Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on public managers' attitudes toward digital transformation

Benefits and drawbacks of videoconferencing in eldercare from care workers' perspectives

Objective

The purpose of this study is to examine how care workers' characteristics are related to the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using videoconferencing in the care of older people. The factors chosen for this study are: age, education, perceived information and communication technology (ICT) support, interest in technology, ICT skills and possible prior experience of using videoconferencing tools.

Methods

Our data source was the second wave (2021) of the University of Jyväskylä survey on elder care work (N = 3607), collected from four large trade unions in Finland. We used a multinomial logistic regression to group respondents according to their experiences of technology use and a path analysis to estimate the effects of care workers' characteristics and prior experiences on the perceived benefits of videoconferencing tools in eldercare work.

Results

We found that the personal characteristics of a care worker are associated with both the use of videoconferencing and its perceived benefits and drawbacks. In addition, we discovered that prior use of videoconferencing tools, especially in direct care work, affects the perceived benefits of them. Those who have used videoconferencing in direct care work perceive them as more beneficial for both their own work and for clients.

Conclusions

Based on these results, we suggest that healthcare and social welfare organizations pay attention to the characteristics of care workers, especially when estimating the necessary amount of ICT support. More ICT support should be targeted to those with a lower level of education and higher age.

On the post-pandemic travel boom: How capacity building and smart tourism technologies in rural areas can help - evidence from Iran

While there have been numerous studies investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, few research projects have examined the impact of the outbreak on using smart tourism technologies (STT), especially in developing countries. This study adopted thematic analysis, with data collected using in-person interviews. The participants for the study were selected using the snow-balling technique. We explored the process of developing smart technologies during the pandemic and its impact on smart rural tourism technology development upon travel restart. The subject was investigated by focusing on five selected villages in central Iran which have tourism dependent economies. Overall, the results indicated that the pandemic partially changed the government's resistance towards the fast development of smart technologies. Thus, the role of smart technologies in curbing the virus spread was officially recognized. This change of policy led to the implementation of Capacity Building (CB) programs to improve digital literacy and minimize the digital gap that exists between urban and rural areas in Iran. Implementing CB programs during the pandemic directly and indirectly contributed to the digitalization of rural tourism. Implementing such programs enhanced tourism stakeholders' individual and institutional capacity to gain access to and creatively use STT in rural area. The results of this study improve our understanding and knowledge of the impact of crises on the degree of acceptability and use of STT in traditional rural societies.

Tracking the digital health gap in elderly: A study in Italian remote areas

The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a major innovative thrust to public services regarding their digitization to continue providing an effective response to the population's needs and to reduce management costs. However, there has been a partial lack of those welfare policies that can provide an adequate response to the elderly segment of the population, which is most affected by the introduction of new technologies into the public sphere. This study analyses the digital gap in health in the elderly living in remote areas of Italy and investigates the use of digital devices for health purposes. It compares the use of digital solutions for health with people's common digital competencies and their willingness to use them. A descriptive analysis of the sample was constructed to verify the different responses of the elderly by age, gender, educational qualification, and geographic area. Furthermore, regression analyses have been conducted to test whether there is any dependent effect among the elderly's characteristics or geographic areas. The results highlight the existence of a potential digital health gap among the elderly in remote areas of Italy both due to infrastructural issues and the lack of digital skills. The latter are positively correlated with educational qualification, such that it is also possible to highlight differences between age groups analysed and shape future welfare policies to reduce digital inequality.

Assessing financial factors for oil supply disruptions and its impact on oil supply security and transportation risks

The evaluation of energy security offers a standard for policy research and highlights the problems of securing the energy supply. A composite index for analyzing the risk of Southeast Asian nations' oil supply is developed in this study. Indicators used to calculate the index include the import-to-LGE ratio, GPR, market liquidity, gross domestic product, the import-to-consumption ratio, heterogeneity, oil price volatility, US$ volatility, and transportation risk. The index is based on these and other factors. According to the findings, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the most susceptible to oil supply interruptions. This indicates that India is more likely to shift its oil suppliers. At the same time, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have the lowest supply risk scores, indicating that they are the most vulnerable to supply disruptions. Reduce the effect of oil supply risk by enacting policies such as the adoption of renewable technologies, nuclear power generation, diversification of exporting supplies, and reducing fossil fuel subsidies.

Drivers and Outcomes of Digital Transformation: The Case of Public Sector Services

Governments are altering how they operate to enhance the provision of public services, be more successful and efficient in their plans, and accomplish goals such as greater transparency, interoperability, and citizen pleasure. There are, however, limited studies about how public sector managers are currently identifying digital transformation in their own day-to-day practices, how they are implementing digital transformation projects, and what their expected results are, aside from the reports provided by consulting firms. The aim of this article is to present a case study in order to gain an understanding of the current expectations that public managers have regarding the implementation of digital transformation projects, as well as the outcomes that they anticipate these projects will produce. A qualitative analysis was conducted based on experts who were involved in digital transformation projects with a thorough understanding of government decisions and in-depth knowledge of execution procedures. Based on the results derived from interviews, this paper aims to support managers in examining the barriers of digital transformation in the public sector in order to improve this process.

A SWOT analysis of smart governance applications amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Smart governance technologies are emergent information and communication technologies (ICT), which amid the COVID-19 pandemic have been widely used to govern COVID’s impacts. However, very few studies have provided insight into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of smart governance technologies under COVID-19. This prevents the widespread usage of smart governance technologies across cities and countries and impedes their usefulness during emergencies. This study combines knowledge of emergency management theory and planning support systems (PSS) to frame the functional usefulness of smart governance technologies in handling practical tasks amid the COVID-19 state of emergency into a task-technology fit model. By employing qualitative content analysis to collect views and insights from the international news-based cases (n= 69), we identify SWOT of smart governance technologies under COVID-19. Results indicate that usefulness of smart governance technologies is reflected in task-handling in the ex-post emergency phases of response (e.g., provide e-health service, tracing and tracking) and recovery (e.g., improve e-government services, enhance collaboration for renewal), whereas few applications focus on tasks in the ex-ante emergency phases of mitigation (e.g., hazard analysis, vulnerability assessment) and preparedness (e.g., planning, training and exercises). Main findings lead to a conclusion that hidden capacities of smart governance technologies can be fully achieved if policy makers and practitioners can focus on the full range of tasks and demands before, amid, or after emergencies and identify collaborative opportunities for technological development.

A Global Model Study of Plasma Chemistry and Propulsion Parameters of a Gridded Ion Thruster Using Argon as Propellant

This work reports on the (zero-dimensional) global model study of argon plasma chemistry for a cylindrical thruster based on inductively coupled plasma (ICP) whose output has a system of two grids polarized with each other with direct current potential. The global model developed is based on particle and energy balance equations, where the latter considers both charged and neutral species. Thus, the model allows the determination of the neutral gas temperature. Finally, this study also investigated the role of excited species in plasma chemistry especially in the ions production and its implications for propulsion parameters, such as thrust. For this, the study was carried out in two different scenarios: (1) one taking into account the metastable species Arr and Arp (multi-step ionization), and (2) the other without these species (single-step ionization). Results indicates a distinct behavior of electron temperature with radiofrequency (RF) power for the investigated cases. On the other hand, the gas temperature is almost the same for investigated power range of up to 900 W. Concern propulsion analysis, a thrust of 40 mN at 450 W was verified for case (1), which represents a remarkable thrust value for electric thrusters.

The Concept of a Smart Village as an Innovative Way of Implementing Public Tasks in the Era of Instability on the Energy Market—Examples from Poland

The last three years have been a period of many challenges related to the dynamically changing conditions of the economic environment. Among these many changes, some of the most important for the further functioning of private and public entities are those related to the instability of the energy market. Rapidly rising energy prices increase the costs of implementing public tasks. They also greatly increase the search for innovative, energy-saving and environmentally friendly ways of performing municipal tasks. The main aim of the article is to present the concept of a smart village as an instrument for the implementation of public tasks in rural areas. The theoretical basis of the smart village concept is the basic point of reference. The implementation of the assumptions of the smart village concept in Poland gives municipalities the possibility of an innovative approach to the implementation of local public services. In addition, examples of good practices implemented by rural local communities that can act as models for other groups of residents are also included. It was essential, from the point of view of measurable effects, to identify potential limitations and hazards in the implementation of the smart village concept, which may be identified in the outermost regions. Analysis and critical literature review were used to achieve the article’s goals. These methods are characteristic for review publications. At the beginning, we presented the theoretical foundations of the smart village concept. Secondly, we indicated how the smart village concept contributes to the improvement in public service delivery in rural areas. The authors demonstrated that there is no universal model for each unit. A smart village will implement solutions tailored to economic, social, cultural, and natural conditions.

Intelligent Digital Platform for Community-Based Rural Tourism—A Novel Concept Development in Peru

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the rapid evolution and digitization of different tourism sectors through Industry 4.0. However, Community-based Rural Tourism (CRT) has not experienced the same technological advancement. Thus, considering tourism as a powerful socioeconomic driver, this research is based on the relevance of the CRT for the development of rural areas through job creation, preservation of historical-cultural and architectural heritage, and appreciation of the local market. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present a concept development model of an intelligent digital platform (IDP), where tourism products and services are visualized, articulated, and integrated with the different actors of the CRT, offering a personalized tourist experience. The concept was developed based on Business Process Management and Business Model Canvas (BMC). Thus, through meetings and interviews, it was possible to extract essential information to obtain the necessary know-how for the development of the concept. It was concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic has established a new business scenario, intensifying and accelerating the use of digital tools and ICTs in several sectors, including tourism. However, the use of ICTs in CRT is still incipient. As Peru is a country where rural tourism has a strong tradition, but there are no specific platforms for CRT, which makes the broad dissemination of rural experiences difficult, a BMC template has been developed to integrate the expected objectives, and the application of the proposed framework serves as a guide for other platforms with different niches markets in the tourism sector.

Digital government transformation in turbulent times: Responses, challenges, and future direction

We are living in turbulent times, with the threats of COVID-19 and related social conflicts. Digital transformation is not an option but a necessity for governments to respond to these crises. It has become imperative for governments worldwide to enhance their capacity to strategically use emerging digital technologies and develop innovative digital public services to confront and overcome the pandemic. With the rapid development of digital technologies, digital government transformation (DGT) has been legitimated in response to the pandemic, contributing to innovative efficacy, but it also has created a set of challenges, dilemmas, paradoxes, and ambiguities. This special issue's primary motive is to comprehensively discuss the promises and challenges DGT presents. It focuses on the nature of the problems and the dilemmatic situation in which to use the technologies. Furthermore, it covers government capacity and policy implications for managerial and institutional reforms to respond to the threats and the uncertainty caused by disruptive digitalization in many countries. To stimulate discussion of the theme of this special issue, this editorial note provides an overview of previous literature on DGT as a controlling measure of the pandemic and the future direction of research and practice on DGT.

Accelerated innovation in crises: The role of collaboration in the development of alternative ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article discusses the need for accelerated innovation in crisis situations and argues that collaboration plays an important role in enabling such acceleration. The central research question is: How can innovation efforts during crises be accelerated, and what role does collaboration play? We draw on a phenomenon-driven, in-depth qualitative case study of seven initiatives that have developed alternative ventilators in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 crisis. Our results highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic has created a relatively short crisis window of opportunity for accelerated innovation processes that is driven by the urgency to develop solutions to the challenge at hand. Importantly, we show that when collaborative initiatives join other collaborative initiatives- what we define as nested collaboration-a forum for coordinated knowledge and resource exchange between the initiatives is created, increasing the potential for learning and accelerating the innovation process. Finally, we find that purpose is an important intermediating mechanism to accelerate innovation as it enables non-competitive collaboration between the initiatives in favor of the public good. Our results have important implications for accelerated innovation processes to achieve societal missions, goals, or challenges.

A COVID-19 disruption: The great acceleration of digitally planned and transformed behaviors in Thailand

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has reshaped human behaviors and switched communication systems from face-to-face to digital communication technologies. This study aimed to examine how digital transformation practices affect human behavioral change digitally, and how perceived COVID-19 severity affects digital transformation practices and behavioral decisions. We use the traditional theory of planned behavior (TPB) to determine new behavioral roles in the digital era, namely digitally planned and transformed behavior. The quantitative survey method was designed to collect cross-sectional data from 550 Thai citizens to provide the conceptual evidence of key proximal measures of digital attitude, digital social norms, digital behavioral control perception, and the digital behavioral decision to predict digitally planned and transformed behavior. The results show that people are more likely to digitalize than before, which predicts the decision to behave digitally at 93.9% of the variability, more than 75% of the predictive power of the total variance suggested by Hair, Ringle, and Sarstedt [1]. However, the higher the COVID-19 severity, the more likely digital transformation is impactful (β = 0.481). This study provides interesting evidence that people struggle to transform their digital behavior during the pandemic. We demonstrate that digital transformation can offer the desired consequences by cultivating digital attitudes, promoting digital social norms, increasing digital behavioral control perception, and enhancing digital behavioral decisions.

Determinants for Successful Digital Transformation

The proliferation of innovative digital technology is changing the industrial ecosystem; thus, companies should have the ability to adapt to the new environment. However, the success rate of digital transformation (DT) is still low, and there is a need to know its success determinant factors. This study aims to examine factors that affect DT’s personal and social acceptance and empirically verify whether they actually affect it. Success factors and risk factors affecting the adoption of DT were identified from the literature review. The study collected data from 100 employees working for Korean financial institutions to statistically analyze and identify the determinant factors affecting successful DT. The results show that planned behavioral factors and innovative characteristics have a positive effect on DT acceptance attitude and that DT acceptance attitude has a positive effect on personal acceptance of DT. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions. It distinguishes acceptance of innovation in two ways: individual acceptance and social acceptance, which has not been done in previous studies. It presents useful insights and understanding for those interested in transforming their organization with new technology by suggesting successful DT determinant factors.

Keeping the secrecy aspect in mass e-voting

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed society's digitalization forward like nothing ever before. Activities that weren't achievable without personal contact, became present online. Currently, when the COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted and personal meetings are becoming possible, in some cases, it still appeared to be more convenient to "meet" virtually than physically. Some actions proved to be more effective when performed online. That is why some people didn't want to come back to the previous form of communication anymore. Many decision-makers who see all the advantages of online communication have turned to the new possibilities that are served by Internet systems. Hence, they intend to keep it virtual even now, when pandemic restrictions have been lifted in most cases. This situation implies lots of great ideas for virtualization. One of those is online voting and polling conducted on many voters - groups larger than just board members or delegates. Such balloting could be performed using a voting system. Unfortunately, in the case of the decision-making process, which should be treated as a one-time event, using typical solutions is mostly very ineffective. Observations revealed that e-voting procedures conducted on a large number of electors may be challenging for many, not computer-experienced users. The procedure of authentication has to stay present in order to protect the votings against ballot stuffing. Particularly in secret voting, the problem remains the same: how to verify the user for a secret ballot without revealing his data. In mass voting, additional issues appear such as how to complete the procedure on multiple (often not ICT-experienced) voters and how to make the system accessible and credible at the same time.