The Impact of Consumer Purchase Behavior Changes on the Business Model Design of Consumer Services Companies Over the Course of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound psychological and behavioral impact on people around the world. Consumer purchase behaviors have thus changed greatly, and consumer services companies need to adjust their business models to adapt to this change. From the perspective of consumer psychology, this paper explores the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes over the course of the pandemic on the business model design of consumer services companies using a representative survey of 1,742 individuals. Our results show that changes in consumer purchase behavior have a significant impact on the design of consumer services firms' business models. Specifically, changes in consumers' purchase object, motive, and timeframe are more likely to spark a novelty-centered business model design, whereas changes in purchase method tend to inspire an efficiency-centered one. Our findings provide a theoretical reference for consumer services companies in designing business models when faced with unexpected crises.

Global low-carbon energy transition in the post-COVID-19 era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for energy transition. Concerns about the overwhelming emphasis on economic recovery at the cost of energy transition progress have been raised worldwide. More voices are calling for "green" recovery scheme, which recovers the economy while not compromising on the environment. However, limited academic attention has been paid to comprehensively investigating the implications of COVID-19 for global energy transition. This study thus provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics between energy transition and COVID-19 around the world and proposes a low-carbon energy transition roadmap in the post-pandemic era. Using energy data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), we first summarized and reviewed the progress of energy transition prior to COVID-19. Building on prior progress, we identified the challenges for energy transition during the pandemic from the perspectives of government support, fossil fuel divestment, renewable energy production capacity, global supply chain, and energy poverty. However, the pandemic also generates opportunities for global energy transition. We hence also identified potential opportunities for energy transition presented by the pandemic from the perspectives of price competitiveness, policy implementation efficiency, and renewable energy strengths. We further provided an in-depth discussion on the impact of current worldwide economic recovery stimulus on energy transition. Based on the identified challenges and opportunities, we proposed the post-pandemic energy transition roadmap in terms of broadening green financing instruments, strengthening international cooperation, and enhancing green recovery plans. Our study sheds light on a global low-carbon energy transition framework and has practical implications for green recovery schemes in post-pandemic times.

The impact of investor attention during COVID-19 on investment in clean energy versus fossil fuel firms.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant negative impacts on financial markets, including energy stock markets. However, recently proposed and implemented green recovery plans may mean that clean energy firms demonstrate better performance than fossil fuel firms after the pandemic. As more voices call for the update of clean energy, theory on investor attention suggests investors will pay more attention to the potential to invest in clean energy stocks. Using a sample period of eight weeks before and during the pandemic, we find that the negative impact of the outbreak on both clean energy and fossil fuel firms is more significant for fossil fuel firms. Our results further show that during the pandemic there have been improved returns for clean energy firms as a consequence of investor attention, but not for fossil fuel firms. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the advantages of green recovery schemes in influencing financial markets, especially for clean energy stocks. These results suggest there are benefits for further promotion and implementation of green recovery stimulus measures post-pandemic.