Amid Crisis Research Articles

Emotional resources and knowledge management: a gender perspective on human-centric innovation amidst crises

Purpose This paper aims to advocate for a paradigm shift that prioritizes a human-centered approach in the pursuit of innovation during crises, urging a departure from the prevailing dominance of the technology-centric approach. The incorporation of emotional capabilities as a dynamic capability is posited as a pivotal contribution, in harmony with the tenets of Society 5.0 and imperative for establishing a robust knowledge management foundation. This research underscores the significance of the human-centered approach, portraying women as exemplars in a novel paradigm of innovation development amid crises. Design/methodology/approach This research uses the framework of knowledge management for innovation to focus on the challenges presented by complex crises, now considered the new normal. The study employs a distinct, human centric approach to explore the nexus of gender, opportunities and innovation, during crises, with an emphasis on the founders’ emotional capabilities and resources as catalysts for innovation development. Findings This research utilizes mixed methods; qualitative findings driven from AI analyses reveal women’s positive approach toward innovation development in adversity, showcasing the influence of their emotional resources in their innovation pursuits. The subsequent quantitative findings, derived from a sample of 464 tech-founders navigating complex crises, emphasize the role of emotional capabilities as activators of opportunity exploitation for enhancing innovation development during crises, particularly among female founders. Social implications The potential for future research lies in exploring diverse emotional dimensions, employing various measures and methodologies. Envisioning upcoming studies that extend our findings across institutional, national and crisis contexts, emotional capabilities and skills may emerge as critical assets relevant to all entrepreneurs, transcending gender boundaries. This paper’s framework sets the stage for promising avenues at the nexus of gender and emotional capabilities in the innovation pursuits, shaping entrepreneurial performance in both challenging and stable conditions. Originality/value This research contributes significantly in several key areas. Firstly, it explores innovation development and knowledge management within Society 5.0 during a polycrisis, emphasizing the crucial role of emotional capabilities in activating opportunity exploitation. Secondly, it champions a human-centric premise in innovation, highlighting women as role models for innovation during crises and introducing pathways to tap into external resources, ultimately enriching knowledge management. Thirdly, the innovative methodological approach using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to construct synthetic personas is groundbreaking. Finally, it advances effectuation, bricolage and dynamic capabilities frameworks, enriching their theoretical foundations and affirming their relevance for innovation development amid instability.

Fixing crisis, transforming landscapes: Social, spatial, ecological, and racial fixes in New Deal South Carolina

This article examines the spatial, social, ecological, and racial fixes of the Santee-Cooper Project, a New Deal hydroelectric project constructed between 1938 and 1942 that inundated the homes of 901 Black, Indigenous, and poor White families in central South Carolina. Drawing upon Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s concept of crisis, and Clyde Woods and David Harvey’s notion of the (socio-)spatial fix, the research underscores how the New Deal attempted to address economic, political, and racial crises by implementing a series of fixes aimed at stabilizing economic markets while reshaping ecological and racial landscapes. This article reveals how the New Deal reconfigured Black geographies and ecologies, displacing communities and ecosystems in the name of progress. By scrutinizing local administrative practices and broader regional consequences, the article highlights the far-reaching impacts of state-initiated development amid crises of racial capitalism. The analysis concludes with an attention to the Green New Deal, pushing back against the fixity inherent in the original public works program, and advocating for a nuanced approach to repair in the face of environmental crises. By reassessing the historical significance of the New Deal and the missteps made in the face of early 20th-century crises, this research informs debates on socio-environmental justice and equitable development, offering guidance for navigating crises in the modern era.

Risk Management Strategies in the Tourism Industry: Developing an ANP Model for Risk Reduction and Resilience Enhancement Amid Crises

This study investigates risk management strategies in the tourism industry by developing an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model that aims to increase resilience and reduce risks during crises. The tourism sector is inherently vulnerable to a variety of uncertainties, including natural disasters, economic fluctuations, and global health emergencies. Through a comprehensive analysis of key factors such as destination characteristics, stakeholder capacity, regulation, and market dynamics, the study identifies three key strategies: Integrated Public-Private Collaboration Model, Adaptive and Resilient-Based Model, and Smart Technology-Based Model. The results show that the Adaptive and Resilient-Based Model is a top priority for effective risk mitigation, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and adaptability. The results showed that the Adaptive and Resilient-Based Model is a top priority for effective risk mitigation, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and adaptability. Key elements supporting this model include robust infrastructure, advanced technology, skilled human resources, and strong collaboration between stakeholders. The findings provide practical guidance for policymakers and industry stakeholders, highlighting the importance of innovative and sustainable approaches to strengthen the tourism industry's resilience to dynamic risks and crises.

Leading Beyond Limits: A Conceptual Framework for Success in the Volatile World

This article presents a conceptual framework for leading beyond limits in today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment. It argues that traditional leadership models are insufficient and organizations must cultivate expansive thinking, adaptive problem solving, empowering leadership, and trust-based, agile cultures. Expansive thinking involves envisioning possibilities beyond norms through cognitive flexibility and creative problem solving. Adaptive problem solving enables agility through problem identification, solution generation, and implementation with openness to change. Empowering leadership develops trust, shares power, and recognizes grassroots contributions to problem solve autonomously. High-trust cultures lower coordination costs, boost innovation, and allow risk-taking without fear through psychological safety and continuous adaptation. The framework is grounded in research and practical examples, such as how Whole Foods, Ford, GitHub, and 3M demonstrated beyond-limits leadership amid crises. The author contends mastering these constructs will empower extraordinary results by unleashing human potential amid ongoing industry transformation.

Academic stress, well-being and students' friendship quality amid crisis: lessons from COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThrough the lens of the Social Exchange Theory, this study investigates the role of emotional and psychological well-being in explaining the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional quantitative research design, the study gathered data from 298 tertiary students. Statistical analysis was conducted using Hayes Process Macro in SPSS.FindingsResults from the study challenge conventional assumptions, indicating a positive and significant relationship between academic stress and friendship quality. In addition, the study revealed that psychological well-being partially mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality, while emotional well-being fully mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the tertiary institutions in Ghana. Future studies may consider expanding the scope to other levels of education to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the variables of the study.Originality/valueThis study presents a novel approach by examining the proposed model within the Ghanaian setting. It offers valuable perspectives on the interplay between academic stress, well-being, and friendship quality.

Exploring panic buying as a situational response – the role of fear, media exposure and context-specific paranoia

PurposeDrawing on prospect theory, terror management theory, and social influence theories, this study explores the phenomenon of panic buying amid the COVID-19 pandemic, namely its situational antecedents such as fear of COVID-19, increased media exposure to COVID-19-related news, and context-specific paranoia. It offers insight into the situational nature of panic buying, contrary to the purely dispositional/trait conceptualization of irrational spending, usually depicted through the phenomenon of compulsive buying.Design/methodology/approachThis is a cross-sectional study. An online questionnaire was used for data collection from 621 Croatian citizens. The questionnaire features a series of validated instruments designed to measure compulsive buying, fear of COVID-19, and context-specific paranoia. The media exposure scale (MES) was also specifically developed and empirically tested for the purpose of this research.FindingsThe results suggest that individuals who exhibited greater fear of COVID-19 while also experiencing increased exposure to COVID-19-related news were more likely to engage in panic buying. This connection has remained significant even after controlling for compulsive buying tendencies, suggesting that panic buying witnessed during the coronavirus pandemic was a situational phenomenon, not strictly dispositional. This establishes the fear of COVID-19 and increased exposure to pandemic-related news content as situational antecedents to panic buying. After controlling for compulsive buying, this paper does not demonstrate a significant connection between context-specific paranoia and panic buying. Furthermore, context-specific paranoia does not mediate the relationship between media exposure to pandemic-related content and panic buying, whereas the fear of COVID-19 significantly mediates the same relationship.Practical implicationsThis study recognizes people's panic behavior amid the COVID-19 pandemic as a byproduct of a situational, reactive process – not a psychopathological one. Furthermore, it recognizes media sensationalism and the audience's impaired capacity for rational spending as major risk factors preceding the event of panic buying.Originality/valueThis study proposes a novel conceptual framework of irrational spending amid crises such as COVID-19 pandemic, introducing the differentiation between the situational nature of the phenomenon (panic buying), thereby separating it from its previous dispositional operationalizations (hoarding, compulsive buying).

Global crisis and research production: COVID-19 as shaper and shaker or micro-interruption?

This special issue asks what happens to international research and collaboration when the research community becomes temporarily immobilized. The COVID-19 global pandemic powerfully disrupted normal ways of doing research and, therefore, created a perfect natural experiment of the “otherwise” for digital qualitative research in sensitive contexts. The collected papers argue that the lessons extracted from this recent global health crisis should shape our thinking on qualitative research amid crisis and research on the crisis. The authors speak to core themes like the digital platforming of research, continued inequality in research relations, and the concept of compounding crises. The special issue reflects on the authors’ own experiences with international collaborations during COVID-19 in a multiplicity of contexts from Peru, to Pakistan, Mexico and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. This introductory essay argues that the uniquely rapid and global context of COVID-19 offered a glimpse into one possible alterity of research production. It extracts lessons for the present and future, not only for other global crises, but for willed disruptions of research relations so that these are marked by less inequality and more balanced power relations.

Formal and informal hospital emergency management practices: managing for safety and performance amid crisis.

Although formal preparedness for unexpected crises has long been a concern of health care policy and delivery, many hospitals struggled to manage staff and equipment shortages, precarious finances, and supply chain disruptions among other difficulties during the Coronavirus disease pandemic. Our purpose was to analyze how hospitals used formal and informal emergency management practices to maintain safe and high-quality care while responding to crisis. We conducted a qualitative study based on 26 interviews with hospital leaders and emergency managers from 12 US hospitals, purposively sampled to vary along geographic location, urban/rural delineation, size, resource availability, system membership, teaching status, and performance levels among other characteristics. In order to manage staff, space, supplies, and system- related challenges, hospitals engaged formal and informal practices around planning, teaming, and exchanging resources and information. Relying solely only on formal or informal practices proved inadequate, especially when prespecified plans, the incident command structure, and existing contracts and communication platforms failed to support resilient response. We identified emergent capabilities-imaginative planning, recombinant teaming, and transformational exchange-through which hospitals achieved harmonious interplay between the formal and informal practices of emergency management that supported safe care and resilience amid crisis. Managing emergent challenges for and amid crisis calls for health care delivery organizations to engage creative planning processes, enable motivated workers with diverse skill sets to team up, and establish rich inter- and intra-organizational partnerships that support vital exchange.

Effect of coping strategies on household food insecurity in Pakistan amid global economic crisis

AbstractFood insecurity tends to be more prevalent amid crises. Several households employ various coping strategies to soften the crisis's financial impact and access adequate food for consumption. This study investigates the impact of various coping strategies on household food insecurity in Pakistan. The study endeavours to identify a more effective coping strategy for reducing food insecurity amid an economic crisis. The study uses nationally represented data surveyed to ‘evaluate the socio‐economic impact of a pandemic on the well‐being of people’. We applied the Ordered Logit and Inverse Probability Weighting model to estimate the aftermath of coping strategies on food insecurity levels. The study's findings suggest that a household that used coping strategies amid crisis is a vulnerable household and more likely to have food insecurity status. Moreover, the study suggests that the coping strategies’ extent (quantity) is positively associated with the likelihood of food insecurity. Finally, the study's aftermath suggests that amongst the different coping strategies, the erosive coping strategy has a lower likelihood of incidence of food insecurity than other strategies. However, within the erosive coping strategies, a household sold real estate asset has less likelihood of being food insecure than other erosive coping strategies. Moreover, spending savings or investments and liquidating real estate are crucial in determining the household's food security status amid the crisis. The study's key findings put forth some potential policy implications related to strategies that can hedge against the crisis and promote resilience in the face of food insecurity.

Perspectives: COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Adventist Educators in South Asia: Teaching Amid Crisis

Perspectives: COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Adventist Educators in South Asia: Teaching Amid Crisis

From optimist to sceptical liberalism: reforging European Union foreign policy amid crises

Abstract Russia's invasion of Ukraine brought both condemnation and vindication to the European Union. EU policies were condemned for being complacent, naive and greedy. However, when European leaders conducted a coordinated response backing Ukraine, the war also vindicated the EU as a liberal project. The crisis has led to a surge in support for the EU, unprecedented cooperation across policy areas and new accession negotiations with the EU's eastern neighbours. To understand this shift, the article argues that crisis has catalysed the EU becoming a sceptical liberal actor. Sceptical liberalism is characterized by a bleak view on the trajectory of the international order, a self-critical understanding of Europe's role in it, and a willingness to intervene, including with military means, to tackle political predicaments. The transition changes EU leaders' previous optimistic liberal approach of pursuing peace and prosperity though mediation and interdependence. Distinguishing between ideals and actions, the article argues that liberal ideals remain intact, but a sceptical outlook implies different actions to pursue those ideals. The article's argument challenges longstanding scholarly debates on ‘normal versus normative power Europe’, which build on an excessively bifurcated assessment of EU foreign policy that fails to capture contemporary dynamics and the dilemmas they cause.

Information Politics and Propaganda in Authoritarian Societies

What role does propaganda play in the information politics of authoritarian societies, and what is its relationship to censorship? What have we learned from rival accounts in recent literature about why states produce it? While regimes clearly invest in propaganda believing that it is effective, there is still much to learn about whether, when, and how it actually is effective. We first discuss some of the tensions inherent in distinguishing between persuasive and dominating, soft and hard, propaganda. We then review efforts to understand the conditions under which propaganda changes attitudes and/or behavior in terms of propaganda's content, relational factors, aspects of the political environment, and citizens’ own predispositions. We highlight the need for more research on propaganda in authoritarian settings, especially on how patterns of its consumption may change amid crises, technological shifts, and direct state interventions.

Informing Policy and Responding to Crisis

This article explores historians’ role in shaping public policy amid crises through the programs of the Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS). ISHS navigated the post-2008 recession, aligning with the History Relevance Campaign to redefine history’s societal value and develop a legislative outreach program. This article encapsulates the ISHS’s journey and history’s power—through the agency’s new briefing paper program—to inform, unite, guide policy, and promote informed governance. The article describes the author’s workflow, which features traditional research methodology and adaptable project management philosophies and stresses the value of searchable research libraries as a framework for historians to manage multiple projects.

Blockchain technology in a crisis: Advantages, challenges, and lessons learned for enhancing food supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study explores the implementation of blockchain technology in the Chinese food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic and examines its advantages and challenges. This study uses an interpretive research strategy and theoretical framework to gather positive feedback on blockchain technology from the fresh vegetable food industry, online retailers, state-owned enterprises, the meat industry, the dairy industry, and retail stores. These findings highlight the potential benefits of blockchain, including enhanced efficiency, transparency, reliability, and traceability in the food supply chain. However, difficulties with labor data management, interoperability, data accuracy, financial constraints, and regulatory considerations have been identified. This study collects comprehensive data on labor management, standardized protocols, verification mechanisms, barrier-reduction efforts, and collaboration with stakeholders and regulators to address these challenges. This study aimed to create a more resilient and efficient food supply chain system by providing a roadmap for prioritizing improvements. The practical implications include risk management strategies, targeted support for farmers, and investments in sustainable agricultural practices to ensure food security. Overall, this study provides valuable insights for harnessing the potential of blockchain technology to strengthen the Chinese food supply chain amid crises.

The Entrepreneurial Public Servant: Unlocking Employee Potential Through Recognition and Inclusion

Can public sector employees act as entrepreneurs and help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems? Amid crises such as COVID-19, rising inflation, and climate disasters, governments worldwide are facing credibility and legitimacy crises, and the need for innovation and entrepreneurship in the public sector has never been more critical. To understand how to make public servants more entrepreneurial, this study explores the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices, person-environment fit theory, and attitudes toward public sector entrepreneurship. Based on data from the 2019 Australian Public Service census survey ( n = 92,128), this study finds the practices of promoting employee recognition and inclusion exhibit the strongest effects on entrepreneurial attitudes of public servants, via person-job and person-organization fit respectively. However, practices such as performance appraisal and trainings show irrelevant effects. Overall, this article suggests that public managers should instill a culture of inclusion, innovation, and participation within their organizations to unleash the entrepreneurial public servant, while they need to rethink their performance appraisal systems to serve better the purpose of improving employees fit with their tasks.

Adapting Amid Crisis: Unveiling the Virtual Journey of Catholic University Nursing Students

Adapting Amid Crisis: Unveiling the Virtual Journey of Catholic University Nursing Students

Destination Marketing and Domestic Tourist Satisfaction: The Intervening Effect of Customer-Based Destination Brand Equity

A mediation model of the interplay between customer-based destination brand equity and destination marketing in domestic tourists’ satisfaction during a prolonged crisis is presented. The cross-sectional deductive study analyses data from n = 400 South African domestic tourists. The findings clarify destination marketing’s direct positive effect on customer-based destination brand equity and domestic tourist satisfaction. Significantly, customer-based destination brand equity is an explanatory mechanism in destination marketing’s influence on domestic tourists’ satisfaction. This study contributes to the burgeoning but still limited knowledge of the role of destination marketing and destination-oriented brand equity in domestic tourists’ responsive behavior amid crises.

Premature return of self-initiated expatriates in the spectre of a global crisis: a sensemaking perspective

Global mobility studies have focused on the repatriation of assigned expatriates in multinational organisations overlooking the difficulties that self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) face upon returning home prematurely. Recent converging global crises have demonstrated the precarious and challenging circumstances that SIEs confront when relocating abroad of their own volition without the security and support of an organisation. Applying a sensemaking lens, our qualitative study reveals that a global crisis’s volatile and unpredictable nature triggers a sensemaking process for SIEs on whether to withdraw prematurely or remain on assignment. Specifically, we unpack how, in attempting to put structure on what was a highly complex, anxious, and stressful situation, SIEs engaged in a sensemaking process of enactment, selection, and retention in deciding whether to return home early. This process involved interpreting varying contextual cues and emotions in acute conditions, processing conflicting information from a nexus of sensegiving actors, and engaging retrospectively in reflexive frames. Our findings enrich existing work on the challenges of SIE repatriation by illuminating the utility of crisis sensemaking to understand how SIEs navigate premature withdrawal amid crisis conditions.

Centralization and democratization: Managing crisis communication in health care delivery.

Communication is an essential organizational process for responding to adversity. Managers are often advised to communicate frequently and redundantly during crises. Nonetheless, systematic investigation of how information receivers perceive organizational communication amid crises has remained lacking. The aim of this study was to characterize features of effective internal crisis communication by examining how information-sharing processes unfolded during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between June and August 2020, we conducted 55 semistructured interviews with emergency department workers practicing in a variety of roles. We analyzed interview transcripts following constructivist constant comparative methods. Our findings revealed that at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic response, emergency department workers struggled with immense fear and anxiety amid high uncertainty and equivocality. Frequent and redundant communication, however, resulted in information delivery and uptake problems, worsening anxiety, and interpersonal tension. These problems were ameliorated by the emergence of contextual experts who centralized and democratized communication. Centralization standardized information received across roles, work schedules, and settings while decoupling internal communication from turbulence in the environment. Democratization made information accessible in a way that all could understand. It also ensured information senders' receptiveness to feedback from information receivers. Centralization and democratization together worked to reduce sensed uncertainty and equivocality, which reduced anxiety and interpersonal tension. Establishing frequent and redundant communication strategies does not necessarily address the anxiety and interpersonal tension produced by uncertainty and equivocality in crises. Centralization and democratization of crisis communication can reduce anxiety, improve coordination, and promote a safer workplace and patient care environment.

Fostering Community Impact through Social Capital: Rent Control Policy in Palestine and Israel Amid Crises and Transitions

The article aims to link the theoretical framework of social capital with historical analysis. It traces a controversy of half a century between landlords and tenants in Palestine and Israel and their attempts to influence the government’s policy in the rental market during crisis and transitions. The article portrays social capital as a decisive factor in the success or failure of landlords and tenants to promote their group interests and impact rent control policy. However, as the two groups are competing over the same resource, the triumph of one group comes at the direct expense of the other. In that respect, social capital could act as “double-edged sword”.