Diagnosing the Impact of Digital Resources and Remote Leadership on Telework Productivity

COVID-19 causes remote work from home arrangements to be implemented for limiting the spread of diseases. This article is interested to diagnose the impact of digital resources availability and remote leadership on work productivity. For examining the developed hypothesizes, this article has conducted a survey based study which involved 2,082 lecturers, teachers, and administration staffs from an Indonesian educational institute. The results reveal that digital resources and remote leadership have a significant positive impact on telework productivity. For keeping employees productive in telework arrangements, organizations should pay attention simultaneously on the availability of digital resources at employees' homes as well as increasing remote leadership capability of the supervisors. © 2022 IEEE.

Resources availability and COVID-19 mortality among US counties.

The COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO on 03/2020 has claimed millions of lives worldwide. The US leads all countries in COVID-19-related deaths. Individual level (preexisting conditions and demographics) and county-level (availability of resources) factors have been attributed to increased risk of COVID-19-related deaths. This study builds on previous studies to assess the relationship between county-level resources and COVID-19 mortality among 2,438 US counties. We merged 2019 data from AHA, AHRF, and USA FACTS. The dependent variable was the total number of COVID-19-related deaths. Independent variables included county-level resources: (1) hospital staffing levels (FTE RNs, hospitalists, and intensivists) per 10,000 population; (2) hospital capacity (occupancy rate, proportion of teaching hospitals, and number of airborne infection control rooms per 10,000 population); and (3) macroeconomic resources [per capita income and location (urban/rural)]. We controlled for population 65+, racial/ethnic minority, and COVID-19 deaths per 1,000 population. A negative binomial regression was used. Hospital staffing per 10,000 population {FTE RN [IRR = 0.997; CI (0.995-0.999)], FTE hospitalists [IRR = 0.936; CI (0.897-0.978)], and FTE intensivists [IRR = 0.606; CI (0.516-0.712)]} was associated with lower COVID-19-related deaths. Hospital occupancy rate, proportion of teaching hospitals, and total number of airborne infection control rooms per 10,000 population were positively associated with COVID-19-related deaths. Per capita income and being in an urban county were positively associated with COVID-19-related deaths. Finally, the proportion of 65+, racial/ethnic minorities, and the number of cases were positively associated with COVID-19-related deaths. Our findings suggest that focusing on maintaining adequate hospital staffing could improve COVID-19 mortality.

Fostering firm resilience through organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability: amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose>This study aims to study the impact of organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability on firm resilience along with perceived environmental uncertainty playing a moderating role. This study also intends to investigate the interplaying relationship between exploration capability and exploitation capability as components of organizational ambidexterity with resource availability.Design/methodology/approach>Quantitative data was collected through self-administered surveys targeting 202 firms in Egypt. SEM (AMOS-SPSS) was used to test the proposed hypotheses.Findings>The results indicated that both organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability impact firm resilience. Moreover, the relationship between the enablers was found to be significant, where resource availability has a positive impact on the firm's exploitation capability, the firm's exploitation capability has a positive impact on its exploration capability and finally, the firm's exploration capability has a positive impact on resource availability. However, the moderating role of perceived environmental uncertainty was found to be insignificant.Research limitations/implications>Nonprobability convenience sampling technique, cross-sectional design and the relatively small sample size may hinder the ability to generalize this study.Practical implications>This study identifies the importance of exploration (innovation) and exploitation (efficiency) capabilities for managers to build responsive organizations.Originality/value>This study contributes to the understanding of firm resilience in times of uncertainties, where empirical research has not been enough. In addition, this study contributes to the identification of possible antecedents of firm resilience, highlighting the importance of certain strategic features including organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability. This study also investigates the relationship between exploitation capabilities, exploration capabilities and resource availability, which was not empirically tested in the literature.

Analysing Urban Tourism Accessibility Using Real-Time Travel Data: A Case Study in Nanjing, China

This study aimed to evaluate the spatial accessibility of tourism attractions in the urban destination city. An analytical framework for assessing urban tourism accessibility at different spatial scales was proposed to provide references on the interaction of urban transport and tourism systems. In addition to the travel time-based measure, a modified gravity model integrating the tourism destination attractiveness, urban transport system characteristics, and tourist demand distribution was developed to evaluate tourism accessibility in this study. Real-time travel data obtained from the Web Maps service were used to take the actual road network operation conditions into consideration and improve the accuracy of estimation results. Taking Nanjing as an example, the analysis results revealed the spatial heterogeneity of tourism accessibility and inequality in tourism resource availability at different levels. Road transport service improvement plays a dominant role in increasing tourism accessibility in areas with insufficient tourism resources, such as the outskirts of the destination city. As for areas with abundant attractions, authorities could pay attention to destination attractiveness construction and demand management in addition to the organization and management of road network operations around attractions during holidays. The results of this study provide a potentially valuable source of information for urban tourism destination management and transport management departments.

Academic Integrity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

An online learning environment can be effective but presents additional challenges with regard to academic integrity compared to in-person education. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many institutions to an online learning environment with less than two weeks' notice. Even before migrating to the online learning environment, violations of academic integrity have been shown to be alarmingly prevalent in United States institutions. In an online environment where students have unfettered access to online resources, “availability” would be expected to be a substantial factor making cheating easier and, thus, more prevalent. The goal of this research is to analyze student perceptions of adherence to academic integrity rules before and after the initial COVID-19 response in Spring 2020, where classes were forced to an online learning environment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our university made a sudden shift from fully in-person instruction to entirely remote online learning with less than two weeks' notice to both students and faculty. This sudden shift left faculty scrambling to convert in-person lectures, which relied heavily on chalkboards and document cameras as the interface to communicate to students in the classroom, to an entirely online format using only computers from home. The faculty decided to survey the students to obtain their perspective to determine if students felt that they and their peers would adhere to academic integrity rules during this change to an online learning environment. Student surveys were administered during the first and last week of the change from in-person to online instruction for 12 engineering classes at an undergraduate institution, including civil, mechanical, electrical, and general engineering classes. Paired t-tests were performed to determine if students initially felt others would, and afterward did, adhere to academic integrity rules. Results indicate that while students had a positive perception of themselves adhering to academic integrity rules they did not feel that their peers would - with a statistically significant difference. These results are concerning since students may be more predisposed to cheat if they feel they are at a disadvantage because others are cheating. Also, grades are not an adequate assessment of learning objectives being met if students are not adhering to academic integrity requirements. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Identifying spatial drivers of long-term population growth in three large gull species: the importance of mink farms and urban areas

Population growth generally shows extensive spatial variation within species, but the proximate and ultimate drivers of this variation are often poorly understood. For highly mobile colonial breeders, population growth is expected to be linked to resource availability within a considerable radius of the colony. We analyzed the relationship between population growth over the period 2000– 2020 and resource availability for three large gull species in several hundred colonies in Denmark. Colony growth rates showed strong spatial autocorrelation for Herring Gull Larus argentatus, whereas no such relationship was apparent for the other two species (Great Black-backed Gull L. marinus and Lesser Black-backed Gull L. fuscus). Colony growth rates of Herring Gulls were correlated with relevant proxies of food availability within species-specific foraging ranges, including the extent of urban and subtidal foraging habitats, and the number of mink farms. No such correlations were found for the other two species. The positive relationships of Herring Gull colony growth with the number of mink farms and the extent of built-up area were particularly interesting, as they highlighted the strong dependency of this species on human-associated food sources. Furthermore, Denmark closed all mink farms in late 2020 because of concerns about the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus between farms and between minks and humans, culling approximately 17 million minks. This dramatic change in food availability is expected to have a negative impact on the Danish Herring Gull population, which in recent years has fared better than in the neighboring countries. © 2022 by the author(s).

Fostering firm resilience through organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability: amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose This study aims to study the impact of organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability on firm resilience along with perceived environmental uncertainty playing a moderating role. This study also intends to investigate the interplaying relationship between exploration capability and exploitation capability as components of organizational ambidexterity with resource availability. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative data was collected through self-administered surveys targeting 202 firms in Egypt. SEM (AMOS-SPSS) was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results indicated that both organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability impact firm resilience. Moreover, the relationship between the enablers was found to be significant, where resource availability has a positive impact on the firm's exploitation capability, the firm's exploitation capability has a positive impact on its exploration capability and finally, the firm's exploration capability has a positive impact on resource availability. However, the moderating role of perceived environmental uncertainty was found to be insignificant. Research limitations/implications Nonprobability convenience sampling technique, cross-sectional design and the relatively small sample size may hinder the ability to generalize this study. Practical implications This study identifies the importance of exploration (innovation) and exploitation (efficiency) capabilities for managers to build responsive organizations. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of firm resilience in times of uncertainties, where empirical research has not been enough. In addition, this study contributes to the identification of possible antecedents of firm resilience, highlighting the importance of certain strategic features including organizational ambidexterity capability and resource availability. This study also investigates the relationship between exploitation capabilities, exploration capabilities and resource availability, which was not empirically tested in the literature.

Investigating various factors that affect students' adoption intention to technology-enhanced learning

Purpose>Technology-enhanced learning (TEL), undoubtedly, creates a big difference in higher education students' knowledge and growth, which helps them become globally competitive in the job market eventually. The present study aims to investigate the effect of various factors, i.e. informational quality, compatibility, resource availability, subjective norms, subject interest, institutional branding and self-efficacy on students' adoption intention to TEL enrolled in different government and private educational institutes in Chhattisgarh state.Design/methodology/approach>The primary data were collected from 600 students from different universities and colleges using purposive sampling technique with “criterion sampling”. Hierarchal multiple regression (stepwise) analysis was used on the collected data.Findings>Results concluded that factors, i.e. compatibility, resource availability, subjective norms, subject interest and institutional branding are significantly and positively influencing students' adoption intention to TEL in Chhattisgarh, whereas self-efficacy and informational quality of TEL did not contribute significant effect for students' adoption intention.Originality/value>There is a lack of research in the knowledge domain, especially in the field of TEL, in the state of Chhattisgarh. The different variables taken in the present study, such as informational quality, self-efficacy, institutional branding, subjective norms, resource availability, compatibility and subject interest of TEL, are the first of its kind where these variables are being examined on the students' adoption intention to TEL.

Resource Availability and Implications for the Development of Plug-In Electric Vehicles

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have immense potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, and for smart grid applications. Although a great deal of research is focused on technological limitations that affect PEV battery performance targets, a major and arguably equal concern is the constraint imposed by the finite availability of elements or resources used in the manufacture of PEV batteries. Availability of resources, such as lithium, for batteries is critical to the future of PEVs and is, therefore, a topic that needs attention. This study addresses the issues related to lithium availability and sustainability, particularly supply and demand related to PEVs and the impact on future PEV growth. In this paper, a detailed review of the research on lithium availability for PEV batteries is presented, key challenges are pinpointed and future impacts on PEV technology are outlined.