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This cross-sectional study investigates the online education intention of undergraduate students in the largest and oldest public university in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under convenient sampling, 843 undergraduate students with rural and urban backgrounds participated in an online self-administered questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine the hypothesized relationships. We found that students' online class intention is significantly influenced by their attitude towards online classes (AOC), perceived usefulness (PU), and facilitating conditions (FC). We further identified that external antecedents have significant indirect effects on the outcome variables. Our findings provide new insights and contribute to a learners' community on online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to depict the factors influencing undergraduate students' intention to attend online classes (IOC) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Purpose>This paper aims to deliberate the significant impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also discusses SMEs’ practical approaches to capitalise on the renewed opportunity in the new normal by expanding their businesses regionally and globally. This paper also discusses the tactical and strategic interventions SMEs need to take to charge forward.Design/methodology/approach>The resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991) is used to explain how SMEs develop a sustainable competitive advantage in the new normal. The resource-based view focuses on the link between strategy and firm internal resources. Drawing from the resource-based view of the firm, internal analysis of the resources that are regarded as sources of competitive advantage controlled by the SMEs is imperative in today’s business environment. Based on the resource-based view theory, this paper focuses on reinventing SME’s strategies in the new normal to foster sustainability.Findings>Post-COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs must essentially be dynamic, forward-looking and transformational in capturing the regional and global markets’ opportunities. They need to sharpen their internal competencies and realign their effective business strategy in seizing the vast opportunities in the international markets.Practical implications>How SMEs respond to COVID-19 has important implications for subsequent performance in the new normal. This study focuses on the different potential SMEs’ reactions to COVID-19 and how their strategy affects SMEs performance and fosters sustainability in the new normal.Social implications>The sustainability of SMEs is critical for the nation’s socio-economy. This study offers a holistic view of how SMEs respond to their challenges and help them choose the right business options.Originality/value>This paper’s contents are solidly based on accumulated evidence, observation and critical arguments on the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that caused numerous challenges faced by the SMEs, with a specific focus on SMEs operating in Malaysia.
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Purpose>The digital transformation towards Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has become imperative for manufacturers, as it makes them more flexible, agile and responsive to customers. This study aims to identify the factors influencing the manufacturing firms’ decision to adopt I4.0 and develop a triadic conceptual model that explains this phenomenon.Design/methodology/approach>This study used a qualitative exploratory study design based on multiple case studies (n = 15) from the manufacturing industry in Malaysia by conducting face-to-face interviews. The data were analysed using NVivo. The conceptual model was developed based on grounded theory and deductive thematic analysis.Findings>Results demonstrate that driving, facilitating and impeding factors play influential roles in a firms’ decision-making to adopt I4.0. The major driving factors identified are expected benefits, market opportunities, labour problem, customer requirements, competition and quality image. Furthermore, resources, skills and support are identified as facilitating factors and getting the right people, lack of funding, lack of knowledge, technical challenges, training the operators and changing the mindset of operators to accept new digital technologies are identified as impeding factors.Research limitations/implications>Due to its qualitative design and limited sample size, the findings of this study need to be supplemented by quantitative studies for enhanced generalizability of the proposed model.Practical implications>Knowledge of the I4.0 decision factors identified would help manufacturers in their decision to invest in I4.0, as they can be applied to balancing advantages and disadvantages, understanding benefits, identifying required skills and support and which challenges to expect. For policymakers, our findings identify important aspects of the ecosystem in need of improvement and how manufacturers can be motivated to adopt I4.0.Originality/value>This study lays the theoretical groundwork for an alternative approach for conceptualizing I4.0 adoption beyond UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology). Integrating positive and negative factors enriches the understanding of decision-making factors for I4.0 adoption.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of students to stay indoors and adapt to the new normal, namely distance learning at home, placing online learning in the spotlight. However, students’ motivation for online learning and its effectiveness in skill development during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been widely studied. This study examined the relationship between students’ fear of COVID-19 and students’ social presence in online learning while investigating the parallel mediating role of student psychological motivation and cognitive problem-solving skills related to online learning. The participants were 472 university students in Malaysia and Pakistan. An online data collection technique using Google Forms was employed. Faculty members of the universities were asked to share the survey with their students. Moreover, using a snowball sampling technique, students were requested to share the survey with their friends. SPSS Statistics (Version 21) was employed to do preliminary data analysis, AMOS (Version 21) software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis using a maximum likelihood estimation, and Hayes’ PROCESS model was used to examine proposed hypotheses. The results show that only cognitive problem solving mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students’ social presence in online learning in Malaysian samples. In Pakistan, cognitive problem solving and psychological motivation mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students’ social presence in online learning. The study found that developing cognitive problem-solving skills and providing psychological motivation could enhance their engagement with online learning.
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PurposeThe study's objective is to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) social media news (SMN) on work boredom (WB) and task performance (TP). The study proposes that psychological well-being (PWB) and depression mediate the relationship between COVID-19 SMN, WB and TP.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this research was collected from white-collar employees of two Asian countries, Pakistan (study 1, n = 167) and Malaysia (study 2, n = 118), was collected using an online survey during strict movement control order (MCO), work from home, at the beginning of the year 2020.FindingsIn both studies, the PWB of employees mediated the relationship between COVID-19 SMN and their WB. On the other hand, depression only mediated the relationship between COVID-19 SMN and WB in Pakistan. PWB only mediated the relationship between COVID-19 SMN and TP in study 2. Depression only mediated the relationship between COVID-19 SMN and TP in study 1.Research limitations/implicationsA couple of limitations worth noting are that the study adopted a cross-sectional approach. Thus, the sample size is not large in both counties. Because of the outbreak, limited employees agree to be part of an online survey. The scope of the study also restricts the authors to collect data during MCO, when employees were forced to work from home. In Pakistan, MCO began on 20th March and ended on 30th April, while in Malaysia, MCO started on 18th March and ended on 12th May. This also limits the study's claim of generalizability.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of the study is to guide practitioners of both Pakistan and Malaysia in developing strategies that help them understand that employees having PWB look for growth and challenging opportunities even during pandemic situations;employers can leverage it to deal with external threats like COVID-19 because improving the PWB can improve TP and reduce WB. The interesting results highlighted the fact that high TP not necessarily means everything is fine with employees, when the uncertainty level is high, employees may be performing well due to fear and depression instead of work motivation. Thus, employers should be more vigilant during a pandemic situation. This study also helps policymakers understand that the overall economic situation affects the individual employee’s state of mind and work behavior.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to scare literature on COVID-19 and SMN and illustrates employees' work behavior when forced to work from home during the MCO.