Digitalization and entrepreneurial firms' resilience to pandemic crises: Evidence from COVID-19 and the German Mittelstand

Organizational Resilience in Healthcare: A Scoping Review

GOAL

Healthcare organizations have always faced challenges, yet the past decade has been particularly difficult due to workforce shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic demands, all of which can impact quality of care. While some healthcare organizations have demonstrated the ability to adapt to such stressors-which has been termed "organizational resilience"-others have not. Most of the research on resilience in healthcare has been on individual clinicians; less is known about how extra-individual groups such as teams, units, and systems develop resilience. Understanding what organizational resilience is, how to measure it, and how healthcare organizations can develop it is essential to responding effectively to future acute and chronic stressors in the healthcare industry. The purpose of this scoping review is to synthesize how organizational resilience is defined and measured in the current healthcare literature and to inform future interventions to improve organizational resilience.

METHODS

We searched PubMed and Scopus databases for articles mentioning organizational resilience in healthcare. Eligible sources were those published in English through December 2023 in any format, and that described or measured organizational resilience in healthcare. Titles and abstracts were screened, and information was extracted from eligible articles.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

We screened 243 articles and included 97 in our review. Across these studies, organizational resilience was described as a healthcare system's ability to continue functioning and meet its objectives when exposed to stressful stimuli. Reactive and proactive strategies, as well as reflection, were identified as key components of organizational resilience. Four measures of organizational resilience were developed for use in healthcare, but only two have been validated.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Future studies should focus on validating and comparing existing measures of organizational resilience and using them to investigate how organizational resilience may impact quality of care and clinician well-being, allowing the field to move beyond the focus on individual clinician resilience.

Does blockchain technology matter for supply chain resilience in dynamic environments? The role of supply chain integration

This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of blockchain technology (BCT) adoption on supply chain resilience (SCR), with the mediating role of supply chain integration (SCI) and the crucial effect of environmental dynamism (ED) as a moderator. Based on data collected from firms operating in the automotive industry in India, the proposed model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Modelling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS software. The empirical results showed a positive effect of BCT on SCI, which in turn affects SCR. Importantly, SCI acts as a full mediator in the BCT-SCR relationship, which is moderated by ED, that is, the effect of BCT on SCR via SCI is strong when ED is high. This study offers the groundwork for operationalizing BCT in a supply chain context. It also contributes to SCR research by investigating how SCI mediates the effect of BCT on SCR. In addition, this study found a moderating effect of ED on the relationship between BCT and SCI. These results provide insights to auto manufacturers on ways to enhance SCR and ensure safe supply chain operations.

Social participation during the COVID-19 pandemic in persons with a high risk for a severe course of COVID-19 - results of a longitudinal, multi-center observational study in Germany

Objective

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how people go about their daily lives, often in various and substantial ways. This study aims to prospectively evaluate the changes in social participation during the COVID-19 pandemic in persons with a high risk for a severe COVID-19 course in Germany.

Methods

A paper-pencil-based survey was conducted starting at March 2021. Participants filled out questionnaires at four time points based on their COVID-19 vaccination status: before COVID-19 vaccination, one month, six months and twelve months after COVID-19 vaccination. Social participation measures included the Pandemic Social Participation Questionnaire (PSP-Q) and the Index for measuring participation restrictions (IMET). Repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-test were used to test for changes between time-points. Repeated measures correlation was used to assess the relationship between social participation and local COVID-19 incidences.

Results

Data from 245 participants was analyzed before and one month after COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, data from 156 participants was analyzed at time points one, six and twelve months after COVID-19. PSP-Q and IMET scores changed significantly after participants received a COVID-19 vaccination. Between one month and twelve months after vaccination, social participation improved significantly measured by PSP-Q. Social participation was negatively correlated with regional COVID-19 incidences before and after COVID-19 vaccination. Social participation was positively correlated with COVID-19 incidences between one month and twelve months after COVID-19 vaccination.

Conclusions

Social participation improved in persons with a high risk for a severe COVID-19 course during the pandemic. The local COVID-19 incidence showed a negative association with social participation only until the fall of 2021 when it was used as the sole metric to regulate COVID-19 protective measures. Although our data describes the trends in social participation, further studies are needed to identify the influencing factors for the observed increase in social participation.