The serendipitous impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A rare opportunity for research and practice

Developing an online information portal for enhancing society awareness of RPTRA (A case study RPTRA MAYA ASRI 13)

The long COVID-19 pandemic has limited the activities of Ruang Publik Terpadu Ramah Anak (RPTRA) such as environment cleaning, repair of RPTRA infrastructure, learning and others, as well as the lack of public awareness about the existence and importance of RPTRA to the public and foreign tourists encouraging the RPTRA to make changes in the dissemination of information about the activities carried out in the RPTRA through the use of technology to survive and grow even during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The methodology used in this research is Group Discussion Forum with the administrators of the RPTRA Maya ASRI 13 to learn about the needs and expectations of the RPTRA administrators regarding the web portal to be built. Then, the implementation of the conceptual model, development, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the RPTRA information web portal was carried out. The contribution in this research is to implement a conceptual model on the information portal built on the platform of the Website with the PHP framework, which is then evaluated on the results of the pre-test and post-test about RPTRA the Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test to test the effectiveness of the information web portal for general users. The results obtained from these tests indicate that the RPTRA Information Web Portal can help the public learn more about the existence of RPTRA Maya Asri 13.

Experiences of How Health and Lifestyle among Individuals with Knee Pain Have Been Influenced during the COVID-19 Pandemic, a HALLOA Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health and lifestyles of both the general population and of vulnerable groups. Individuals with knee pain are recommended to lead an active lifestyle to relieve pain but find it difficult to maintain health and lifestyle compared to the general population due to the cause of chronic pain, impaired physical function, and a diminished quality of life. This study aimed to explore experiences of how health and lifestyle among individuals with knee pain have been influenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews (n = 19) were conducted in 2021 and analysed with qualitative content analysis. The results showed how individuals with knee pain adjusted their behaviour and revalued their life to maintain health and lifestyle during COVID-19. Adjusted behaviours emerged, such as spending more time at home, becoming digital, and spending more time outdoors, while revaluing life emerged as having a positive outlook on life and sharing responsibility. In conclusion, behaviour was adjusted, and life revalued to manage health and lifestyle during the pandemic. However, the findings are probably similar to the general population, i.e., individuals with knee pain live similar lives as the general population despite knee pain. The results may contribute to alternative ways of maintaining health and lifestyle in various vulnerable groups and may be applied in situations other than the pandemic.

Study on the mechanism of public attention to a major event: The outbreak of COVID-19 in China

This study focuses on public attention to major events, which has become an important topic in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the background of the global transmission of COVID-19, this study discusses the relationship between information shock and sustainable development, which is rarely mentioned before. By developing an appropriate theoretical model, we discuss how the level of public attention changes over time and with the severity of events. Then we use data on the daily clicks on a popular Chinese medical website to indicate public attention to the pandemic. Our analysis shows that, in the first half of 2020, the level of public attention is closely related to the scale of domestic transmission. The marginal effect of the domestic cases in the first wave is 1% to 0.217%. After the pandemic was largely under control in China, people still followed the latest news, but the scale of public attention to regional transmission diminished. And when the pandemic quickly and severely worsened in other countries, people in China were very attentive, that is, public attention increased. The time interval of social reaction we calculate is fairly stable, with a value of between 0 and 5 most of the time. The average time interval from January 2020 to May 2021 ranges from 1.76 days to 1.94 days, depending on the choice of models and parameters. This study suggests that raising public participation in dealing with the crisis over the long term would be enhanced in China by media encouragement to pay more attention to small-scale regional transmission and the course of the pandemic in other countries. The goal of sustainable development requires dealing with health and economic crises much better in the long term. Thus, the model and method used in the paper serve to enhance general interest.

Role of ICT for workers’ safety at the workplace during pandemics: evidence from global data

Purpose

This study contributes to the extant literature on ICT firms by investigating the interrelationship between the health and safety (H&S) measures, market performance, and the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Design/methodology/approach

To conduct the confirmatory analysis by testing our hypotheses, data have been collected from Bloomberg of all ICT firms from five countries. The authors gathered from 2010 until 2020 as the research sample to examine the pandemic impact on market performance and H&S measures.

Findings

First, our results reveal a significant and positive relationship between market performance (proxied by Tobin’s Q) and the H&S measures of information technology (IT) firms. Second, the authors find that the IT firms have significantly increased the H&S measures during the COVID-19 period and were dynamic in linking employees’ adaptive capabilities to positive attributes. This has contributed to business success, resiliency, and sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

The authors used a quantitative method of testing our hypotheses. Future studies may consider checking the robustness using qualitative methods such as structural or semi-structural interviews.

Practical implications

The study offers valuable insights to academics, practitioners, stakeholders, policymakers, and international entities by fostering knowledge about responses to crises, integrating digital solutions, and disseminating digital information. The study also has implications on the health, social, business, and economic levels. This study is a call for international and local humanitarian organisations such as United Nations High Commission, Care international and many more to understand the gravity of safety of the workers in the workplace during the pandemic period and introduce a firm-level policy accordingly.

Originality/value

This paper is novel considering that the paper is unique in evaluating ICT firms’ market performance and H&S from a global perspective, considering the context of this historical pandemic.

Digital transformation during a pandemic: Stretching the organizational elasticity

How can firms turn their COVID-19 pandemic-driven digitalization efforts into sustainable digital transformation? Firms accelerated their digitalization efforts during the global pandemic to an emergency speed. This speed of implementation of digital technologies left organizations with little time to adapt their structures, processes, and culture to the new environment. We argue that firms currently remain in a stretched operations mode that will either bounce back to normal after the pandemic or ultimately lead to organizational failure. Seven in-depth case studies based on 11 interviews of top management support our argument and show that, during this crisis, firms have been operating in a state of exception. We take an organizational elasticity perspective to investigate this status and develop an agenda for firms to facilitate sustainable digital transformation. Our study provides important insights into organizational elasticity as a framework to manage the long-term organizational impact of the current pandemic.

How do digital technologies influence the dynamic capabilities of micro and small businesses in a pandemic and low‐income country context?

It is not clear how extreme disruptions like COVID‐19 pandemic affects the dynamic capabilities (DCs) of micro and small businesses (MSBs) in the context of low‐income countries. Therefore, this study makes sense of how MSBs leverage DCs through digital technologies (DTs). Using mixed‐method and interpretive research approaches, the first phase of the study applied a deductive coding technique to analyze interviews from 30 MSB managers in Ghana. Coding activities revealed 21 DC constructs of MSBs in Ghana. Next, we contextualized and simplified the DC framework by proposing an interpretive blueprint of DC framework applicable to Ghana and other low‐income countries. The second phase, through a questionnaire, progressed the research by assessing how DTs influence the 21 DC constructs. Findings suggest that collective DCs of MSBs as a business sector did not change in a pandemic situation; nonetheless, the extent to which MSBs demonstrate DCs increased by up to 82%; and the use of DTs such as mobile payment and social media tools increased significantly. Interpretive reflections on the research outcomes argued that whilst the collective DCs of MSBs remain the same, each MSB uniquely explored opportunities by manifesting different combinations of DC constructs and DTs, at varying extents, and the knowledge of how MSB combines DCs could promote MSB management and digital innovation as low‐income countries seek to recover from the COVID‐19 economic downturn. Consequently, this research extends literature and progresses the UN sustainable development goals 8.3 as it helps to enhance policies that promote digital innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth of MSBs.

Marketing platform products for successful customer outcomes: an empirical investigation of project process integration

Purpose

Cross-functional teams engage in developing platform projects which become the basis of many smaller projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine how project teams engage in front-end plan formulation and backend work implementation. This paper shows the critical linkage role of platform product practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines the conceptual framework and research model by using a survey questionnaire for the target respondents of product development managers from the USA and Korea. After refining processes, this study determines the items for each variable for the large-scale survey.

Findings

Results suggest that when heavy-manager and customers are jointly or separately involved with a project team for the formation of shared team purpose and mission, then there would be differences in terms of information quality, shared team purpose and mission and the project outcomes. If the primary roles of heavyweight leadership and customer involvement are to improve information quality in terms of reduction of uncertainty and equivocality, then the project team is empowered enough to work on the formation of shared team purpose and mission on their own. Platform product practices are a linkage between front-end planning and back-end work doing which guides more specific projects with shared purpose and performance goals.

Research limitations/implications

As the data collection was limited to the USA and Korea, generalizability across diverse contexts requires caution. However, the findings provide meaningful insight on how to manage projects in an environment of increasing complexity and ambiguity.

Practical implications

This study provides interesting insight into how project teams approach platform product development. Based on the empirical test, this study shows how cross-functional teams integrate front-end project plan formulation and back-end project work implementation. This study also presents how heavyweight manager and customer involvement addresses the front-end information challenges and influence platform product practices.

Originality/value

This study empirically tests the role of fuzzy front planning in impacting project team success. In particular, this study highlights the dynamic relationships between heavyweight managers and customer involvement, information quality (i.e. uncertainty and equivocality), and the nature of team purpose and mission which are all crucial for effective cross-functional teamwork.

Managing North-South Research Collaboration Projects During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Researchers from the Global North and South have collaborated for decades to conduct cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. The tools they used to manage their research projects remained virtually unchanged until the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak early in 2020. Since then, a lot has changed, including the nature and dynamics of research collaboration. How are researchers and project managers adapting to this change? Survey data, semi-structured interviews, and personal accounts from 102 respondents from 33 countries are used in this empirical study to investigate the impact of the pandemic on research collaboration projects. An independent non-parametric t-test revealed a significant difference in the research collaboration infrastructure and home environment between Global North and global South collaborators. The findings have practical implications for people involved in collaborative research projects, funding agencies, project management professionals, and universities interested in pursuing or sustaining North-South research collaboration during the pandemic.

Adverse consequences of emotional support seeking through social network sites in coping with stress from a global pandemic

This study explores how using social networking sites (SNSs) to cope with stressors induced by a global pandemic (in this case, COVID-19) can have negative consequences. The pandemic has imposed particular stressors on individuals, such as the threats of contracting the virus and of unemployment. Owing to the lockdowns and confinements implemented to limit the spread of the pandemic, SNS use has surged worldwide. Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress and coping, we consider COVID-19 obsession to be an adverse emotional response to the stressors brought about by the pandemic and emotional support seeking through SNS as a coping strategy. Furthermore, we identify SNS exhaustion as an adverse outcome of this form of coping. Finally, we analyze the intention to reduce SNS use as a corrective behavioral outcome to mitigate the negative effect of SNS-mediated coping. The findings indicate that: 1) the threat of the COVID-19 disease and the threat of unemployment drive COVID-19 obsession; 2) COVID-19 obsession contributes to emotional support seeking through SNS; 3) emotional support seeking through SNS exerts a positive effect on SNS exhaustion; 4) SNS exhaustion contributes to the intention to reduce SNS use. Our results advance Information Systems (IS) research by focusing on the use of Information Technology (IT) to cope with stressors that are essentially not IT-related; such research is largely absent from previous literature. Furthermore, our paper contributes to the increasing amount of literature on IT-mediated coping with stressors and reduced social media use.

The effect of toxicity on COVID-19 news network formation in political subcommunities on Reddit: An affiliation network approach

Political polarization remains perhaps the “greatest barrier” to effective COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures in the United States. Social media has been implicated in fueling this polarization. In this paper, we uncover the network of COVID-19 related news sources shared to 30 politically biased and 2 neutral subcommunities on Reddit. We find, using exponential random graph modeling, that news sources associated with highly toxic – “rude, disrespectful” – content are more likely to be shared across political subreddits. We also find homophily according to toxicity levels in the network of online news sources. Our findings suggest that news sources associated with high toxicity are rewarded with prominent positions in the resultant network. The toxicity in COVID-19 discussions may fuel political polarization by denigrating ideological opponents and politicizing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, all to the detriment of mitigation measures. Public health practitioners should monitor toxicity in public online discussions to familiarize themselves with emerging political arguments that threaten adherence to public health crises management. We also recommend, based on our findings, that social media platforms algorithmically promote neutral and scientific news sources to reduce toxic discussion in subcommunities and encourage compliance with public health recommendations in the fight against COVID-19.

Viewpoint: The co-evolution of knowledge management and business model transformation in the post-COVID-19 era: insights based on Chinese e-commerce companies

Purpose

This study aims to answer the question of how business models (BMs) maintain stability while coping with environmental uncertainties. This study proposes a dynamic co-evolution of knowledge management and business model transformation based on a comparative analysis of the focal firms’ BMs and their main partners in two e-commerce ecosystems in China.

Design/methodology/approach

The open data of listed companies regarding the introduction of emerging topics on the transformation tendency of BMs in the post-COVID-19 business world is qualitatively analysed. The theoretical foundation is based on a critical review of the literature.

Findings

Three aspects of the co-evolution between knowledge management and business model transformation are introduced. These three aspects are as follows: knowledge integration helps with multi-system business integration and decision-making collaborations; knowledge sharing helps to enhance cognitive ability and network value based on businesses; and the creation of new knowledge helps enrich the knowledge base and promote the transformation of BMs.

Research limitations/implications

Solely attributing a firm’s ability to cope with environmental uncertainties to its business model weakens the importance of its knowledge management. This study argues that the co-evolution between knowledge management and business model transformation also plays a key role in a firm’s response to issues post-COVID-19.

Originality/value

This study calls for the development of a normative theory of co-evolution between knowledge management and business model transformation, implying uncharted territories of knowledge management based on interaction with business model designs in e-business ecosystems.

Bonded design in the virtual environment: the transition of a participatory design methodology

Purpose

This paper examines how bonded design (BD), a participatory design methodology, was influenced by the transition to working in a virtual environment necessitated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Abiding by the participatory design tenets of creativity, learning-by-doing and mutual learning, the BD methodology was created for the specific purpose of fostering meaningful communication and interaction between two disparate groups. Previous iterations of BD are discussed, including its naissance with intergenerational teams, its adaptation to provide a framework for a university-wide initiative, the Faculty Information Technology (IT) Liaison Program that brought together faculty members and IT professional staff, and its current use in helping public librarians to develop with older adults, targeted library programming and services.

Findings

Analysis of the findings from the assessment of the BD methodology in different physical contexts demonstrates that the flexibility in the makeup and order of design techniques (discussion, evaluation, brainstorming, prototyping, consensus-building) makes BD potentially adaptable to online spaces. Recommendations for implementing the BD methodology online are outlined. It is argued that BD’s adaptability makes it an ideal method for creating meaningful and productive collaborations within both physical and virtual environments.

Originality/value

The proposed iteration of the BD methodology responds to a need for innovative practices to foster collaborative work in a virtual environment. BD is a unique, inclusive and cost-effective methodology to encourage meaningful interaction and communication between disparate groups in physical or online contexts.

Information technology solutions, challenges, and suggestions for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic

Various technology innovations and applications have been developed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic also has implications for the design, development, and use of technologies. There is an urgent need for a greater understanding of what roles information systems and technology researchers can play in this global pandemic. This paper examines emerging technologies used to mitigate the threats of COVID-19 and relevant challenges related to technology design, development, and use. It also provides insights and suggestions into how information systems and technology scholars can help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper helps promote future research and technology development to produce better solutions for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

Exposing Emerging Trends in Smart Sustainable City Research Using Deep Autoencoders-Based Fuzzy C-Means

The literature discussing the concepts, technologies, and ICT-based urban innovation approaches of smart cities has been growing, along with initiatives from cities all over the world that are competing to improve their services and become smart and sustainable. However, current studies that provide a comprehensive understanding and reveal smart and sustainable city research trends and characteristics are still lacking. Meanwhile, policymakers and practitioners alike need to pursue progressive development. In response to this shortcoming, this research offers content analysis studies based on topic modeling approaches to capture the evolution and characteristics of topics in the scientific literature on smart and sustainable city research. More importantly, a novel topic-detecting algorithm based on the deep learning and clustering techniques, namely deep autoencoders-based fuzzy C-means (DFCM), is introduced for analyzing the research topic trend. The topics generated by this proposed algorithm have relatively higher coherence values than those generated by previously used topic detection methods, namely non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and eigenspace-based fuzzy C-means (EFCM). The 30 main topics that appeared in topic modeling with the DFCM algorithm were classified into six groups (technology, energy, environment, transportation, e-governance, and human capital and welfare) that characterize the six dimensions of smart, sustainable city research.

Identifying Digital Transformation Paths in the Business Model of SMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The objective of this study was to analyze how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with environmental changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic by pursuing the business model transformation with the support of digital technologies. To achieve the objective, this study used a multiple case study design with qualitative analysis to examine the data obtained from interviews, observation, and field visits. Seven manufacturing SMEs from Indonesia were selected using a theoretical sampling technique, with the purpose of achieving some degree of variation to allow us to undertake replication logic. Our analysis demonstrates that SMEs adopt a different degree of digital transformations, which can be summarized into three paths, depending on the firms’ contextual factors. First, SMEs with a high level of digital maturity who respond to the challenges by accelerating the transition toward digitalized firms; second, SMEs experiencing liquidity issues but a low level of digital maturity who decide to digitalize the sales function only; and, third, the SMEs that have very limited digital literacy but are supported by a high level of social capital. This last group of firms solves the challenges by finding partners who possess excellent digital capabilities. The qualitative case study method allows us to conduct in-depth and detailed analysis, but has thin generalizability. To address this limitation, future research can use a survey covering various industries to test the proposed theory that has resulted from this study, so that the generalizability can be assured.

From fighting COVID-19 pandemic to tackling sustainable development goals: An opportunity for responsible information systems research

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a significant threat to the healthy lives and well-being of billions of people worldwide. As the world begins to open up from lockdowns and enters an unprecedented state of vulnerability, or what many have called "the new normal", it makes sense to reflect on what we have learned, revisit our fundamental assumptions, and start charting the way forward to contribute to building a sustainable world. In this essay, we argue that despite its significant damage to human lives and livelihoods, the coronavirus pandemic presents an excellent opportunity for the human family to act in solidarity and turn this crisis into an impetus to achieve the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this article, we will highlight the six relevant themes that have evolved during the pandemic and the corresponding topics that future researchers could focus on. We conclude by issuing a call for more research attention on tackling SDG through developing the concept and practice of digital sustainability.

The role of IS in the covid-19 pandemic: A liquid-modern perspective

History shows that pandemics can catalyse enormous change, fundamentally transforming the way people make sense of the world. Technologies can also be catalysts of change. While digital technologies are playing a vital role in tackling the covid-19 pandemic, the pandemic also presents a significant opportunity for digital technologies. Some experts believe the pandemic may permanently normalise the comprehensive societal use of digital technologies. This article casts a critical eye over the potential implications of this opportunity in the context of information systems (IS) research and development. We introduce and outline selected principles of Zygmunt Bauman's theory of liquid modernity. We then apply the liquid-modern principles to illustrative examples drawn from the covid-19 literature by focussing on three areas of established information systems interest: control, big data and information privacy. We show that traditional conceptualisations of scientific and societal order and control need to be reassessed; that big data alone cannot order clear and safe paths out of the current crisis and that information privacy regulations are irrelevant when undermined or circumvented by public and private actors. We conclude by making four recommendations for IS pandemic researchers and five practical recommendations in the context of the pandemic.

A novel extended approach under hesitant fuzzy sets to design a framework for assessing the key challenges of digital health interventions adoption during the COVID-19 outbreak

In recent years, Digital Technologies (DTs) are becoming an inseparable part of human lives. Thus, many scholars have conducted research to develop new tools and applications. Processing information, usually in the form of binary code, is the main task in DTs, which is happening through many devices, including computers, smartphones, robots, and applications. Surprisingly, the role of DTs has been highlighted in people's life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several different challenges to implement and intervene in DTs during the COVID-19 outbreak; therefore, the present study extended a new fuzzy approach under Hesitant Fuzzy Set (HFS) approach using Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method to evaluate and rank the critical challenges of DTs intervention to control the COVID-19 outbreak. In this regard, a comprehensive survey using literature and in-depth interviews have been carried out to identify the challenges under the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) framework. Moreover, the SWARA procedure is applied to analyze and assess the challenges to DTs intervention during the COVID-19 outbreak, and the WASPAS approach is utilized to rank the DTs under hesitant fuzzy sets. Further, to demonstrate the efficacy and practicability of the developed framework, an illustrative case study has been analyzed. The results of this study found that Health Information Systems (HIS) was ranked as the first factor among other factors followed by a lack of digital knowledge, digital stratification, economic interventions, lack of reliable data, and cost inefficiency In conclusion, to confirm the steadiness and strength of the proposed framework, the obtained outputs are compared with other methods.

Understanding the role of employees in digital transformation: conceptualization of digital literacy of employees as a multi-dimensional organizational affordance

Purpose

Much of recent academic and professional interest in exploring digital transformation and enterprise systems has focused on the technology or the organizations' external forces, leaving internal factors, in particular employees, overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to explore digital literacy of employees as an organizational affordance to capture contextual factors within which digital technologies are situated and are used.

Design/methodology/approach

We used the evidence-based practice for information systems approach, and undertook a systematic literature review of 30 papers coupled with brainstorming with 11 professional experts on the neglected topic of digital literacy and its assessment.

Findings

This paper draws upon affordance theory, and develops a novel framework for conceptualization of digital literacy of employees as an organizational affordance. We do this by distinguishing digital literacy at the individual level and organizational level, and by assessing digital literacy through Information/Cognitive and Social Practice/Articulation affordances.

Research limitations/implications

The current paper contributes to the notion of organizational affordances by examining the effect of interactions between employee-technology through digital literacy of employees in using digital technologies. We offer a novel conceptualization of digital literacy to improve understanding of the role of employee in digital transformation and utilization of enterprise systems. Thus, our definition of digital literacy offers an extension to the recent discussions in the IS literature regarding the actualization of affordances by bringing a lens of employees into the process.

Practical implications

This paper operationalizes digital literacy at organizational and individual levels, and offers managers a high-level tool to assess digital literacy of their employees. By doing so, managers can achieve the fit between employees' capabilities and digital technologies that will improve affordance actualization and support their digital transformation initiatives.

Originality/value

The study is one of early attempts to apply and extend affordance theory on digital literacy at organizational level by not limiting the concept to the individual level. The proposed framework improves the communication among researchers and between researchers and practitioners.

Agile and adaptive governance in crisis response: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

•

Adaptive governance requires oscillation between decentral and central decision-making structures.

•

Agility can hinder adaptability.

•

Bureaucracy and adaptability can go hand in hand.

•

Agile and adaptive governance are not the same.

•

Technology might hinder adaptiveness.

Countries around the world have had to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak with limited information and confronting many uncertainties. Their ability to be agile and adaptive has been stressed, particularly in regard to the timing of policy measures, the level of decision centralization, the autonomy of decisions and the balance between change and stability. In this contribution we use our observations of responses to COVID-19 to reflect on agility and adaptive governance and provide tools to evaluate it after the dust has settled. Whereas agility relates mainly to the speed of response within given structures, adaptivity implies system-level changes throughout government. Existing institutional structures and tools can enable adaptivity and agility, which can be complimentary approaches. However, agility sometimes conflicts with adaptability. Our analysis points to the paradoxical nature of adaptive governance. Indeed, successful adaptive governance calls for both decision speed and sound analysis, for both centralized and decentralized decision-making, for both innovation and bureaucracy, and both science and politics.