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The article considers the approaches to assessing the financial security of enterprises presented in the literature, determines the rsistance of the textile industry of Uzbekistan to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the basis of statistical data, and reveals a significant differentiation of textile industry enterprises in terms of financial stability. Based on data on small enterprises in the textile industry of Uzbekistan, a method for assessing the financial security of an enterprise in the post-pandemic period is proposed and tested, taking into account the complex influence of non-financial parameters of economic security and assessing the deviations of the economic situation at a given enterprise from the patterns emerging in the relevant segment of the economy. In this research an econometric model was developed to determine the factors affecting the chemical industry and express their interrelationship, based on the conducted econometric analysis, the directions of development in our country were determined. According to the authors, it is necessary to continue these directions in order to ensure the economic security of industry enterprises in the country. © 2022 ACM.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily lives. One of the sectors most affected was tourism and travel – and, more specifically, cruises, given the prolonged time passengers spend with others within the small spaces of the cruise ship. While finding well-organised entertainment opportunities on cruises is possible, emergency conditions may cause panic. On such occasions, reactions can be highly stressful or even traumatic. This research explores the events and emotions experienced by passengers during a cruise ship quarantined for COVID-19. The empirical materials consist of interviews with 15 passengers. The analyses show four thematic areas: fear of contagion, feelings of discrimination, cooperation between passengers and relationship with the crew. The problems during a cruise ship quarantine presented by the passengers in this study reveal the need for psychological preparation for the crew and security personnel. Finally, we suggest that telemedicine and telepsychology are key elements to improve the efficiency of behavioral control on cruise ships and to mitigate the COVID-19 effects on tourists' well-being during a quarantine. © 2023 by the author.
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Aims: During the pandemic of COVID-19, the sudden change in traditional health-care providing systems, clinicians experience some positive and negative aspects of the approach. This study evaluates the clinician's satisfaction and experience with the use of teleconsultation provided during the pandemic of novel coronavirus and their willingness to continue telehealth after the pandemic. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted online during the peak pandemic of COVID-19 in Pakistan through Google Forms questionnaire from 115 health consultants on different disciplines and recruited through social media. The questionnaire contains 15 questions regarding clinician's satisfaction, quality of treatment, and intention to continue providing telehealth services after the pandemic. Descriptive and inferential statistics were obtained by analyzing the data using SPSS software version 20, USA. Results: One hundred and fifteen consultants, 28 males and 87 females participated in the study, in which 62% were found to have an average and 34% at a high level of satisfaction. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significant difference among different medical specialists in the continuation of telehealth services after the pandemic of COVID-19 (P = 0.003) and its recommendation to friends and family (P = 0.02) with high mean rank in endocrinologist and dermatologist. Conclusions: A great number of participants reported a good response for the continuation in telemedicine services in their daily routine even after the pandemic situation. However, there is an urgent need to find the solution for the difficulties and drawbacks faced by health-care providers.
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The study aims to identify the problems of economic security of the Russian regions under the influence of force majeure caused by the pandemic COVID-19 and their assessment, as well as to determine ways to stabilize the socio-economic situation. The authors conducted a grouping of the economic security indicators of the federal districts and proposed a methodology for its assessment in terms of the coronavirus pandemic. The authors identified the problem areas of socio-economic development of the Russian regions and also proved the decline in their economic security during the pandemic. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of the internal state administration of the federal districts according to the anti-crisis measures adopted in 2020 (maintaining turnover in the main regional segments of the economy, avoiding tax debt on regional fees, increasing the profitability of the real business, raising the level of digital development), as well as measures to preserve employment and solvency of the population of each region. The authors justified the directions of normalization of the socio-economic development of the federal districts of Russia by eliminating the economic security problems. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted supply chains and has caused several supply chain disruptions in almost all industries worldwide. Moreover, increased transportation costs, labor shortages, and insufficient storage facilities have all led to food loss during the pandemic, and this disruption has affected the logistics in the food value chain. As a result, we examine the food supply chain, which is one of the key industries COVID-19 has detrimentally affected, impacting, indeed, on the entire business process from the supplier all the way to the customer. Retail businesses are thus facing supply issues, which affect consumer behavior by creating stress regarding the availability of food. This has a negative impact on the amount of food that is available as well as its quality, freshness, safety, access to markets, and affordability. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the United Arab Emirates food distribution systems and how consumer behavior changed in reaction to interruptions in the food supply chain and the food security problem. Hypothesis testing was used in the study's quantitative methodology to assess consumer behavior, and participants who were consumers were given a descriptive questionnaire to ascertain whether the availability and security of food had been impacted. The study used JASP 0.17.2 software to develop a model of food consumption behavior and to reveal pertinent connections between each construct. Results show that consumer food stress and consumption behavior are directly impacted by food access, food quality and safety, and food pricing. Furthermore, food stress has an impact on how consumers behave when it comes to consumption. Food stress, however, is not significantly influenced by food supply.
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This paper maintains that the growing crisis of water scarcity cannot be addressed from within the paradigm that created the problem. The extractive paradigm which prevails views high economic growth as the main goal of development to be achieved through the increasing extraction of natural resources. Approaches to water management that are based on this paradigm view water as a resource primarily meant for human consumption. In contrast, the paper proposes an ecosystem paradigm in which water is viewed as being embedded within the ecosystem as an essential part of it to be conserved and preserved for future generations. The author identifies five areas of action for water management in the post-COVID context: move away from water-intensive agriculture through crop diversification;sustainable and community-based groundwater management;protection of river systems and wetlands;ensuring water quality and drinking water security and the creation of strong legal frameworks for water governance. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
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Attachment insecurity is associated with lower satisfaction and lower felt security in romantic relationships, especially during times of stress such as coping with a global pandemic. Heightened external stressors for couples are associated with poorer relationship quality, but how couples cope with stress together, or their dyadic coping strategies, is associated with the maintenance of relationship satisfaction. In the current study, we followed 184 couples living together during the COVID-19 pandemic to test whether specific coping strategies buffered people higher in attachment anxiety and avoidance from lower satisfaction and felt security in the early weeks and ensuing months of the pandemic. Our findings demonstrate that perceiving more emotion-focused dyadic coping—being affectionate and using intimacy—buffered the negative association between attachment anxiety and relationship satisfaction and felt security, both concurrently and over several months of the pandemic. In addition, problem-focused perceived dyadic coping backfired for people higher in attachment anxiety;they felt less satisfied when they perceived more problem-focused coping—which involves being solution-focused and using instrumental support—in their relationship. In contrast, people higher in attachment avoidance were buffered against lower relationship satisfaction when they perceived more problem-focused dyadic coping and were not buffered by emotion-focused coping. The current findings suggest the importance of tailoring coping strategies to a partner's attachment style for relationship quality and felt security during times of stress.
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In this paper has been proposed a methodology for ensuring the financial security of enterprises in the context of recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on pre-crisis data related to the new coronavirus infection pandemic and multi-component modeling of the dynamics of industrial production in the Republic of Uzbekistan during the "corona crisis,"this study seeks to identify the dynamics of growth by economic activity type and recovery rate in order to identify areas of state support for industrial production. In this paper has been investigated issues of financial security management of textile enterprises. On the basis of secondary statistics, the growth of textile production in the regions of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2008-2020 was analyzed and the factors influencing it were identified. By the author have been presented the main tasks and conditions for the financial security of enterprises, as well as developed scientific and practical recommendations for eliminating factors affecting the financial security of textile enterprises. © 2022 Owner/Author.
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The various crises are having a significant impact on the entire food sector and are changing the attitudes of Europeans as well as policies on the importance of food security and sustainably produced quality and safe food for consumer health. The paper focuses on the consumer's fear of food security for the time of the first wave of COVID-19 and the associated concern for food security in the future and the changes in consumer behaviour. The online survey in Slovenia was conducted in June 2020 using a "snowball" method. The sample included 490 individuals. The results showed that both measured forms of fear (i) fear over food security during the first wave of COVID-19 crisis, and (ii) fear over food security in the future were statistically significant, moderately strong and positively associated with almost all forms of self-perceived behaviour change caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The respondents focused more on buying locally produced and processed food, food stockpiling and decreasing food waste. Only minor changes were expressed with regards to their food purchasing channels, with the elderly, the highly educated and those who classified themselves in a higher social class buying more often directly from farmers. In the future, the results of this research should be compared with other countries and the impact of an individual's economic situation and the impact of promotional campaigns on agricultural products on changing consumer behaviour should also be analysed in more detail.
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Sustainable agriculture is the backbone of food security systems and a driver of human well-being in global economic development (Sustainable Development Goal SDG 3). With the increase in world population and the effects of climate change due to the industrialization of economies, food security systems are under pressure to sustain communities. This situation calls for the implementation of innovative solutions to increase and sustain efficacy from farm to table. Agricultural social networks (ASNs) are central in agriculture value chain (AVC) management and sustainability and consist of a complex network inclusive of interdependent actors such as farmers, distributors, processors, and retailers. Hence, social network structures (SNSs) and practices are a means to contextualize user scenarios in agricultural value chain digitalization and digital solutions development. Therefore, this research aimed to unearth the roles of agricultural social networks in AVC digitalization, enabling an inclusive digital economy. We conducted automated literature content analysis followed by the application of case studies to develop a conceptual framework for the digitalization of the AVC toward an inclusive digital economy. Furthermore, we propose a transdisciplinary framework that guides the digitalization systematization of the AVC, while articulating resilience principles that aim to attain sustainability. The outcomes of this study offer software developers, agricultural stakeholders, and policymakers a platform to gain an understanding of technological infrastructure capabilities toward sustaining communities through digitalized AVCs.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in some unprecedented economic and labour market shocks that have caused food and nutrition insecurity, particularly for the informal traders. Yet there is a dearth of scientific evidence on the dimensions of food and nutrition security resilience among the informal traders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. This study applied ethnographic research among informal traders in purposively selected provinces of Harare and Masvingo in Zimbabwe in a period of 20 months since the beginning of COVID-19 in March 2020. In addition, documentary analysis and key informant interviews with policymakers, civil society organisations, academia, development partners, and the private sector were also conducted to supplement ethnographic research. The study found that COVID-19 disproportionately impacted on the income and livelihood strategies of most informal traders in Zimbabwe than the rest of the people, because of the hash implementation of the measures to reduce the spread of the pandemic. This paper recommends that it is crucial for the government to strengthen its social protection systems and build resilience capacities of the informal traders. These resilience capacities may be in the form of business rescue packages, infrastructure and other assets, social safety nets, and the enhancement of traders' networks with suppliers, service providers, and customers. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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PurposeThis study is aimed at developing an understanding of the consequences of the pandemic on families' socioeconomic resilience, and the strategies adopted by the families in overcoming social vulnerabilities amid uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe materials for this study consist of semi-structured interviews with 21 families spread across the South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. Families in the study represent four different income levels, namely very high, high, middle and low, and who also work in the informal sector. Each family has at least 1 or more members who fall into the vulnerable category (children, the elderly, people with disabilities unemployed or having potential economic vulnerability).FindingsTwo main findings are outlined. Regardless of their socioeconomic status, many of the families analyzed adopted similar strategies to remain resilient. Among the strategies are classifying the urgency of purchasing consumer goods based on financial capacity rather than needs, leveraging digital economic opportunities as alternative sources of income, utilizing more extensive informal networks and going into debt. Another interesting finding shows that the pandemic, to some extent, has saved poor families from social insecurity. This is supported by evidence showing that social distancing measures during the pandemic have reduced the intensity of sociocultural activities, which require invited community members to contribute financially. The reduction of sociocultural activities in the community has provided more potential savings for the poor.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, informants who provided information about their family conditions represent a major segment of the workforce and tend to be technologically savvy and younger, due to the use of Zoom as a platform for conducting interviews. Therefore, there may be a bias in the results. Another limitation is that since the interviewees were recommended by our social network in the fields, there is a risk of a distorted selection of participants.Originality/valueThis study offers insights that are critical in helping to analyze family patterns in developing countries in mitigating the risks and uncertainties caused by COVID-19. In addition, the literature on social policy and development could benefit from further research on COVID-19 as an alternative driver to identify mechanisms that could bring about change that would result in "security.” Critical questions and limitations of this study are presented at the end of the paper to be responded to as future research agenda.
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There was a change in the environment and food security threat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries, including Indonesia, are forced to allocate funds to reduce the risk of this disaster. The Government Republic of Indonesia, through the Ministry of Social Affairs, has launched a Social Cash Assistance Program for 10 million families affected by COVID-19. This study aims to identify how families affected by COVID-19 take advantage of this social cash assistance. The study was conducted on the beneficiaries of social assistance, in cash transfer of IDR 600,000 (USD 40), per month, for three months. This study involved 2290 beneficiaries as respondents spread across 12 provinces. The sampling technique was the Cohen Manion Morrison Table by proportional stratified random sampling. The findings show that (1) 99% of cash assistance is used for basic needs, especially for food, and (2) cash assistance could be used for basic needs for around two to three weeks, thereby strengthening food security. Recommendations are submitted based on the results of this study related to social cash assistance and food security. The first is that this assistance still needs to be continued until the COVID-19 pandemic is over. It is to help families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic meet their daily needs. Second, most respondents do not have a fixed income during the pandemic, so providing capital and business startups are needed to increase family income sustainably to maintain food security.
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Security issues have always been central to workplaces. Increased work performed at home environments caused by COVID-19 pandemic has changed the security landscape of work radically. Security arrangements are no more at the domain of the employer, yet the risks remain, and responsibilities. In this chapter we discuss this new boom of distance work from the viewpoints of data privacy and security, physical safety and mental well-being. The issues are intertwined, and changes, risks and solutions in one of these cause implications for the other areas too. In data privacy and security, the home office environment causes several risks, and the mixed use of devices and facilities both in work and leisure use causes difficulties. Physical safety is compromised in several ways at home environment, which is partly confounding, as the very core of work at home and social distancing is the search for physical security from COVID viruses. Mental well-being problems are a key product of this social distancing, and they do not typically emerge immediately, but first after a long period. With the COVID-19 pandemic over two years, we first start to see the magnitude of the mental well-being problems it has caused. The COVID-19 pandemic is a very short period in history. For individuals living now, it can deeply affect life, especially in critical periods of life. On the positive side, the very special pressure COVID-19 has caused on working life has surely improved and speeded up academic and practical work in distance work development. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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Investors' trading activities are influenced by their financial attitudes. Even though existing research has recognized and investigated their relationship, behavioral assessments and financial attitude still poses questions. Furthermore, there is a lack of evidence about the trading activity of retail investors in the instance of a health crisis, like COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of study is to fill in the gaps in the existing literature by studying the relative impact of five dimensions of financial attitude on trading activity of retail investors' during the pandemic. We have used five dimensions to measure financial attitude such as financial anxiety, optimism of investors, financial security, self-control, and the need for precautionary savings. We collected 512 responses from retail investors with the help of a structured questionnaire. We analyzed financial attitude and trading activity using SEM to establish the structural relationship. The observed findings disclosed that self-control is the dominant variable followed by financial security, need for precautionary savings, financial anxiety, and optimism. © 2022, School of Management Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Population growth and urbanization increasingly put pressure on our planet's availability of areas needed for food production. The dependencies on domestically produced food are increasingly judged favourable, following the consequences of the Ukrainian war, with escalating fuel and grain prices and less accessibilities to low-income groups. It is, however, unclear whether land is domestically available. Applying a food system approach, the main aim of this article is to investigate spatial foodsheds and theoretical self-sufficiency for food production needed to supply increasing future populations in a selection of cities, including estimates for Dhaka in Bangladesh, Nairobi in Kenya and Kampala in Uganda. The projected foodshed scenario areas for the years 2020 and 2050 are estimated for the production of three core products currently extensively produced and consumed in the three countries. They show that it is not possible to feed an ever-increasing urban population based on domestic production alone. International trade, new technological developments and new consumer demands for less area-intensive food production systems may give solutions to the immense challenge of feeding the world's population with nutritious food in 2050. However, to ensure fair and inclusive transition pathways for low-income groups: (1) affordability and accessibility of trade opportunities, technologies and products, (2) a common vision aiming for the SDGs, including SDG2: Zero hunger and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities as well as (3) best practices in co-creation and cooperation with the most vulnerable urban and rural populations, are highly needed.
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This study examines the evolving connection between migrant networking on social media and cross-border food remittances in Southern Africa. Emerging research and academic debates have shown that social media platforms transform migration networks. But the role and link between migrant remittances and social media are generally overlooked and neglected. This paper contributes to the ongoing debates by examining the role of social media as a valuable networking tool for food-remitting Zimbabwean migrants. The research is founded on a mixed-methods approach, thus utilizing both questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews of Zimbabwean migrants in Cape Town, South Africa. The research findings uncover the role of social media in facilitating a regular flow of food remittances back to urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe. A related result is how social media enabled information pathways associated with cross-border food remitting when the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions limited face-to-face contact. This research can provide valuable insights for academics, researchers, and development practitioners interested in the evolving migration, remittances, and food security nexus in the global South. © 2023, University of the Western Cape. All rights reserved.
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The two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in India have resulted in widespread food insecurity and hunger in the country as a result of the burden of health expenditure and illness, economic slowdown and loss of livelihoods. Given the context of high levels of malnutrition and some reversal in the gains made in the last decade, this could have serious long-term implications. The response of the government in the form of additional benefits for PDS beneficiaries and some continuation of school meals and supplementary nutrition under ICDS scheme has been inadequate. This paper argues that there is a need to use the pandemic as an opportunity to expand and strengthen these schemes with a view of making the food system more equitable. As immediate measures, universalisation of the PDS including pulses and oil and strengthening of direct nutrition programmes for children and women are imperative. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
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The COVID-19 pandemic, in the current conditions of globalization challenges, turned out to be one of the general reasons for a significant decrease in the level of economic security of economic systems, including at the level of companies. This updates the issue of guaranteeing the economic security of companies. The study aims to develop the conceptual and methodological foundations of the innovative and investment provision of the economic security of companies in the conditions of the challenges of COVID-19. The methodological principles of innovative and informative provision of the economic security of companies are based on a systemic approach, which allows considering the company as an open system in which economic security is one of the determining subsystems. It has been shown that the economic security of the company must ensure the achievement of the socio-economic goals set for the company in the conditions of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the company from adverse factors and the negative impact of internal and external changes. It is emphasized that innovation is a determining factor of the economic development of the company, and therefore of economic security. The staggering of systematic steps to make management decisions is suggested to ensure the economic security of the company in the conditions of the challenges of COVID-19.
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PurposeBetween 2020 and spring 2022, health safety was the new pressing concern among the risks at major events. It seemed that it – respectively hygiene as part of infection control – was as important as event safety if an event in Germany was to be approved. Problems aroused in terms of an equal implementation in practice. This article therefore addresses how safety and hygiene aspects interacted during event planning and implementation phases.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on qualitative data from a German research project. They use results from eleven semi-structured expert interviews and four field observations at major events. One guiding assumption in the content analysis is that there are major interrelations between event and health safety concepts, which become visible during planning and the implementation of event-related technical, organisational and personal measures.FindingsThe empirical data shows that hygiene is not perceived as an integral part of event safety, but rather as a disconnected pillar beside the "classical” event safety. This is reflected in an imbalanced attention as well as in separate, disintegrated concepts. This disconnectedness leaves room for unwanted interplays between event and health safety as well as potential legitimacy facades.Originality/valueMost studies to date focus on the effectiveness of hygiene concepts and impacts of COVID-19 on the event sector in general without taking a closer look at interactions between event safety and health safety.