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Psychological and mental well-being has become a topic of concern worldwide after the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has triggered enormous global health care vulnerabilities and resulted in full and partial lockdowns to prevent the new case. This research study provides a comprehensive overview of the published international scientific studies on the effect of COVID-19 on the psychological well-being of young adults. This study aims to review the top-cited authors, documents, journals, productive countries, the most used keywords, and trending themes in this area. Articles related to psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 2020 to December 2022 were extracted from the Scopus database with specified keywords. In total, 482 documents were retrieved as original articles and bibliometric analysis, thematic analysis and content analysis are performed and analyzed. The results show that the United States has contributed the largest publications followed by the United Kingdom and Italy. Through the cluster analysis, it is found that many articles have been published and considered the psychological and mental impact of COVID-19. Young adults from both developed and developing countries are majorly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic prioritizes the importance of global psychological well-being and health care. This study focused on different aspects, such as stress, resilience, and the mental health of young adults. The research findings of this study put forth the urgent need to provide preventive policies and intervention procedures to address the psychological health of young adults and proposed a conceptual framework.

The purpose of this study is to understand how green logistics affects Circular Economy (CE) adoption in the era of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). By taking many green initiatives, the logistics sector is showing its serious concern towards environmental issues. Stakeholders look forward to implementing sustainable logistics and circular practices to deal with these critical issues such as waste generation, resource scarcity, use of renewable resources, climate change etc. This study examines the relationships between green logistics practices, I4.0 technologies, and CE adoption The study also examines the moderating effect of institutional pressure and supply chain flexibility on the aforementioned relationships. A total of 162 responses were collected and a Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method was employed to analyse the data; this method has high predictive power. The results from the study are: a) firms can enhance CE adoption driven by I4.0 technologies with green logistics practices as a mediator b) the moderating effect of supply chain flexibility is found to be significant whereas the moderating effect of institutional pressure is found to be insignificant. This study provides several managerial and theoretical implications.

The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the manufacturing industry’s entire supply chain system. It is important to investigate the strategic drivers to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 in the manufacturing industry. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the strategic drivers to overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and improve the resiliency of the Bangladeshi footwear industry, an emerging economy. The strategic drivers are identified after reviewing research papers, reports, blogs, and discussions on social media platforms. The main drivers and their respective sub-drivers are finalized by discussing with domain experts. To offer strategic plans for building resiliency, it is crucial to know the importance of the main drivers and sub-drivers; therefore, the best–worst method is applied to determine the priority importance of the strategic drivers. The findings indicate that the top five drivers to defeat the impacts of COVID-19 are “high capability of reconfigurability,” “enhance the relationship with suppliers,” “develop health protocols to continue manufacturing,” “government support through incentives, subsidy, tax rebate, etc.,” and “set a policy to stable material supply”. Based on the findings, this study also provides practical implications with proposed research themes for policymakers and operations managers towards mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s contribution is unique and important for the footwear supply chain as the research on COVID-19 in the context of resiliency focusing on the footwear supply chain is non-existent.

Purpose: The study aims to examine the influence of Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices and Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4Te) adoption on the Employability Skills (ES) of the employees. The study has undertaken four major SHRM practices – Training (TR), Flexibility (FL), Employee Participation (EP) and Employee Empowerment (EE) to measure its impact on the ES along with I4Te. Design/methodology/approach: A survey approach method was designed on the identified constructs from existing literature based on SHRM, I4Te and ES. The survey resulted into 198 valid responses. The study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 for constructs validation and hypothesis testing. Findings: The current study reveals that all the four SHRM practices (TR, FL, EP and EE) along with I4Te directly influence ES in the organisation. The I4Te along with the SHRM practices may bring enhancement in the skills and competencies of the employees that is the requirement of future organisations. Practical implications: Considering the results, the SHRM practices aligned with I4Te may directly influence the employee's ES including core skills, IT skills and personal attributes. The SHRM practices in the organisation will enhance the opportunities for the employees and bring long-term association with the employees. Social implications: For the development of the economy and the individual, the SHRM practices need to conduct themselves in more socially responsible ways along with the I4Te to enhance the ES of the employees. The individual development will bring sustainable behavioural changes in the employees. Originality/value: There has been no research conducted on exploring SHRM, I4Te and ES together. This is the pioneer in the HRM fields that explores the interrelationships and influence amongst the five constructs undertaken in the study.

This study attempts to present a contribution of Blockchain Technology (BC-T) in managing disruptions, and risk caused by the COVID-19 outbreaks and extending profound support in developing resilient Food Supply Chains (FSCs). The effects of the pandemic can be witnessed on global supply chains in their demand & supply side disruptions and in the changing patterns of consumer buying in the food industry. The assessment of the disruptive factors is required to explore the present issues and promising resilient strategies to impart robustness to the FSCs for mitigating disruptions in the future. An integrated approach of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Weighted Assessment Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) is employed to assess the factors related to sourcing, lean, workforce, and flexibility, as well as evaluation of the BC-T enabled FSCs resilient strategies that mitigate the effect of disruption during the pandemic. The findings exhibit that ‘Sourcing related’ is the most affecting disruptive factor causing distress in the FSCs and ‘flexibility resilient strategy’ is the most relevant resilient strategy for BC-T enabled FSCs. The BC-T acts as a catalyst in enhancing the flexibility, traceability, and shorter supply chain network structure that may help the FSCs to mitigate risk and disruption in the pandemic situation. The BC-T helps the FSCs to control the demand and supply shocks, and supports the organization with real-time monitoring and sharing information. This study provides insights to the decision-makers, managers, and other stakeholders to take significant decisions during an emergency.

The pandemic has created a restrictive working system including remote working, and flexible hours for the firms and employees all around the globe, thus transforming into a platform economy may reduce unemployment and enhance job opportunities. Therefore, firms are now trying to identify the ways for enhancing survivability of Sustainable Supply Chains (SSCs). This study has made an effort to develop a framework for enhancing survivability of SSCs to survive in and post-COVID-19 pandemic. This study has utilised Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method for identifying the significant factors for enhancing survivability of SSCs to be focused in pandemic situation. The study revealed that ‘Supply Chain Network Viability (SCV)’ is the main criterion for managing buyer–supplier relationship and enhancing survivability of SSCs during and post-COVID-19 situation. This study is helpful for firms, suppliers, and other stakeholders to focus on the identified factors for healthier future.

The rising population of millennials, coupled with Digital Assistants (DA) and online purchasing trends among consumers have gained increasing attention by global marketers. The study evaluates the influence of DA attributes on the purchasing intention (PUI) of millennials. A combined approach of PLS-SEM, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is used to predict the PUI of 345 millennials. Also, multi-group analysis is employed to uncover the influence of gender on the relationship between PUI and DA attributes. The findings suggest that DA attributes may amplify purchasing intention among millennials, especially through perceived interactivity and anthropomorphism. Further, the moderating role of gender was found significant on the inter-relationship of perceived interactivity and PUI. This research is a pioneer study in the area of artificial intelligence, conversational commerce, DA and AI-powered chatbots. This study will help marketers and practitioners to predict millennial purchasing intentions. An evaluation of this paper may help them to foster immersive and effective engagement through DA.

Background: Acute Stanford type A aortic dissection (TAAD) is a life-threatening condition. Surgery is usually performed as a salvage procedure and is associated with significant postoperative early mortality and morbidity. Understanding the patient’s conditions and treatment strategies which are associated with these adverse events is essential for an appropriate management of acute TAAD. Methods: Nineteen centers of cardiac surgery from seven European countries have collaborated to create a multicentre observational registry (ERTAAD), which will enroll consecutive patients who underwent surgery for acute TAAD from January 2005 to March 2021. Analysis of the impact of patient’s comorbidities, conditions at referral, surgical strategies and perioperative treatment on the early and late adverse events will be performed. The investigators have developed a classification of the urgency of the procedure based on the severity of preoperative hemodynamic conditions and malperfusion secondary to acute TAAD. The primary clinical outcomes will be in-hospital mortality, late mortality and reoperations on the aorta. Secondary outcomes will be stroke, acute kidney injury, surgical site infection, reoperation for bleeding, blood transfusion and length of stay in the intensive care unit. Discussion: The analysis of this multicentre registry will allow conclusive results on the prognostic importance of critical preoperative conditions and the value of different treatment strategies to reduce the risk of early adverse events after surgery for acute TAAD. This registry is expected to provide insights into the long-term durability of different strategies of surgical repair for TAAD. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04831073.

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted global supply chains, revealing dreadful gaps and exposing vulnerabilities. Retailers are challenged to tackle risks and organise themselves to fit into the “new normal” scenario. This global outbreak has established a volatile environment for supply chains; it has raised the question of survival in the market, forcing companies to rethink resilient strategies to be adopted for the post-pandemic situation to mitigate the long-term effects of this virus. This study explores the priorities for retail supply chains (RSCs) to align their business operations and strategies for the post-pandemic world. Design/methodology/approach: This study has utilised integrated full consistency model (FUCOM) – best–worst method (BWM) for assessment of RSCs to enhance their business performance irrespective of pandemic disruptions. The FUCOM has been employed to identify the priorities of determinants enhancing business performance, whereas RSC strategies are evaluated using the BWM method. Findings: The current study identifies “Collaboration Efficiency” as the main criterion for accelerating the performance of RSCs in a dynamic social environment. Also, the study concludes that “Order Fulfilment” and “Digital RSCs” are the most appropriate resilient business strategies to mitigate the long-term effects. Research limitations/implications: Supply-demand balancing is a challenging task at the moment, but highly significant for the future. The pandemic disruptions have placed intense pressure on retailers to deliver products as per consumers' changing behaviours towards the purchase of essentials and other products. Hence, “Order Fulfilment” and “Digital RSCs” should be adopted for meeting customer requirements and to ensure sustainability in the post-pandemic business world. Originality/value: This work sets out a comprehensive framework which will be helpful for accelerating RSCs performance against pandemic disruption by adopt

The growing Artificial Intelligence (AI) age has been flooded with several innovations in algorithmic machine learning that may bring significant impacts to industries such as healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing, retail etc. But challenges such as data quality, privacy and lack of a skilled workforce limit the scope of AI implementation in emerging economies, particularly in the Public Manufacturing Sector (PMS). Therefore, to enhance the body of relevant literature, this study examines the existing challenges of AI implementation in PMS of India and explores the inter-relationships among them. The study has utilized the DEMATEL method for identification of the cause-and-effect group factors. The findings reveal that poor data quality, managers' lack of understanding of cognitive technologies, data privacy, problems in integrating cognitive projects and expensive technologies are the main challenges for AI implementation in PMS of India. Moreover, a model is proposed for industrial decision-makers and managers to take appropriate decisions to develop intelligent AI enabled systems for manufacturing organizations in emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to identify, analyze, and to assess supply chain disruption factors and drivers. Based on an empirical analysis, four disruption factor categories including natural, human-made, system accidents, and financials with a total of sixteen disruption drivers are identified and examined in a real-world industrial setting. This research utilizes an integrated approach comprising both the Delphi method and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). To test this integrated method, one of the well-known examples in industrial contexts of developing countries, the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh is considered. To evaluate this industrial example, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to ensure the robustness and viability of the framework in practical settings. This study not only expands the literature scope of supply chain disruption risk assessment but through its application in any context or industry will reduce the impact of such disruptions and enhance the overall supply chain resilience. Consequently, these enhanced capabilities arm managers the ability to formulate relevant mitigation strategies that are robust and computationally efficient. These strategies will allow managers to take calculated decisions proactively. Finally, the results reveal that political and regulatory instability, cyclones, labor strikes, flooding, heavy rain, and factory fires are the top six disruption drivers causing disruptions to the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh.

Potato tuber colour is an important factor that influences consumer preferences. Eastern plain region of India contributes about 50% of total potato acreage and production. Consumers in this region generally prefer red skinned varieties. Growing awareness for nutrient rich food can create a niche market for nutritious potatoes. Potato is crop of choice for mineral biofortification owing to better mineral bioavailability due to its high ascorbic acid and minimal phytate content. Iron and zinc are the essentially required minerals for good health. Considering the nutritional importance of these elements and wider prevalence of their deficiency in Indian sub-continent, thirteen Eastern regions red skinned advanced hybrids and varieties were evaluated to find the genetic diversity for iron and zinc content. A significant wide range of contents was observed for both the elements. High heritability of both mineral suggests feasibility of selecting genotypes for breeding nutrient rich varieties. Identified genotypes can be utilised as parental lines for future breeding programme and can be released as nutrient rich potato variety.