Globally, small and medium enterprises (SME) entrepreneurs were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent measures such as lockdowns and market closures. Africa was no exception. Entrepreneurial intentions and activities were expected to have a broad downturn with established entrepreneurs being forced to downsize or quit their businesses, while fewer novel entrepreneurs entered the market and started their own companies. At the same time, entrepreneurship is considered one of the few viable options to ensure an income during uncertain economic times. Furthermore, the Covid-19 crisis was said to drive innovation and technological advancements globally, and perhaps even more so in Africa due to its young demographic. This edited volume includes insights gathered during the 2021 NVAS Africa Day which had the theme: ‘entrepreneurial responses to Covid-19 in Africa.’ This volume shines a light on two broader themes: entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial resilience in Africa in times of Covid-19. The conference was organized by NVAS (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Afrikastudies) and the African Studies Centre of Leiden University. The first two chapters consider whether the pandemic and its broader consequences increase entrepreneurial intentions. Is entrepreneurship a pathway out of the crisis for individuals, providing an income and financial stability in a stressed labour market? Or have individuals turned away from entrepreneurship due to the risk and a lack of start-up funds and subsequent investments? The final two chapters consider how the Covid-19 pandemic spurred entrepreneurial resilience and innovation in terms of new products, markets, and strategies. Together, these studies provide a cross-sectional and cross-methodological anthology of entrepreneurial responses to Covid-19 in Africa. With contributions from Neema Komba, Chanyoung Park, Lotte-Marie Brouwer, Magnus Godvik Ekeland, Hanaâ Benchrifa, Steven Kator Iorfa and Maud van Merriënboer.

When the pandemic struck, family, education, and the economy all took a hit in terms of maintaining structural relationships. Even before the Pandemic, India's socio-cultural system had been facing numerous difficulties and changes as a result of political and economic forces, Corona. Religion, the economy, and the political system have all played important roles in changing the social structure. Nutrition is also a significant concern. Nutrition is a science that is engaged in the prevention and treatment of a wide range of infectious and non-infectious disorders. A well-balanced diet aids in the improvement of general public immunity and, as a result, aids in the prevention of infection. During covid -19 infection, there are numerous illness conditions or comorbidities that present a significant problem. As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, our society has undergone a rapid and deep digital transition. The epidemic prompted us to make a historic digital shift in our daily lives and activities, including our children's educational transfer from traditional to digital classroom practise. COVID-19 has the potential to alter the education system, affecting teaching/learning, research/innovation, community service/engagement, and the experience of staff and students. Domestic violence, on the other hand, is an age-old social tragedy that has long been kept from society's gaze. Domestic abuse affects people from all walks of life, regardless of their social, economic, religious, or cultural backgrounds. Threats, name-calling, preventing communication with family or friends, withholding money, actual or threatened physical harm, and sexual assault are just some of the behaviours that might be used. In the agricultural industry, an estimated 10 million migrant workers returned to their home countries in 2020, following the enforcement of the lockdown. Agriculture and related sectors grew by 3.4 percent in 2020-21, despite the fact that global economic growth slowed to -7.2 percent. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the food supply mechanisms were thrown off. As a result, the farming community as well as the economy's most vulnerable sectors are impacted. The government, NGOs, and individuals have discovered that they can have a significant impact on the environment. Our government is always emphasising the need of drinking pure water, especially during this pandemic. But we are lacking in drinking water supply to all areas. Pure drinking water is a solution for keeping ourselves away from infectious diseases. This pandemic epidemic has had several negative consequences, including as an increase in medical waste, disinfectants, and the use of masks and gloves damaging the environment. In order to keep our ecosystem sustainable, suitable guidelines and planned measures must be applied to combat the epidemic and maintain environmental harmony. Covid-19's current predicament has thrown the world's socio-cultural structure, as well as its work culture, into disarray. The sanitary, safety, and health procedures have beyond any local culture's norms. To protect the world from the extremely infectious coronavirus, a new global culture has arisen. The use of facemasks, hand gloves, and hand sanitizers, as well as physical separation, has become the new normal. The present situation has given thrust to the virtual world and various steps have been taken by the government to increase the contactless experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an extreme exogenous shock that had an adverse impact on every facet of human lives, including business. However, the pandemic has also provided an opportunity for companies to alter their business models by adopting digitalization, innovative customer interfaces, and innovative cost and revenue structures. In order to continue not only surviving but thriving through the effects of the pandemic, businesses will have to further improve and realign their models to engage clients, reskill their workforce, and advance the use of supportive technologies. Cases on Emerging Market Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic provides a set of case studies on corporate and functional strategies adopted by firms irrespective of their industry, ownership type, or size. It highlights the innovative approaches of dealing with crises to survive and sustain the performances that better suit the unique requirements of the pandemic. Covering topics such as crisis management, innovative management strategy, and social entrepreneurship, this book is an essential resource for business leaders, government organizations, hospital administration, educational administration, computer scientists, researchers, and academicians.

Industry 4.0 technologies identified as the main contributor to the digitalization era. New technology delivers optimal outputs by utilization of effective resource. Therefore, smart technologies that has inventive and creative objects became critical to enterprise; recent studies shows that its led enterprises business such as SMEs to considerable investments, which many organizations over the world attempt to use innovative technologies such as IoT and AI, these technologies have potential on sustainable business models. In addition to that, innovation usage in business models led to significant benefits towards sustainability concept in SMEs marketplace. Furthermore, Sustainability objectives refers to corporate sustainability term, which integrate enterprise operations with social, educational, environmental and economic benefits, as process of decision-making can impact during sustainability implications. This book focus on the implementation of smart technologies for growing business, the book includes research articles and expository papers on the applications of technology on Decision Making, Healthcare, Smart Universities, Advertising, E-marketing, Public Sector and Digital Government, FinTech, RegTech. Some researchers also discussed the role of smart technologies in the current COVID-19 pandemic, whether in the health sector, education, and others. On all of these, the researchers discussed the impact of smart technologies on decision-making in those vital sectors of the economy.

This proceedings volume explores the disruptive effect of COVID19 pandemic on business leaders and managers. It covers the sweeping changes experienced by all sectors of work and business along with core functional verticals. As organizations institutionalize lessons learned through trial and error, an effort is required to document these efforts. The volume is an amalgamation of papers presented papers at the International Management Conference, 2021 hosted at KIIT University, India in February 2021. The thrust of this conference was to gather a holistic picture of the lessons derived during the pandemic hardship. Selected papers provide readers with an idea of the new normal in various domains of management across industries and organizations. Research papers, from each functional areas of business management, give focus on experiences and best practices.

Pandemic Risk, Response, and Resilience: COVID-19 Responses in Cities Around the World examines the pandemic’s global impacts on public health, economies, society and labor. The book shows how COVID-19 intensified natural and anthropogenic hazards and destroyed years of communities, governments and the work of development organizations and their investments. It focuses on how disaster resilience is central to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in a post-COVID-19 era. Sections cover current governance practices, with special attention given to Asia’s more successful responses. It shows how the various sectors across that society were most impacted by COVID-19, including tourism and food systems. This book is an essential reference for researchers and practitioners who need to understand response, preparedness and future pathways for pandemic resilience. Showcases risk governance at local, national and regional scales Captures multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral insights through numerous case studies Uniquely addresses, in a comprehensive and structure manner, risk governance methodologies

New Student Literacies amid COVID-19 explores how institutions needed to defend teaching, learning, research and innovation, and implement transdisciplinary approaches to address such complexities together with wider knowledge sharing to unlock solutions.

Entrepreneurship is a tool of innovation promotion that supports sound economic environments as it stimulates economic growth and development. The BRICS nations, i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are a group of emerging countries comprising the highest developmental block of the emerging nations. It is imperative to assess the entrepreneurship policies, strategies, and promotional programmes and their implications for, among others, entrepreneurship funding, economic growth, and employment trends. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the entrepreneurship environment and equally steered state funding priorities away from entrepreneurship development support worldwide. This research book assesses the effect that COVID-19 has had on government funding priority, policy interventions and resultant implications on the entrepreneurship environment, economic growth and employment with a focus on BRICS. Readers will gain insight into what entrepreneurship looks like in the BRICS context and how it has been affected by COVID-19, indicating how the BRICS nations are likely to move forward to further strengthen entrepreneurship. This edited volume will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and advanced students in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, strategy, international relations, multilateralism, and economic development.