Technology Dependency and Impact during COVID-19: A Systematic Literature Review and Open Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic is still a challenge in many countries, although life must proceed while ensuring the pandemic is managed critically. Due to the delay in producing permanent medical intervention, despite the availability of vaccines, there is still a need to depend on technology in performing several tasks. A systematic literature review that provides comprehensive evidence on technology dependence and the impact of technology on individuals during the pandemic is lacking. This study systematically reviewed scholarly works related to technology dependency from a broad view since the pandemic and mapped the research findings into a taxonomy, thus establishing the trend in technology type, major areas of technology dependency, and the impact of technology during the pandemic. The mapped taxonomy is used to expound on open challenges and recommendations. The final set from the systematic search was 76 articles. Technology might be an avenue for administering and enhancing health services, improving outreaches, and supporting curbing the spread of diseases. However, the impact of technology dependence is both positive and negative. A systematic mapping was conducted to explore the literature on the impacts of technology, where there is a need for further research. Notwithstanding the category, most of the reviewed articles emphasized the usage and impact of technology at such a time of the pandemic and provided insights on the manner of addressing them. Realistically, there has been an acceleration of digitalization trends in the present era of the COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility of rapid development of novel digital technologies. Author

Is technology neutral for MSEs? Interdependencies, information transparency and power imbalances in e-commerce ecosystems

Despite the evident upsurge of e-commerce (EC) over the past decades, the peak of online demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the huge involvement of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the online businesses to survive, the extant literature has neglected to analyse how MSEs orchestrate their resources between internal and external investments. Past studies, also in the case of SMEs, have tended to adopt a more firm-centric perspective focusing on the organisational conditions that determine firms' performance after the usage of EC, failing to explore the inter-organisational relations between MSEs and other actors in their ecosystem. Indeed, as MSEs may suffer from liability of smallness and lack of resources, they may rely more than other actors on the nexus of relations that emerge within the digital ecosystem generated through the usage of EC platforms. By relying on 37 interviews with owners or managers of MSEs operating in the food and beverage industry, we investigate the dynamics of resource distribution between MSEs and the other actors in the EC ecosystem. We identified the changes in interdependencies, the information asymmetries, and the power imbalances related to the interplay between MSEs and other actors within the EC ecosystem. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Dependences and risk spillover effects between Bitcoin, crude oil and other traditional financial markets during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study examines the relationship and risk spillover between Bitcoin, crude oil, and six traditional markets (the US stock, Chinese stock, gold, bond, currency, and real estate markets) from 2019 to 2020, during which the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak occurred as well. We first discuss the static relationship between Bitcoin and these markets using a quantile-on-quantile model and examine the dynamic relationship using a time-varying copula model. A conditional value-at-risk model is subsequently used to estimate the risk spillover between the markets studied. The empirical results reveal that the relationship between these markets is always time-varying, and the COVID-19 outbreak has revealed such changes in the relationship between Bitcoin and other traditional financial markets. The risk of all single markets has enhanced because of the pandemic. Further, the risk spillover of these markets has also changed dramatically since the COVID-19 outbreak during which the Bitcoin market has played an important role and exerted a significant impact on the crude oil market, and the four other markets (US stock, gold, Chinese stock, and real estate markets). Overall, our findings indicate that investors and policymakers need to be made aware of the risk spillover between Bitcoin, crude oil, and other traditional markets and that flexible hedge strategies and policies should be implemented in response to the challenges and economic recession observed following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Covid-19 and Supply Chain Agility: Case of Moroccan Small and Medium Enterprises

The Covid-19 crisis had a devastating impact on supply chains. As a consequence as they were not prepared, many companies were severely impacted. The supply difficulties that arose with the pandemic revealed the fragility of these chains and the strong dependence of our economy on external sourcing. The COVID-19 crisis called into question the ability of companies to anticipate new risks, particularly health hazards when defining their supply chain strategy. It is in such situations that the importance of adopting an agile strategy inside the organization shows. So, faced with such a serious situation, Moroccan companies have been forced to rethink their strategies by implementing new agile practices allowing them to adapt to this critical context. In this perspective, the present research paper aims to explore the main agile managerial practices implemented within Moroccan companies to support their supply chains during the covid-19 health crisis. To do so, a qualitative approach of an exploratory nature was adopted. Semi-directive interviews were conducted with eight logistics managers from various sectors. This research is mainly focused on the exploration of an original concept in the strategic and organizational management of Moroccan supply chains, which is agility that has been poorly studied in the past especially within Moroccan companies. The originality also relates to the current status of the research field as the subject will be treated in the current context of the covid-19 health crisis. © 2022 IEEE.

Sleep and Awakening Quality during COVID-19 Confinement: Complexity and Relevance for Health and Behavior.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate sleep and awakening quality (SQ and AQ) during COVID-19 in a large and diversified population in order to identify significant associations and risks in terms of demography, health and health-related behaviors, sleep variables, mental health, and attitudes. METHODS/RESULTS: Online surveys were used for data collection, received from 5479 individuals from the general population, sleep disorder patients, and COVID-involved (medical doctors (MDs) and nurses) and COVID-affected professionals (teachers, psychologists, and dentists). SQ and AQ were worse in adults, females, and high-education subjects. Feeling worse, having economic problems, depression, anxiety, irritability, and a high Calamity Experience Check List (CECL) score during COVID were significantly associated with poor SQ and AQ. Shorter sleep duration, increased latency, poor nutrition, low physical activity, increased mobile and social network use, more negative and less positive attitudes and behaviors were associated with poor AQ. CONCLUSIONS: The SQ logistic regression showed gender, morbidities, CECL, and awakenings as relevant, whereas, for AQ, relevant variables further included age and physical activity. Aiming to have a high stress compliance, each individual should sleep well, have important control of their mood, practice positive behaviors while dismissing negative behaviors and attitudes, practice exercise, have adequate nutrition, and beware of technologies and dependences.