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Pandemics result in significant devastation, leaving considerable destruction in their wake. Numerous researchers contend that the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic exceeded prior pandemics in various aspects. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted global economies, businesses, and societies, resulting in substantial damage and lasting effects. The aviation industry experienced a significant near-collapse for the first time since the advent of aeroplanes, attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was initiated to synthesise existing studies on the strategies utilised by Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to sustain operations during disasters such as COVID-19 in South Africa. This systematic literature review analyses the survival strategies and failures of SMMEs in Africa in response to the economic disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixteen accredited journals were incorporated into the data analysis. The thematic analysis identified several themes from the original data: Networking and Accessing Financial Support, Response to Crisis Conditions, Digital Technology, Disruption of Supply Chains, and Inadequate and Insufficient Government Support. This study synthesises existing research to identify factors that supported SMMEs in sustaining operations and recovering from challenges induced by the pandemic. This study offers significant insights into the survival strategies and challenges faced by SMMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. African leaders should supervise the execution of digital transformation initiatives, focused financial assistance, and strategies for long-term business continuity.

International commerce across southern Africa has increased significantly in recent years. This phenomenon has been replicating what has been happening on the African continent as a whole, and it does indicate that the region has significant growth in economic opportunities. Hence, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted international commerce and caused significant concern. The emphasis of this work was on the global economic interconnectivity in the Southern African region prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The main objective of this study was to determine how the Covid-19 pandemic influenced international commerce in Southern Africa. The study was qualitative in nature, as well as secondary data collection methods were used. The research used a documentary review as its analysis method. This included compiling and analysing more than 60 online resources relating to various and relevant the Covid-19 pandemic and international commerce from several past research. The study found that the world economy, particularly the economies of Southern African nations, was encountering certain difficulties before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was stated that as a consequence of the pandemic, Southern African countries implemented a slew of steps in an effort to overcome the issues posed by the Covid-19 pandemic interruptions.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new phase of company operations. The advent of digital transformation (DT) has fundamentally transformed the global business landscape. Despite the global prevalence of this phenomenon, there is limited understanding of digital transformation (DT) in the context of COVID-19 and its impact on private sector organizations in developing nations. This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the process of digital transformation in privately owned companies located in underdeveloped nations. To accomplish this objective, a systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA (2020) principles, resulting in a selection of 26 studies. This study employs an inductive methodology, where pertinent topics are identified as they arise from the literature throughout the analysis stage. The technology-organization-environment framework (TOE) was subsequently employed to provide a contextual framework for these issues. The research findings suggest that the presence of resources, both financial and technological, is a crucial determinant in the adoption of digital transformation. The adoption of DT has been significantly influenced by various factors, including the role of governments, competitive forces, security, and other relevant considerations. Although organizations in underdeveloped nations encountered numerous hurdles, it was found that digital transformation progressed rapidly in all areas. Companies underwent substantial transformations to embrace digital transformation (DT), including the use of digital business models to facilitate remote operations and heightened investment in education, skills, and innovative digital tactics. Given the recent emergence of COVID-19, there remain numerous uncertainties regarding the enduring impacts that COVID-19 has had on organizations.

This research explores how marketing strategies have been changed to adapt to the impactful challenges of the pandemic and economic recession in Botswana's Consumer Goods (FMCG) business landscape. The research adopted an interpretivism philosophical model, an inductive research approach, mono-method wherein qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. The findings provided substantive evidence that there has been a transition in strategic marketing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Botswana retail landscape and the transition in strategies did have an influence on the customer value proposition (CVP) output of retail businesses.

The manufacturing sector is vital in the South African economy, especially in international trade. Nonetheless, the covid-19 and fuel price fluctuations have convulsed both global and domestic production and trade. This study analsed how an increase in new cases of covid-19 and fuel price shocks affected motor vehicles export in South Africa. The assessment used monthly time series from March 2020 to March 2022. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and error correction models assisted in determining both long-run and short-run relationships among variables.  The results suggested an inverse relationship between new covid-19 cases, fuel prices and motor vehicle exports in both the long and short run.  This study recommends introducing new vehicle models that are fuel efficiency, tax and levy reduction on fuel to reduce the effect of the high fuel price of vehicles export. Increasing awareness, precaution and encouraging vaccination could assist in lowering COVID-19 infection.

This research aims to determine the level of implication of COVID-19 on the demand for masks and hygiene products in the Jordanian markets. The researchers found that the demand and usage of masks and hygiene products have increased, also the lifestyle and daily-living purchasing of Jordanians have been affected by this pandemic. This research depends on three ways online questionnaires, physical interviews, and phone calls to collect data. The Jordan government takes into consideration the implications of this pandemic on the social, health, and economic situations. It has facilitated to the construction of mask factories in the country, and it has made strategic collaborations in import and export with different countries around the world. This research describes both two sides of the economic and market situation of the masks and hygiene products in Jordan. A mixed method approach was adopted to achieve the objectives of the study, consisting of an online survey questionnaire followed by semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS 25 software and the qualitative data of each interview have been analyzed using thematically and textual analysis. The findings revealed that the demand for masks and hygiene products is affected by COVID-19 from 2020-2021.

Consumer decisions are influenced by various variables, including compliance with society’s social norms and by involvement by consumers with the issue under consideration. Both variables have influenced consumers’ actions during previous pandemics. Therefore, this study investigated involvement with the Covid-19 pandemic, together with social norm compliance (SNC), their mutual influence, and how demographic characteristics and country of residence influenced these three issues. The methodology involved a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional survey, with a quota sample of 1096 responses, based on age, gender, education, habitation, and income. The research was conducted with populations representing the consumers who patronize major retailers in a developed country (Germany) and a developing one (South Africa). Data was collected via questionnaires e-mailed to commercial consumer panels covering both countries. The findings showed that involvement is influenced by gender, age, education, habitation, and country of residence, but that SNC is not influenced by demographics but does differ according to country. Further findings were that involvement with Covid-19 strongly influences SNC and, similarly, SNC also strongly influences involvement with Covid-19. Furthermore demographics, excluding habitation, also influence these variables. However, the relationship between the involvement and SNC variables does not differ between the two countries. This study has provided a better understanding of consumers’ involvement with Covid-19 and SNC as components of consumer behavior, which is important since, during the Covid-19 pandemic, retailers have been instrumental in implementing health protocols. Therefore, understanding the relationship between involvement with Covid-19 and SNC, and how they are influenced by consumer demographics, is important.

The influence of macroeconomic variables on aspects of business and the country's economy has been a subject of robust discussion. This study was conducted to identify the effect of macroeconomic variables, namely inflation rate, economic growth, exchange rate and share price, on listed companies in South Africa. The goal was to study the long run and short run effects of macroeconomic volatility on company performance because of the world’s recent pandemic experience. To achieve this objective, the study applied the panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model on annual panel data from 2010 to 2020 to analyse the short run and long run effects of macroeconomic variables on a company’s performance. The study results suggested a positive impact of economic growth, exchange rate and share price on asset returns, whilst a company's equity return is supported by economic growth and share price in the long run. The short run revealed that none of the independent variables has a sufficiently significant effect to influence a company's performance changes in the short run. Based on the findings, it was recommended that policymakers and economic authorities should introduce and implement strategies that favour and enhance the country's economic growth and stable exchange rate in order to improve company performance. Additionally, given that the company's short-run performance may highly depend on internal factors such as corporate governance, internal policies and business strategies, these decisions should be taken with precaution and a high level of professionalism.

The paper’s objective was to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and South Africa financial stock markets. The pandemic worsened South Africa's unstable financial condition and societal problems: business was severely disrupted, as were the travel industry, hospitality, food security, small businesses, and many other sectors. The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered high and longer-lasting financial volatility in the markets. The higher level of volatility persistence suggests a prolonged period of increased uncertainty. Overall, the uncertainty about the vaccine's effectiveness towards the pandemic provides low expectations about the future of the stock market, since there are variants that are still being discovered.

This study examined the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the much sought-after regional economic integration using Southern Africa as a case study. The eruption of COVID-19 stifled world economic activities and unleashed economic uncertainties.  First, the disease forced countries into imposing restrictions that included total closure of businesses and borders and travel bans that resulted in reduced economic activity among countries. Second, Africa was expected to suffer economic reverse of between -2% to -5% in 2020 due to a sharp decline in output growth. This has had adverse implications on trade and financial markets across the region and scuppers the ambitions for regional economic integration. Using a desktop approach the study critiqued and analysed the literature on regional integration and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prospects for enhanced regional economic integration. The findings revealed that COVID-19 plunged the prospects of regional economic integration into disarray. Owing to imposed restrictions business slumped, trade declined, poverty deepened and vulnerability of populations increased cumulatively negating the quest for regional integration. The study concludes that to manage the aftermath of COVID-19, regional economic coordination should be encouraged. 

This paper aims to address the effects of the pandemic on the economy and investments in the region - focus Kosovo, compared to the countries of the Western Balkans. CoVid-19 has caused economic shocks worldwide, where many people have lost their jobs, and this has created a negative chain effect on the economic structure in Kosovo as well. The economy consists of a structure in which participate many parties that are interconnected in a chain with each other such as state institutions, companies (manufacturing, trade, services, etc.), employees, suppliers, local and international financial institutions, potential customers, investors, etc., any disconnect in this chain causes a negative economic reaction which will have long-term implications for business recovery. Also, Foreign direct investment in Kosovo is one of the main determinants of the country's development, due to the pandemic many planned investments have been re-oriented in other directions. This study also aims to identify the economic situation and the level of investment decline for this pandemic period, aiming to identify - as proposals - measures to be taken in order to improve the situation and stimulate a debate on the economic situation in times of pandemic.

This paper aims to examine the association between Indian stock market return and seasonally adjusted trade for Indian Banking sector shares. The objective of the study is to measure the association between stock return and seasonally adjusted trade in the Indian stock market and recommend strategies. Due to the Covid 19 outbreak banking sector was highly affected, the Government of India also announced a moratorium on all categories of loans, banking business majorly depending on the deposit and loan creation, so the Government decision threaten the banking sector. Many private sector banks terminated temporary staff because of cut cost policies.  We divided the banking sector into three segments. Namely, Public, Private and Small Finance Banks. Utilizing daily data from February 2020 to July 2020, consisting of 2196 in numbers, we ran a panel Vector Autoregression model to analyze the association. It was found that the return of stocks is influencing the volume of trade during this period. Also, while measuring the short-run causality, it is found that the return of banking stocks specifically granger causes the volume of trade. The suggestions of the study lie in providing importance to framing policies on improving the financial health of the economy through different fiscal policies. Strategic policies are required to face post-Covid situations. The turnaround strategies to combat the effects of the pandemic are characterized by the availability of the sustainable resources of the particular sector in consideration.

Pandemic crises affect economic conditions both in terms of supply and demand. New post-pandemic attitudes and behavior patterns called The New Normal will change consumer behavior in the long run. The companies and manufacturers need to understand the changes in consumer behavior to maintain and increase market share. The study aims to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on changes in Gen-Z behavior. The results explain and predict changes in Gen-Z behavior as reference material for marketing strategy design and a reference source for future research. This research uses a qualitative approach that is focus group discussion. The study was conducted in Indonesia in April 2021 with the younger generation as informants. This study specifically selected Generation Z as the target because this generation has unique characteristics and is currently the largest consumer. The results showed that the Covid-19 pandemic requires Gen-Z to adapt quickly and perform various activities that they usually do in digital ways, such as studying, working, shopping, physical exercise at home online. Covid-19, which has plagued the world in the long run where solutions are still not formulated, has Gen-Z with concerns about the future and health. Gen-Z becomes more concerned about physical health by paying attention to food intake and consuming more vitamins. To balance mental health, Gen-Z used online applications that are entertaining, such as online games, online concerts, and online recreation. Gen-Z's new behaviors and habits tend to consume more social media or apps that they can use to develop themselves.

This paper aims to examine the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on stock markets. This paper also analyses the stock market cointegration of selected global equity indices that performed better and have a quick speed of recovery during the pandemic. This paper also questions how increasing uncertainty and volatility deters investors’ perception of the diversification of equity investments. The dataset for the selected 12 global equity indices has been used from Thompson Reuters’s EIKON database in a given period of time between 2010 and 2021. This paper employs Vector Error Correction Models to assess the relationship among the selected global equity indices. Findings demonstrate that (i) there is an adverse impact of Covid-19 on the Global Equity markets, (ii) there is a clear sign of cointegration in global equity indices, (ii) investors can benefit from investing in particular equity indices that have exhibited quick speed of recovery from the pandemic records lows. The findings finally provide a strong foundation for constructing a resilient equity portfolio in a highly uncertain market environment.

The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are important for every nation’s economic development. They provide employment and spur the growth of multiple sectors in the economy.  The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected MSMEs' performance. The study seeks to demonstrate why COVID 19 may lead to the terminal quarantining of MSMEs. The study is anchored on decision usefulness and information asymmetry theories. The study adopted a descriptive research methodology and sampled MSMEs within Nairobi City County. The study used SPSS to analyze data in addition to Microsoft excel. The study found that over 70% of MSMEs had their sales decline by over 65% while 95% of them had their sales decline by over 30%. The study found that about 68% of MSMEs lacked financial management skills. The study recommends that with legal and institutional reforms, the government needs to develop a financing framework for MSMEs.  

In this study, the fear created by the Covid-19 global epidemic on consumers (general fear of viruses and fear of activity), spending (cleaning products, preventive health products, fresh and organic food and vitamin/mineral support, clothing, education, home purchasing, vehicle, loan. The relationship between buying, rental, fashion, vacation, travel, entertainment, electronics, home decor/furniture, mobile phone, activity and general) and savings have been tested. For this purpose, in order to test the relationship between fear, saving, and spending during the Covid-19 pandemic process, a Likert-scale online survey link was shared on social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn). The total of 385 surveys was analyzed using Google Form and SPSS program (Anova, Regression). As a result of the analysis, fear (general fear and fear of activity), spending (education, vehicles/cars, monopoly products, and tobacco products, games of chance, home buying and renting, loans, luxury/fashion, games, and toys, vitamins, minerals, and food support, public services, home, and furniture décor, electronic products (including mobile phones) expenditures remained the same, protective healthcare products, cleaning products, fresh and organic food expenditures increased, travel, public transportation expenditures decreased, holiday and entertainment expenditures decreased significantly). In the research, it was determined that 42% of the participants increased their savings by 30.5% slightly, and the amount of savings did not change at all for 27% of the participants. According to the results, as consumers' fear of Covid-19 increases, some spending categories (health products, cleaning products, fresh and organic food spending) and savings rate increase. In addition, it was observed that 90% of the participants canceled their expenses due to Covid-19. As a result of the research, significant relationships were found between the variables of fear, saving, and spending during the Covid-19 pandemic process.

With the pandemic Covid, the Indonesian government issued a fiscal policy through the Financial Services Authority (POJK 11 2020) on National Economic Stimulus as Policy Countercyclical Impact Deployment Coronavirus Disease, 2019. This study analyzes the reaction markets banking sector in Indonesia to the event announcement publication of these regulations. This quantitative study uses the Event Study methodology. This study uses abnormal return testing events on secondary data 45 Indonesian banks listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. The method of calculating the abnormal return uses the Market Model, with an estimated period of 21 days and a window period of 11 days. The research period was carried out between February 11 and March 20, 2020. The test carries out with an average of difference test before and after the event, with an error rate of 5%. Based on the cumulative abnormal return t-test, data shows that from minus five days, the regulation's announcement up to 5 days after which the market moves significantly negative. This event study is a news phenomenon of Indonesia's latest financial policies related to banking stocks during the Covid pandemic.

SME restaurants have reported declined earnings and faced challenges to remain open during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period imposed by the Malaysian government due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. SME decision-makers were observed to be making changes regarding their day-to-day operations and management strategies to mitigate MCO restrictions. This paper aims to review the significant adaptations made by SME restaurants in Malaysia throughout the MCO period. Three (3) prominent areas of adaptations made by decision-makers have been identified based upon ceaseless news reports and media contents. The adaptations made commonly depict actions to (i) Nurture Creativity, (ii) Sustain Reputation, and (iii) Maintain Profitability. The outcomes of this paper provide essential survival guides for SME restauranteurs to embrace the COVID-19 outbreak. These can be helpful to related policy and decision-makers to implement the crucial traits of SME restaurants to reduce the impact on SME restaurants for the foreseeable future.

The COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to continue to the year 2022 and could lead to several business failures if entrepreneurs do not respond adequately. Thus, the purpose of this study is to introduce a framework that captures the impacts and potential responses to the ongoing pandemic. To do that, we conducted telephone interviews with ten entrepreneurs who operate enterprises within Nigeria. Data collected for analysis were transcribed, chronologically arranged, coded, and thematically analyzed using NVivo. Our findings revealed that, during the pandemic, businesses experienced limited opening hours, a decline in their clients' patronage, lower turnover, and employee demotivation. In response, business owners should consider re-strategizing their business activities, maintaining connections with clients, and exploiting available support measures. Our findings have profound theoretical and practical implications. For entrepreneurs and policymakers, they offer insights into the form of challenges confronting businesses during a pandemic. It also provides response activities that entrepreneurs could adopt to mitigate the impact of an epidemic on their enterprises’ performance. For the field of entrepreneurship, it advances the need to integrate public health (health-related issues) into entrepreneurship study and consider its multiple levels of influence on the performance of businesses.