, such as working-hours, work pressure, work–life balance practices, job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to explore the interrelationships among such factors. Specifically, the influence of work hours, work pressure, job rotation and work–life balance on job satisfaction is evaluated both directly and under the mediating influence of working conditions.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in Indonesia among diversified organisations. A total of 432 responses were gathered, and they were examined using hypothesis testing and partial least square based structural equation modelling.

The study confirms the statistically proven impact of work pressure, job rotations and work–life-balance practices on working conditions. Job rotations, work–life balance practices and working conditions directly influenced job satisfaction. Work pressure did not influence job satisfaction directly, but it significantly influenced working conditions, which eventually affected job satisfaction. Working hours neither affected working conditions nor job satisfaction in a significant manner.

Covid-19 necessitated working from home, which is a peculiar work–life balance situation. The findings are helpful for organisations in planning strategies related to work–life-balance, working hours, multi-skilling, working conditions and other quality of work life factors in both regular working conditions and under Covid-19 conditions.

The proven influence of work pressure and work–life-balance practices may result in the formation of informal organisations, social groups and increased social networking. As working hours are not diagnosed as an influencing factor for job satisfaction, organisations may think about increasing them, affecting the social fabric of the working community.

Previously unexplored interrelationships among various quality of work life factors are established. Under Covid-19 circumstances, factors such as working hours, work–life-balance and work pressure are investigated in a novel manner. The factors and their interrelationships are important to both quality management professionals and HR professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate computationally the hydrothermal characteristics for forced convective laminar flow of water through a channel with a top wavy wall and a flat bottom wall having metallic porous blocks.

The governing equations are solved computationally using a finite element method–based numerical solver COMSOL Multiphysics® for the following range of parameters: 10 ≤ Reynolds number (Re) ≤ 500 and 10^–4 ≤ Darcy number (Da) ≤ 10^–1.

The presence of porous blocks significantly influences the heat transfer rate, and the value of local Nusselt number increases with the increase in Da. The value of the average Nusselt number decreases with Da for the top wall and the same is enhanced for the bottom wall of the wavy channel with porous blocks (WCPB). The value of the average Nusselt number for WCPB is significantly higher than that of the wavy channel without porous block (WCWPB), plane channel without porous block (PCWPB) and plane channel with the porous block (PCPB) at higher Re. For PCPB, the performance factor (PF) is always higher than that of WCWPB and WCPB for Da = 10^–4 and Da = 10^–3. Also, PF for WCPB is higher than that of WCWPB for higher Re except for Da = 10^–4. Further, the value of for WCPB is higher than that of PCPB at Da = 10^–2 and 10^–1 at Re = 500.

The current study is useful in designing efficient heat exchangers for process plants, solar collectors and aerospace applications.

The analysis of thermo-hydraulic characteristics for laminar flow through a channel with a top wavy wall and a flat bottom wall having metallic porous blocks have been analyzed for the first time. Further, a comparative assessment of the performance has been performed with a wavy channel without a porous block, a plane channel without a porous block and a plane channel with porous blocks.

In this study, the authors provide a systematic literature review of articles in the emerging areas of green finance and discuss the status and challenges in sustainability disclosure, which is crucial for the efficiency of green financial instruments. The authors then review the literature on the economic implications of green finance and outline future research directions.

The authors use the analytical framework – Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis (SALSA) to conduct the systematic review of the literature.

Increasing public attention to the environment motivates the use of green finance to fund environmentally sustainable projects, and the rise of green finance intensifies the demand for environmental disclosure. Literature has documented tremendous growth in sustainability reporting over time and around the globe, as well as raised concerns about how such reporting lack consistency, comparability, and assurance. Despite these challenges, the authors find that in general, the literature agrees that a firm’s green practice is positively associated with its financial performance and negatively related to a firm’s cost of capital. Green finance is also found to bring about enhanced risk management and economic development.

The authors provide one of the first reviews of green finance, sustainability disclosure and the impact of green finance on financial performance, capital market and economic development.

The purpose of this paper, an empirical research, is to identify the psychological and functional barriers that result in e-waste recycling resistance.

The study is equipped with the theoretical lens of the innovation resistance theory. Households living in an Indian city were surveyed using a pre-validated questionnaire. Statistical analysis for the study was done with partial least squares – structural equation modeling.

The outcome of the survey exhibited that the significant factors contributing to e-waste recycling resistance are usage barrier, value barrier, risk barrier and tradition barrier.

The study offers implications for multiple stakeholders, which aid them in formulating strategies to overcome e-waste recycling resistance.

This research has remarkable importance as it is the pioneering study that extensively investigates the reasons for e-waste recycling resistance in an emerging economy. The study also empirically validates the moderating role of environmental awareness, age, gender and income in the relationship between barriers and resistance to e-waste recycling.