The COVID-19 outbreak proved to be a devastating, fast-moving, and unexpected challenge for global individuals, businesses, governments, and economies. Intensification of the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the relevance of focusing more on different business improvement and management issues and the study of the pandemic impact on the economic activity of business entities (Tiutiunyk, Humenna & Flaumer, 2021). Examples of the pandemic impact on the economy reported in the literature in the form of problems faced by different business industries, such as logistics, production stoppages, commercial blockages, and supply chain disruption (Kraus et al., 2020; Manolova et al., 2020; Arlindo et al., 2021). The pandemic has also impacted innovation policies that promote open innovation (Patrucco et al., 2021), change management (Amis & Janz, 2020), and knowledge management (Ammirato et al., 2020).
The global economic recovery is projected to continue but remain uneven, with strikingly different outcomes across countries, sectors and demographic groups regarding output and employment, leaving some countries facing different further challenges (OECD, 2021). However, this year's economic growth has gone up, supported by rigorous policy actions to encapsulate the COVID-19 impact on the economy. These actions include but are not limited to the ongoing deployment of effective vaccines and the careful and gradual resumption of many economic and business activities. Consequently, the diversity of topics related to the COVID-19 crisis addressed by academics is increasing exponentially, with evidence that it is gradually emerging as a debate in the business fields (Verma & Gustafsson, 2020). This result can infer a multidisciplinary and global theme covering two different areas, such as healthcare and public health management and business management.
Focusing on the business management side, different aspects of business sustainability, crisis adaptations, and the search for productive organizations resilience pervade the publishing journals. These aspects are investigated then improved using proper business modeling and planning, change management, innovation and technology management. Another debated topic in literature is an analysis of how firms can navigate disruptive crises, emphasizing the differential effects on the products, services, and business, pointing out how they can become more resilient and efficiently managed in the long run. This was achieved by ensuring the best entrepreneurship management and guaranteeing sustainable service practices.
Concurrently, the focus is on managers, decision-makers, professionals, financial analysts and legislators who address observations about the "New Normal", indicating the main changes in the post-COVID-19 world and managers' role in the search for extreme organizational transformations. The economic development of countries significantly depends on factors and levers, the nature and strength of which constantly varies depending on changes, transformation and fluctuations in the external environment. Nonetheless, there are still some concerns about the strategies adopted by firms and different business management strategies to face the implications of restrictions resulting from the pandemic and the adaptation to the new normal that has changed the habits of employees and customers (Arlindo et al., 2021).
Consequently, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy over the next few years covering all other aspects of individuals, businesses and societies needs further investigation by academic researchers and financial analysts. This investigation enables researchers to understand the impact of the pandemic on the future economic situation and for the economic experts to develop short, medium and long contingency plans to face any futuristic pandemics if they happen.
Therefore, we invite academics, experts and researchers to meet and discuss emerging contours of the current economic environment and to identify priorities for further actions required by policy-makers and business leaders in response to the global economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our conference agenda also includes a call for topics relating to the ways of how the economy could be revived and businesses could be efficiently managed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, linking this with the future trends of the International Journal of Business Research and Management (Cristofaro et al., 2021).
TOPICS
Theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions in the field of business research and management linked to, but not limited to; the following topics are welcomed:
Accounting, auditing and budgeting
Big data and business analytics
Business modeling and planning
Change management
Corporate finance and investments
Corporate governance and accountability
Corporate social responsibility
Entrepreneurship and small business management
Family business
Financial analysis and reporting
Human and intellectual capital management
Innovation and technology management
International management
IT management
Knowledge management
Marketing and communication
Organizational behavior and theory
Performance management
Procurement and supply chain management
Project management
Public management and governance
Service management
Social entrepreneurship, innovation and finance
Strategic management
Sustainability management and circular economy
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