Pacific approaches to fundraising in the digital age: COVID-19, resilience and community relational economic practices

The aim of this paper is to discuss how community relational economic practices in virtual spaces are effective in building resilience because they are borne of and sustained by familiar traditional Fijian values of collective work and social interdependence. The researchers adopted a pandemic-induced methodology, conducting online-based talanoa (fluid conversations between two or more people) with a number of people leading, or involved in, these initiatives. We also engaged with online community groups behind a number of initiatives. Examples are provided of online crowdfunding, livestreaming of concerts to solicit donations, and bartering facilitated by social media sites. To conclude, we stress the enduring nature of communal bonds and traditional systems which Pacific people readily adapt and translate into different forums and forms in the face of challenges such as the restrictions and financial hardships caused by COVID-19. The findings highlight that solesolevaki – a tradition of working together for a common cause – can also occur in the digital era: this demonstrates the deep connection of Fijian peoples and their sense of obligation to one another and to their culture, regardless of where they are in the world. © 2023 The Authors. Asia Pacific Viewpoint published by Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

RESILIENCE, PEOPLE AND INFORMATION, A TRIANGLE TO BUILD SUSTAINABILITY

Digital revolutions and developments have been changing the way we work, socialize and experience the world. In our complex reality dynamic changes occur with an increasing frequency, where the role of IT is obvious. The COVID pandemic highlighted this development even more and made us realize that the old ways of working are no longer valid. In this conceptual paper we sketch different scientific views to offer practical solutions to deal with challenges. We focus on dynamic developments on concepts from ecology and economics, identify some traps and link the insights to management, leadership, teams and the requirements for a successful cooperation. Our goal is to identify the most crucial elements of sustainability: resilience, people and information, offer organizations developing solutions using the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience and help the reader to develop understanding social responsibility towards resilience and sustainability. © Proceedings of the 2021 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research.

Innovating Management and Leadership in Contemporary Times: Motivation and Evaluation in Learning

The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in how we live, work, and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technological advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. Each of them was followed by fundamental changes in everyday lives. Such events require a switch in mindsets. Understandably, in contemporary reality, society and educational institutions broadly recognize the need for continuous, life-long learning and prepare to deal with unexpected events. Knowledge exchange and cooperation play a crucial role in the development of new solutions for unforeseen challenges. Research has proven cooperative learning to be more efficient than traditional knowledge transfer from teacher to students. Such changes in education are not easy. For example, the imposed change to online learning due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic partially obstructed the necessary development towards it. Practice showed that both motivation and evaluation play an essential role in overcoming the barriers to introducing cooperative and online learning concepts. In line with that, we developed new mechanisms to fine-tune the evaluation process for more efficient learning. Furthermore, the pandemic showed that the assumption "context is leading" is just as important as a course's content and internal organization. In cooperative learning, evaluation should focus on helping teachers understand the level to which stakeholders reach learning objectives and improve our insights in the learning process itself. In this sense, the pandemic led to an innovation stimulus for our education in management and leadership. However, in a changing context, old habits may relapse to old patterns and block the efforts to innovate and introduce cooperative education. In the conceptual paper, we search to find the motivational factors for improving adaptivity and avoiding falling back, using the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience model. We will work out our experiences to deal with this threat, stimulate stakeholders in taking an active stance in the learning process.

Entrepreneurial resilience and business continuity in the tourism and hospitality industry: the role of adaptive performance and institutional orientation

Purpose - This study aims to explore the dynamics of resilience in tourism and hospitality enterprises by investigating the influence of internal and external contextual factors (i.e. adaptive performance and institutional orientation) on the relationship between entrepreneurs' resilience and business continuity indicators (i.e. perception of career insecurity and business exit intention). Design/methodology/approach - In the Covid-19 pandemic context, quantitative data were collected using self-administrated questionnaires from entrepreneurs (founders of small-sized restaurants and travel agents in Egypt) using structural equation modeling. Findings - The study reveals that entrepreneurs' resilience under adversities directly correlates with business continuity indicators, with adaptive performance and institutional orientation functioning as mediators. Research limitations/implications - The socio-demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs could be further investigated to observe the differences based on age, education and region. The type of business (i.e. restaurants and travel agents) could have an impact on the examined relationships. Therefore, further studies can use multi-group analysis to examine such differences between various sub-sectors of the hospitality business. Finally, the cross-sectional sample method used in this study is another limitation. In any study in which causality is inferred, longitudinal research confirms stronger inferences (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Practical implications - An instant implication is that entrepreneurs can take proactive actions to enhance their resilience. Entrepreneurs should seek to influence their own skills and abilities through various educational and training programs. For example, they can take advantage of business seminars, workshops and executive education courses. Entrepreneurs who have the chance of enhancing their skills in solving complex problems, identifying their strengths, managing their emotions are better able to adapt to unfavorable circumstances. Social implications - The inhabited environment. Entrepreneurs should be institutionally oriented by building strong communications and networks with key actors and business-to-business customers. This would help entrepreneurs to understand the rules of the game, adapt to the environment, gain market legitimacy and accordingly acquire the social and financial support when hazards occur. Originality/value - The extant literature lacks evidence about the internal and external contextual factors underlying the process of resilience in small and medium-sized enterprises and its outcomes. Research on entrepreneurship has rarely discussed the antecedents of business withdrawal. This study contributes to addressing this research gap.

Agile and adaptive governance in crisis response: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries around the world have had to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak with limited information and confronting many uncertainties. Their ability to be agile and adaptive has been stressed, particularly in regard to the timing of policy measures, the level of decision centralization, the autonomy of decisions and the balance between change and stability. In this contribution we use our observations of responses to COVID-19 to reflect on agility and adaptive governance and provide tools to evaluate it after the dust has settled. Whereas agility relates mainly to the speed of response within given structures, adaptivity implies system-level changes throughout government. Existing institutional structures and tools can enable adaptivity and agility, which can be complimentary approaches. However, agility sometimes conflicts with adaptability. Our analysis points to the paradoxical nature of adaptive governance. Indeed, successful adaptive governance calls for both decision speed and sound analysis, for both centralized and decentralized decision-making, for both innovation and bureaucracy, and both science and politics.