The 5th International Colloquium on Business and Economics

(ICBE) 2023
Organised by:
Program Doktor Ilmu Eknomi, Fakultas Eknomi Dan Bisnis, Universitas
Sebelas Maret
Post-COVID-19 Business and Economic Research

By:
PROFESSOR DR CORINA JOSEPH
Universiti Teknologi MARA
26 September 2023

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 Objectives:
• To understand the pandemic impact on researchers’ work environment
• To understand business and management research ideas related to the post-
pandemic
Outline
• Formation of Rationales in the Research
• Identifying Research Focus
• What is the Research Gap?
• Why Research Gap?
• How to Identify Research Gap?
• Identifying Research Problem
• Why Choosing Post COVID-19 as the Background of Research?
• Where to Get Research Ideas?
• Business and Management Research Related to Post COVID-19
• Conclusion

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Formation of Rationales in the Research

Crisis Importance Gap filling

Synopsis Commitment Depth

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Identifying Research Focus

Reflect own Consider

Review literature
experience personal interest

Use existing Examine current Use focus group

theory affairs discussions

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 What is the Research Gap?
• A topic or area for which missing or insufficient information limits the ability to reach a conclusion for a
question.
• Problem which is not addressed properly.
• A question or a problem that has not been answered by any of the existing studies or
research within your field
• There is a concept or new idea that has not been studied at all.
• Existing research is outdated and in need of new / updated research.
• Specific population has not been studied (sample size, types, instruments, new technology, new
organism)
• Can be identified by citation analysis, systematic review, bibliometric discussion, and future research
section

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Why Research Gap?

IDENTIFY MISSING ELEMENTS IN SHOWCASE THE NOVELTY IN THE IDENTIFY RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
PREVIOUS STUDIES CURRENT RESEARCH OR RESEARCH APPROACHES

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 How to Identify Research Gap?
• Identify key motivating issues/question
• Identify key terms associated with the issues
• Review the literature - search for key terms and relevant publications
• Cited the key publication
• Identify issues not addressed by the literature related to critical motivating issues
• Track what authors write as 'direction for future research
• Read systematic literature review, bibliometric analysis, etc.

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Identifying Research Problem

What is the theoretical view What is the empirical view on What is the practical view
on that particular topic or that particular topic or issue? on that particular topic or
issue? issue?

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Why Choosing Post COVID-19 as the
Background of Research?

Impact of
New Way /
New Idea New Model Post-COVID-
Strategy
19

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https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/magazine/how-
pandemic-shaped-research-environment

• Capture past and present data

• Determine the pandemic’s impact on
researchers with various backgrounds,
family, and work statuses, and physical and
mental health conditions
• Rethink the strategy for collaboration.
• The pandemic challenged traditional
working culture.
• Understand researchers as the frontline
workers to face societal challenges.
• Created opportunities to bring structural
changes in research.
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https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-
publications/news/2020/september/research-in-a-post-covid-
19-world.html

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https://theconversation.com/research-seven-priorities-for-
higher-education-in-indonesia-post-pandemic-199145
1. Redefining pedagogical practices
2. Self-care and well-being for staff
and students
3. Blended models of learning
4. Educational technology
infrastructure
5. Accessible content and digital
equity
6. Co-design of higher education
7. Micro-credentials
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 Where
to Get
Call for papers - Journal – Special Issues
conference

Research
Ideas? Generative AI – Chat GPT Bibliometric analysis /
Systematic Literature Review

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Business & Management Research Relating to
Post COVID-19
1. Ethical Perspectives 9. Resilience / Business Failures
2. Business After Pandemic 10. Knowledge Management
3. Business Survival in East Asia 11. Sustainable Finance
4. Labour Market Practice 12. Corporate Disclosure / Reporting
5. Human System Management
6. Artificial Intelligence Paradigm
7. Digital Technologies and Innovation
Ecosystem / IT-enabled Business
Management and Decision Making

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https://omt.aom.org/omt/events/event-description?CalendarEventKey=b051ba9b-
1a8e-4efa-8650-0ed6afab7ba1&CommunityKey=3721a7ab-b230-4bfc-917c-
e95b1a27b4db&Home=%2Fhome

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https://globaledge.msu.edu/academy/annou
ncements/call-for-papers/69044

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https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/survive-post-
pandemic-business/

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 POST-COVID LABOUR SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES: NEW
CONSIDERATIONS FOR LABOUR MARKET POLICIES
https://cepr.org/events/post-covid-labour-supply-constraints-and-opportunities-new-considerations-
labour-market

• The aim of the conference is to bring together policymakers and practitioners, international
institutions, and leading academics to shed light on these issues from both practical and
research perspectives and draw robust and novel policy implications. Some of the key
questions the conference will cover include:
• How can we minimize scarring from the pandemic and build more resilient labour markets
for the future? What lessons can we draw from the experience with job retention and
furlough schemes? How permanent are the changes in labour supply (e.g., great resignation)
and how can they be addressed? How can we minimise the long-term impacts of school
closures, especially in lower-income countries?
• How are new technologies shaping the labour market? Are workers ready to participate in a
more digital, automated and green labour market? What are the implications of these
technologies for labour productivity and income inequality across workers and countries?
Should governments adopt labour market policies for a more digital and green economy? How
can governments support a fair and inclusive labour market at home and quality jobs?
• How are megatrends (e.g., impacts of the pandemic, challenges and opportunities linked to
technological and climate change) influencing structural change and creating better job
opportunities in low- and middle-income countries? 23
Call for Papers: Sustainable Human Systems Management in
Post COVID-19 Era
https://www.iospress.com/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-02/HSM_Special-issue_SEDSI2023.pdf

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 Call for papers Artificial Intelligence Paradigms: Transformations, Challenges, and
Future for e-Health Post COVID-19
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/assets/14680394/HealthyAI_SI%20CfP-1650641261007.pdf
• The new Coronavirus, which has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, has had dramatic consequences
for society. Humans, the most social of animals, have been forced to follow social distancing rules to keep
themselves safe from illness. The pandemic has forced many around the world to rethink their daily lives from
work to school to entertainment. Consequently, the pandemic has caused significant challenges for the global
economy which struggles to maintain sustainability and business continuity amidst lockdowns, social distancing,
and other challenges. Many, if not most, economies were not prepared for this change, and governments of
many countries are experimenting with the digitization of services to keep some semblance of normality. The
global spread has brought Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the front and center, with entities from almost all sectors
of industry seeking computational means to monitor, predict, and reduce the impact of this disease.
• As the data pool on the effects of the pandemic grows exponentially, it grows beyond the capacity of human
intelligence alone to determine the right course. As such, approaches involving AI is helping to fight the effects of
COVID-19 through the identification of patterns, screening, tracking, and the prediction of effects of the disease
through Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Neural Networks (NN) applied to big
data. Other areas in which AI paradigm can prove useful include, for example, distinguishing the symptoms of
the Common Flu from those of COVID-19, early detection and diagnosis of infection, development of drugs and
vaccines, the reduction of workload of healthcare workers, and providing necessary recommendations to the
authorities carrying out these processes. The primary objective of this special issue is to investigate applications
and understand the challenges of the deployment of approaches involving artificial intelligence in the fight
against the virus in three phases: ‘Before Corona’ (BC), ‘During Corona’ (DC), and ‘After Corona’ (AC) periods.
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R&D Management Call-for-Papers – Special Issue on Digital Technologies and
Innovation Ecosystems in the Post-Pandemic Era
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-
assets/assets/14679310/RADM_SI_CFP_Digital%20Technologies%20and%20Innovation%20Ecosystems%20in%20the%20Post-
Pandemic%20Era-1662718324807.pdf

Individual level:
1. How do employees’ cognitive factors and behaviors affect the adoption of
digital technologies for innovation ecosystems?
2. How can we build trust among managers for sharing data across multiple
digital ecosystem stakeholders?
3. How can managers deploy IoT and AI (or other digital technologies) across
ecosystems to generate and share data and insights that help in their
strategic decision-making?
4. What is the interface between human and digital intelligence within
innovation ecosystems?
5. To what extent do digital technologies enable more collaborative
workforce models that facilitate innovation ecosystems?

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 Cont'd
Ecosystem level:
1. How do digital ecosystems form and evolve? How can they be governed
and managed? Which actors are influential in this process? 2. How can
digital ecosystem actors’ individual interests be aligned to promote
collective action to compete against other digitally less capable
ecosystems?
3. How can digital artifacts and interfaces change the interaction dynamics
between ecosystem actors?
4. What formal and relational governance mechanisms drive ecosystem
governance? What is the role of digital technologies in this process?
5. How digital technologies support cooperation, coopetition, and/or
coordination over different development phases in innovation ecosystems?
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 Cont'd
Organizational level:
1. How can the link between digital technologies and innovation ecosystems be
conceptualized?
2. How can digital technologies serve the needs of ecosystem orchestration by
organizations? Conversely, how do organizations need to transform to leverage
digital technologies for ecosystems?
3. What new organizational designs and processes can orchestrators use to
facilitate multi-stakeholder engagement and data-sharing in digital ecosystems?
4. To what extent do digital technologies help build ecosystem resilience in the
face of crises (e.g., COVID-19, political discontinuities, de-globalization)?
5. What is the impact of digital technologies such as IoT and AI on the formation
of data- driven business models?
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 Cont'd
Institutional level:
1. How can government policy influence firms’ adoption of digital technologies
for innovation ecosystems?
2. To what extent do institutional environments promote the adoption of digital
technologies for in innovation ecosystems in developed versus emerging
countries?
3. What is the role of regulatory frameworks to avoid the negative ramifications
that could arise due to misuse of digital technologies and open data-sharing in
innovation ecosystems?
4. To what extent do different data sovereignty and data governance frameworks
affect digital innovation outcomes across national innovation systems?
5. How can intellectual property rights and their protection be reconceived
considering the different approaches to digital technologies across the globe?
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ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems Special Issue on IT-
enabled Business Management and Decision Making in (Post) Covid-19 Era
https://dl.acm.org/journal/tmis/calls-for-papers

Topics
• IT-enabled collaboration, coordination, and innovation during COVID-19
• Challenges and solutions for data and data science during the disruption
• IT-enabled decision-making under urgency and uncertainty
• Resource allocation under urgency and uncertainty
• New blockchain-based solutions for managing issues related to the pandemic
• Marketing and social media during the pandemic COVID-19
• AI, big data, IoT, etc. under urgency and uncertainty
• Business model innovation under COVID-19
• Organizational change under urgency and uncertainty
• Supply chain recovery under urgency and uncertainty
• Ethical, legal, cultural, and social issues related to IT use in COVID-19
• External factors that affect societal and business decisions due to COVID-19
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https://www.springer.com/journal/40171/upd
ates/23641686 Scope and Coverage: Topics may include (but are not limited to) the
following:
• Defining resilience for the Pacific region
• Sustainable approaches for post-pandemic resilience
• Case studies on post-pandemic resilience in the Pacific region
• Building post pandemic resilience in education systems in the
Pacific region
• Post pandemic tourism and hospitality industry resilience in the
Pacific region
• Post pandemic business recovery and strategic resilience
• Flexible systems for post pandemic resilience
• Systems thinking for post pandemic resilience
• Stakeholder management for post pandemic resilience
• Strategies for post pandemic resilience
• Sectoral studies on post pandemic resilience
• Supply chain resilience during post pandemic times
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https://www.mdpi.com/journal/knowledge/s
pecial_issues/8X3N8MMDY5
The following are some suggestions for potential contributions to this Special
Issue:
• New ideas, models, and theories concerning knowledge dynamics and
knowledge management.
• The role of knowledge dynamics between rational, emotional, and spiritual
fields of knowledge in coping with crises and with employees’ behavior
during crises.
• The new work–life balance among knowledge workers in the context of
remote working. strategic thinking
• Changing paradigms in and developing emergent knowledge strategies to
cope with increasing uncertainty.
• New challenges for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing to increase
innovation.
• Customer knowledge management as a new trend in developing open
innovation.
• Spirituality as a new challenge for work–life balance and value creation.
• Integrating the new technological advancements and artificial intelligence
applications in the new dynamics of knowledge management systems.33
• Vulnerabilities and risks in knowledge management systems.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/call-papers-business-failure-
post-pandemic-era-adam-lindgreen
Suggested topics include the following but not limited to:
● Causes and processes of business failure in B2B organizations.
● Exploring the dark side of business failures in industrial
networks.
● Role of networks in mitigating business failure in B2B
organizations.
● Service and product failure and innovation as a consequence
of business failure in B2B organizational settings.
● Learning and bouncing back from B2B firm failure in a post-
pandemic world.
● B2B market strategies in post post-pandemic era and
business failure process.
● Non-market strategies, industrial network behaviors, and
business failures.
● Digital transformation and B2B business closures.
● Cost of failure and failure experiences of B2B managers.
● Managerial impression management, emotions, and
leadership in failing or failed B2B activities.
● Strategic failures in industrial markets.
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https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/bfj/call-papers-
post-pandemic-digitization-and-innovation-food-and-drink-industry

• How does the food and drink industry

need to to navigate operating in a post-
pandemevolveic world?
How can the industry best manage
innovation and digital transformation at
this time?
What are the longer-term implications
and opportunities?
• The special issue for the British Food
Journal (BFJ) focuses on the challenges,
drivers and opportunities for the food and
beverage industry in the post-pandemic
era – with a particular focus on digitization
and innovation. 35
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https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/13913/coronavirus-
disease-covid-19-socio-economic-systems-in-the-post-pandemic-world-
design-thinking-strategic-planning-management-and-public-policy

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 Cont'd

• Public health and health sector innovations during the

pandemic and for the post-pandemic period.
• Multi-level, cross-sectoral, and multi-sectoral cooperation of
• Tensions between national and international health policies
various stakeholders, including public, private, non-governmental
in response to global health challenges.
organizations (NGOs), and non-formal entities.
• Supply chains and the global economy: threats and
• Evaluation of socio-economic impacts of undertaken health
opportunities (e.g., the agri-food sector).
preventive measures such as physical distancing.
• Redesign of the transport systems, including travel, trade,
• Contemporary examples of social disparities and inequalities
logistics, and freight distribution.
unveiled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Transformations of the labour markets and workforce rights.
• Regional and local bottom-up responses, their scalability,
• Planning, management, governance, and evaluation of
feedbacks from environmental change, degrowth, and community
governmental interventions including specific public policy
resilience.
areas (e.g., cultural policy, economic policy, education policy,
• The digital connectedness and the development of information
agricultural and food policy, industrial policy, labour market
and communications technologies (ICTs) (e.g., artificial intelligence
policy, social policy, regional policy, technology policy, and
and robotic solutions).
urban policy).
• Trust and risk management and communication, social publicity
• Role of experts in making law and public policies related to
strategies, and social media (dis)information.
the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., response and recovery plans,
• Design thinking, co-production, co-design, social innovation, and
programs, strategies, and funds).
citizen science.
• Comparative public policy studies including differences
• New forms and models of education.
across nations, a variety of policy ideas and policy
instruments, and policy transfer and learning.
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https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/21451/lessons-
from-covid-19-building-a-fairer-healthier-inclusive-and-
sustainable-post-pandemic-society

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 Research Topic
• Do the massive disruptions and transformations of the pandemic allow us to explore how to remake our shared economic, social, cultural
and political life to be fairer, healthier, more inclusive and sustainable in the future? How could COVID-19 be a starting point to facilitate
rethinking social relations and values? The massive investment in research that created effective safe vaccines in record time shows us what
is possible with international cooperation. So far, however global distribution of the vaccine reflects and reinscribes inequalities rather that
undoing them. Across the global north social problems that had been intractable were quickly addressed drawing on statutory resources,
with undocumented migrants offered healthcare access and homeless people accommodated. Lockdowns reduced carbon emissions
dramatically for a limited time period; as virtual communication has become the norm in most work places, the reduction in business travel
could become more permanent.

The harms of public health measures upon social, economic, cultural and political life have begun to be documented: from the sharp
increase in women’s deaths from intimate partner violence to the harsh restrictions to individual freedoms legalized as public health
measures. The pandemic public health measures have brought about increases in loneliness and mental distress, while unemployment has
hit some sectors and some groups hard. Young people have lost out on educational as well as social opportunities which may be difficult to
regain.
• This research topic seeks to turn an optimistic sociological imagination towards the future: imagining positive social developments is an
achievable step towards making them happen. Sociological approaches are particularly well placed to offer understandings built on evidence
from across a range of sectors of stratified societies, taking account of socio-economic, cultural and political influences. How can the political
slogan ‘build back better’ address current and urgent inequities? Can the pandemic city be reimagined to allow social life to persist in the
face of novel micro-organisms’ arrival among us? How can equity be lodged at the heart of all of societal initiatives, both nationally and
globally?

This research topic welcomes contributions that draw upon empirical material, offer theoretical analyses and novel methodological
approaches to sketching a post-pandemic society. 42
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 Future Research
• Explore whether banks’ ratio of financial allocation to environmentally-friendly investments
and businesses affect the depositors’ choices of banks.
• The recent introduction of green credit guidelines and sustainable finance roadmaps in
several countries and the rise of banks’ memberships in international sustainable finance
initiatives provide further incentives to test whether institutional theory percepts (regulative
isomorphism and normative processes) still hold positive impacts and whether past studies’
results are still applicable to new regulatory contexts.
• Investigate banks’ risk profile in relation to their sustainable intermediary role in the economy
and ultimately help generalize the results

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 Main Conclusions From the Review
(1) The hotspots include socially responsible investment, climate change, corporate social responsibility, green
finance, carbon credits, and renewable energy.
(2) Responsible investment, green bonds, low-carbon transition, vulnerable countries, low-carbon investment,
business model, financial development, supply chain, conventional investment dilemma, sustainable financing,
environmental investment, and green credit policy were the hot research topics between 2016 and 2021.
(3) Papers related to socially responsible investment were an important knowledge base for sustainable financial
research between 2000 and 2021.
(4) The research topics of the articles with the strongest transformative potential between 2016 and 2021 mainly
involved green bonds, green finance, socially responsible mutual funds, ESG investors’ preferences, and the impact
of COVID-19.
(5) With regard to the impact of COVID-19 on sustainable finance, existing studies found that the green bond
market was more efficient than the traditional bond market during the COVID-19 global pandemic and that
portfolio and fund managers prefer to invest in sustainable markets.

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 Future Research
• The future research on green bonds needs to deeply explore the relationship between green
bonds and other markets (financial market, carbon market, clean energy market, green stock
market), and measure the relationship between the green bond market and macroeconomic
stability in different countries through both the time and frequency dimensions.
• The future research on ESG investment funds needs to deeply explore the relationship
between SRI funds and ESG rating, focusing on ESG risk, ESG information disclosure, ESG
evaluation and rating,
• Scholars need to further explore the mechanism by which corporate governance affects the
development of green finance, and explore the role and approaches of financial companies
funded by the group to promote the development of green finance

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 Cont'd
• Managers can use ESG research results as an important theoretical reference for formulating
or optimizing national green bond market development strategies and policies.
• Managers need to fully grasp the relationship between domestic green bonds and other
markets, so as to better manage and develop domestic green bonds.
• Managers need to accelerate the development of ESG investment from the perspectives of
regulatory policy, capital guidance, and investor cognition, formulate ESG policies, regulations,
and information disclosure frameworks that are in line with national conditions, and cultivate
ESG evaluation standards and rating systems that are international and in line with national
conditions.

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 Existing Doctorate Supervision -RQs
Project 1:
Does board characteristics (Board Tenure, Board Education Background, Age of the Board of
Directors, Board Size, and Board Independence), ownership structure (Government
Ownership and Foreign Ownership), and Innovation (Research and Development
Expenditure) influence the extent of strategic management accounting disclosure by the
Malaysian Public Listed companies?
Project 2:
Do the corporate social responsibility disclosures (Investor, Community, Environment,
Employees, and Products Disclosure) have a relationship with the financial performance of
Malaysian Shariah public listed companies before, during, and after the COVID-19 crisis?

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Publication using Post-Pandemic as
Background
 Conclusion
• Many research can be conducted using Post COVID-19 as the research
background
• However, the researcher needs to focus on the research gap
• ISSUES: 1) Impact; 2) Transformation; 3) Opportunities / Implications; 4)
Challenges; 5) Specific research setting (country, industry); 6) Lesson learned,
and 7) Factors (internal and external factors)
• CREATIVITY is an essential skill in developing a research topic
• READ! READ!READ!

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 Thank You
corina@uitm.edu.my

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