Analysis of the Professional Aspects of Medical Drugs Industry in the Republic of Serbia in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

The research subject of this paper is the analysis of the attitudes of employees in pharmaceutical companies towards the business aspects of the pharmaceutical industry during and after the end of the pandemic in the Republic of Serbia. The aim is to examine the differences in the attitudes of employees, as well as to determine which variables predict the situations of endangering the professional reputation of pharmaceutical companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted by means of a survey during 2021 on a sample of 27 innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies. We used the SPSS program for descriptive statistics analysis, chi square test and binary logistic regression models. The findings show that there is a statistically significant difference in the expressed attitudes of employees in innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies in terms of coming to the office during the pandemic;the lack of medicines and medical devices used in the treatment of COVID-19 infections;the patient access to a chosen doctor;the expectations of the employees to continue working from home after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the binary regression models show the slowdown in the supply chain, the access to doctors and working from the home office have not been perceived as creating situations of endangering professional reputations, that is, they contribute to the sustainable economic success. On the other hand, the introduction of digital technologies decreases the occurrence of conditions in which their professional reputation has been threatened.

Precursors and Outcomes of Perceived Value in Achieving Student Loyalty in Open Distance Electronic Learning Institutions

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in contact universities entering the distance learning market, creating new competition for Open Distance Electronic Learning (ODeL) institutions. To achieve sustainable competitive advantage, these institutions need to formulate sound strategies to attract and retain students. This study investigated the precursors and outcomes of perceived value in achieving student loyalty in ODeL institutions. A quantitative approach was employed to gather data using self-administered online questionnaires, with 1 430 responses. The partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used to test the proposed model. The results indicate that an ODeL institution's reputation and service quality positively influence student value, while the outcomes are trust, commitment, and student loyalty. However, institutional reputation was found to have more influence on student value than service quality, and commitment had more influence on loyalty than trust. While a number of studies have been conducted on the relationship between the variables/constructs, service quality and reputation as determinants of customer value and trust and commitment's influence on loyalty, they do not show the differences in the magnitude of each variable. This study showed that although all these factors correlate and positively influence one another, there are major differences in the magnitude of influence. It is thus recommended that ODeL institutions should formulate strategies aimed at enhancing institutional reputation, value, and student commitment in order to retain student loyalty. © International Network for Higher Education in Africa, University of Kwazulu-Natal. All rights reserved.

The Moderating Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from OECD Countries

This study aims to investigate the nature and intensity of the changes in corporate financial performance due to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures as a result of certain relationships between corporate governance and company performance in the non-financial sector. This study selected 625 non-financial companies across six organizations for economic cooperations (OECD) countries' stock markets for the period of 10 years (2012–2021). For this qualitative study, corporate governance, financial performance, and corporate social responsibility score data were collected from the DataStream, a reliable database for examining the research on OECD countries' listed companies. For the data analysis we applied various statistical tools such as regression analysis and moderation analysis. The findings of the study show that all attributes of the corporate governance mechanism, except for audit board attendance, have significant positive impacts on financial performance indicators for all the selected OECD economies except the country France. France's code of corporate governance has a significant negative impact on return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) due to differences in cultural and operational norms of the country. The audit board attendance has no significant impact on ROA. Moreover, all the attributes except board size (BSIZ) have significant positive impacts on the earnings per share (EPS) in Spain, The United Kingdom (UK) and Belgium. The values obtained from the moderation effect show that Corporate social responsibility is the key factor in motivating corporate governance practices which eventually improves corporate financial performance. However, this study advocated the implications, Investors and stakeholders should consider both corporate governance and CSR disclosures when making investment decisions. Companies that prioritize both governance and CSR tend to have better financial performance and are more likely to mitigate risks. Moreover, the policy makers can improve the code of corporate governance in order to attain sustainable development in the stock market.

The impact of risk-taking and auditor characteristics on value creation in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19 pandemic: MRN

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of risk-taking and auditor characteristics on value creation in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In addition, it investigates the moderator role of auditor characteristics in the impact of risk-taking on value creation, especially in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe information about 199 company in 2014–2021 was examined. In the present study, in accordance with the related theoretical literature and the importance of auditor specialization, auditor tenure and auditor reputation, these factors were considered as the auditor characteristics.FindingsThe present findings based on the generalized least squares (GLS) method showed that risk-taking positively affects the value creation. The auditor characteristics (auditor specialization, auditor tenure and auditor reputation) have a significant positive effect on the value creation. Furthermore, the auditor characteristics enhance the impact of risk-taking on value creation. The results of generalized method of moments method and robust regression analysis are consistent with the GLS results. To take into account the Covid-19 conditions, the data were divided into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 years. The results showed that auditor characteristics moderate the impact of risk-taking on value creation in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19.Originality/valueThe study highlights the role of auditor characteristics in the value creation, especially in the emerging market. Given that Covid-19 has seriously damaged global economic well-being and has put companies at a double risk, the present findings can be useful for managers, investors and the international community, and help company managers make risk-taking policies and select auditors with appropriate characteristics.

Corporate philanthropy and corporate social irresponsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from China

Purpose This study aims to investigate the perspective of corporate philanthropy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China for firms with various levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Specifically, the study appraises the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock returns and sustainable development of Chinese-listed companies and determines the likelihood of paying donations vis-a-vis firm reputation.Design/methodology/approach The study used data from 117 Chinese-listed firms engaged in philanthropy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also utilized the stock returns and cash donation data, and owing to the cross-sectional data and continuous nature of dependent variables, they employed the ordinary least squares regression to test the research hypotheses.Findings The results show that irresponsible actions have a positive relationship with donations. The study particularly reveals that irresponsible firms have significant negative abnormal returns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/value To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to explore the perspective of corporate philanthropy during the COVID-19 pandemic for companies with different CSR levels. This study contributes to the empirical research on CSR and provides insights for managerial-cum-financial decisions to encourage managers of irresponsible firms to pursue philanthropic behaviors after crisis events.

The use of Twitter as a strategic dialogue platform for IBEX35 companies during the pandemic

This paper analyses the communication carried out by IBEX35 companies in crisis situations in order to determine the mechanisms that try to favour dialogue between organisations and their stakeholders. The sample is made up of the tweets that include the word covid and that have been issued by the 27 IBEX 35 companies that had verified corporate profiles on the Twitter social platform during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Taking into consideration the dialogic principles established by Kent and Taylor (1998), which were adapted by Rybalko and Seltzer (2010) for Twitter, an adaptation was made to establish indicators to apply to the conversation established on the platform. To analyse the differences in interaction, the t-test for independent samples and the one-factor ANOVA were used. The results show that companies maintain an interest in engaging with their audiences but continue to deal with topics that are not of interest to users, which makes it difficult for a dialogue or conversation to take place between companies and stakeholders. The article shows that the resources most used by companies in crisis situations are the call to action and dialogue, either by asking their users questions or suggesting the desired interaction. While directly asking users for their opinions does not generate more dialogue, the results show that soliciting attitudes, such as commenting, sharing an image or liking an image, does increase interaction. This implies that there is low interest on the part of audiences to join a real conversation.

Using the Tobin Q model to evaluate the impact of credit risks on the bank's market value during the corona pandemic

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the impact of credit risk on the market values of private banks during the corona pandemic. Design/methodology/approachThis study is identifying critical issues of credit risk at six great private banks. A conceptual framework is designed based on the Tobin Q model for investigating study hypotheses. Quantitative financial analysis methods have been used for processing data, such as financial ratios, arithmetic mean and multiple linear regression. FindingsThe most important result of this study is the lack of influence of credit risk on the market value of selected banks. Because the dimensions of credit risk have critical importance in increasing or decreasing the market value, these banks must continue to adopt quantitative financial analysis to measure credit risks to avoid their risk. Originality/valueThis study elaborates the need for financial indicators to help assess the market value of banks during the economic crises caused by the closure of commercial institutions during the corona pandemic. There is continued increase in bank credit to support these institutions, borrowers and cash withdrawals, which may affect their market reputation.

Reputation management during a public health crisis: Overcompensating when all else fails

Although reactions to reputational threats have been studied before, there is still an opportunity to understand the dynamics of reputation management facing a crisis. This study seeks to understand how the legal-procedural, moral, performative, and technical dimensions of reputation change during the management of an extended crisis in a public health organization. We explore the communication of the Mexican Health Secretariat by analyzing its press conferences and releases before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on the situational crisis communication theory and considering public interest, we conducted two exploratory examinations based on text-as-data methods to capture reputation-related language. Our analysis suggests that factors influencing reputational threat, such as crisis severity, legitimacy, leaders' individual reputation, and coalition support, may be important for choosing between strategies. We argue that the Secretariat radically changed its reputation management strategy during the pandemic-they first stressed the technical and, as damage rose, the performative dimensions.

Dialect connectedness and tunneling: evidence from China

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effects of dialect connectedness between the chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO) (DCCC) on the tunneling activities of controlling shareholders.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses abnormal related-party transactions (ARPT) as a proxy for tunneling activities and traces dialects of chairmen and CEOs based on the respective birthplace information. Baseline results are examined using a fixed-effects model. The results remain robust when using the instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching (PSM) technique, changing the measurement of tunneling and Heckman two-step selection model.FindingsThe results show that DCCC reduces tunneling activities. This negative association is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and firms whose chairmen and CEOs work in the respective hometowns. DCCC restrains tunneling activities through mechanisms by establishing an informal supervisory effect on CEOs because the CEOs fear reputational damage and strengthening cooperation between chairmen and CEOs. Further analyses suggest that this negative association is more significant when chairmen and CEOs are non-controlling shareholders, but the association is weakened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.Originality/valueAs dialect is a carrier of culture, this study's results imply that cultural proximity can replace formal mechanisms to enhance corporate governance.

Reputation of Electric Vehicles in the Environment of Carbon Reduction and Accelerated Digitization

The accelerated digitization of the third decade of the twenty-first century poses a challenge both for science and for practice. The study presents partial results of continuous research on online reputation management of entities operating in the environment of low-carbon economy. The aim of the study is the application of a standardized methodology for calculating the Total level of Online Reputation (TOR) to determine the market position of selected Electric Vehicles (EVs) compared to the market position of conventional Vehicles with Internal Combustion Engines (ICEVs) in the online environment. The research sample consists of the ten best-selling Vehicles and the ten best-selling Electric Vehicles in the world by sales in the year 2021. Based on the measurement results and the subsequent analysis of the context, it can be concluded that the EV market shows the parameters of a developing market not only from the point of view of sales but also in terms of the overall level of Online Reputation as such. At the same time, it is possible to point out a high geographical specificity and significant disproportionality of the EV market compared to ICEVs. From the overall market perspective, the future of cars in the EV category is still unclear, as building trust in low-carbon products is limited by historical tradition. The main representatives of the EV industry thus represent the first forays of the onset of the low-carbon era in individual transport. The description of the issue will require the monitoring of status indicators over time. The results of the presented study can thus serve as a baseline and methodological framework for further research of the adoption of low-carbon policies in common practice.

Cause-related marketing in pandemic context—The effects of cause-brand fit and cause-brand alliance on customer-based legitimacy and reputation

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has represented an intense period of stress and anxiety for individuals, it has also been an opportunity for firms to engage in cause-related marketing initiatives as a means of providing support and helping them cope with this global pandemic. This study analyzes the influence of cause–brand fit and cause–brand alliance on customer-based legitimacy and reputation. This study also examines the mediating and moderating roles of trust and betrayal, respectively. Data were collected from 455 participants during the first wave of the pandemic, especially during the first lockdown. The results contribute to unveiling the economic and societal outcomes of cause-related marketing. The findings also enrich the antecedents of the legitimacy and reputation conferred by customers. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Responding to a societal crisis: How does corporate social responsibility engagement influence corporate reputation?

While both an "insurance” and "penance” effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been discussed within prior literature, it is unclear how a firm's CSR engagement in response to a societal crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic impacts its short-term and long-term corporate reputation. Drawing from case examples of firms' responses to the recent COVID-19 pandemic and from relevant aspects of crisis management theory, expectancy violations theory, and signaling theory, this paper presents a conceptual framework of corporate reputation change during and after a societal crisis that describes how the direction and speed of a firm's visible CSR engagement during a societal crisis can change its corporate reputation. Specifically, this paper suggests that firms who exceed stakeholder expectations with lower pre-crisis levels of visible CSR engagement have greater opportunities for increasing their short-term corporate reputations while firms with higher pre-crisis levels of visible CSR engagement are at greater risk for experiencing a decline in their short-term corporate reputations. These changes in short-term corporate reputations are expected to diminish over time, though this depends upon whether firms return to their pre-crisis levels of visible CSR engagement. Finally, building on the case examples and conceptual framework presented, this manuscript concludes with practical guidelines for managers of firms preparing to navigate future societal crises and provides an alternative pathway for both qualitative and quantitative inquiry that has the potential to illuminate important insights for both organizational studies and firms. © The Author(s) 2023.

Using sentiment analysis to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Italy's country reputation and stock market performance.

During the recent Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, the microblogging service Twitter has been widely used to share opinions and reactions to events. Italy was one of the first European countries to be severely affected by the outbreak and to establish lockdown and stay-at-home orders, potentially leading to country reputation damage. We resort to sentiment analysis to investigate changes in opinions about Italy reported on Twitter before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Using different lexicons-based methods, we find a breakpoint corresponding to the date of the first established case of COVID-19 in Italy that causes a relevant change in sentiment scores used as a proxy of the country's reputation. Next, we demonstrate that sentiment scores about Italy are associated with the values of the FTSE-MIB index, the Italian Stock Exchange main index, as they serve as early detection signals of changes in the values of FTSE-MIB. Lastly, we evaluate whether different machine learning classifiers were able to determine the polarity of tweets posted before and after the outbreak with a different level of accuracy.

Students' continuance intention to use MOOCs: empirical evidence from India.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in understanding the Massive open online courses (MOOCs) due to its gaining popularity. Even though the number of online platforms and programs has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a high rate of dropout and non-completion. In this work, the expectation-confirmation model is combined with MOOC features such as perceived openness, perceived reputation, and other factors i.e., perceived enjoyment, and perceived computer self-efficacy to investigate the learner's continued intention to use MOOC. A survey was undertaken and the data was collected from 383 students pursuing their degrees (undergraduate and post-graduate) in Karnataka state, India. The collected data were analyzed with structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 3. The study confirms a significant influence of confirmation and perceived usefulness on satisfaction, and direct significant influence of perceived computer self-efficacy, satisfaction, and perceived usefulness on continuance intention. Also, the results demonstrated the significant influence of confirmation on perceived enjoyment and usefulness and the effect of computer self-efficacy on usefulness. The findings in this study indicate that the MOOC platforms should focus on confirming learner expectations and the usefulness of courses to ensure student satisfaction and continuance of courses.

Corporate social responsibility and international students mobility in higher education

Purpose: Building upon the attribution and brand resonance theories, this paper aims to investigate the effects of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) in higher education institutions on brand reputation, trust, equity and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: The data for this study were collected from international students of one public and one private university in Malaysia. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling was applied to analyse the data. Findings: The findings revealed very strong effects of perceived CSR on brand reputation and trust. Moreover, the results determined the positive effects of brand reputation and trust on brand equity and loyalty. Additionally, findings support the positive indirect effects of perceived CSR on brand equity and loyalty through brand reputation and trust. Originality/value: This study provides unique theoretical and practical contributions which can inform countries how to attract international students, particularly in post COVID-19 era. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Comparing media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry: pre- and post-pandemic lockdown

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry before and after the COVID-19 lockdown to determine whether the coverage changed in light of a global health-care crisis and the fast-track development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.Design/methodology/approachThe top five US newspapers were audited, comparing the 12-month periods before and after March 2020 coinciding with the pandemic lockdown, yielding 493 front-page articles and editorials. Each headline and full-text article was separately analyzed and categorized as either positive, negative or neutral toward the pharmaceutical industry. A frequency analysis of the hot button issues covered in each article was conducted.FindingsYear 1 and Year 2 audit results were compared to identify changes in media coverage pre- and post-lockdown. The amount of coverage of the industry increased 145% and the tone of both headlines and articles shifted dramatically. Only one of the five newspapers had a net positive article rating of the industry pre-lockdown, four of five were net positive post-lockdown. The proportion of positive headlines increased 165%. The top issues discussed in the coverage shifted from persistent challenges for the industry (e.g. opioid crisis, high cost of drugs) to the emergence of the virus and status of vaccine development.Originality/valueThis research establishes how media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry changed as the industry responded to a global health-care crisis and identifies implications for industry stakeholders.

CHINA'S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM: DYSTOPIA OR PUBLIC WELFARE FACTOR

This article analyses China's social credit system, a digital sociotechnical phenomenon that assesses the reliability of people, companies, public organizations, and government institutions through reward-punishment mechanisms. It is aimed to encourage more honest and law-abiding behaviour to improve trust and quality of life in Chinese society. The article examines the evolution of social scoring systems in China in historical retrospect, beginning with the archival systems of the Han Dynasty and ending with the immediate predecessor of social credit, the so-called 'morality files.' The article describes the draft of the social credit system adopted in 2014 and its goals. It is shown that the Chinese government views the system as one of the main solutions to society's social problems. It is proved that the social credit system is also an effective regulatory measure, especially in emergency situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis considers the system as a category of social stratification and as a factor in exacerbating inequality, since people with higher levels of education and higher status tend to change their behaviour significantly in response to initiatives of the social credit system. It is concluded that this mechanism allows the state, through positive reinforcement based on indirect incentives, to manipulate citizens to act unconsciously in favour of an established social ideal. It is shown that despite the negative assessment of the Chinese social credit system by researchers as violating the democratic principles and rights of citizens, the system is supported by a large part of the PRC population, which has abandoned privacy in favour of public safety. However, the reasons for the popularity of social credit systems in China, along with cultural and historical preconditions, are censorship and state propaganda. © 2022 National Research University Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.

A data sharing method for remote medical system based on federated distillation learning and consortium blockchain

With the development of Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) technology and the global COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals gain access to patients' health data from remote wearable medical equipment. Federated learning (FL) addresses the difficulty of sharing data in remote medical systems. However, some key issues and challenges persist, such as heterogeneous health data stored in hospitals, which leads to high communication cost and low model accuracy. There are many approaches of federated distillation (FD) methods used to solve these problems, but FD is very vulnerable to poisoning attacks and requires a centralised server for aggregation, which is prone to single-node failure. To tackle this issue, we combine FD and blockchain to solve data sharing in remote medical system called FedRMD. FedRMD use reputation incentive to defend against poisoning attacks and store reputation values and soft labels of FD in Hyperledger Fabric. Experimenting on COVID-19 radiography and COVID-Chestxray datasets shows our method can reduce communication cost, and the performance is higher than FedAvg, FedDF, and FedGen. In addition, the reputation incentive can reduce the impact of poisoning attacks. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Role of Gender in Moderating the Effect of Teachers Empathy, Reputation and System Quality on Student Satisfaction Online Learning Program

Over the past few years, technology adoption in education has increased significantly. Most universities like to invest in modern forms of learning, therefore it can be seen for the rapid growth of e-learning. This study aims to determine a comprehensive model in determining online learning student satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic with the role of gender as moderation. The sample in this study was 239 Binus Online Learning students. The data analysis technique in this study used a structural equation model (Structural Equation Modeling, SEM) with SmartPLS 3 software. The results of this study found that instructor empathy, higher education reputation, and system quality had a significant influence on student satisfaction, especially in the context of online learning on Binus Online Learning which simply used high technology to support the Learning Management System. Gender has no role in moderating exogenous to endogenous constructs in this research model, so it can be said that the technology used in Binus Online Learning has high student satisfaction because the system is good enough to carry out online learning. © 2022 IEEE.

Resource-based view and sustainable advantage: A framework for smes

As firms struggle to regroup their business efforts after Covid-19, significant focus turns to strategically using their resources to competitively outmanoeuvre their rivals through utilizing their human capital, social capital, and brand reputations in their performance. This research scrutinizes the relationship between the intangible resources of human resources practices, brand reputation and sustainable competitive advantage of SMEs through the lens of the RBV as a tool for strategic marketing management - an underexplored area in marketing research - using SEM model. The analysis of primary data collected from 128 SMEs operating in Lebanon reveals the existence of a positive impact of social capital on competitive advantage and shows that competent human capital has a positive impact on both competitive advantage and reputation of Lebanese SMEs. In addition, findings indicate that reputation leads to enhancing both competitive advantage and performance. Finally, the results show that the competitive advantage has a positive impact on SMEs performance during uncertain periods. These findings provide valuable insights into RBV, supporting the belief that human and social capital resources are key success factors for SMEs during uncertain periods, which can be of great significance for strategic marketing managers to help them strengthen the position of their SMEs in emerging markets during difficult times. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)