ABSTRACT
The ability of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to effectively carry out their business activities within and without their business social capital networks in Covid-19 pandemic in no doubt will increase their entrepreneurial orientation and performance especially in emerging countries like Ghana. The aim of this study is to investigate how social capital activates the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of SMEs performance in an emerging country in Covid-19 pandemic. Through simple random sampling technique, data was obtained from 369 SME-owners and the analysis of the measurement and structural model performed by PLS-SEM approach. The findings demonstrated that social capital has significant effect on SMEs performance and proactiveness as well while autonomy, competitiveness, innovativeness and risk-taking though had positive effect were insignificant. The findings reveal that proactiveness had positive and significant mediating effect on social capital and SMEs performance relationship but the remaining four EO dimensions though demonstrates positive mediating effect but were not statistically significant. This study contributes to theoretical building on the role of social capital on EO and SMEs performance relationship especially in this global pandemic of Covid-19. The study focused on the need for SMEs to consider EO and social capital as pivotal to their performance based on the RBV and social capital theories with more emphasis on SMEs effective use of their internal and external resources to outperform their counterparts. The last section of the study further provides suggestions for SME-owners and future researchers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to identify the key factors that drive the trust of Foodpanda delivery service among customers during the Covid-19 pandemic. We extended the theory of Planned Behaviour which we examined the impact of product information, after sales service and payment security to increase the trust on Foodpanda delivery service. Data were collected from 341 students from faculty of entrepreneurship and business, University Malaysia Kelantan and analyzed using SPSS. The result shows that all three variables are equally important for developing a trust among customers using Foodpanda service and they decided to continue using this mobile application. The result of this study proves that payment security with 68.5% of the respondents indicate that it is the significant variable that influence user’s trust on Foodpanda service. The study further provides recommendations for service providers, customers and researchers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Objective: The objectives of this study were to measure the global impact of the pandemic on the volumes for intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), IVT transfers, and stroke hospitalizations over 4 months at the height of the pandemic (March 1 to June 30, 2020) compared with two control 4-month periods. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread repercussions on the delivery of health care worldwide. Design/Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective study across 6 continents, 70 countries, and 457 stroke centers. Diagnoses were identified by ICD-10 codes and/or classifications in stroke center databases. Results: There were 91,373 stroke admissions in the 4 months immediately before compared to 80,894 admissions during the pandemic months, representing an 11.5% (95%CI,-11.7 to-11.3, p<0.0001) decline. There were 13,334 IVT therapies in the 4 months preceding compared to 11,570 procedures during the pandemic, representing a 13.2% (95%CI,-13.8 to-12.7, p<0.0001) drop. Interfacility IVT transfers decreased from 1,337 to 1,178, or an 11.9% decrease (95%CI,-13.7 to-10.3, p=0.001). There were greater declines in primary compared to comprehensive stroke centers (CSC) for stroke hospitalizations (-17.3% vs-10.3%, p<0.0001) and IVT (-15.5% vs-12.6%, p=0.0001). Recovery of stroke hospitalization volume (9.5%, 95%CI 9.2-9.8, p<0.0001) was noted over the two later (May, June) versus the two earlier (March, April) months of the pandemic, with greater recovery in hospitals with lower COVID-19 hospitalization volume, high volume stroke center, and CSC. There was a 1.48% stroke rate across 119,967 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was noted in 3.3% (1,722/52,026) of all stroke admissions. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a global decline in the volume of stroke hospitalizations, IVT, and interfacility IVT transfers. Primary stroke centers and centers with higher COVID19 inpatient volumes experienced steeper declines. Recovery of stroke hospitalization was noted in the later pandemic months, with greater recovery in hospitals with lower COVID-19 hospitalizations, high volume stroke centers, and CSCs.
ABSTRACT
A panel of stroke experts from the Gulf and Iran region convened a consensus meeting to discuss how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected stroke care in the region. Lower stroke admissions were observed locally, but acute stroke care has largely been maintained in their centres despite the challenges of staff and resource shortages, and public fear of the virus. This article provides a snapshot of the pandemic in the region, its impact on local stroke care, highlights the approaches and practices shared between panellists in order to protect stroke care pathways during this uncertain period, and provides a guideline that is simple and easily adaptable to different locations. The intent is to protect stroke care pathways through Covid-19 risk stratification, infection control measures, and ensuring that all stroke patients have a full Covid-19 diagnostic assessment. Opportunities for increasing the use of telemedicine to reduce physical contact between patients and healthcare workers is also discussed.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected healthcare systems around the globe and massively impacted patients with various non-infectious, life-threatening conditions. Stroke is a major neurological disease contributing to death and disability worldwide, and is still an ongoing issue during the pandemic. Here we investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak on stroke manifestations, treatment courses, the outcome of stroke patients, and the hospitalization rate in a referral center for stroke management in Tehran, Iran. METHODS: We extracted data regarding 31 stroke patients (10 patients with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019) and compared the demographic and pathological characteristics of the patients with or without coronavirus disease 2019 infection. The association of demographic/pathological characteristics of stroke patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and a corresponding period during the previous year (49 patients) and an earlier period during the same year as the pandemic (50 patients) was also evaluated. RESULTS: The absolute number of admissions decreased about 40% during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Except for the stroke severity (P = 0.002), there were no significant changes in the demographic and pathological characteristics of the stroke patients during the three studied periods. A significantly higher mean of age (75.60 ± 9.54 versus 60.86 ± 18.45; P = 0.007), a significant difference in the type of stroke (P = 0.046), and significantly higher stroke severity (P = 0.024) were observed in stroke patients with coronavirus disease 2019 compared with those of stroke patients without coronavirus disease 2019. Treatment approaches, duration of hospitalization, and mortality rates did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS: This report shows that the pandemic caused the number of acute stroke admissions to plummet compared to other periods. Although the pandemic did not affect the treatment plans and care of the patients, stroke cases with coronavirus disease 2019 had higher age, more large vessel ischemic stroke, and more severe stroke. Further studies are urgently needed to realize the probable interaction of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the neurologic disease.