Long-term Crisis Research Articles

Leading during long-term crises: an analysis of perceived effectiveness leadership in K-12 schools

PurposeThis research explored school leaders', teachers' and paraprofessionals' perceptions of effective leadership in special purpose private schools (SPPS) during long-term crises.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were derived from a purposeful sample of school leaders, teachers and paraprofessionals in Maine. Demographic information and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a complexity leadership framework and a qualitative interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA).FindingsThe analysis revealed four major themes, including (1) presence, approachability and availability; (2) the need for high emotional intelligence; (3) creating a culture of idea-sharing, compassion, trust, community building and value and (4) understanding and acting on the complexity of long-term crisis.Research limitations/implicationsThe research took place in one state and within one subset of specialized schools, thus limiting applicability to leadership outside this subset of schools and in other states.Practical implicationsThe results can directly support identification of strategies for leaders in schools where long-term crisis is a factor.Originality/valueCurrent research explores factors and strategies for understanding and supporting teachers and paraprofessionals in schools during short-term crises (i.e. school shootings, natural disasters) but largely neglects how to support teachers and paraprofessionals experiencing long-term crises in school settings which is increasing in prevalence post COVID-19. Results and implications of leaders and staff were explored and analyzed in schools that experience long-term crises.

What would have made work in the COVID-19 ICU less demanding? A qualitative study from 13 Swedish COVID-19 ICUs.

The COVID-19 pandemic stretched Swedish intensive care unit (ICU) resources to an extent never experienced before, but even before the pandemic staffing was difficult and the number of staffed ICU beds was low. Studies have revealed high levels of COVID-19 ICU staff burn-out and fatigue, and as similar situations with high demands are likely to occur in the future a better understanding of resources that improve staff resilience is important. Using the job-demand resource theory as a framework, we explored ICU professionals' views on demands and resources when working in COVID-19 ICUs with the aim to highlight factors that increased the job resources. Data were collected via a web survey distributed to COVID-19 ICU professionals, including both regular and temporary roles, working in 13 COVID-19 ICU wards in Stockholm and Sörmland counties during the spring 2021. A total of 251 written responses to the question "What would have made work in the COVID-19 ICU less demanding?" were analyzed using thematic analysis. One year later a member-checking focus group interview was conducted to validate and further explore staff experiences. The main themes were work strategy, fairness and support, continuity, accessible leadership, introduction/information, and crisis preparedness. The analysis of the focus group conducted confirmed the main results and the extreme demands on ICU staff during the initial stages of the pandemic. To increase staff health and performance in a long-term crisis our results suggest; maintaining workplace leadership, scheduling work in advance and, when possible, schedule for recovery.

Entangled Crisis Narratives in Germany: Strengthening the Anti-Systemic Public?

This article studies how crisis management and its narrative discourse are able to strengthen anti-systemic and far-right narratives. We compare government and opposition discourses during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/2022 and the energy/inflation crisis of 2022/2023 in the German federal state of Saxony. The paper argues that the two crises were intertwined not only through the existence of a ‘new cleavage’ between political mainstream and right-wing populists, but also through the authorities’ public communication that contained similar ‘crisis management’ elements: a—fairly unprecedented—stress on urgency, lack of alternatives, and rejection of consultation, justified by how high the stakes were to public health and welfare, and to national security. Our study offers insights into the interconnectedness of crises narratives and underscores the importance of long-term crisis governance that needs to better acknowledge the risk of turning opposition to government policies and its discourses into far-right anti-systemic mobilizations.

Is there a role for cooperative actors in the management of public housing? Hybrid partnerships as trojan horses for profit extraction or vehicle of housing commons: reflections on a pioneering project in Milan

After its expansionist phase in the XX Century, in most countries public housing has incurred in a state of long-term crisis that still lasts until today. With long-lasting disinvestment in the Italian public housing, many dwellings and buildings are vacant or in decay. Public housing companies yet rely heavily on dismissal and sales to cover high overheads and low rents. In this context, there has been sporadic experimentation of partnerships between public authorities and cooperative actors in enacting hybrid forms of management as an alternative to the sale of public assets. The article uses the case study of the Quattro Corti project in Milan and experts’ panels in four Italian cities to explore potential innovation pathways for public housing in different contexts and to identify opportunities and challenges of the involvement of cooperatives through partnerships for hybrid management. A main question is whether such partnerships may be trojan horses for profit-actors or vehicles of housing commons. The article contributes to the emerging literature on the role of cooperative actors in public and social housing policies.

Exploring the gender entrepreneurial dimension following a long-term crisis: the case of Cypriot and Greek micro and small firms

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine various key aspects associated with entrepreneurs’ behaviour following a long-term crisis. Specifically, the study compares the perceptions of female and male entrepreneurs operating in Cyprus and Greece concerning success factors and firm performance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Conceptually, the study considers the organisational adaptation literature (Miles and Snow’s typology).Design/methodology/approachThe views of female and male micro and small firm owners-managers operating in Greece and Cyprus, a total of 406, were gathered through a questionnaire. To analyse the quantitative data, independent samples t-test and exploratory factor analysis were applied.FindingsParticipants’ responses reveal similar levels of perceived importance between genders regarding adaptive measures and strategies to confront a long-term crisis, as well as perceived firm performance. Nevertheless, exploratory factor analysis highlights differences in how male/female entrepreneurs perceive actions that, as in the case of financial management, can safeguard the immediate outlook of the firm.Originality/valueWhile scholarly discourses on gender and entrepreneurship abound, important knowledge gaps still exist, for instance, in entrepreneurs’ problem-solving strategies adopted by female and male entrepreneurs following crises. In addressing this scholarly gap cross-culturally, that is, drawing on cross-national data (Cyprus and Greece); the present study makes an important contribution. Empirically, the study ascertains similar entrepreneurial behavioural characteristics between female-male entrepreneurs. Theoretically, the study validates Miles and Snow’s typology and develops a theoretical framework linking the typology and dimensions emerging from the empirical findings.

Management learning in public healthcare during pandemics

PurposeThis study aims to explore the management learning during a long-term crisis like a pandemic. The paper addresses both what health-care managers have learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the management learning is characterized.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a qualitative case study carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic at two different public hospitals in Sweden. The study, conducted with semi-structured interviews, applies a combination of within-case analysis and cross-case comparison. The data were analyzed using thematic deductive analysis with the themes, i.e. sensemaking, decision-making and meaning-making.FindingsThe COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by uncertainty and a need for continuous learning among the managers at the case hospitals. The learning process that arose was circular in nature, wherein trust played a crucial role in facilitating the flow of information and enabling the managers to get a good sense of the situation. This, in turn, allowed the managers to make decisions meaningful for the organization, which improved the trust for the managers. This circular process was iterated with higher frequency than usual and was a prerequisite for the managers’ learning. The practical implications are that a combined management with hierarchical and distributed management that uses the normal decision routes seems to be the most successful management method in a prolonged crisis as a pandemic.Practical implicationsThe gained knowledge can benefit hospital organizations, be used in crisis education and to develop regional contingency plans for pandemics.Originality/valueThis study has explored learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and found a circular process, “the management learning wheel,” which supports management learning in prolonged crises.

Analyzing the Use of Social Media Data to Understand Long-Term Crisis Management Challenges of COVID-19

In the past three years, social media has had a significant impact on our lives, including crisis management. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of accurate information and exposed the spread of false information. This paper specifically examines the COVID-19 crisis and analyzes relevant literature to provide insights for national authorities and organizations. Utilizing social media data for crisis management poses challenges due to its unstructured nature. To overcome this, the paper proposes a comprehensive method that addresses all aspects of long-term crisis management. This method relies on labeled and structured information for accurate sentiment analysis and classification. An automated approach is presented to annotate and classify tweet texts, reducing manual labeling and improving classifier accuracy. The framework involves generating topics using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and ranking them with a new algorithm for data annotation. The labeled text is transformed into feature representation using Bert embeddings, which can be utilized in deep learning models for categorizing textual data. The primary aim of this paper is to offer valuable insights and resources to researchers studying crisis management through social media literature, with a specific focus on high-accuracy sentiment analysis.

Mental health of children with special educational needs in the context of long-term crisis challenges: as seen by parents

Aim: To study the peculiarities of the mental health of children with special educational needs after 1.5 years of full-scale war in Ukraine. Materials and Methods: The mental health of children with special educational needs (SEN) as well as the peculiarities of the impact of hostilities on their emotional and volitional sphere was assessed through the anonymous survey of their parents using the questionnaire developed by the authors (25 questions). The research, which was conducted in 2023 using a Google form, involved 466 parents having children with SEN aged 6 to 10. Results: It was found that among the surveyed families raising children with SEN, 30.7 % of children were in the combat zone or zone of temporary occupation for a week to a month, 19.1 % – for more than a month; 36.9 % of children experienced relocation, 23.4 % were separated from their parents, 19.7 % witnessed hostilities; 49.4 % of children experienced an unstable psycho-emotional state (“emotional swings”) during 1.5 years of war in Ukraine, 40.1 % – restlessness, 38.6 % – anxiety; 23.2 % of parents noted that their children were “hooked” on computer games and social networks, 11.2 % – had problems with sleep, 10.5 % – demonstrated the emergence or increase in cognitive problems. Conclusions: The negative impact of prolonged stress during the war on the mental health of children with SEN has been revealed, which requires psychological support for such children from parents and psychologists.

Populism as a Threat to the Post-War Recovery of Ukraine

The article attempts to analyze the emergence and formation of populism in Ukraine. The role of political party leaders in the political transformation of Ukraine is studied, which allows us to understand social transformations caused by populism: populist parties are particularly prone to internal authoritarianism, often relying on a charismatic leader in the style of a strongman. It is noted that the political culture of the elite matters and shapes political institutions, and these political institutions influence both the process of societal consolidation and the type of political regime in general. It is emphasized that numerous elite groups are necessary for the functioning of democracy. The influence of the mass media on the results of the formation of public opinion and national voting is considered. The ability of populists to transition to personalistic authoritarian rule is emphasized, and this process is significantly accelerated during a long-term crisis, especially war. It is noted that one of the signs of growing authoritarianism is a decrease in the rights and influence of the regions and the regional political elite. The article concludes that after the victory, the ruling class and the political elite of Ukraine face two risks: the first is that it is quite possible to expect a further decrease in the level of trust of Ukrainians not only in the Verkhovna Rada, but also in the top political leadership of the country. And the second - there are likely to be splits within the ruling elite, which is usually one of the main factors in the collapse of a personalist or authoritarian regime. It is stated that after the war, opposition sentiments in Ukraine will increase significantly, and the opposition environment will be favorable for its representatives to try to compete for power. It is quite likely that after the end of the war, other elites and other leaders will enter the arena. Taking this into account, the authorities need to adjust to a difficult compromise with civil society, domestic business and foreign partners.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMPETENCIES OF THE PEDAGOGICAL STAFF IN THE CURRENT CRISIS SITUATION

Recently, the changes taking place in RA due to the long-term crisis situation (war, covid-19 consequences) are challenging for professional abilities, among which we specifically referred to the professional competencies of pedagogical staff and their changes based on the effects of the crisis. The paper presents the results of the study of the teaching staff competencies from the standpoint of mental activation, emotional tone and stress resistance parameters. Our goal is to show the manifestation of the above qualities as an additional resource in pedagogical activity, as well as the acquisition of new competencies. It is important to note that the modern conditions have been challenging for the professional competencies of pedagogical staff with the need to use technologies, as well as the changes that lie ahead came as a result of a number of effects caused by the crisis situation. Generally, the profession is made by competencies including the knowledge, skills and abilities and in crisis situation these components becoming the target. Pedagogical staff’s stress can be represented as the experience by a teacher of unpleasant emotions, such as tension, frustration, anxiety, anger, and depression, resulting from aspects of work as a teacher [9,11]. In recent years, steadily increasing costs and consequences of pedagogues’ stress has received growing concern. To reduce the negative effects stress has on pedagogues, more attention needs to be placed on these growing effects of the crisis [10]. Pedagogical stress is caused by environmental factors as well as individual characteristics. Major environmental factors include poor working conditions, scarcity of resources, heavy workloads, low level of ability to adapt to crisis situations, low level of openness to experience, emotional tone and etc.

Female Leadership during COVID-19: The Effectiveness of Diverse Approaches towards Mitigation Management during a Pandemic.

This paper tackles the question of how female leaders at national levels of government managed COVID-19 response and recovery from the first COVID-19 case in their respective countries through to 30 September 2021. The aim of this study was to determine which COVID-19 mitigations were effective in lowering the viral reproduction rate and number of new cases (per million) in each of the fourteen female presidents' countries-Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, and Taiwan. We first compared these countries by finding a mean case rate (29,420 per million), mean death rate (294 per million), and mean excess mortality rate (+1640 per million). We then analyzed the following mitigation measures per country: school closing, workplace closing, canceling public events, restrictions on gatherings, closing public transport, stay-at-home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, international travel controls, income support, debt/contract relief, fiscal measures, international support, public information campaigns, testing policy, contact tracing, emergency investment in healthcare, investment in vaccines, facial coverings, vaccination policy, and protection of the elderly. We utilized the random forest approach to examine the predictive significance of these variables, providing more interpretability. Subsequently, we then applied the Wilcoxon rank-sum statistical test to see the differences with and without mitigation in effect for the variables that were found to be significant by the random forest model. We observed that different mitigation strategies varied in their effectiveness. Notably, restrictions on internal movement and the closure of public transportation proved to be highly effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Embracing qualities such as community-based, empathetic, and personable leadership can foster greater trust among citizens, ensuring continued adherence to governmental policies like mask mandates and stay-at-home orders, ultimately enhancing long-term crisis management.

The clocks run at slightly different speeds. Clashing timeframes in COVID-19 health risk governance

Decision-making processes in times of crisis are rarely scrutinised. In this study we open up the ‘black box’ of regional COVID-19 decision-making. From March 2020 to June 2021, we had the unique opportunity to do (mostly) on-site ethnographic research and watch the unfolding of COVID-19 decision-making, as this took place in meetings. This enabled us to examine how timeframes played a key role within an important decision-making forum in the Netherlands: the ‘regional safety authority’, responsible for regional crisis and disaster management. Our study highlights how timeframes structure the ways in which normative choices and dilemmas are considered and political decisions are made. We identify three timeframes that ‘perform’ a specific temporality: the ‘no time to waste’ frame, the ‘taking the time’ frame and the ‘future time’ frame. These timeframes form a specific composition of (1) patterns of action, (2) objects at risk, and (3) values that feature in decision-making. We reveal how the ‘no time to waste’ frame dominated decision-making, producing a solitary focus on a rather narrow concept of safety, while other timeframes and other voices, measures and values were marginalised. We argue that timeframes can and should be negotiated and made explicit in a balanced approach to governing a pandemic or other types of long-term crisis.

Adaptation strategies for building supply chain viability: A case study analysis of the global automotive industry re-purposing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically transformed the automotive industry by adversely affecting and seriously disrupting its global networks with regards to degree of severity and complexity, scale and impact duration. The conventional disruption mitigation measures showed to be inadequate in assisting businesses to survive in this extremely volatile and deeply uncertain environment. Through design of multiple case-studies and a cross-case analysis, we uncover repurposing practices, which have been used in the automotive industry to maintain operations and deliver highly demanded medical items. Our results show that a combination of repurposing, intertwining, scalability, and substitution represents the most effective way for increasing supply chain viability during a long-term crisis. The proposed conceptual framework consists of three constructs, namely adapting supply chains and operations, rethinking sourcing strategy and building intertwined supply networks, as well as five viability capabilities including adaptability, agility, flexibility, collaboration and visibility. The framework can be used by supply chain managers as a guidance for creating supply chain viability using adaptation-based principles.

Personal characteristics of small business owners and their strategic change behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to present and test a model of small business owners’ adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the lenses of the resource-based view of the firm, upper echelon theory (UET) and positive psychology. Specifically, it examined the relationships between personal characteristics and strategic pivot behavior in a sample of small business owners during a peak period of the crisis in Israel.Design/methodology/approachA sample (N = 202) of small business owners provided information on their business and demographics, and responded to questionnaires assessing their personality (Big Five personality traits), emotional intelligence (EI) and reported the extent to which they implemented strategic changes during the pandemic. These changes were categorized as “positive” (e.g. shifting to new markets, adding partners or investors) or “negative’ (e.g. letting employees go).FindingsThe results partially support an association between personality traits and “positive” strategic change behavior, mediated by EI.Research limitations/implicationsThe results suggest that business owners' personality traits, and chief among them – EI may play a key role in enabling flexibility when dealing with a long-term crisis or threat. However, market and legislative differences between markets may limit the generalizability to other sectors or countries.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to address small businesses’ COVID-19-related challenges from a personal-resource perspective by applying a theoretical lens integrating the RBV of the firm, UET and positive psychology. The findings provide a better understanding of the ways in which business owners’ personal resources account for business pivot behavior in times of crisis.

The Direct Support Workforce: An Examination of Direct Support Professionals and Frontline Supervisors During COVID-19.

Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) have critical roles in home and community-based services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Low wages and high levels of responsibility created a long-term crisis in recruitment and retention and are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A national sample of DSPs and FLSs were compared on demographics and work-related circumstances using data from the third Direct Support Workforce COVID-19 Survey. Significant differences were found in demographics, hours worked, wages, wage augmentations, and quality of work-life. Policy recommendations to address the worsening workforce crisis are provided.

NO-FEAR Project - What Have we Learned

Introduction:As the COVID-19 pandemic started, the NO-FEAR project shifted to real-time experience sharing to improve response to an unknown new threat. The lessons observed during more than 20 webinars were collected and analyzed at the end of 2019 to identify those relevant for future preparedness and response to another outbreak or new threats.Method:A questionnaire using a 0-4 Likert scale was distributed to the wider NO-FEAR community, where they were asked to identify the relevance of the item for future preparedness. Later the results were discussed by the consortium and put for feedback in a large meeting in Madrid in March 2022. The 78 observations were clustered into five categories: 1) The human factor (23) 2) Knowledge sharing, cooperation and coordination (11) 3) Equipment and supplies (15) 4) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) (20) 5) PPE (9).Results:The Top-rated observations were the following: The human factor: 2.3 need for updated, trustful information sharing with personnel (e.g. regarding treatment protocols, PPE, updates, etc.) to allow them a comprehensive understanding of the situation (3.73).Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): 6.1 need for PPE stockpile management, considering transportation, storage space, and risk of throwing away out-of-date PPE (3.63).Equipment and supplies: 4.3 need for solutions to increase equipment and beds capacity (3.56).The human factor: 2.22 need for management of fake news and mitigation of violent incidents against healthcare personnel (3.56).Knowledge sharing, cooperation and coordination: 3.5 need to collect data, needs, gaps, and lessons in preparation for future outbreaks (3.56).Better integrating health care into crisis management structures was highlighted during the Madrid conference.Conclusion:NO-FEAR highlighted the importance of real-time international real-time knowledge sharing in a crisis, the need to better address the needs of the personnel during a long-term crisis, and better integrate health into crisis management structures

An Acute Crisis adds to Unresolved Chronic Crisis

Residents in a community in the South Peninsula of the Western Cape, South Africa live with the reality of unresolved challenges. The women and children of this community face a burden from the prevailing inequality and structural violence that plays out in their daily lives as high levels of unemployment, substance abuse, violence in many forms, food insecurity, high school dropout rates and teenage pregnancy. The complexities of living in this community were exacerbated by the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown regulations that destabilised all previous notions of normality. The pre-existing social challenges can be viewed as the residents’ experiences of hazards and stressors that have been in place for years in the unequal social structures of South Africa (The World Bank 2022). In this environment, of what can be interpreted as a community in chronic crisis (Dekker et al., 2021), the addition of the acute crisis of the pandemic, posed further cumulative effects on households that impacted more seriously on those who are already the most vulnerable. This paper presents reflections on the stories of women talking about their experiences of the global pandemic to this coastal community. We aim to show the impact on their lives as members of families within their community. The analysis will utilise the phases of a crisis (Emergency Management, 2022) where the pre-crisis or prodromal phase was recognised as life in the chronic crisis of structural violence. The acute or crisis phase of the pandemic became a lens for the effects of an existing long-term crisis compounded by athe. The response or chronic phase of the acute crisis was again found to be exacerbated by the existence of a long drawn out response phase to the chronic crisis. This paper is a window into the innovative attempts by this community to cope with the immense challenges of Covid-19, followed now by the post-crisis (resolution) phase that reflects the ongoing efforts to rebuild the community in the face of the cumulative effects of the pandemic, as but a temporary diversion from the challenges of a continuous chronic crisis. The post-crisis phase remains incomplete, however, a deeper understanding of crisis upon crisis provides knowledge that can assist those implementing social interventions in this community to tackle challenges as a state of chronic crisis for residents.

The role of intellectuals in times of pandemic: Understanding Noam Chomsky's political engagement

The role of intellectuals in times of pandemic: Understanding Noam Chomsky's political engagement

Perpetual ontological crisis: national division, enduring anxieties and South Korea’s discursive relationship with Japan

The broad agenda of ontological security scholarship in International Relations is to examine states’ (in)security of Self-identity and the implications for their international conduct. While ontological security may be an illusory goal, states vary in their levels of ontological insecurity, with more extreme levels producing acute defence mechanisms. Such ontological crises are therefore an important area of focus gaining increasing attention. Thus far, however, they have generally been conceptualised as ‘critical situations’: unpredictable, transient and practically resolvable ruptures of routinised practices. I argue that such a conceptualisation neglects the possibility of a more fundamental, long-term crisis of Self-identity, which I term perpetual ontological crisis. Such crises stem from inherent contradictions within dominant constructions of identity that may have always existed – rather than exogenous shocks to a hitherto secure Self – and are therefore irresolvable within the bounds of those constructions. I develop the example of nation/state incongruence: when a state’s territorial boundaries do not accord with the national spatial imaginary dominant in that state, resulting in an inherent and enduring contradiction. I then illustrate these contentions with a case study of South Korea, whose borders have never matched the imagined spatial bounds of the Korean nation. To demonstrate the implications of this crisis, I conduct a discourse analysis evidencing a nexus between enduring ontological anxieties concerning Korean division and South Korea’s persistently antagonistic relationship with Japan. In doing so, this article has important implications for how we understand ontological crisis and offers a novel account of its empirical case.

Financial sensitivity analysis of small lodging establishments during COVID-19

PurposeThe main stance of this paper is to draw an authentic and rigorous outlook in terms of the financial and operational performance of small lodging establishments (SLEs) and put forth achievable and practical economic solutions that demonstrate the relative effectiveness of the adopted measures. This paper also suggests practical solutions to help minimize SLEs' financial vulnerability to long-term crisis and to boost their resilience with relative measures by applying recovery revival strategies for this particular segment of the lodging industry.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have picked a locally owned resort hotel in Central Florida area and structured a real-life, case study-based inductive approach that is purposeful and offers rich economic outlook and analysis for the entire lodging industry, especially for the resort-hotel type of accommodation facilities. The main reason for why they only focus on one company is that they can fully understand the financial effects of COVID-19 on resort type of hotels and layout countering strategies. To achieve paper objectives, they have implemented cost–benefit (C–B), break-even (B-E) analyses along with a sensitivity testing approach.FindingsThe most striking result was that during the state-mandated shutdown period in 2020, overhead and overall operational costs associated with room sales and revenues were very high during this period that shrank the contribution margin ratio for rooms CMRw (room) and eventually yielded high sales volumes to be achieved at the B-E points vs lower sales volumes with almost the same average daily rate (ADR) levels needed for the B-E levels.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies should specifically delve further into a portfolio of SLEs in the region or state or nation wise because the units comprising the SLEs might be too small to muster the changes required to bounce forward for the entire lodging industry in the world.Practical implicationsThe resort's revenue re-optimization focus should center on financial re-benchmarking and business re-viability stress under different levels of shock scenarios. According to the different scenarios and calibrations for the ADRs, room nights, net present values (NPVs) of cash flows and profit margins derived from our main analyses, minimizing expenses and preserving cash would be the best key strategy for financial recovery during an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueIt is obvious that the lodging, hospitality and tourism industry are the hardest-hit industries by the harsh and adverse effects of COVID-19. The effects of pandemic are differently shaped on operations in different industries and subsectors. Therefore, the operational and financial evaluation for the SLEs as the core and a catalyst in the entire lodging industry can shed a light on the strategic financial recovery procedures with broadly applicable real-life and endogenous capabilities and reasoning.