Fengjiao Zheng

In the crisis of COVID-19, traditional learning suddenly changed to digital learning, which finally posed chal- lenges to students and teachers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the influence of personality factors on student social networks seems to be an overlooked area of research. In this study, we aim to explore the relationship be- tween proactive personality and social capital through underlying mechanisms (such as internet self-efficacy and online interaction quality), especially to obtain data during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this study also aims to examine the moderating role of perceived social support in the association between proactive personality and Internet self-efficacy and the association between proactive personality and online interaction quality. Similarly, the moderating influence of perceived social support also investigated the mediating effects of internet self-efficacy & online interaction quality. This study used online survey tools to collect data from 332 respondents, including students and teachers from Islamabad, the federal capital of Pakistan. In this study, we found that the proactive personality of students strengthened their social capital through online interaction qual- ity of online interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, perceived social support strengthened the mediating effect of online interaction quality in the association between proactive personality and social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the implications and future research directions are also discussed.

In order to contribute to the existing limited energy-environment literature, the present study analyze the carbon neutrality targets of the 16 major exporting economies while considering the role of economic complexity and renewable energy electricity consumption empirically by investigating the most recent dataset covering the period from 1990 to 2019 by employing advanced econometric techniques. This study uses the economic complexity index, connecting the country’s productive structure with the amount of knowledge that the products represent. Employing various cointegration and regression techniques such as augmented mean group (AMG) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) confirms the long-run cointegration among the variables such as economic growth, economic complexity, renewable energy consumption, and CO2 emission. Also, this study provides evidence that confirms the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the leading exporting economies. Regarding the carbon neutrality target, we found that both economic complexity and renewable electricity, if increase by one percent each, significantly reduce CO2 emissions by 0.1491 (AMG) and 0.130% (DOLS) and 0.160 (AMG) and 0.203% (DOLS), respectively, that help attain the carbon neutrality target.

Motivated from the shortage of the existing research studies on impacts of dangerously contagious diseases on firms’ financial performance, this study sheds light on the impacts of Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak on financial performance upon on the quarterly data of 126 Chinese listed firms across 16 industries. Overall, the Covid-19 outbreak reduced Chinese listed firms’ financial performance proxied by the revenue growth rate, ROA, ROE, and asset turnover. This outbreak’s negative effects on Chinese firms’ profitability were much smaller than that on their revenue growth rates. While this outbreak’s negative effects on financial performance of Chinese listed firms were bigger for those that were seriously affected by this pandemic like airlines, travel, and entertainment (ATE), this pandemic’s effects were positive for the medicine industry. In the meanwhile, Chinese listed firms that located in high-risk regions suffered a bigger financial loss during the outbreak, and especially there was a strong Hubei effect. The corporate culture and CSR moderated the inverse relationship between this outbreak and Chinese firms’ financial performance. Findings of this study contribute to enrich the existing literature on impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak on firms’ financial performance worldwide and suggest helpful practical and theoretical implications.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises were obliged to employ social media and digital tools to complete ordinary work. The pandemic has created a series of complexities and challenges, which have hampered harmonic contact between leaders and followers. The indirect relationship between unethical leadership and extra-role behavior (EXB) via psychological empowerment (PYE) is investigated in this study. We also look into the role of perceived organizational support (POS) as a moderator in the link between unethical leadership and PYE, as well as the indirect link between unethical leadership and EXB. Data were obtained from 258 supervisor–employee dyads from various small- and mid-sized information technology (IT) enterprises using time lag data. Unethical leadership has an impact on employee psychological empowerment as well as EXB. The findings of this study indicated that POS also mitigated the negative consequences of unethical leadership on employee psychological empowerment. Similarly, the role of psychological empowerment as a mediator in the link between unethical leadership and employee EXB is influenced by POS. This study will also benefit researchers and practitioners interested in human resource practices in the IT industry.