Conditions Of Social Distancing Research Articles

International relationship management during social distancing: the role of AI-integrated social CRM by MNEs during the Covid-19 pandemic

PurposeThe research empirically examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) integrated with social customer relationship management (SCRM) in multinational enterprises (MNEs) towards international relationship management under social distancing conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study initially undertakes pertinently focused theoretical research in the fields of international marketing, knowledge management, and customer relationship management. And, utilizing the theories of resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV) theory, the study develops a theoretical model that is subsequently empirically validated through a survey and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study highlights the importance and means of adopting AI-integrated social CRM by MNEs, in the context of international relationship management, under the Covid-19 social distancing conditions. The study more specifically elucidates the role and significance of MNE leadership approach and support towards the adoption of AI-integrated social CRM systems and, ultimately, performance improvement of MNEs under such conditions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study presents insights and prescriptive explications on a topic at the heart of state-of the-art technology-based international marketing in the explicit context of the primary business-defining environment of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research provides practicable suggestions to MNEs' leadership towards the adoption of an AI-integrated social CRM system. And the study presents a unique model for international relationship management under social distancing conditions, potentially applicable during other crises.Originality/valueThe research is original and on a ‘fresh’ topic that combines the latest technological advancements in business (AI-integrated CRM) with the present critical business context (pandemic). The research develops a tested theoretical model that (a) is unique in its field; (b) provides a solid foundation for further research; (c) bears generic value and application during other-than-Covid-19 conditions; and (d) enhances the understanding of important fields of international marketing, including international customer relationship management and global knowledge management.

Climate Change and Water Scarcity at the Focus of Environmental Impacts Associated with the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

The conditions of social distancing and home confinement imposed to contain the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) pandemic have changed the dietary patterns and lifestyle of society. These changes have had significant consequences not only for our personal well-being but also for the health of the planet. In this context, the aim of this study was to describe the effect of household containment during the COVID-19 pandemic on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to food and water consumption. In addition, the dietary pattern of the Spanish population during home confinement was compared with the usual dietary pattern of consumption for the immediately preceding reference year (2019) to elucidate in depth the environmental consequences derived from food consumption due to COVID-19 restrictions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) methodologies were used to assess carbon footprint and water footprint. The functional unit of reference was the average daily food intake per capita. The results showed that COVID-19 home confinement had a negative impact on the carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) of the Spanish dietary pattern mainly due to the increase in the amount of food consumed during 2020. The monthly analysis revealed two peaks in April and October for both environmental indicators in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, which was mainly due to the increase in food consumption in Spanish households during the weeks of confinement as well as to the new COVID-19 wave in October. On the other hand, an upward trend in GHG emissions and water consumption could be observed in the last months of both years, which is attributed to increased consumption during the Christmas holidays. These findings indicate that people should be more aware than ever of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and dietary pattern, in line with health guidelines and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The impact of social distancing on tourists’ preferences for anthropomorphism

Social distancing is an effective way to reduce infection risk during pandemics, such as COVID-19. It is important for the tourism industry to understand the effect of social distancing on tourist behavior to better adapt to this emerging environment. This study investigates the role of social distancing in tourists’ preferences for anthropomorphism. Based on three experimental studies, this study found that tourists tend to prefer anthropomorphism more under conditions of social distancing (vs. nonsocial distancing). This effect was induced by the higher perceived warmth of anthropomorphism when one had to practice social distancing. Such effects are only significant among tourists with higher levels of interdependent self-construal. This study makes significant theoretical contributions and provides important practical implications for tourism marketing and service design during pandemic and epidemic crises.

Evaluating the potential of suburban and rural areas for tourism and recreation, including individual short-term tourism under pandemic conditions

Limited mobility and restrictions in social life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s recreational behavior and made them seek more contact with nature. As a result, the provision of new recreational spaces in the vicinity of cities gained importance. In conditions of social distancing, rural and suburban areas can be an attractive alternative to individual short-term tourism, satisfying the need for recreation and mental and physical health restoration of urban residents. In the study a methodology for assessing the tourist and recreational potential of the area (METPRET) concerning the recreational behaviors identified in the pandemic was proposed. It includes the Recreational Potential Index (RPI), which comprises four criteria: landscape values and socio-economic conditions; environmental protection; air quality; transportation accessibility. The application of the methodology is exemplified in the Mazovia Voivodeship, Poland. The research allows the determination of characteristics that potential recreation areas should have under pandemic conditions. The RPI makes it possible to select new rural and suburban areas attractive for short-term tourism. Designating additional recreational areas may contribute to the dispersion of users in existing green areas in cities, which is particularly important during a pandemic.

Lean Investment as a Tool for Sustainable Development in the Post-Covid Era

This study explores the possibility of applying the concept of lean thinking to the choice of investment directions for technological entrepreneurship projects in the post-era era to reduce global and project risks and ensure sustainable development. The analysis of modern tools for responsible investment carried away, and the feasibility of combining an approach of sustainable development and lean thinking to create comprehensive support for the effective implementation of innovations in uncertain and complicated conditions is substantiated. Requirements for the methodological tools for selecting projects for investment formulated. They take into account the role of the organization in the investment ecosystem, support a social and environmentally friendly approach to the selection of projects, can be implemented in conditions of social distancing, and contribute to the construction of an inclusive economy of ecosystems. The concept of the methodology for choosing the directions of investment of technological entrepreneurship projects is presented, which contains two levels of decision- making — the project level and the project portfolio level. The basic principles of lean investment in the context of sustainable economic development formulated: the need to consider the long-term consequences of the implementation of a technological project; the need to assess the feasibility of the project based on the connections and relationships between the participants in the investment ecosystem; reducing the risks of financial investments for unprepared investors.

A Virtual Tumor Board Platform: A Way to Enhance Decision-Making for Complex Malignancies

IntroductionMultidisciplinary tumor boards (TBs) are crucial for decision-making and management of patients diagnosed with complex malignancies. The social distancing conditions imposed by coronavirus disease 2019 presented an opportunity to compare virtual versus in-person TBs. MethodsA retrospective analysis of attendance data from an National Cancer Institute–designated cancer center's gastrointestinal (GI) TB participant data from September 2019 to October 2020. In addition, an online survey assessing the virtual TB experience was sent to participants of all TBs. Interrupted time series analyses were performed to evaluate preintervention and postintervention GI TB attendance only. ResultsThe overall mean attendance for GI TB was 30 participants; turnout was higher for virtual format compared to in-person (32 versus 23 attendees, P < 0.001). This increase was seen across all participant categories: attending physicians (15 versus 11 attendees, P < 0.001), trainees (11 versus 8, P < 0.001), and support staff (6 versus 3, P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the mean number of cases discussed between TB formats. The majority of the 141 survey respondents (across all TB) were attending physicians with >20-year experience. Most supported a permanent virtual or hybrid TB format, 72.5% found this format to be more time efficient and with similar productivity, and 85.8% found it easier to attend. The majority (89.9%) felt confident that the decision-making process was not affected by virtual interactions. ConclusionsA virtual platform for multispecialty TBs allows for greater attendance without sacrificing the decision-making process. This survey supports continuing with a virtual or hybrid format, which may increase attendance and facilitate access to multidisciplinary discussions leading to improved patient care.

Effects of Social Distancing on Quality of Life and Emotional-Affective Sphere of Caregivers and Older Patients Hospitalized in Rehabilitation Departments during COVID-19 Quarantine: An Observational Study.

During the COVID-19 emergency, institutional social distancing conditions were established, preventing family and caregivers’ access to rehabilitation departments. Our study goal was to assess inpatients’ and caregivers’ anxiety, depression, and Quality of Life (QoL) during the Italian lockdown due to the pandemic. We investigated anxiety, depression, and QoL in 53 patients and 51 caregivers, using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF36). These questionnaires were given to patients after one (T0) and two months (T1) since the hospitalization. The BAI showed that anxiety was moderate for 7.5% of patients and 23.5% of caregivers, and severe for 35.8% of patients and 17.6% of caregivers. The BDI found moderate depression in 11.3% of patients and 15.7% of caregivers, and severe depression in 34.0% of patients and 9.8% of caregivers. Depression was higher in patients than caregivers, while no differences were detected in anxiety. Compared to normative data, patients’ QoL declined in all eight SF36 dimensions, while caregivers’ QoL declined only in social, emotional, and mental components. Unexpectedly, patients still hospitalized at T1 showed significant improvements in both anxiety and three QoL subscores. These findings emphasize the importance of psychological support for patients and their families.

The “A2UFood Training Kit”: Participatory Workshops to Minimize Food Loss and Waste

The A2UFood project aspires to design and implement a holistic scheme for the management of food loss and waste, covering all aspects of the ‘reduce–reuse–recycle’ philosophy. An integral part of an efficient strategy to combat food wastage is raising awareness and informing the public. For this reason, among the designed direct, in person, communication activities of the A2UFood project, the ‘A2Food training kit’ has a key role. The kit includes a short theoretical background and nine sets of participatory activities, and it is the first of its kind implemented in Greece. After their evaluation through workshops, all proposed activities were included in an e-book for further use. Activities are based on the Education for Sustainable Development framework and the Sustainable Development Goals. The dissemination model employed draws on adult education theory, in the form of participatory workshops and also follows the ‘train the trainers’ principle. All the workshops are based on the principles of active learning, related to real life experience and cooperative learning. Following these principles, the activities designed for the workshops aimed to bring participants’ pre-existing experience, values, and beliefs into confrontation with a new context. Responding to COVID-19 pandemic limitations, necessary adjustments to distant training requirements were also implemented. Through the training kit, we have trained 270 trainers and, by the end of June 2021, 19 of them had implemented selected workshops for about 600 students, all over Greece. In conclusion, the multiplicative power of the kit is considered satisfactory under the given pandemic-induced social-distancing conditions, and it will have a lasting footprint alongside the informative campaign, since it will be available for use in the future, either as a tool for the training of trainers, or as material to be used by the trainers.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Increases Mental Wellbeing and Emotion Regulation During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Synchronous Online Intervention Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed extreme living conditions of social distancing, which triggered negative mental health problems and created challenges in seeking mental health support. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been found to enhance wellbeing and mental health by reducing stress and anxiety and improving emotion regulation. Preliminary evidence suggests that online, synchronous MBIs may produce beneficial effects similar to face-to-face programs. However, the effectiveness of such online-MBIs to support mental health in highly stressful times, such as a global pandemic, requires further study. To this end, we investigated the effect of an online 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on aspects of mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N=92) who expressed interest in discounted online-MBSR programs were recruited for the study. The division into experimental and control groups was based on actual enrollment to the courses. Those who enrolled in a program were assigned to the experimental condition and those who decided not to enroll served as controls. Participants were assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1-month post-intervention for levels of mindfulness, perceived stress, anxiety, emotion regulation, and intolerance of uncertainty. Differences between the groups were tested using the general linear mixed effects model (GLMM) and Individual Growth Curve Models (IGCM) in intent to treat analysis. The findings indicated that, relative to the control group, MBSR improved mindfulness abilities (p <0.001), decreased anxiety (p <0.001), and stress (p <0.001) and increased emotion regulation (p <0.001). These effects were found to persist 1 month after the end of the program, despite the increased governmental public-health restrictions due to COVID-19 at that time. The ability to tolerate uncertainty, a central characteristic of the pandemic, was not found to be affected by the program. A mediation analysis revealed that the effect of the intervention on mental health improvement was partially mediated by the improvement in emotion regulation. Overall, the findings provide positive evidence for the feasibility of an online-MBSR program to support the mental health of individuals from the general population through the mediation of emotion regulation in challenging times, such as a global pandemic.

Respecting the GDPR in Online Interviewed Focus Groups

Since March 2020 the Corona virus has limited personal encounters due to social distancing measures. Thus, many data collection techniques relying on face-to-face interaction, like interviews or Focus Groups (FG), are now being practised in online environments. Such change requires the implementation of innovative measures to comply with Regulation EU 2016/679 (GDPR) and obey national data protection laws. Processing personal data of voluntary participants has to have a lawful ground and a clear purpose behind it. Moreover, the researcher has to respect legal requirements and principles for processing personal data, provide the participants with information about the research procedure and apply security measures to avoid risks to the rights and freedoms of individuals. This process has to apply to any interaction mediated by Web-Conferencing Systems (WCS). The purpose of this paper is to describe the legal requirements for conducting online interviews or FG under social distancing conditions. The project of reference for the application of these requirements is the EU Horizon2020 HELIOS project consisting of the development of a decentralised social media platform. Lay summary At universities or in industry researchers can interview people personally to test, for instance, the use of a specific technology. The objective is to collect data for future improvements. In 2020 people all over the world found themselves in a pandemic. The Covid-19 limited social meetings with beloved ones and also restricted the work of scientific researchers. Individual or group interviews could not take place in presence. Thus, a solution was seen in online conferencing platforms such as Zoom. Modifying the space and the way in which an interview takes place poses some legal challenges regarding data protection. Such conversations with individuals always have to apply European and national data protection laws. Among other things, this means that there needs to be a specific legal reason to process personal data and a specific purpose behind the interview. Additionally, the researcher has to inform participants about all the legal terms, legal guarantees and research procedure. All this applies as well if online conferencing platforms are used. In this article, you can find a description of the necessary legal steps to develop online interviews with individuals or focus groups and fulfil European data protection requirements.

Challenges and serendipities: group working under conditions of social distancing and dual modes of delivery

Challenges and serendipities: group working under conditions of social distancing and dual modes of delivery

The Globalization of an Interaction Ritual Chain: “Clapping for Carers” During the Conflict Against COVID-19

AbstractSociologists have long been interested in the theoretical possibility of a universal ritual. Despite a growing number of indicators of world society and globalization, there have not been attempts to observe and analyze the international reach of particular rituals. We propose an extension of the “interaction ritual chain” by theorizing how an interaction ritual might be created and diffused internationally. We look at the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created shared conditions of social distancing and emotional distress. We analyze a discontinuous chain of urban and national interaction rituals that focused attention on the efforts of healthcare workers fighting the virus. We count clapping and noise-making in 101 countries and 26 global cities. While we find similar ritual forms and international symbols of solidarity, there was also substantial evidence of conflict and particularism.

A virtual tumor board platform: A way to enhance decision-making for complex malignancies.

316 Background: Multidisciplinary tumor boards (TBs) are crucial for optimal decision making and management of patients diagnosed with complex malignancies. The social distancing conditions imposed by COVID-19 presented an opportunity to assess the value of conducting virtual TBs compared to traditional in-person TBs. Methods: A retrospective analysis of multi-specialty attendance data from a NCI designated cancer center’s Gastrointestinal TB participants from September 2019 to October 2020 was performed. An online survey, containing 21 questions, assessing the virtual TB experience was sent to participants of all TBs across multiple specialties. Interrupted time series analysis was performed to evaluate the transition from in-person to virtual TBs. Results: The overall mean attendance for Gastrointestinal TB was 30 participants; this value increased from 23 to 34 attendees after instituting virtual TBs (p &lt; 0.001). Increased attendance was observed among all participant categories: attending physicians (11 to 15 attendees, p &lt; 0.001), fellows and residents (8 to 11, p &lt; 0.001), supporting staff (3 to 6, p &lt; 0.001). There was no significant difference in the mean number of cases discussed between TB formats. The majority of the 141 survey respondents were attending physicians with &gt; 20-year experience. Of all respondents, most supported a permanent virtual or hybrid TB format, 72.5% found this format to be more time efficient and just as productive, 85.8% found it easier to attend, and 56.7% believe it does not lead to greater distractions; most would not support a “cameras on” policy (65.2%). The majority (89.9%) also stated that confidence in the decision-making process was not affected by virtual interactions. Conclusions: A virtual platform for multi-specialty TBs allows for greater attendance without sacrificing the decision-making process. This survey supports continuing this virtual format, which may subsequently improve care and facilitate access to multidisciplinary discussions for patients.

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF IASP – PAIN 162 (2021): 619–629: Cross-sectional study of psychosocial and pain-related variables among patients with chronic pain during a time of social distancing imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact, including on individuals with chronic pain. The social distancing policies necessary to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 have involved increased levels of social isolation. This cross-sectional survey study examined pain severity and interference among individuals with chronic pain during an early phase of social distancing mandates and identified characteristics of individuals who were most impacted. Approximately 4 to 8 weeks after social distancing mandates commenced in the state ofMassachusetts, 150 patients with fibromyalgia, chronic spine, and postsurgical pain completed demographic, pain, social distancing, and validated psychosocial questionnaires. Patients self-reported an overall significant increase in pain severity and pain interference, compared with before social distancing, although both pain severity and interference were quite variable among individuals under conditions of social distancing. Several demographic, socioeconomic, and psychosocial factors were associated with greater pain severity and interference during social distancing. Multivariable linear regression demonstrated that female sex, nonwhite race, lower education, disability, fibromyalgia, and higher pain catastrophizing were independently associated with greater pain severity, while female sex and pain catastrophizing were independently associated greater pain interference. The findings suggest that individual differences among patients with chronic pain should be considered in the planning, development, and prioritization of interventions to improve pain care and to prevent worsening of symptoms during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Estimation of undetected symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 infection and prediction of its spread in the USA.

The reported COVID‐19 cases in the United States of America have crossed over 10 million and a large number of infected cases are undetected whose estimation can be done if country‐wide antibody testing is performed. In this study, we estimate this undetected fraction of the population by a modeling and simulation approach. We employ an epidemic model SIPHERD in which three categories of infection carriers, symptomatic, purely asymptomatic, and exposed are considered with different transmission rates that are taken dependent on the social distancing conditions, and the detection rate of the infected carriers is taken dependent on the tests done per day. The model is first validated for Germany and South Korea and then applied for prediction of the total number of confirmed, active and dead, and daily new positive cases in the United States. Our study predicts the possible outcomes of the infection if social distancing conditions are relaxed or kept stringent. We estimate that around 30.1 million people are already infected, and in the absence of any vaccine, 66.2 million (range: 64.3–68.0) people, or 20% (range: 19.4–20.5) of the population will be infected by mid‐February 21 if social distancing conditions are not made stringent. We find the infection‐to‐fatality ratio to be 0.65% (range: 0.63–0.67).

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE FUTURE AIRPORT PASSENGER TERMINALS DESIGN

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge influence on air transport. For the first time two thirds of the global aircraft fleet were grounded;airports recorded a decrease of 70-95% in passenger traffic, and many airlines went bankrupt. The negative trends of air traffic operations automatically decrease airport aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues, bringing airports to the very bottom level of financial survival. However, after several months and after implementing the World Health Organization anti-COVID-19 measures, a small positive trend starts to be seen. The measures that need to be implemented have presented an additional problem for passenger terminal planning and design, especially if the introduction of new subsystems into the existing traffic flow, such as health control, is taken into account. Considering that current international recommendations from IATA ADRM are no longer valid, it is necessary to redefine the traffic flows inside the terminal and adjust the procedures of passengers and baggage handling to the new conditions of social distancing. Following that, ICAO Annex 9 recommendation that passengers need to be processed on departure traffic flow in 60 minutes went under question. New requirements for terminal space to keep passengers on safe distance, the implementation of new contactless technology for quick passenger processing, a thermal camera and health checkpoints, as well as other measures are now “new normal” for the airport business.

Detection system of facial patterns with masks in new normal based on the Viola Jones method

Covid-19 is something that was never expected, it can turn into an endemic virus in the community. There is a possibility that this virus will not be completely destroyed. This makes the world and Indonesia in an uncomfortable position. Two months with Social Distancing conditions, the Government of Indonesia has been preparing to roll back the sluggish economic wheel as a result of the implementation of Social Distancing. Therefore, the Indonesian people must live in peace with Covid-19 until the discovery of an effective vaccine. This condition is called new normal. This study designed a detection system of facial patterns using masks during the pandemic based on Real-Time Raspberry. The purpose of detecting face patterns by using a mask is to find out if there are masked faces in the image. Although it seems easy to do by humans, it turns out that this detection system is difficult to do without the help of a computer to process facial recognition because there are some difficulties related to location, point of view, light, and occlusion. This research has implemented a detection system using the Viola Jones method. Viola Jones method is a method to get fast, accurate and efficient results in face detection on images. This study using the Viola Jones method to adjust the threshold value, and form the Cascade Classifier in determining the face area in the image. This training can be evaluated the accuracy of the system by modifying the parameter values in the Viola Jones method so that this design can produce the highest accuracy for face images using masks and low accuracy for face images without using masks. From the results of trials with 100 face samples, the accuracy percentage is 90.9% and it takes a relatively short time to detect faces using a mask that is on average 15 seconds per sample tested.

Our Virtual Tribe: Sustaining and Enhancing Community via Online Music Improvisation.

This article documents experiences of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra’s virtual, synchronous improvisation sessions during COVID-19 pandemic via interviews with 29 participants. Sessions included an international, gender balanced, and cross generational group of over 70 musicians all of whom were living under conditions of social distancing. All sessions were recorded using Zoom software. After 3 months of twice weekly improvisation sessions, 29 interviews with participants were undertaken, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Key themes include how the sessions provided opportunities for artistic development, enhanced mood, reduced feelings of isolation, and sustained and developed community. Particular attention is placed upon how improvisation as a universal, real time, social, and collaborative process facilitates interaction, allowing the technological affordances of software (latencies, sound quality, and gallery/speaker view) and hardware (laptop, tablet, instruments, microphones, headphones, and objects in room) to become emergent properties of artistic collaborations. The extent to which this process affects new perceptual and conceptual breakthroughs for practitioners is discussed as is the crucial and innovative relationship between audio and visual elements. Analysis of edited films of the sessions highlight artistic and theoretical and conceptual issues discussed. Emphasis is given to how the domestic environment merges with technologies to create The Theatre of Home.

Modeling the movement of customers in retail space under conditions of social distancing

The paper considers the problem of modeling the movement of customers in retail space under conditions of social distancing, which is caused by the requirements to prevent infection and further spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19. A discrete model of a retail space, a model of a customer, a model of customers' movement according to the principles of functioning of a two-dimensional cellular automaton without memory have been developed. The retail space model allows to take into account the key objects of a retail space such as a supermarket/hypermarket: racks, cash desks, entrance, exit from the premises. In contrast to the classical models of representing a person using cellular automata, the customers' model ensures that social distance is taken into account by expanding the Moore neighborhood to about 2. In this case, the Moore neighborhood of order 1 is used to directly move the cell of the automaton representing the customer, and the cells of the neighborhood of order 2 are used to determining compliance with social distancing restrictions. The model of the customer behavior takes into account real-life situations: just like people, the cells of an automaton can “violate” the rules of social distancing. The set of rules for the customer's model is based on the general strategy of bypassing the retail space and contains additional restrictions regarding conflict situations for violating social distance, as well as a description of behavior in normal traffic and movement in the event of extreme situations. These models are implemented in software, which allows to control the settings of the simulation parameters. Heatmaps are used to visually represent the simulation results, showing the zones of pollution and zones of violation of social distance. The simulation results show that even with a slight increase in the probability of customers violating social distance, the number of distance violation cases grows exponentially.

ЗАБОТА О ЗДОРОВЬЕ И БЛАГОПОЛУЧИИ: ИЗМЕНЕНИЕ ТРЕНДОВ ПОТРЕБИТЕЛЬСКОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ В УСЛОВИЯХ ПАНДЕМИИ COVID-19

In the article the authors give an assessment of changes in trends of the consumer behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that care for health and safety of oneself and loved ones in conditions of social distancing, forced homing and blurring the boundaries between work and home are main drivers for changing the consumer practices of Russian citizens, introducing the new creative ways of consumption and the emergence of deferred demand. The authors show changes in consumer attitudes towards home space, self-care increasing. They conclude that due to self-safety and digitalization trends in consumer behavior have changed so significantly that consumers will not completely return to their old habits after the end of the pandemic. New technologies and digitalization are making significant changes in the consumer lives and practices.