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Societal crises such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic challenge public organizations in many ways. Yet, there is little knowledge of how varying crisis intensity can spark different reactions among public leaders and employees. This study examines the dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis in relation to leadership behaviors and employee outcomes for 920 individuals in 45 organizational units within the police, hospitals, and assisted living facilities. By conducting a panel study that combines nationwide data on crisis intensity with survey data from 2019 to 2021, the study shows that employee outcomes such as public service motivation and job satisfaction are higher in severe stages of the crisis. Likewise, crisis intensity is positively associated with employee perceived use of visionary transformational leadership, but negatively associated with employee perceived use of verbal transactional leadership. Hence, public leaders should be prepared to handle complex employee reactions when the next crisis occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have seen an increase in the number and intensity of shocks and crises. The financial crisis of 2008/2009 and the COVID-19 crisis of 2020/2021 have led to economic recessions. During the COVID-19 crisis, national borders and the impact of crises in border regions were often the subject of political debate and media coverage. Border-regional resilience has only been discussed in the academic discourse for the last few years. This article uses a diverse set of socio-economic indicators to examine the (border)–regional resilience of German regions in the wake of the financial crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. A distinction is made between border and non-border regions, urban and rural regions, and regions in the old and new German federal states. The results show, first, that the COVID-19 crisis had a stronger socio-economic impact than the financial crisis. Second, border regions tended to be more affected by the financial crisis than non-border regions. Surprisingly, this was not the case for the border-specific COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, the study shows that it is not so much the border location that determines regional resilience, but rather the socio-economic level, the degree of urbanization and the associated embeddedness in global networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to explore the extent to which digitalization can be utilized as a change management tool during black swan events. This article explores how digitalization can help businesses adapt to black swan events like the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the correlation between digitalization growth rates, income, and brand strength in 30 countries with varying viral threats from 2018 to 2021. This paper compares digitalization's impact on change management success in two different contexts. The first context is regular business events that occurred pre-pandemic, as measured by revenue stability and brand strength. The second context is the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis, considered a black swan event. The paper explains the difference in impact and how digitalization can contribute to change management success in both contexts. Our approach to crisis management considers the Black Swan Theory and change management offers a unique and valuable perspective. We found that digitalization can enhance business resilience during the pandemic, although we caution that the benefits of digitalization may be limited to the short term due to its flexibility. Due to consideration of the COVID-19 crisis as a black swan type, this paper clarified the accessibility of digitalization as a measure of crisis management and the scale of the anti-crisis effect of digitalization as a tool of flexibility and adaptation to the black swan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation for this research was the need for scientific elaboration on the issues of managing the flexibility of the financial system to ensure its sustainable development. The purpose of the article is to develop a counter-cyclical approach to change management in banks for the sustainable development of the financial system. Based on data of 2020 and post-crisis economic recovery in 2021, the article reveals the positive effect of managing changes in banks in the form of sustainable development of the financial system. Alternative scenarios for managing changes in banks are compared in terms of advantages to enhance the resilience of the financial system. This serves as a justification for the fact that the contribution of banks' flexibility to this positive effect varies significantly depending on the phases of the economic cycle. The authors' SAP-LAP model has provided a qualitative interpretation of change management in banks in the context of the economic crisis to enhance the resilience of the financial system on the example of the credit services market. The theoretical impact consists in revealing the status quo that determine the flexibility of banks and their contribution to the sustainable development of the financial system. These conditions are the development of mobile money services and the expansion of ATM network, as well as specialization in the segments of the richest 60% and the poorest 40% of consumers of credit services. The practical significance of the results obtained in the article is that the developed new approach to the organization of banks' activities makes it possible to increase the flexibility of banks and thereby enhance their adaptability to the cyclical economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we interrogated the efforts adopted by community and technical colleges in a Midwestern state to address racial inequities since the onset of COVID-19. We analyzed such efforts reported in institutional newsletters and associated media through critical content analysis supported by text mining techniques. Our findings demonstrate a notable reckoning with racial inequities on the part of institutional leaders and stakeholders. However, many initiatives remain short-term solutions and are detached from a holistic equity focus. This study challenges community and technical college leadership to reimagine their policies, structures, and practices toward advancing racial equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Berliner Journal für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Preparing healthcare systems for emergencies is crucial to maintaining healthcare quality. Nursing homes (NHs) require tailored emergency plans. This article aims to develop a typology of French private NHs and study their early COVID-19 responses and mortality outcomes. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among NHs of a French network consisting of 290 facilities during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC) was conducted to develop the typology of the NHs. Association tests were used to analyze the relationships between the typology, prevention and control measures, COVID-19 mortality, and the satisfaction of hospitalization requests. Results: The 290 NHs vary in size, services, and location characteristics. The HCPC identified three clusters: large urban NHs with low levels of primary care (Cluster 1), small rural NHs (Cluster 2), and medium urban NHs with high levels of primary care (Cluster 3). The COVID-19 outcomes and response measures differed by cluster, with Clusters 1 and 2 experiencing higher mortality rates. Nearly all the NHs implemented preventive measures, but the timing and extent varied. Conclusions: This typology could help in better preparing NHs for future health emergencies, allowing for targeted resource allocation and tailored adaptations. It underscores the importance of primary care territorial structuring in managing health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the adaption of community-based organizations (CBOs) during the COVID-19 crisis. This study aimed to study how HIV CBOs and their community health workers (CHWs) faced the COVID-19 outbreak. Semi-structured interviews (n = 53) were conducted among CHWs in Burundi, Mauritania, and Lebanon in 2021. A thematic content analysis was performed. Results showed that CBOs had succeeded in maintaining HIV services and integrated COVID-19 prevention and awareness in their activities. COVID-19 led to innovation in terms of HIV services (eg, telemedicine and online psychosocial support) and to opportunities to try new modalities of antiretroviral therapy dispensation. Field workers (a specific group among CHWs) were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and showed resilience in their adaptation to ensure the continuity of their activities. Considering the essential role of field workers during the crisis, their status and the sustainability of their activities should be clearly supported by health policies and programs. Plain Language Summary: Role of community health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic This study explores how HIV community-based organizations (CBOs) and their community health workers (CHWs) adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted interviews with 53 CHWs from Burundi, Mauritania, and Lebanon in 2021 to understand their experiences. We found that despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, CBOs managed to continue providing essential HIV services. They also incorporated COVID-19 prevention and awareness efforts into their work. The pandemic prompted innovation, such as the use of telemedicine and online psychosocial support, and provided opportunities to explore new ways of dispensing antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, field workers, a specific group of CHWs, faced significant negative impacts due to the pandemic. Despite these challenges, they showed remarkable resilience and adapted to ensure the continuity of their services. Given the critical role of field workers during the crisis, it is important for health policies and programs to support their status and ensure the sustainability of their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted the econometric analysis to test the hedge and safe haven effects of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) on major traditional asset markets in the global financial system. We investigate the estimates of these effects in times of extreme market conditions and the COVID-19 crisis. Our empirical results show evidence of the hedge and safe haven properties of NFTs, confirming two main findings: (i) NFTs act as a hedge and safe haven for particular stock markets and oil, bond, and USD indices, even though the degree of effects varies across asset classes; and (ii) NFTs also serve as sheltering facilities for the markets mentioned above, with more substantial safe haven benefits for bond and USD indices during the recent pandemic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The most significant changes caused by the COVID-19 crisis were the sharp increase in working from home and the growing importance of e-commerce, which affected the development of some industries. This change also affects the investors' investment operations, which are based on analysis to ensure an unquestionable certainty of the invested financial amount and a satisfactory return. It is, therefore, interesting to analyze the possible return of the chosen investment strategy based on the optimization model of portfolio selection based on the CVaR risk measure. Purpose: The paper aims to present the possible use of the analysis of returns of effective portfolios constructed based on the optimization model of portfolio selection based on the CVaR risk measure during the crisis (COVID19) and the pre-crisis period. Study design/methodology/approach: Paper presents the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on investor decisionmaking through the CVaR risk measure, which was implemented on the historical data of the components of the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index (S&P 500) in the crisis period as well as in the pre-crisis period. Findings/conclusions: The presented approach based on the CVaR risk rate measure and the relevant portfolio selection model provides the investor with an effective tool for allocating funds to the financial market in particular segments in both monitored periods. Limitations/future research: Time series data are divided into two periods based on visible factors such as the number of COVID-19 cases. In future research, we aim to divide monitored periods based on unobservable factors influencing investors' decisions, such as bull or bear mood on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic there were supply chain bottlenecks all over the world with regard to raw materials and intermediate products. In this article, we examine how these constraints affected labour market development. For an empirical panel analysis, we combine survey data and administrative labour market data for economic sectors in Germany. We find effects on unemployment that are noticeable but still relatively limited. The effect on short-time work, on the other hand, is revealed to be considerable. Whilst short-time work is traditionally imposed where there are slumps in demand, our results show that it is also used in the case of adverse supply shocks. While inflation is rising, this explains why the Phillips curve does not shift outward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 health crisis on U.S. financial indices, exploring the intricate relationship between economic shocks and these indices during downturns. Using Markov switching regression models and control variables, including GDP, consumer sentiment, industrial production, and the ratio of inventories-to-sale, it quantifies the effects of these crises on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) from Q1 2000 to Q2 2023, covering crucial moments of both crises and stable periods (dichotomous variables). Results reveal that the 2008 crisis significantly heightened financial volatility and depreciated the valuation of S&P 500 and DJIA indicators, while the COVID-19 crisis had a diverse impact on market dynamics, particularly negatively affecting specific sectors. This study underscores the importance of consumer confidence and inventory management in mitigating financial volatility and emphasises the need for robust policy measures to address economic shocks, enhance financial stability, and alleviate future crises, especially during endogenous crises such as financial downturns. This research sheds light on the nuanced impact of crises on financial markets and the broader economy, revealing the intricate dynamics shaping market behaviour during turbulent times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the effects of market conditions, volatility and liquidity shocks on the arbitrage profits during pre‐COVID and COVID periods. The study uses a conditional quantile regression and finds no significant difference in the impact of market conditions on the arbitrage profits during pre‐COVID and COVID crisis periods. The increase in volatility combined with low liquidity during the COVID period makes arbitrage non‐viable. However, the decline in volatility during the COVID period encourages investors to initiate arbitrage. The results are useful to fund managers and market analysts to develop suitable trading strategies and stock market regulators to take necessary steps to improve price discovery mechanisms and market efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) occupy a crucial place in society. This article studies the determinants of their managerial adaptations in relation to societal orientation, such as a focus on partners, an adaptation of relationships with volunteers, preventing neglect of the beneficiaries and members, and finally a redesign of internal organization. The survey of French NPOs 1 year after Covid-19 shows that boards have often lost their collective effectiveness and that the four adaptations associated with societal orientation were specifically explained by the access to key resources. The results demonstrate the importance of human resource dependency management and inform the decision-making process during the crisis. The contributions focus on the determinants of societal orientation, on the necessary individual and collective mobilization of human resources in non-profit governance and on the importance of a complex and paradoxical approach to decision-making. The original theoretical approach (the stakeholder resource-based theory) also offers perspectives for NPOs, in times of crisis but also in more stable circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted earnings management practices within both public and private firms in Korea. Amid active government efforts and policies to overcome the pandemic crisis, we anticipate that the earnings management of public sector managers, prioritizing public benefit as their key sustainability objective, will distinctly differ from those of private sector managers, who are influenced by a different set of pressures and incentives. Empirical analysis revealed a notable decrease in earnings management in the public sector post-COVID-19, with no significant change in the private sector. Our study distinguishes how public and private firms react to identical economic crises, deepening our insight into the ways different organizations handle financial reporting amid government intervention and economic stress. Such differentiation not only broadens our comprehension of strategies for managing earnings but also offers vital perspectives on the dynamics among corporate governance, regulatory environments, and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to model the cause-and-effect relationships between the world economy's digital development and sustainable living. A broad selection of developed and developing countries examines what the world economy would have looked like without the crisis in 2020. Drawing on whether the virus is swept off or merely reduced, the dataset contains a forecast of the world economy for 2022. Being aware of alternative scenarios can be helpful in a wide range of scientific studies. The practical implications of the results of the scenario analysis consist in them allowing for the assessment of opportunities to overcome the COVID-19 viral threat with the help of vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate firms are affected by the impact of Covid-19 crisis on business activities, cash flow, and firm leverage. It is required to analyze the Speed of Adjustment (SoA) through which firms adjust their leverage toward target during Covid-19. We conduct leverage adjustment analytics by estimating the partial adjustment model, which empirically analyzes the effect of Covid-19 crisis on leverage adjustment. To analyse SoA for book and market leverage of firms, we applied the well-known partial adjustment model. We constructed three research hypotheses and models as following. First, we analyzed the SoA for the Pre-Covid, Covid-19, and Post-Covid periods. Second, we analyzed the SoA for financially flexible and constrained firms during the Covid-19 crisis. Third, we evaluated the effect of three Covid waves on the leverage adjustment. We found three types of empirical evidence on 611 Indian firms to validate three proposed hypotheses and models. First, the SoA is faster during the Covid-19 crisis than Pre-Covid for Indian firms. During Covid-19 period, the SoA for (book and market) leverage per quarter is found to be (5.43% and 8.64%), which is higher than the Pre-Covid period (3.86% and 4.29%). The Post-Covid period recorded a higher SoA for book leverage (8.18%) and lower for market leverage (7.57%). Second, during Covid-19 period, the financially flexible firms had a faster SoA than the constrained firms. Third, Covid waves have positive and significant effects on the leverage adjustment of Indian firms. The robustness test confirms our findings that corporate firms had increased SoA during the Covid-19 crisis, and financially-flexible firms adjusted their leverage more rapidly than constrained firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled most countries in the world to implement online teaching. However, not all countries were ready to do that. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of online teaching implementation as well as to investigate the perceptions of teachers and the challenges faced by fifty senior high schools in East Java, Indonesia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 150 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and utilized both quantitative and qualitative data. The research employed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data. The questionnaires consisted of twenty-five questions with seven categories: student--faculty contact, cooperation among students, active learning, prompt feedback, time on task, high expectations, and diverse talents in ways of learning, which were delivered to 150 English teachers. The semi-structured interview with twenty-five EFL teachers focused on the English teachers' challenges and actions to deal with the challenges during online teaching implementation. To analyze the quantitative data, the researcher used descriptive statistics, and for the qualitative data, the researcher transcribed the semi-structured interview results and continued with data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicated that online teaching implementation was challenging. The teachers faced six significant challenges during online teaching implementation: internet access, students' economy, students' psychology, lack of facilities, time constraints, and the teachers' and students' technology competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted both business and social life over the last two years. Stop-and-go policies enacted as containment measures have further impacted the global economy, and tourism in particular. Tourism demand shows only weak signs of a sustainable recovery. The medium-term outlook remains highly uncertain, and yet few studies have addressed the development of the tourism and leisure industries in the years ahead. In this context, we forecast demand in selected EU countries in terms of total expenditure on outbound travel (tourism imports) using a panel pooled Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) approach. Baseline and downside scenarios are elaborated to project demand for foreign travel until 2025. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though brand co-creation (BCO) and customer brand engagement (CBE) are identified as important research priorities, empirically derived insights into their relationship with tourism-consumers' consequent destination revisit intention (RVI) remain limited, particularly during the COVID-19. In reply to this gap, we develop service-dominant-logic and elaboration-likelihood-model-informed models, which test the impact of tourism-based affective-, cognitive-, and behavioral-CBE on BCO, involvement, and RVI. To explore such matters, we recruited consumer-based survey data by using structural equation modeling, PROCESS Model, and Johnson–Neyman technique. Our analyses reveal that CBE's dimensions exercise different impacts on BCO, which consequently affect RVI. Second, we ascertain involvement's direct effects on BCO and RVI. Third, results reveal that positive impact of BCO on RVI is stronger for low-involved consumers than highly involved consumers. Finally, results indicate that consumers' age does not significantly moderate the relationship between BCO and RVI. We conclude by offering crucial theoretical/practical implications that advance from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate the serially mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) practices (namely, knowledge creation, storage and sharing) on the organizational learning (OL) and organizational performance (OP) relationships during a crisis. Design/methodology/approach – Based on theories-of-action, knowledge-based and resource-based theories, this study proposed a sequential mediation model where OL underlying mechanisms through which KM practices have facilitated OP during the crisis. The sample dataset contains 440 responses collected from the managers of the software development companies in Pakistan. The authors used Hayes Process macro with SPSS to test the study hypotheses. Findings – The results of the study reveal that knowledge creation, storage and sharing serially mediate the relationships between OL and OP. These findings strengthen the argument suggesting that OL plays the key role in KM that helps software companies to mend their performance in times of crisis. Originality/value – This study contributes to the KM literature in two ways: (1) grounded on the study's proposed framework, organizations can improve and manage their businesses in times of crisis and (2) learn how to generate new knowledge in response to business crises. 研究目的 – 本研究擬探討在危機中,知識管理做法(即知識的創造、儲存和分享),如何連續地在組織學習與組織績效之間的聯繫上起著仲介效應 研究方法 – 研究以行為理論、知識基礎理論和資源基礎理論之論據,提出了一個系統化的仲介模型,闡釋知識管理如何在危機中、透過以組織學習為基礎之機制,去促進組織之績效。數據集為取自在巴基斯坦的軟件開發公司工作的主管的440個調查答覆;我們以 Hayes, A. F. 的 PROCESS macro、並附以 SPSS,去測試我們的研究假設。 研究結果 – 研究結果顯示、知識的創造、儲存和分享,會在組織學習與組織績效之間的聯繫上,起著連續性的仲介效應。知識管理被認為可幫助軟件公司在危機中改善其表現不足之處,而組織學習在知識管理上或許扮演著關鍵的角色。研究結果強化了肯定這個角色的論據。 研究的原創性 – 本研究對知識管理文獻有兩方面的貢獻: (一)若以本研究提出的框架為基礎,組織可於危機中改善及管理其業務; (二)組織可學習如何創造新的知識,以能應對業務上極其困難的時刻。 關鍵詞 – 組織學習、知識管理做法、組織績效、行為理論、2019冠狀病毒疫情危機、軟件開發產業.

During the COVID-19 crisis, organizations had to demonstrate organizational resilience (OR) to continue to carry out their missions. We conducted qualitative research to identify the factors that contributed to the OR of police and penitentiary institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, in terms of their operations and management. The modes of action and crisis responses of these emergency services, regularly confronted with crises and particularly impacted during the pandemic, are worthy of attention. To this end, we synthesized the OR factors that are frequently identified in both theoretical and empirical review articles and identified four theoretical conceptualizations: (a) resilience engineering, (b) ecological resilience (these two are the most widely used), (c) a third way situating resilience at an intermediate stage in a metamodel representing the evolution of organizations from a fragile to antifragile state, and (d) a conceptualization focusing on the temporal dimension of OR. Based on the results of 25 semi-structured interviews with executives from cantonal police forces and prisons, we present what we consider to be the key levers in a three-phase resilience process (upstream, during, and after the shock): anticipatory and proactive organizational culture, information management and communication, liminal leadership practices, social and environmental practices, agility-enhancing governance practices, and learning capabilities. Our results largely confirm that these parameters significantly contributed to the OR of the institutions in question. They also enable us to propose winning configurations of factors that can increase the potential for OR.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a more stressful and uncertain work environments, disrupting personal and organizational lives, and particularly the impact of this crises on health care professionals (i.e., doctors and nurses) is unprecedented. COVID-19 has increased the workload and job risks for frontline health care professionals, causing them significant emotional stress. In such testing times, individual's personal effectiveness ensued by the utilization of one's personal energy may be helpful in not only ensuring wellbeing but also providing other desired results, for example, enhanced performance. Based on this notion, we conducted a study (amidst the third wave in mid-2021) using a multiwave design to investigate the role of professional self-efficacy of health care professionals in well-being and behavioral outcomes during crises of COVID-19. The hypothesized relationships were tested by collecting data from 361 frontline healthcare professionals dealing with COVID-19 patients in hospitals in Northern part of Pakistan. The study results verified our assumed relationships and revealed that health care workers' professional self-efficacy was positively related to their well-being, in terms of workplace thriving, and it also showed positive association with work role performance. In addition, the results of the study also revealed that perceived strengths use mediated the relationship between professional self-efficacy and outcomes. This study discusses implications, limitations, and future directions in detail, including how the findings can be used to inform interventions and support healthcare professionals dealing with the emotional and professional stresses brought on by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and firm risk on working capital management policies among manufacturing firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The study sample consists of 1200 observations and 200 companies listed on the TSE over a six-year period from 2016 to 2021; furthermore, the statistical method used to test the hypotheses is ordinary least squares (OLS). The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has led managers to increase current assets to total assets ratio (CATAR), current ratio (CR), quick ratio (QR), net working capital (NWC), cash to current assets (CTCA) ratio, while it has caused a decrease in operational cycle (OC), days account receivables (DAR), and current liabilities to total assets ratio (CLTAR). Furthermore, we find that the higher the company's risk, the more managers are motivated to embrace the working capital investment policy, net working capital, cash to current assets ratio, and cash conversion efficiency (CCE). In general, our findings indicate that during times of crisis, Iranian companies tend to adopt conservative working capital policies to ensure sufficient liquidity to respond appropriately to unforeseen events. In this study, the theory of liquidity preference aligns with the observed behavior of firms in response to the COVID-19 crisis and firm risk, where the emphasis on liquidity and short-term financial stability becomes paramount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Israel's higher education system swiftly transitioned to emergency-adapted online distance learning. Yet, limited research has assessed effectiveness of online learning (EOL) for Arab students in Israel. This study delves into Arab students' EOL perceptions, focusing on cognitive and emotional aspects. Using a quantitative method, it explored the link between technological self-efficacy (TS), mindfulness ability (MA), and EOL during the pandemic among students from three Israeli academic institutions (N=378). Results showed a positive association between TS and EOL. Further, MA moderated TS-EOL relationship. Men demonstrated higher TS than women. There were noticeable EOL differences between undergraduate (pre-service teachers) and graduate (in-service teachers) students, with the latter exhibiting an advantage. This research contributes to the evolving discourse on post-pandemic online learning, shedding light on potential gender disparities and highlighting the importance of both TS and MA for successful online learning. The findings have implications for instructional designers, educators, policymakers, and academic programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to our understanding of the macro‐financial linkages in the high‐frequency domain during the recent health crisis. Building on the extant literature that mainly uses monthly or quarterly macro proxies, we examine the daily economic impact on intra‐daily financial volatility by applying the macro‐augmented HEAVY model with asymmetries and power transformations. Our study associates US and UK financial with macroeconomic uncertainties in addition to further macro drivers that exacerbate equity market volatility. Daily local economic policy uncertainty is one of the main drivers of financial volatility, alongside global credit and commodity factors. Higher macro uncertainty is found to increase the leverage and macro effects from credit and commodity markets on US and UK stock market realized volatility. Most interestingly, the Covid‐19 outbreak is found to exert a considerable impact on financial volatilities through the uncertainty channel, given the prevalent worry about controversial policy interventions to support societies and markets, particularly in the case of the severely censured US and UK governments' reluctant and limited response in the very beginning of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing uncertainty has frequently been associated with alterations in investor behaviour in scientific discourse. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) despite generating 10% of the EU's GDP, has largely been overlooked in investigations into the relationship between socialmedia uncertainty and its impact on the stock markets. The purpose of this article is to examine the dependence between the largest stock indices of the CEE markets and Twitter uncertainty measures. The Vector Autoregressive (VAR) methodology, specifically bivariate Granger causality is applied to investigate the relationship between social media messages and market behaviour reflected in returns of the main stock indices for Croatian CROBEX, Czech PX, Hungarian BUX, Polish WIG and Romanian BET indices. The author discovers substantial evidence indicating that the CEE region exhibits heterogeneity concerning its relationship with uncertainty in stock markets, with measures related to recession, political events, and natural disasters being of utmost relevance. While the VAR model and Granger causality have been studied in relation to many markets, there is a lack of studies on the effect of Twitter-based wider spectrum of uncertainty measures on the CEE region. Twitter-based uncertainty measures on the CEE region represent a significant knowledge gap, that when addressed, could offer valuable insight into the region's financial dynamics, thus potentially affecting hedging strategies, enhancing investor's awareness and informing policy-making decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationalism presumes conceptual primacy of relations over the elements engaged in those relations. In that sense, relations are not viewed as something external to pre-given elements, but as constitutive of those elements. Processual relationalism presumes that the relations between/among elements are not just static ties, but unfolding, dynamic processes. Currently, processual relationalism is increasingly present in the social sciences. Nevertheless, it is the movement of relational sociology that has been at the forefront of the processual 'relational turn.' In this paper, the authors argue that the methodological potential of processual-relational sociology should be taken decisively further since it is especially relevant for addressing the socio-political reality of our time that is increasingly characterized by what has been referred to as 'wicked problems'. Through introducing the distinction of self-action, interaction and trans-action as it is discussed in relational sociology, the authors argue that the methodological consequences of processual relationalism overlap with constitutive explanation, which is an important addition to causal explanation that is prevalent in the 'variable-centered' social sciences. The authors offer a sketch of a research agenda for explaining a wicked problem that needs a processual-relational methodology to be addressed: the ongoing COVID-19 Crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the news media debate on nurses' wages in Finland during the COVID-19 crisis. By looking at the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic context, the study presents the pandemic as a societal context in which the care work burden has increased and the value of care is highlighted. The analysis of the COVID-19 public media debate sheds light on how the struggle over nurses' wages features in this societal context. The study contributes to the research on the gender wage gap related to the economic misrecognition of care work, and the analysis draws from the feminist democratic theoretical concept of the public sphere perceiving the COVID-19 public media as a site for political change-making. My analysis of Finnish news media articles identified three important discourses on the objective of pay rises in the care sector: conveying frontline care professionals' experiences during the pandemic and framing them as an economic-political issue; relying on the ideal of common good in the corporatist debate on care professionals' collective economic interests; and presenting expert analyses of the structural causes behind the gendered segregation of the labour market and the economic undervaluation of care work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the effects of COVID-19-induced pandemic on tea plantation workers during lockdown phases in India. The tea industry, being a labour-intensive, employs around 1.2 million permanent workers who usually reside within the plantations along with their families, making the largest employer in the formal private sector. Drawing from secondary data and narratives from in-depth telephonic interviews with various key informants during and post-lockdown, this study shows that plantation workers faced livelihood crisis due to subsequent lockdowns during both the waves of COVID-19 health crisis. Poor health infrastructure in the tea estates, weak trade union and existing wage determination methods are responsible for livelihood crisis for plantation workers during pandemic. Except state-assisted social assistance benefits in terms of ration, unlike permanent workers of other sectors and industries, regular plantation workers did not even receive compensated wages from the employer during lockdown, following 'no-wage for no-work' clause. Ineffective labour market institutions and rigid managementality failed to protect tea plantation workers during the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the European Central Bank (ECB) legitimise its decisions and monetary policy programmes in the period from 2009 to 2021 in terms of input, throughput and output legitimacy? This article contains an answer to this important question based on a content analysis of speeches made by the presidents of the ECB. Ideally, the institution is founded on its independence and therefore cannot maintain legitimacy through public influence. This article proves that there are clearly most references on output legitimacy in the ECB's legitimation strategy, showing that it highlights its results as an independent institution to compensate for its lack of democratic channels in terms of legitimacy. Generally, in times of crises, there is an increase in frequency of references to legitimacy. During these periods, ECB actors also more frequently refer to throughput legitimacy in speeches, showing that the institution is in fact sensitive to public criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey of Italian households administered in November 2021, we study the effect of microeconomic and macroeconomic expectations about the health crisis and income growth on consumption expectations in 2022. The survey elicits individual-level indicators of income and consumption expectations, distinguishing between consumption at home, away from home, online and total. We find that expected household income and expected GDP growth are strongly related to consumption expectations; income risk is positively associated with expected consumption growth for richer households. Finally, our results indicate that health-related variables were not a major drivers of consumption expectations in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current crises pose uncertainties and threats to family businesses (FBs), demonstrating the importance of risk management (RM). Based on an explorative case study of nine Austrian medium-sized FBs, we examine the design of RM in FBs and how the COVID-19 crisis impacts their RM practices. The findings highlight that the medium-sized FBs analyzed generally rely on both formal and informal RM, and that these structures are strongly connected to their unique stewardship culture. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, formal RM gained increased relevance, prompting FBs to allocate additional resources for its professional upgrading. Likewise, when confronted with heightened risks during the COVID-19 crisis, informal practices such as family bonds and close ties to employees and customers are not only reinforced but also proven highly effective, resulting in increased loyalty. The COVID-19 crisis serves as a compelling illustration of how both informal and formal RM methods have grown in strength. The synergy between these RM methods enhances risk awareness within FBs, ultimately fostering resilience during unpredictable and uncertain times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 crisis, organizations had to demonstrate organizational resilience (OR) to continue to carry out their missions. We conducted qualitative research to identify the factors that contributed to the OR of police and penitentiary institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, in terms of their operations and management. The modes of action and crisis responses of these emergency services, regularly confronted with crises and particularly impacted during the pandemic, are worthy of attention. To this end, we synthesized the OR factors that are frequently identified in both theoretical and empirical review articles and identified four theoretical conceptualizations: (a) resilience engineering, (b) ecological resilience (these two are the most widely used), (c) a third way situating resilience at an intermediate stage in a metamodel representing the evolution of organizations from a fragile to antifragile state, and (d) a conceptualization focusing on the temporal dimension of OR. Based on the results of 25 semi-structured interviews with executives from cantonal police forces and prisons, we present what we consider to be the key levers in a three-phase resilience process (upstream, during, and after the shock): anticipatory and proactive organizational culture, information management and communication, liminal leadership practices, social and environmental practices, agility-enhancing governance practices, and learning capabilities. Our results largely confirm that these parameters significantly contributed to the OR of the institutions in question. They also enable us to propose winning configurations of factors that can increase the potential for OR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience is one of the most popular and yet ambiguous topics in the social sciences. It has been examined not only in an individual sense but also in relation to communities. The European Union (EU) has faced several crises in the 2000s that have shown the level of resilience of EU societies. This paper discusses community resilience within the framework of the EU's recent crises to examine how EU societies have coped with adversity. Specifically, it analyses competences and common policies at the EU level in relation to resilience and crises within the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened public health and socio-economic activities across societal groups and geographies. We analyse the complex interplay between epidemic and economic factors using a structural panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach for Danish municipalities. Findings indicate that the pandemic shock and associated public health interventions led to significant increases in unemployment rates. Wage compensations reduce regional unemployment through both a direct local effect and indirect spatial spillovers. Decomposing the unemployment rate by skill, we find that the response to an increase in wage compensations is only significant for low-skilled persons and that it is larger in urban compared with rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on achieving sustainable environmental development in Jordan's mining industries sector. The study examines the environmental management system and the improvements in energy use, water use, and emissions impact. The research findings indicate a positive and statistically significant impact of improving aspects of the environmental management system on sustainable environmental development. The article emphasizes the need for MENA governments, including Jordan, to align stimulus measures and policy responses with climate change and environmental protection goals. The study also found that there is no significant impact on improving water use in the companies studied, but suggests increasing environmental awareness among workers and prioritizing environmental compliance and sustainability in the sector. [Extracted from the article]

This document discusses the efforts of the banking sector in Jordan to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 crisis. The study found that the banking sector's efforts had a positive impact on the ability of SMEs to recover. However, it also highlighted the financial challenges faced by SMEs without assistance from banks. The document emphasizes the importance of supporting SMEs in the Jordanian economy and provides recommendations for decision-makers in the banking sector. It also references other papers and sources related to the impacts of COVID-19 on SMEs and mentions the World Health Organization as a source for information on the pandemic. [Extracted from the article]