Performance of IPOs During Covid-19 Pandemic and Factors Affecting Investors' Perception

Initial Public Offering (IPO) is a fund-raising tool through which a company gets listed for the first time under SEBI regulation and issues IPOs to raise funds from the public. The shift from a privately-owned to a publicly-owned firm via an IPO is the most significant event in a company's life (Pagano et al., 1998). In an IPO investment, there is limited historical data to analyze and predict the future performance of the company;hence it becomes a risky investment for the investors as they cannot predict how the shares will perform in the future. Most companies that go for an IPO are in the growth or expansion phase so it becomes more difficult to predict their market position and performance in the future, which leads to uncertainty in deriving their future value. Also, most IPOs are of companies going through a transitory growth period, and are therefore subject to additional uncertainty regarding their future value. This study analyzes the performance of the IPOs issued during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the markets across the world faced massive disruptions. The IPOs from various sectors like finance, technology, service, infrastructure, food, pharmaceutical and information technology were considered for the study. The study also analyzes the factors affecting investor perception towards investment in an IPO. The study considered the IPOs issued during the pandemic, and their performance on the listing day was measured by considering issue price, listing price and closing price. It was observed that 90% of the IPOs selected performed well during the listing day and 10% underperformed. It was also found that factors like company brand, company sector, fundamental analysis, company ratings, expert opinion and stock market conditions had a positive impact on the investors' decision to invest in an IPO. The study also revealed that factors like risk factor in primary market, returns on IPO on the listing day and Gray Market Premium have no significant impact on the investors' perception.

Addressing the Needs of Clinical Trial Sites in a Post-COVID-19 World

[...]many sponsors have implemented alternative ways to conduct trials or components of them, incorporating remote and virtual activities, which aim to bring studies directly to patients via a range of technologies. Every clinical investigation begins with the development of a protocol that describes h.ow a clinical trial will be conducted-encompassing the objective(s), design, methodology, statistical considerations, and organization of the study-and ensures the safety of the trial subjects and integrity of the data collected. [...]of the pandemic, we will see more hybrid trials that combine site and remote patient visits. In forcing the research community to be more open to using different tools to ensure vital research continues, the pandemic is driving the beginning of a new era of patient and site engagement-one in which a more proactive and efficient approach ensures the lines of communication remain open and data is collected appropriately and with greater speed.

Achieving success in online teaching and learning: Strategies

Student enrollment for online education has seen a constant rise over the last two decades (Dixson, 2015) and has been very popular even before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the unprecedented acceleration toward online teaching in Winter 2020 has taken many education institutions by surprise. This unwanted rapidness in transition to online teaching has created challenges for students, educators, and administrators alike. In this chapter we hope to bring some of those challenges to light. We present a literature review along with our own reflections on how student engagement has changed due to this sudden, unplanned transition to online teaching. Students and instructors are finding it difficult to navigate through these troubled times. We provide some suggestions on how to overcome these concerns. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Team Success: A Mixed Methods Approach to Evaluating Virtual Team Leadership Behaviors

The virtuality of organizational teams have gained interest and popularity in recent years, and have become more prevalent amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizational productivity and team relationship-building may suffer certain pitfalls in virtual communication and support without the understanding of the dynamics of short-term, project-based virtual teams. The manuscript aimed to expand what is currently known about short-term virtual team dynamics related to types of effective leadership behaviors. The present study employed a mixed method approach to understanding the dynamics of these teams at both the individual and team level. Small teams were formed and instructed to collaborate on a virtual survival task. Team-related outcomes were measured at the individual level, such as team coordination, team support, and team success. Additionally, distinct latent profiles of leadership behaviors were developed and analyzed at the team level. Team support, more so than team coordination, significantly predicted team success at the individual level, with instrumental support having the strongest effect. Distinct leadership behaviors emerged in teams and were classified through a latent profile analysis, but none of the profiles were significantly related to team performance scores. Demonstrating instrumental support in short-term virtual teams may improve team success. It is important to understand that distinct leadership behaviors exist and future research should explore the impact of these leadership behaviors on other team-related outcomes. © 2023 by the authors.

Addressing the Key Pitfalls Hindering Technology Transfer Success

The key challenges that are commonly faced by companies undertaking a tech transfer include: * Client expectations and initial project scope definition: the initial assumptions of the drug developer or marketing authorization holder (MHA) based on their initial information relating to the product can be a significant challenge. Typical examples include product stability issues (typically on legacy products) being evidenced due to a change to more compliant analytical methods;change to product brought about by compliance-related requirements on legacy products, such as nitrosamines, and elemental impurities guidelines, etc.;and regulatory requirements being misjudged at the onset of the project, among other factors. * Product knowledge management: particularly when undertaking tech transfers of legacy products or products in the initial discovery phase, there may be a lack of technical knowledge on the product itself to make a comprehensive and robust tech transfer process. All this may contribute to slowing down the transfer of knowledge, with implications for tech transfer timelines. * Standardization at receiving site: another challenge typically faced by receiving sites of CDMOs is a lack of standardization of their internal processes and or documentation brought about by multiple tech transfers with varying types of clients with multiple requirements. The originating site-particularly if it belongs to a small start-up-may not have team members with specialist experience in handling a transfer, so may need additional support in collating the required information to hand over to the receiving site.

Student perspectives on the challenges of an online orientation at a large South African university during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 gave rise to a number of challenges for first-year experience activities at universities globally. One of the key challenges was the process of onboarding first-year students through an orientation programme that could not take place face-to-face as per the norm. In 2021, the first-year orientation at a large South African university in this study moved to an online platform, becoming a week-long programme conducted on Microsoft Teams and comprising a variety of live and pre-recorded videos. The programme included seven core learning sessions designed to introduce the students to key services available at the university and to lay the foundation for student success. Using data from the university's 2021 Orientation Week (O-Week) Survey, this paper seeks to explore - from the perspective of the students - the core challenges associated with an online orientation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs descriptive statistics to decipher the profile of the survey respondents as well as participants' experience of various learning sessions. A thematic approach was used to analyse the open-ended questions to provide the contextual perspectives on the challenges that students experienced with online orientation. The study identified five categories of challenges, which had a negative impact on their process of transitioning into the university environment. The study's findings will help universities to understand the drawbacks of online orientation as well as provide empirical guidance for them as to how they could leverage online orientation for student success in shaping the remote, blended, and hybrid learning discourse. The particular university under discussion subsequently used these findings as guidelines to conceptualise a new three-week blended orientation programme, Gateway to Success, which was introduced at the beginning of 2022.

Students' sense of belonging at a South African university during COVID-19

The research on students' sense of belonging in higher education has evolved into a prominent theme worldwide. Institutional research focuses on the institution understanding itself and helps leaders to rethink improvement initiatives. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has required of institutions to revise student support programmes and approaches to maintain a strong sense of belonging. The theories of belonging by Strayhorn (2012) and Dumford et al. (2019) were adopted to analyse student responses. The aim of the study was to understand students' sense of belonging and how the university responded to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure a strong sense of belonging. Data were generated through in-depth interviews with 45 undergraduate students from all seven faculties. The findings highlight notable prevention measures intended to limit the spread of the virus on campus and student support in the form of study devices and data. The post-lockdown changes included a return to face-to-face mental health support, drafting COVID-19 catchup plans for first year orientation of 2020 and 2021 cohorts, improving the student voice. Finally, notable principles for responding to a future higher education crisis are highlighted. These initiatives contributed towards establishing and maintaining a strong students' sense of belonging.

Post COVID-19's opportunities for customer-centric green supply chain management and customers' resilience, the moderate effect of corporate social responsibility

PurposeThis research aims to profoundly investigate the post-COVID-19's opportunities for customer-centric green supply chain management (GSCM) and perceived customer resilience by studying the correlation between fear-uncertainty of COVID-19, customer-centric GSCM, and the perceived customers' resilience. Moreover, to examine how the perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities moderates the relationship among the variables.Design/methodology/approachIn this study partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted on a sample of 298 managers and customers in the Egyptian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market for data analysis and hypotheses testing.FindingsPreliminary results indicate that the fear-uncertainty of COVID-19 positively affects customer-centric GSCM. Also, external CSR moderates the association between fear-uncertainty towards COVID-19 and customer-centric GSCM. However, internal CSR does not moderate this relationship. Customer-centric GSCM has a significant positive impact on the perceived environmental and social resilience. However, it has an insignificant effect on the perceived financial resilience. Also, customer-centric GSCM has a significant mediation outcome on the relation between fear-uncertainty of COVID-19 and the perceived environmental and social resilience. However, this relation is insignificant regarding the perceived financial resilience.Practical implicationsManagers could develop a consistent strategy for applying CSR practices, providing clear information and focusing on their procedures to meet their customer needs during COVID-19. Governments and managers should develop a consistent strategy to apply customer-oriented green practices to achieve customers' resilience, especially during the pandemic.Originality/valueBased on the "social-cognitive,” "stakeholder” and "consumer culture” theories, this study shed light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of social responsibility, resilience and green practices back into the light, which helps in solving customers' issues and help to achieve their resilience.

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.

The relationship between first year seminar course modality and community college student success

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of first-year seminar (FYS) course modality on first-semester GPA and second-semester retention of community college students' system-wide. For many student's community colleges serve as an affordable option for higher education. The first-year seminar course connects students to the college to create better academic outcomes. With the increase in technology the FYS course is available in three different course modalities;face-to-face, hybrid, and online. Understanding which course modality has the largest academic outcomes of FYS course will present administrators of the benefits of one modality over others. The study investigated academic outcomes of the FYS course by examining course modality at Lone Star Community College (LSC). Findings revealed no statistical differences between full-time enrolled students in any of the course modalities. Part-time students in the face-to-face FYS had higher first-semester GPA's than those enrolled in the other modalities. Results revealed students in the online FYS course modality were less likely to be retained the second semester. When predicting second-semester retention, enrollment status was a stronger predictor than course modality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Building Relationships Key for Smaller Sponsors

Strong collaboration critical as trial development advances Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, biotech and emerging biopharma companies were increasingly turning to contract research organizations (CROs) to contain costs and secure therapeutic and clinical trial expertise to help meet their individual objectives. Therapeutic and clinical trial expertiseWith exploratory drug development often focused on multiple indications, a CRO with depth of tic expertise optimize clinical delivery enhancing quality and reducing timelines. Furthermore, years of therapeutic expertise and interaction with investigational sites ensure site engagement with heightened interest and attention to the target patient population.

Inheritance and innovation: maintain academic communications in microsurgery under the normalized prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemics.

Chinese Journal of Microsurgery, based on the premise of doing well in the prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemics, shall keep on driving on the inheritance and innovation, carry forward the spirit of microsurgery, give full play to the advantages of microsurgery technology and improve the level of surgical repair and reconstruction, as well as try new ways for academic communications and give full play to the roles of an academic platform for a professional magazine;Clinical Orthopaedic Microsurgery (internal communication), the internal journal of editorial office, is the "showcase in China" to highlight and disseminate the achievements in microsurgery, focus on the support for the Chinese young microsurgeons who work in the front-line of medical services, provide a platform effectively for the young microsurgeons in China to actively participate in the Sino-English literary exchange, and truly "publish the papers on the land of our motherland".Copyright © 2022 by the authors.

Do the people of Jakarta trust Jakarta Kini super application?

Research trust in e-government has increased through the decades. Trust in e-government is an important instrument for citizens who intend to use digital services. The aim of this research is to measure and provide an overview of how the level of people trust Jakarta Kini super-application as an e-Government in DKI Jakarta. This study uses a factor score analysis with the Mplus program and OECD method to characterize the trust level of the valid instruments SRMR, CFI, and TLI values. The pre-test results on the validity and reliability of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with 1687 respondents. The results of this study indicate that the level of trust of the people in DKI Jakarta is in the medium to high category. It was found based on the factor score value in accordance with the average level of trust in the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, which was 7.5 out of 10, with a scale of 1 indicating no trust at all, to a scale of 10 indicating full trust from the entire population. This level belongs to the medium to full trust level category. The lesson learned is that the government must take action to increase trust, such as identifying factors affecting the public use of the Jakarta Kini super-application. This study provides a discussion of the findings, and limitations and further proposes potential directions for future research.

Addressing the mental health and learning of students in Canadian higher education institutions During the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: An integrated model

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly heightened concerns about student success and retention in universities across Canada. Students at these institutions are experiencing mental health issues at a higher rate as a result of the rapidly changing learning environment and associated uncertainties. Among those facing such challenges, several may be reluctant to access supports because of internal and institutional stigmatization. As higher education institutions strategize how best to improve students' academic success during these unprecedented circumstances, we argue that there is a profound need to implement an integrated, interprofessional, and innovative service delivery model of mental health supports and services. According to the common-sense model of self-regulation, this entails providing clear and practical action plans to students, which could potentially reduce barriers to mental health, enhance academic success rates, and increase retention. We emphasize that the implementation of these courses of action and supports, however, requires several elements, including (i) an understanding of systemic and structural issuesthat impact mental health, (ii) staff with knowledge and skills in culturally sensitive programming, (iii) staff who are receptive toward integrated service delivery, and (iii) collaboration and shared responsibility between administrators, faculty, staff, and students. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

The case for online education: success factors in an MSW program through a critical feminist lens

Social work has seen a dramatic rise in online MSW programs;however, there is a paucity of research surrounding programmatic reviews. Given the dearth of supporting evidence, data were collected from online students at the University of Tennessee, College of Social Work surrounding several noted key measures for success demonstrating the compatibility between online programming and social work education. These key measures include student demographics, knowledge, student perceptions, alumni perceptions, and faculty perceptions. Data were also collected regarding the university's COVID−19 response, perceptions surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion work, and the use of a dedicated advisor to support online students. Results were viewed through a critical feminist lens and revealed that this online MSW program either did meet or exceeded success factors described in the literature. Results also identified new success factors that include alumni outcomes and the importance of dedicated advisors for online students. Implications for online teaching, administration, and research are discussed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Work Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

ePRO and Ensuring Data Integrity

An increased focus on patient engagement and the 21st Century Cures Act, regulatory authorities, i.e., the FDA, are embracing the need for more patient-centric drug development and wider access to assure accurate data collection as trials become more decentralized. The focus on improved visibility and oversight of data collection, faster trial implementation, sharing of real-time data and patient comfort and collaboration has led to a variety of eClinical applications. ePRO and other eCOA approaches can transform trials to make them more pragmatic, patient-centric and efficient by maximizing the potential to quickly access data through electronic health records, and especially to assist trial managers to make reliable data-driven decisions, and to mitigate risks. In the area of event prediction, a trial manager can look into a company's historical clinical trial data and provide data guidance when for example, writing new protocols, i.e., for dosages that may need to be increased/ reduced for trials in different geographic areas or age groups.

Post-Covid-19 Pandemic IT Project Management Skills and Challenges

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed social, financial, and work life. The novel coronavirus has caused problems in all business sectors, including Information Technology(IT). Many Projects have been stopped or delayed due to the impact of this pandemic. Most of the companies recognized the importance of IT to achieve competitive advantage and to survive. Companies are investing a lot of money in IT projects. More than 60% of IT project fail. Lack of professional IT project management is one of the main reasons for that fail. Managing IT projects is a complex problem. Crises such as COVID 19 and uncertainty are increasing the complexity and challenges in IT projects management. This paper investigates what are the IT project management Key success factors required during and after the Pandemic. Secondary data were collected from literature review in the field of IT project management. an online questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from 107 IT firms. 323 respondents were participated. It is concluded that the following Key success factors are required: e-communication, centralization of data, online project monitoring, designing new policies and guidelines for incorporating new work culture, gaining and establishing project risk management exercises, especially cybersecurity and data protection by gaining access to the latest tools, establishing a culture for strict usage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to help project managers complete projects safely, and top management support. © 2023 IEEE.

A Structural Equation Model to Analyze the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic Risks on Project Success: Contractors' Perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to capture the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 emerging risks on construction projects' success in developing countries from the contractors' perspective. To achieve this, we collected data from Iraqi construction industry and conducted the following multistage research methodology: (1) preliminary investigation with four construction contractors to identify the success indicators of construction projects;(2) focus group session with 11 experts to identify the COVID-19 emerging risks for the construction industry;(3) semistructured interviews with seven construction experts to develop several hypotheses on the effect of COVID-19 emerging risks on project success;(4) survey data collection from 99 construction contractors;and (5) development of a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze the effects of COVID-19 emerging risks on project success. The results of the SEM analysis show that financial market (FM)-related risks, supply chain operations (SCO)-related risks, health and safety of construction workforce (HSCW)-related risks, organizational implications (OI)-related risks, and contractual implications (CI)-related risks have a significant impact on construction projects success. CI-related risks have the strongest total effects on project success, followed by OI-related risks, FM-related risks, HSCW-related risks, and SCO-related risks, respectively. The results also emphasis the significant mediation role of CI between COVID-19 emerging risks and project success. This study contributes to the body of knowledge and contracting companies by helping researchers and construction contractors to better understand how the key risk factors emerging from extreme conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic affect construction projects' success and may serve as a guideline for developing effective response strategies. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.