"I Won't Go Speechless": Design Exploration on a Real-Time Text-To-Speech Speaking Tool for Videoconferencing

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted many business activities to non-face-to-face activities, and videoconferencing has become a new paradigm. However, conference spaces isolated from surrounding interferences are not always readily available. People frequently participate in public places with unexpected crowds or acquaintances, such as cafés, living rooms, and shared offices. These environments have surrounding limitations that potentially cause challenges in speaking up during videoconferencing. To alleviate these issues and support the users in speaking-restrained spatial contexts, we propose a text-to-speech (TTS) speaking tool as a new speaking method to support active videoconferencing participation. We derived the possibility of a TTS speaking tool and investigated the empirical challenges and user expectations of a TTS speaking tool using a technology probe and participatory design methodology. Based on our findings, we discuss the need for a TTS speaking tool and suggest design considerations for its application in videoconferencing. © 2023 ACM.

Dynamics of Change at Work and Reactions of Coworking Spaces in the Aftermath of the Pandemic: Notes on Portugal

New workspaces, such as coworking spaces (CSs), have had exponential growth in Portugal in recent years, both in number and variety. Lockdowns and other restrictive measures on mobility, employment and business activity during the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly impacted all sectors, albeit differently. This chapter summarises the central events related to the pandemic crisis in Portugal, reflecting on the impacts observed and highlighting the main legislative measures adopted by the government and the subsequent increasing expressiveness of telework. Therefore, in addition to the gradual transformation of work, CSs have gained a growing space in the media and on the political agenda. Based on ongoing research, this article aims to provide a brief overview of the pandemic effects on Portuguese coworking reality and related issues, pointing out insights for the future. © 2023, The Author(s).

New ITU-T Study Group 5 Structure and Deliberations

The NTT Group is participating in the international standardization activities in the International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Study Group (SG) 5 to protect telecommunication facilities from electromagnetic interference and lightning surges, assess the impact of information and communication technologies on climate change, address the issue of a circular economy that enables sustainable development, and contribute to improving the reliability of telecommunication services and reducing the environmental impact of its business activities. In this article, we introduce the study structure of ITU-T SG5 for the new study period (2022–2024), which has finally started due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the latest discussion trends at the first meeting held in June 2022. © 2022 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.. All rights reserved.

An Assessment of Corporate Zakat Payment During Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aims to assess corporate zakat payment during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period. This is intriguing due to the fact that Covid-19 caused lockdown, recession, and financial crisis that could affect the company. Unlike business activities and performance which are significantly affected by locked down policies due to the Covid 19 Pandemic charitable activities including Corporate Zakat exhibit a more positive resilient response to continuously support those in need and affected by covid 19 during the pandemic period. This study employs a qualitative method based on the data provided. The outcome indicates that Covid-19 pandemic period had no impact on corporate zakat payment, as some businesses continued to pay zakat during the pandemic. This demonstrates that Covid-19 had no direct impact on zakat payments made by corporations. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

COVID-19's impacts on business activities and female workers: Empirical evidence from global developing economies.

This paper empirically examines the economic impacts of COVID-19 on firms' business activities and female workers in 10 developing economies around the world. Based on a survey conducted by the World Bank, we constructed a firm-level panel dataset and investigated how firms' production and finances have developed during COVID-19. We also investigated female workers' employment situations and how they were affected by firm performance. COVID-19 indeed casted seriously adverse impacts in the developing world. As time passes, firms' production has been recovering, but their finances are worsening, and the female workers are facing worse situations in forms of higher probabilities of losing jobs and getting furloughed. Other variables such as workforce, capacity utilisation, and exports also play important roles in this process.

Understanding Consumers' Purchasing Intention of Fresh Food through Social Media

Many things have gone online with the modern technology. Similarly, business activities nowadays tend to be conducted online rather than in person. In this day and age, purchasing fresh food such as raw meat via social media is no longer impossible. Furthermore, the Covid-19 Pandemic has served as a catalyst for the growth of online commerce. The objective of this research is to investigate the factors of influencing the consumers' purchase intention of fresh food through social media. In addition, this research consists of five independent variables which are attitude, perceived behavioural control, perceived consumer effectiveness, product knowledge, and subjective norm. A set of self-administered questionnaires has been distributed to 215 targeted respondents. The collected data were keyed into SPSS and further analysed by using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM 4). Our result revealed that product knowledge and subjective norm have significant relationship towards consumers' purchase intention of fresh food via social media. This research will benefit consumers who have intentions to purchase raw ingredients via online platform especially through social media platform. Furthermore, fresh food sellers also can benefit with this research by understanding the concerns and needs of their potential customers. © 2022 IEEE.

E-Commerce Policy and International Business.

The rise of digitization and information and communication technologies (ICT) is playing a vital role in facilitating global trade and business activities and in overcoming cross-border transaction costs. In so doing, it offers firms significant benefits and opportunities to compete on a global scale, as witnessed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The growth and widespread diffusion of internet-enabled technologies and platforms have created numerous opportunities for firms to provide products and services across both developed and developing markets. Yet, limited research has been conducted in the international business domain to explore the rise of ecommerce and its implications for international business scholarship. In this focused issue, we present an examination of the role played by e-commerce in international business, paying particular attention to the policy aspect of e-commerce and issuing a call for a greater integration of e-commerce policy in international business research.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Consumer Purchase Behaviour on the Automotive Industry

The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced countries to lock borders to prevent the spread of infection. It broadly affects numerous industries and economies globally termed 'Coronanomics.' Subsequently, many corporate performances have suffered during this time, leading to dramatic changes in business activities and consumer behaviour. The pandemic outbreak has disrupted and challenged many industries. Hence, this study explores how the pandemic affected in automotive industry and factors influencing consumers' purchasing intention. Discuss the major aspects that motivate vehicle purchase after the pandemic outbreak and how the pandemic's negative effect partially reduced vehicle purchases' propensity and factors that could potentially affect the new car purchase decision. This project methodology adopted the CRISP-DM framework using power BI for data visualisation and R programming in implementation. This project focused on comparing traditional machine learning algorithms: Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Neural Network (NeuralNet, NNet), and deep learning algorithms: Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) to predict how likely it a customer will purchase a vehicle after the pandemic. Establish the models using a confusion matrix, and evaluate the accuracy rate and low misclassification rate. The most suitable algorithm with a higher accuracy rate and lower error rate will be chosen in the final model comparison and evaluation section. Furthermore, the NeuralNet model, with its accuracy of 99.97%, is the best fit model to predict vehicle purchase intention. © 2022 IEEE.

Literature Study on Online Learning as an Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic in Education

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in restrictions and even closures of business, administrative, entertainment and educational activities. In order for these activities to continue, their activities are diverted by utilizing technology. In the field of education, the learning process is transferred to an online learning system or also known as the Online system (In the Network). The purpose of this study is to examine the problems faced in the online learning process and find the causes of these problems. This study also examines the extent to which information technology plays a role in assisting the learning process. The method used in this research is descriptive analytic. The author conducts a study of research results that have been published in various national and international journals. The results in this study are recommendations on how to apply technology appropriately in online learning to further optimize results and avoid the negative impact of disproportionate use of technology. © 2021 IEEE.

The Adoption of E-Commerce by Businesses in Bahrain During Covid-19

E-commerce plays an important and prominent role in the modern era, especially with the continued emergence of new technologies, which opened new horizons for entrepreneurs and business owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to pursue business growth. Currently, SMEs are no longer limited to practicing their business activities locally but internationally. Digitalization has a vital role in elevating the state of competitiveness between firms, which prompts many SMEs to acquire technologies that facilitate the business transition to e-commerce considering gaining a competitive advantage over their rivals and maintaining relevance in their field. This research will further explore the different challenges SMEs faced in Bahrain during the Covid-19 period and analyze the various obstacles faced during e-commerce adaptation. The analysis considers three main categories: organizational Readiness, environmental Readiness, and technological Readiness. This study aims to demonstrate SMEs' willingness to transition their business activities to e-commerce after the devastating repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was designed and shared with 110 employees working at SMEs, and 100 responses were received and selected to be the research sample size. The research revealed that SMEs in Bahrain faced many obstacles to transform into e-commerce businesses during the pandemic and among the challenges were the financial cost of such transformation. The study provided further recommendations for future studies. © 2022 IEEE.

Reopen Offline Business during a Pandemic? Characterization of Health Certificate Exchange for Human Movement Management

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly restricted the regular offline business activities. Nevertheless, as certain offline business activities are still indispensable, to conduct offline business under pandemic control becomes a valuable research question. This paper addressed this problem by studying business movement management based on health certificate exchange. We first observed three patterns of health certificate exchange multiplicity that serve as a basis for business movement management. Then, we reviewed published literature along two orthogonal directions, health certificates and exchange systems. We studied different health certificates published during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify the categories of health certificates and their characteristics. Meanwhile, we further studied different design paradigms and characteristics of health certificate exchange systems. Last, we mapped our findings on health certificate exchange into the four challenges of movement management systems in a pandemic, namely flexible controllability, scalable accessibility, adaptive reusability, and spatiotemporal traceability, and conceptualized how such the requirements should be achieved and a complete system should operate. © 2021 IEEE.

Applications of Industry 4.0 during COVID-19 Situation for Thailand's Logistics System in Customer Satisfaction Context

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected business activities in many industries that can be disrupted by customer behavior. Logistics system plays the major role for response customer satisfaction. This research aims to develop logistics system in customer satisfaction context during COVID-19 situation in Thailand using Industry 4.0 principles. This paper presents the overview of Industry 4.0 and logistics system, the evaluation of customer satisfaction in logistics system during COVID-19 situation, and the applications of Industry 4.0 for logistics system in customer satisfaction context during COVID-19 situation. This study is conducted using focus group and interview with managers from large logistics service providers in Thailand. Results indicate that the use of Industry 4.0 technologies and the development of employees' skills are the potential solutions for reducing the effects of COVID-19 in logistics system. IoT, Cloud, and Big Data support all of customer satisfaction factors. It is also found that the use of appropriate Industry 4.0 technologies and the improvement of the logistics system are the critical aspects for enhancing business competitiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 IEEE.