Crisis Environment Research Articles

How Market Turmoil Affects Investors' Investment Psychology

Using bibliometric research methodology, this study provides insights into the impact of market turmoil on investors' investment psychology, revealing the significant influence of financial markets on investment decisions. The findings of the study emphasize that investors mostly exhibit fearful, extremely risk-averse emotions when faced with market downturns. Overall, the study advocates for a diverse approach to investment decision-making that combines different methods of analyzing market situations and controlling emotions to increase the stability of an individual's investment in times of market turbulence and reduce financial losses, leading to a more inclusive and prosperous economic landscape.With every arrival of financial crisis causing bankruptcy or severe financial losses for a large number of investors, finance exists for everyone. There has been a great deal of literature on what factors influence investors' investment psychology, but these studies do not do a good job of linking the influencing factors to a specific context, such as the severe impact of the 2020 New Crown Epidemic on the financial markets. The world landscape is ever-changing, and the crises that investors have to deal with are beginning to be complex, specific, and diverse. This paper collects and analyzes relevant literature to focus on the relationship between specific crisis environments and investor psychology, and divides crisis periods into two categories to illustrate how they affect investors' psychological activities.

Strategic IT Alignment and Organizational Agility in Nonprofits during Crisis

As the study of nonprofit organizations and their operating environment has become increasingly interdisciplinary, scholars have leveraged business strategies to increase knowledge and improve performance. This study considers how strategic information technology alignment can impact organizational agility among nonprofits that are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a dynamic and complex crisis environment. Using a survey of United States-based nonprofits, we find that organizational alignment as well as aspects of financial stability significantly impact organizational agility. This study concludes with implications for nonprofits to broaden their participation in a digital society by developing their capacity to strategically plan, design, and implement strategic initiatives that align the organizational mission and assist with agility. Further, a broader discussion on the need to expand the definition of alignment in the context of nonprofit organizations is made, particularly in regard to new initiatives to include underrepresented groups and diverse voices in strategic initiatives.

The influence of threat and right-wing authoritarianism on the selection of online (dis)information—a conceptual replication and extension of Lavine et al. (2005)

Abstract Over the decades, communication research has investigated the situational and personal conditions under which people particularly prefer attitude-consistent over attitude-inconsistent content (confirmation bias). In a central study, Lavine et al. (2005) [Lavine, H., Lodge, M., & Freitas, K. (2005). Authoritarianism, threat, and motivated reasoning. Political Psychology, 26(2), 219–244.] examined how right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and threat cause bias when processing political information. Their laboratory experiment suggested that right-wing authoritarians prefer attitude-consistent information in the presence of a threat. Given new crisis environments accompanied by various threats, we re-examined this interaction effect and conceptually replicated Lavine et al.'s central hypothesis in a contemporary media environment. In an online experiment (N = 1,118), we focused on selective exposure to verified news and disinformation and tracked participants’ selection unobtrusively. Contrary to expectations, the interaction between different threats and RWA did not increase selective exposure to attitude-consistent (dis)information. The results challenge the hypothesis’ underlying framework and make it necessary to consider new ways of advancing the theoretical model.

The rising cost of servicing public debt: challenges for fiscal policy in a crisis environment

The study is devoted to the challenges for the fiscal policies of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, resulting from the strong growth of public debt and its servicing costs under the conditions of the pandemic and war shocks. The purpose of the study is to answer the questions: i) what factors caused the sharp increase in sovereign debt yields? ii) is there a correlation between the degree of implementation of sound economic governance (SEG) principles and the cost of servicing sovereign debt? ii) how strong was the response of the sovereign deficit and debt to the shocks caused by the pandemic and war in Ukraine? iii) does the rising cost of servicing debt threaten the sustainability of public finances? v) do the adopted SEG principles remain relevant during periods of shocks? The study covered the 6 largest economies in this part of Europe, i.e. Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Slovakia, but its results apply indirectly to many other countries. The results were confronted with a plan for reforming the EU’s economic governance system in order to identify the fundamental challenges facing the countries studied in this context. On the basis of the study, recommendations were put forward for shaping the assumptions of the state debt management strategy and multi-year financial plans.

Tax aggressiveness in a scenario of economic crisis and financial difficulty: an analysis of companies listed on B3

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between economic crisis scenarios, financial difficulties, and tax aggressiveness in companies listed on B3. Methodology: This descriptive and documentary study employed a quantitative approach, incorporating a sample of 326 companies. Data analysis entailed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis with panel data. Results: The findings of this study suggest that a crisis environment does not promote the adoption of aggressive tax strategies by the companies within the sample. This contradicts established literature, which has posited that there is a heightened effort to decrease tax liability during periods of crisis. Nonetheless, it was observed that companies experiencing financial difficulties tend to adopt aggressive tax strategies in an effort to alleviate their tax burdens. Study Contributions: This research aims to contribute to discussing tax aggressiveness among Brazilian companies during economic crises, pointing out discrepancies with previous studies. Additionally, it seeks to broaden the understanding of tax aggressiveness in situations of crisis and financial difficulty, thereby enhancing the body of knowledge in the tax domain.

Lessons Learned from the Greek Economic Crisis and the Changes in Organizational Behavior, Focusing on Motivation and Leadership Issues. The Case of Greek Structural Design Engineers

The modern business operates in an ever-changing environment that is strongly influenced by technological, political, social, economic, and scientific issues. Their future and success are based on their ability to manage properly and to develop their human resources. Because of the economic crisis that started on 2008 the work environment worldwide changed in a great number of organizations. This sudden change of organization generated new topics in the field of organizations. Leadership and motivation in the workplace are two of them. The current work paper focuses on the in-depth analysis of a small group of employees (qualitative research) in a workplace with a strong influence from the Greek economic crisis. In the first part is presented the social and working face of Greece, the timeline of Greek crisis and its consequences. Empirical research conducted within the changing environment, its results, conclusions, and recommendations complete the current paper. The outcome highlights the need of efficient leadership, communication, and intrinsic motivation within the economic crisis environment.

Стратегічне управління ризиками на малих та середніх підприємствах в кризових умовах: концептуальна модель

This article seeks to explore the need to adapt enterprises risk management (ERM) to crisis environment, i.e., to the situation of martial law in Ukraine. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no ERM framework accounts for business operations in the situation of martial law (i.e. war environment). Organisational activities in hazardous, dynamic, and safety-oriented circumstances are researched in the area of high reliability theory. The paper presents the results of a preliminary literature review in these fields. As a result, the conceptual model "Enterprise Risk Management / High Reliability Theory" ("ERM/HRT") – which formulates the direction of the future research – was developed.

Adaptation, compensation and disengagement: how ICT competences influence nascent entrepreneurs' strategies in a global crisis environment

Adaptation, compensation and disengagement: how ICT competences influence nascent entrepreneurs' strategies in a global crisis environment

Blockchain revolution in the tourism industry: A semi-systematic literature review

This paper investigates the application of blockchain technology in the tourism industry, reviews its evolution and develops a future research agenda. A semi-systematic literature review was conducted of 98 publications from 2017 to the first quarter of 2023, indexed in the Web of Science database. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the most recent papers (2022 to March 2023). The research focuses on the improvement of processes, their interaction with other technologies and adaptation to the environment. However, the studies show the need for further study on social and legal aspects. In addition, blockchain technology could be an enabling tool in the face of new sustainability paradigms or crisis environments. Finally, considering new lines of research, five dimensions were identified (social, organisational, technological, sustainable and economic) as well as the need to develop a regulatory framework and interaction with other technologies.

Shaping and Branding Migration Policy: A Retrospective Analysis of Portugal’s Contemporary Model

Migrant populations have been consistently more vulnerable than others, with their vulnerability being exacerbated in crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In the meantime, in their effort to “flatten the curve,” governments have been adopting policies that have significantly impacted migration in various ways. The effect of these policies has found migrants suffering disproportionately from the social and economic consequences of the pandemic crisis. Mobility restrictions have stranded them in the host countries, often without decent housing conditions, exacerbating xenophobic and discriminatory treatment of migrants. The study focuses on the case of Portugal and, more specifically, aims to provide a contextual feature of historical discussions of migration in Portugal and explore the perceptions and branding of migration policies in a crisis environment during the Covid-19 pandemic through the framing lens. Using empirical evidence from a frame analysis of parliamentary debates, the article investigates how immigration policies are branded and framed within Portugal, while it also evaluates the role of branding in migration policy-making, particularly in crisis scenarios. Overall, the article underscores the importance of branding in shaping migration policies, emphasising its significance in policy making.

From COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine: evidence of a Schumpeterian transformation of food logistics

This study analyzes the changes that have occurred in food logistics in the three years since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the one year since the war in Ukraine commenced. Food logistics companies are highly sensitive to demand shocks, energy prices, and staff availability. In this study, “first-hand” information was collected in the Iberian Peninsula, and it showed a process of Schumpeterian transformation. This crisis environment in which food logistics companies have been operating has opened a unique opportunity to renew operating procedures and seek new solutions, products, and markets. Therefore, food logistics companies have developed more effective communication strategies and innovative, profitable, and forward-looking commercial strategies to adapt to the new needs of their clients, applied more efficient transport planning and management methods, implemented new technologies to increase automation and digitization in warehouses, transport platforms, and trucks, and boosted market concentration and investment in infrastructure. Therefore, public authorities and top executives must focus on promoting and facilitating these improvements.

Lessons learned in medical students’ remote social responsibility experiences during COVID-19 pandemic

Background: With the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, face-to-face medical education was interrupted. To make first-year students a part of the fight against the pandemic, “We, as well, are in the Fight Against Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)!” remote social responsibility project was implemented in May 2020. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the perceptions and opinions of medical students regarding their remote social responsibility experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Thematic content analysis of short-written reflection data collected to provide a deep insight into the experiences of the medical students was carried out. Results: The meaning and achievements of the remote social responsibility project revealed seven themes: “perception of social responsibility”, “perception of being medical students”, “perception of being a physician”, “fight against the pandemic”, “affective achievements”, “acquisition of generic skills” and “corporate commitment”. The findings draw attention to understanding the meaning of social responsibility, medical students’ and physicians’ role and responsibility in protecting health during the pandemic. Conclusion: Medical students providing social responsibility opportunities for their students during the pandemic enables them to be a part of the fight against the pandemic and ensure important gains. These gains also valuable in preparing them for pandemics and similar emergencies in their future professional lives. In addition, competencies such as communication in crisis environment, access to evidence-based information, informing the society that will prepare for crisis situations should be gained in the medical education.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL RESOURCE IN A CRISIS SITUATION

The problem of finding a psychological resource is extremely urgent in the crisis conditions of wartime. The social media are a possible source of psychological resources. The purpose of the work is to analyze the role of social media as a psychological resource in a crisis situation. Facebook and Instagram posts in the form of a "crisis narrative" served as empirical material. The concept of "crisis narrative" is used for narratives containing a description of the author's experiences in connection with problems caused by crisis changes in his life. More than 40 crisis posts (text, visual, and hybrid) were analyzed using content analysis methods. Reducing the traumatic effect of the crisis environment is impossible without a person overcoming internal uncertainty, accepting the realities of war, and constructive adaptation. Social media posts in the form of a crisis narrative are considered an available form for expression in words or other semiotic form of a person's experience of a crisis situation. One of the constructive forms of experiencing a crisis in the form of creativity is the publication of experiences embodied in a narrative in social media, which helps to reduce the anxiety and uncertainty of the person by connecting the reactions of like-minded people. Characteristic features of the posts are increased emotionality, sincerity, categoricalness, sometimes even aggressiveness, dialogicity and focus on finding a congruent addressee, counting on the psychological support of the circle of social media "friends". The peculiarity of social media posts is a combination of resource and creative possibilities: the need for a resource activates creativity, the possibilities for which are embedded in the very essence of social media. The resource potential of crisis posts is based on such a feature of social media as the ability to rally like-minded people around the thoughts or emotions expressed in the post, which provides the function of psychological support.

Küresel Kriz Ortamında Lojistik Performansını Etkileyen Faktörlerin DEMATEL ve BWM ile Değerlendirilmesi

One of the most important indicators of the economic welfare of the countries is the performance level of logistics activities. For this reason, the performance of logistics activities is susceptible to economic conditions. In recent years, the financial crisis environment, which has reached global dimensions due to the pandemic and war, has revealed that logistics management performances should be reevaluated. Therefore, it will be significant to reassess the critical factors that affect the logistics management performance domestically and globally at the country level. This study examined national and international critical factors impacting logistics management performance in the economic crisis environment. For this purpose, criteria determined from expert opinions and scientific literature review were evaluated by DEMATEL and BWM methods. As a result of the analysis, the factors impacting logistics performance were identified and interpreted in order of importance. The paper analyzes the factors impacting countries' logistics performance in the global economic crisis environment and presents an up-to-date evaluation.

Digital Addiction and Financial Literacy: A Study on University Students

Addiction, basically two groups are examined. The first is piracy of individuals, and the second is psychological theft. Examination as the use bodies of substances related to external factors constantly get used to these substances, depending on external factors, and undesirable results may occur when these components cannot be taken into the body. Traditional habitual hacking, which is described as digital addiction, brings with it an interest in technological devices and a lack of access to them. Digital components guide the spirits that feed the conflict in case the higher units cannot access the relevant devices, and tolerance for guests and other children is observed. Financial literacy, which is the other variable of the research, defines the limits of being able to make effective decisions about the management of money. This concept, which can also be defined as the act of saving information, does not include intelligent action in details such as investment, budget, debt, portfolio diversification. Financial literacy can also be interpreted as making behavioral decisions such as making financial plans, saving and spending results. Financially literate people are well versed in money management and are well acquainted with the economic processes of saving. This concept, which is considered important of financial resources in crisis environments, is evaluated as individuals' correct interpretation of their financial resources and acting in this context. The increase in the concept of financial literacy has revealed economic fluctuations. As a matter of fact, it is seen that countries and societies with high financial information have high savings. These countries are generally the ones that have learned lessons from the financial crises.
 The aim of the research is to determine whether digital addiction has an effect on financial literacy. In this context, university students were selected as a sample in the study, and a face-to-face survey was applied to 372 university students. Digital addiction scale and financial literacy scale were used as data collection tools in the research. Both of the research scales are in five-point Likert type. The research data were analyzed by the SPSS 26 program, correlation and regression analyzes were carried out between the two related variables that constitute the subject of the study. When the results of the analysis were examined, it was determined that digital addiction did not have a significant relationship on financial literacy. At the same time, within the scope of testing the research hypothesis, it was determined that digital addiction did not have any significant effect on financial literacy.

Regime-Specific Quant Generative Adversarial Network: A Conditional Generative Adversarial Network for Regime-Specific Deepfakes of Financial Time Series

Simulating financial time series (FTS) data consistent with non-stationary, empirical market behaviour is difficult, but it has valuable applications for financial risk management. A better risk estimation can improve returns on capital and capital efficiency in investment decision making. Challenges to modelling financial risk in market crisis environments are anomalous asset price behaviour and a lack of historical data to learn from. This paper proposes a novel semi-supervised approach for generating regime-specific ‘deep fakes’ of FTS data using generative adversarial networks (GANs). The proposed architecture, a regime-specific Quant GAN (RSQGAN), is a conditional GAN (cGAN) that generates class-conditional synthetic asset return data. Conditional class labels correspond to distinct market regimes that have been detected using a structural breakpoint algorithm to segment FTS into regime classes for simulation. Our RSQGAN approach accurately simulated univariate time series behaviour consistent with specific empirical regimes, outperforming equivalently configured unconditional GANs trained only on crisis regime data. To evaluate the RSQGAN performance for simulating asset return behaviour during crisis environments, we also propose four test metrics that are sensitive to path-dependent behaviour and are also actionable during a crisis environment. Our RSQGAN model design borrows from innovation in the image GAN domain by enabling a user-controlled hyperparameter for adjusting the fit of synthetic data fidelity to real-world data; however, this is at the cost of synthetic data variety. These model features suggest that RSQGAN could be a useful new tool for understanding risk and making investment decisions during a time of market crisis.

COVID-19 crisis and the incidence of hospital admissions for psychosis in France

ObjectivesWe aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the occurrence of new hospital admissions for cases of psychosis in France. MethodWe conducted a retrospective observational study from the French national PMSI database. We included patients hospitalized between 2018 and 2020 with a principal diagnosis of schizophrenia or delusional disorder with no history of psychosis in the previous 10 years. In total, we included 77,172 inpatients at crisis centers and/or in full-time hospitalization at 465 French hospitals. We assessed the number of inpatients during the year of the Covid crisis (2020) and the two years prior (2018, 2019). ResultsThe number of inpatients in full-time hospitalization decreased gradually from 2018 to 2020 by 10.6%. This downward trend was observed in all age groups. In contrast, in crisis centers the number of inpatients increased by 13.4% between 2019 and 2020, while a 7.6% decrease was seen between 2018 and 2019. The greatest increase was observed in the 31–60-year age category, and particularly amongst 46–60-year-olds, i.e. 38.0%. ConclusionThe COVID-19 crisis was associated with an increase in the number of inpatients with a new episode of psychosis in crisis centers but not in full-time hospitalization. The profile of patients in crisis centers was different from that seen in preceding years and included more middle-to-late age adults. Particular attention should be given to this category of patients in the crisis environment to prevent the occurrence of new cases of psychosis in France.

Local Governments Facing Turbulence: Robust Governance and Institutional Capacities

Crisis environments, which are becoming systemic, pose significant challenges to local governments. The present study sought to present an academic contribution by introducing an analytical framework designed to scrutinize the institutional capabilities of local governance bodies in effectively responding to the emergent structural nature of crises within contemporary contexts. The study centered its attention on the concept of robust governance and accentuated a collection of factors that facilitate proficient public administration: contingency planning capacity, analytical capacity, organizational management capacity, and collaborative capacity. The paper presented a broad analysis of academic literature on the subject and it defined an analytical model for assessing local government capacities to deal with crises. One of the achievements of this work was the identification of key indicators that elucidate the institutional capabilities of local government bodies in addressing crisis environments. Through the examination of these indicators, the suggested analytical framework offers a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the readiness of municipal authorities in dealing with crisis situations. Furthermore, it enables comparative analysis of local government systems in analogous contexts, facilitating the identification of exemplary strategies for enhancing crisis management. The analytical model needs to be validated in further empirical studies.

Pandemics, Populism and Democracy

Covid 19 pandemic is an external factor that imposed itself on the global stage. Societies are considered open systems that can be influenced by the pandemic. This research will firstly explore the obligatory etiquettes that have been imposedon people's lifestyles by the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. Secondly, it will study the triggering effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the populist environment. Thirdly, it will investigate the relationship among Covid-19, populism, and democratic systems. A qualitative research methodology will be used, specifically a phenomenological hermeneutic analysis of the phenomenon of populism in the Covid-19 pandemic crisis environment and its effect on democratic rights. Additionally, the different responses ofpopulists towards the Covid- 19 pandemic will be studied in order to see whether populist rhetoric triggers democratic decay of rights.

The features of the educational and training process of young female basketball players upon the crisis phenomena

The article shows approaches to the organization of the educational and training process upon the crisis environment that require mastering the ability to meet the requirements of problematic conditions. The study aimed to determine the specifics of the educational and training process of young female basketball players upon crisis phenomena. The following research methods were used in the study: analysis and generalization of data from scientific and methodological literature sources and the Internet, questionnaires, methods of mathematical statistics. 15 young female basketball players, temporarily displaced from Kyiv, Ukraine (the ‘Avangard’ sports complex) to continue the educational and training process in Valmiera, Latvia, were questioned using Google form. Questionnaire for determining the peculiarities of the organization of the educational and training process of young female basketball players upon the crisis environment consists of 30 questions.
 The organized questionnaire and interpretation of the results contributed to the study and comparison of the peculiarities of the training process of young female basketball players before the crisis, during the pandemic and during the war. The attitude of young female athletes to basketball, self-assessment of physical condition, peculiarities of priorities and the amount of load by type of training, the nature of problematic issues of training and competitive activity during crisis phenomena, positive and negative consequences of career development caused by the conditions of organization of the educational and training process were found out. The analysis of the answers given by the respondents contributed to the generalization of problematic issues of training young female basketball players, at the same time, allowed to identify modern approaches to the realization of the possibilities of the educational and training process upon the crisis phenomena.