Impression management and leadership in failing or failed business-to-business firms during and post-COVID-19: Empirical insights from Africa

This paper is one of the pioneering studies to specifically link COVID-19 pandemic with business failures in African B2B firms and the role of leadership and impression management in mitigating business failures. Based on the qualitative data from Ghana and Nigeria, our findings show that although B2B firms in emerging markets are agile and proactive, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the process of business decline leading to failure in some cases. Particularly, the lack of technological know-how and the absence of online business activities made it difficult for B2B firms to continue operations. Further, we found that case B2B African firms needed a balance of market and non-market strategies to avoid failure caused by the pandemic. Study findings also indicate that despite the challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities to B2B firms in emerging markets. Flexible working and employee management are found to be instrumental in avoiding business failure. Finally, our findings show that, despite the absence of institutional support in African emerging markets, several case B2B firms quickly adopted digital technologies to communicate with partners and manage online business operations.

Achieving resilience through knowledge management practices and risk management culture in agri-food supply chains

PurposeGiven the increasingly turbulent business landscape and unprecedented incidents (e.g. Covid-19), firms must achieve supply chain resilience (SCRes) as a dynamic capability to bounce back from adversities and ensure continuity of operations. The purpose of this study is to integrate the three interrelated [knowledge management, risk management culture (RMC) and resilience] but often separately discussed concepts to advance the understanding of their intertwined influence on SCRes in the agri-food supply chains.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a cross-sectional survey approach where quantitative data is collected from 349 participants from the Australian agri-food supply chains to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsExposure to supply chain risks triggers the deployment of specific knowledge management practices in the agri-food supply chains. Further, the analysis on serial mediation suggests that firms' knowledge management practices work sequentially (knowledge acquisition, assimilation and application) and develop a RMC to achieve SCRes amid supply chain risks.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study inform practitioners and policymakers who seek to understand the key mechanisms that facilitate the development of SCRes when facing supply chain risks, particularly in the Australian agri-food supply chains.Social implicationsThe growth of the food industry through more resilient food supply chains could ensure sustained food supply and more employment opportunities.Originality/valueUsing dynamic capability theory, the authors devise a novel empirical model that explicates how knowledge management practices and RMC instigate the dynamic capability of SCRes amid supply chain risks facing agri-food supply chains.

The interplay between servant leadership, psychological safety, trust in a leader and burnout: assessing causal relationships through a three-wave longitudinal study.

COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented psychological challenges for frontline healthcare workers, especially nurses, causing anxiety and depression leading to burnout. The responsibility of healthcare leaders has increased manyfold to deal with such challenges. This study attempts to employ the conservation of resources theory to examine the relationship between servant leadership and nurses' burnout, with the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating effect of trust in leader. A three-wave longitudinal design was employed for data collection from 1204 nurses from 27 hospitals in China. The partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used for data analyses with SmartPLS version 3.2.8. The findings endorse that servant leadership at time 1 significantly reduces nurses' burnout measured at time 3 through the mediating role of psychological safety measured at time 2, and that a higher level of trust in the leader enhances the impact of servant leadership in reducing nurses' burnout.

To what extent does virtual learning promote the implementation of responsible management education? A study of management educators

This paper aims to explore the extent to which virtual learning fosters the implementation of responsible management education (RME) in public business schools in Egypt. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 management educators working at three public business schools in Egypt. Thematic analysis was undertaken on the collected data resulting in four major themes. The findings reveal that management educators perceive difficulty in implementing responsible management education in the context of virtual learning due to the following four factors: employing a student-centred learning approach, inability to use collaborative teaching pedagogies in virtual learning, lack of academic freedom, and poor info-structure characterising the Egyptian context. The present study is the pioneering works to empirically investigate the relationship between the shift towards virtual learning and the implementation of responsible management education, particularly in non-Western contexts.

Talent management practices in the extreme context of hospitality sector: an exploratory study

PurposeThis paper aims to specifically analyse the extent to which talent management practices in the post-COVID-19 era differ from those before the pandemic in the extreme work context of Egyptian hospitality sector. Design/methodology/approachThe study uses an exploratory qualitative research approach where semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 full-time employees working at hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt). Moreover, thematic analysis was undertaken on the interview transcripts. FindingsThe findings revealed that in the post-COVID-19 era, the case hotels exclusively use the inclusive talent management approach, in which all staff are recognised by the management as talents with the same workplace privileges. This approach helped to mitigate the negative influences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the findings highlighted the criticality of competencies such as multitasking along with in hospitality sector employees in relation to extreme context necessitated by COVID-19. The findings further established that when facing extreme events, such as COVID-19, a shift in training activities towards activating positive mental health and effective shock management among employees is also needed. This study found that organisational support and continuous learning play a vital role in individual employees' resilience development, which also helped in retaining them. Originality/valueThis paper is one of the pioneering empirical studies on the relationship between talent management practices in extreme contexts and the influences of global disruptions resulting from COVID-19. Moreover, it is one of the few studies to specifically undertake a comparative assessment of the differences in talent management practices pre- and post-COVID-19 time period in the hospitality sector. The study findings contribute to multiple literature streams including extreme context, hospitality, human resource management and transaction stress model.

The role of dynamic capabilities and strategic agility of B2B high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises during COVID-19 pandemic: Exploratory case studies from Finland

This paper focuses on the critical role of business-to-business (B2B) high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) dynamic capabilities and strategic agility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the exploratory case studies of 5 Finnish high-tech SMEs, we find that the case SMEs enacted different processes and utilized resources and capabilities creatively to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and leverage it as an opportunity. Findings indicate that agile adaptation and new opportunity utilization were the primary means of dealing with the disruptions the COVID-19 pandemic brought about. These findings indicate effective utilization of sensing and seizing capabilities and engagement with opportunity recognition and discovery to capture opportunities and deal with the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. The results further suggest that the outbreak of COVID-19 triggered a fight-or-flight survival instinct among B2B SMEs due to unprecedented levels of market uncertainty. As such, the sensing capability of B2B SMEs allowed them to identify the market threats and opportunities and understand the prevailing market situation. Accordingly, B2B SMEs seized the identified threats and opportunities by reconfiguring their business models and face-to-face and online operations. The digital technologies facilitated the online presence and promoted communication with existing and new customers. Interesting implications emerge from these findings.

Fintech, base of the pyramid entrepreneurs and social value creation

Purpose>Fintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech, base of the pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurs and social value creation, particularly in the SSA context.Design/methodology/approach>The current paper uses a qualitative research design with open-ended, in-depth interviews as the main data sources. The authors interviewed respondents from the Sierra Leone Fintech Association and four BOP entrepreneurs operating in different sectors.Findings>The authors find that Fintech services, specifically mobile money, play a significant role in reducing uncertainty surrounding business operations. FinTech also offers growth possibilities for BOP entrepreneurs and creates social value by providing transactional security, convenience and reducing physical cash robberies. At the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing BOP entrepreneurs as well as consumers' skills development.Research limitations/implications>This study highlights the importance of context-specific theorization when analyzing the interlinkage between BOP entrepreneurship, social value creation and Fintech. For example, the possibility of safety from a street robbery may not appear to be part of social value creation by a technological development like Fintech. However, in a country like Sierra Leone, which has experienced both a civil war and Ebola outbreak, insecurity has been one of the biggest concerns expressed by BOP inhabitants. Hence, scholars need to incorporate contextual elements of risk, uncertainty and volatility while theorizing on Fintech's application in BOP contexts.Practical implications>A key managerial implication relates to micro-firm entrepreneurs and information specific benefits. Fintech offers entrepreneurs the possibility to be in regular contact with customers and evaluate their purchasing patterns as well as emergent needs. Fintech offers BOP entrepreneurs a possibility to further develop their technological skills as learning to use such apps can be used as a basis for further skills development. From a policy perspective, our study highlights the importance of regulating Fintech charges so that the affordability is increased, which is expected to result in significantly more BOP entrepreneurs using these services.Social implications>The authors find that at the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing skills development of BOP consumers who interact with case firms.Originality/value>This paper is one of the first studies that specifically focuses on BOP entrepreneurship and social value creation by Fintech services in an SSA context. It is also one of the few studies that incorporates views from both entrepreneurs and the country's Fintech association, rather than focusing solely on either entrepreneurs or Fintech firms. Finally, there is a specific focus on BOP entrepreneurs engaging in micro-entrepreneurship.

Reimagining global food value chains through effective resilience to COVID-19 shocks and similar future events: A dynamic capability perspective.

The restructuring of global value/supply chains gained increasing attention as the unprecedented COVID-19 echoed around the world. Yet, the COVID-19 related theory-driven, large scale quantitative, and empirical studies are relatively scarce. This study advances the extant literature by empirically investigating how do firms in the global food value chains (GFVCs) re-imagine their businesses structure in response to the COVID-19-becoming more resilient and competitive to the current pandemic and similar future events. We leverage a unique data of 231 senior managers of the Australian GFVCs and examine their firms' response strategies. Drawing upon key insights from the dynamic capability view, we find that GFVCs' competitiveness is achieved when exposure to COVID-19 shocks elicits dynamic capabilities-readiness, response, recovery-and these capabilities work jointly and sequentially to cultivate resilience. A key finding of this study is that firms with domestic plus global value chain partners are more resilient than those having only global business partners. This finding implies that excessive reliance on offshoring sometimes becomes lethal, especially amid unexpected and prolonged global shocks and, therefore, companies should strike a balance between domestic and global business partners to remain competitive. These findings offer important contributions to theory, practice, and UN sustainable development goals.

Impact of Body Mass Index on COVID-19-Related In-Hospital Outcomes and Mortality.

BACKGROUND: Given the high prevalence of obesity around the globe, patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are at an increased risk of devastating complications. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed to determine the association of basal metabolic index (body mass index (BMI)) with the need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), dialysis, upgrade to an intensive care unit (ICU) and mortality. Independent t-test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to calculate mean differences and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with its 95% confidence interval (CI), respectively. RESULTS: A total of 176 consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis were included. The mean age was 62.2 years, with 51% being male patients. The mean BMI for non-surviving patients was significantly higher compared to patients surviving on the seventh day of hospitalization (35 vs. 30 kg/m2, P = 0.022). Similarly, patients requiring IMV had a higher BMI (33 vs. 29, P = 0.002) compared to non-intubated patients. The unadjusted OR for patients with a higher BMI requiring IMV (56% vs. 28%, OR: 3.3, 95% CI: 1.6 - 7.0, P = 0.002) and upgrade to ICU (46% vs. 28%, OR; 2.2, 1.07 - 4.6, P = 0.04) were significantly higher compared to patients with a lower BMI. Similarly, patients with a higher BMI had higher in-hospital mortality (21% vs. 9%, OR: 3.2, 95% CI: 1.3 - 8.2, P = 0.01) compared to patients with a normal BMI. Despite a numerical advantage in the lower BMI group, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the need for dialysis (5% vs. 13%, OR: 3.8, 13% vs. 4%, 1.1 - 14.1, P = 0.07). aORs controlled for baseline comorbidities and medications mirrored the overall results, except for the need to upgrade to ICU. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with confirmed COVID-19, morbid obesity serves as an independent risk factor of high in-hospital mortality and the need for IMV.

Prosocial skills development in children and social value creation during COVID-19

Abstract Development of prosocial skills in children in their middle childhood and the role of computer games is analyzed in our case study based on an entrepreneurial venture (School of Gaming, Oulu). This venture was launched almost at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe. It has operated successfully during COVID-19, not only in Finland but also has expanded to Indonesia in this limited time period. It created social value by offering the children a possibility to be with their friends during the lockdown as well as develop skills like empathy, sharing, and trust. The case study further revealed that affordable pricing, the use of professional gaming instructors and adaptation played an important role in organizational success during this tough time period.