ABSTRACT
Senior care organizations were some of the hardest hit by COVID-19 infections and deaths early in the pandemic, both for those receiving care as well as staff;22% of COVID-19-related deaths through March, April, and May of 2020 occurred in the senior care facility population. Professionals in senior care are an important population to understand as they have had to navigate a constantly changing work environment, increasing workloads, less support to safely and effectively conduct their work, and an ever-evolving communication environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven professionals employed by a variety of senior care organizations across the United States. Inductive thematic analysis revealed four themes related to perceptions of organizational functioning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes indicate that similar issues were encountered by professionals working in senior care, however, job type impacted the perceptions of those issues. Structuration theory is applied to the findings to explain how structure and agency are created and reinforced in the social systems of senior care organizations.
ABSTRACT
Costa Rican technological organizations must take advantage of the development opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, taking into consideration the challenges that exist in Latin America and the impact of the accelerating elements. This research has a qualitative approach in which sources of information are explored and analyzed to achieve a general perspective on the Industry 4.0. The results indicate that Costa Rica has a leading role in the region and has the support of various areas of the country to continue in the right direction and promote the national industry. It is concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic, despite creating a great crisis and being a current challenge in different sectors, should be taken as a growth opportunity for companies in the information and communication technologies.
ABSTRACT
Although researchers have tried to quantify the magnitude of the SMEs that have folded, the primary question of how the communities of entrepreneurs interacted with COVID-19 pandemic-induced chaos remains largely unanswered. Integrating the organizational theory and strategy perspective with entrepreneurial theory, this study investigated the mechanisms and pathways that could explain the discontinuation of ownership phenomenon. Conveniently selected owners (n=148) were followed over six months. Participants completed a survey composed of previously validated measures for the constructs of interest. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyse time-to-discontinue ownership data. Structural equation modelling techniques were employed to test the study hypotheses. The recognition of opportunities was positively and significantly associated with the exploitation of opportunities. Innovation moderated this relationship. Opportunity exploitation was negatively and significantly associated with the discontinuation of ownership. Instrumental risk-taking moderated this relationship. Higher innovation and instrumental risk-taking had a significant effect on the strength of the mediated relationship between opportunity recognition and discontinuation of ownership. Gender did not reliably differentiate the discontinuation of ownership. The study contributes to theory and practice on the intersectionality of entrepreneurial action, organizational leadership, and strategy in the management of natural selection challenges in SMEs. © 2022, Small Business Institute. All rights reserved.