L. Steynberg, J.P. Grundling, B. Liu, and Y. Li
Vol 16 | Issue 3 pp. 19-31
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging business confidence and sustainability globally. This paper explores the critical role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in supporting retail businesses to capitalise on the realities of the pandemic. Following a corpus-review approach, 147 articles on higher education, COVID-19, and retail that were published from January to May 2020 were analysed. A constructivist grounded theory approach driven by a data coding process and qualitative analysis was adopted to identify underlying concepts for constructing appropriate responses. First-level coding identified substantive codes that were converted into broader abstract concepts, while a word-tree analysis identified the core theme. A series of codes were classified into reduced final concepts and dimensions using NVivo 12. Finally, a binary similarity index (Jaccard’s coefficients) was used to calculate the similarities between any two sets of substantive concepts. The results revealed three driving forces determining postCOVID-19 retail business survival and sustainability: quality, omni-channel retailing, and accountable management. The demand for flexible and blended forms of life-long learning will require employee up-skilling and re-skilling, and has increased the demand for short-term online courses. The future of retail businesses will depend more on science and technology that focus on the green economy, health and safety, and daily business operations. The future of retail relies on big data, artificial intelligence and automotive learning devices to act ex ante on expected changes in the retail ecosystem. More research is required on how to cultivate HEI partnerships to collectively develop a noösphere capacity to protect the retail sector from micro and global challenges.
Keywords: accountable management, constructivist grounded theory, COVID-19, higher education, omni-channel retailing, quality
This article may be downloaded from the following locations:
References
Abrami,R. 2020. How will Covid-19 change business education? Available at: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/how-will-covid-19-change-business-education/ (Accessed: 1 May 2020).
Aggarwal, C.C. 2015. Data mining: the textbook. New York: Springer.
Al Omian, K. 2020. Are we witnessing the awakening of a new world order? Forbes Middle East, April, 1-9.
Altbach, P.G. & De Wit, H. 2020. Post pandemic outlook for HE is bleakest for the poorest. World University News, 4 April. Available at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/page.php?page=Trans_Lead (Accessed: 7 April 2020).
Bacq, S., Geoghegan, W., Josefy, M., Stevenson, R. & Williams, T.A. 2020. The Covid-19 “Virtual Idea Blitz”: marshalling social entrepreneurship to rapidly respond to urgent grand challenges. Available at: www.virtialideablitz.com (Accessed:2 May 2020).
Bramer, M. 2007. Principles of data mining. Third Edition. London: Springer-Verlage.
Brandenburg, U., de Wit, H., Jones, E. & Leask, B. 2019. Internationalisation in higher education for society. World University News, 20 April. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elspeth_Jones/publication/ 340535564_Internationalisation_in_Higher_Education_for_Society/links/5e8f2a97a6fdcca789023e69/Internationalisation-in-HigherEducation-for-Society.pdf (Accessed: 30 September 2020).
Burke, L., Burton, D.R., Fishpaw, M., Greszler, R., Michel, M., Michel, N.J., Sheppard, P. & Winfree, P. 2020. The senate’s coronavirus bill: bailouts, missed opportunities, and positive reforms. Backgrounder, 3479: 1-13. Available at: www.heritage.org (Accessed: 27 March 2020).
Cai, Y. &Lo, C.K.Y. 2020. Omni-channel management in the new retailing era: a systematic review and future research agenda. International Journal of Production Economics, 229, 107729. Available at: https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107729 (Accessed: 3 July 2020).
Chapuis, P. 2020. Covid-19 will bring lasting innovation to retail. Available at: https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/covid-19-will-bring-lasting-innovation-to-retail/ (Accessed: 6 May 2020).
Chen, Y. 2019. Improving market performance in the digital economy. China Economic Review. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101482 (Accessed: 29 March 2020).
De Alwis, A. 2020. Coronomics-Plan your eggs and the basket. Wisdom Window, 10(2): 15.
Dekimpe, M.G. 2020. Retailing and retailing research in the age of big data analytics. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 37: 3-14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2019.09.001 (Accessed: 2 April 2020).
Fernandes, N. 2020. Economic effects of coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) on the world economy. 22 March. Available at:https://ssrn.com/abstract=3557504 (Accessed: 10 May 2020).
Gong, F., Xiong, Y., Xiao, J., Lin, L., Liu, X., Wang, D. & Li, X. 2020. China’s local governments are combatting Covid-19 with unprecedented responses – from a Wenzhou governance perspective. Frontiers in Medicine. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s11684-020-0755-z (Accessed: 21 March 2020).
Grewal, D., Roggeveen, J. & Nordfält, J. 2017. The future of retailing. Journal of Retailing, 93(1): 1-6. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.008 (Accessed: 1 April 2020).
Grigoli, F., Koczan, Z. & Topalova, P. 2020. Automation and labor force participation in advanced economies: macro and micro evidence. European Economic Review, 126(C). Available at: https:/doi.org/10.106/j.euroecorev.2020.103443 (Accessed: 3 June 2020).
Guterres, A. 2020. UN urges countries to “build back better”. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/un-coronaviruscommunications-team/un-urges-countries-%E2%80%98build-back-better%E280%99 (Accessed: 24 April 2020).
Haines, A. 2020. How COVID-19 will permanently change your omni-channel supply chain. Available at: https://www.bastiansolutions.com/blog/how-covid-19-will-permanently-change-your-omni-channel-supply-chain/ (Accessed: 27 May 2020).
Harker, P.T. 2020. The opportunities of a tight labor Market. University of Delaware, Newark, DE: 2020 Lyons CEEE Economic Forecast.
Heading, S. 2020. The answer “what now”, companies are asking “what next”. Available at: https://home.kpmg/xx/en/blogs/home/posts/2020/04/covid-19-clues-what-to-watch.html (Accessed: 30 April 2020).
IHE staff. 2020. Coronavirus live updates archive from April 12-18. Inside Higher Education. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/20/ coronavirus-live-updates-archive-april-12-18 (Accessed: 21 April 2020).
Khan, A.U. & Razvi, S. 2020. How India must tackle China’s killer bug. Policy Watch, 9(1): 19-23.
Khan, N.A. 2020. Outbreak of Covid-19: its impact on brand health and marketing communications. Available at: https://economics.iba.edu.pk/articles/nida-v3.pdf (Accessed: 2 June 2020).
Krishnamurthy, S. 2020. The future of business education: a commentary in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Business Research, 117: 1-5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.034 (Accessed: 26 April 2020).
La, V.P., Pham, T.H., Ho, M.T., Nguyen, M.H., P Nguyen, K.L., Vuong, T.T., Tran, T., Khuc, Q., Ho, M.T. & Vuong, Q.H. 2020. Policy response, social media and science journalism for the sustainability of the public health system amid the COVID-19 outbreak: the Vietnam lessons. Sustainability, 12(7): 2931.
Li, J., Hallsworth, A.G. & Coca-Stefaniak, J.A. 2020. The changing grocery shopping behaviour of Chinese consumers at the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.1420 (Accessed: 20 May 2020).
Maital, S. & Barzani, E. 2020. The global economic impact of Covid-19: a summary of research. Technion City, Haifa: Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research.
Mathur, A.N. 2020. Strategies for solving wicked problems of true uncertainty: Tackling pandemics like Covid-19. Ahmedabad, India: Indian Institute of Management.
McGuigan, N. & Ghio, A. 2020. How will Covid-19 change business education? Aspen Institute, 15 April. Available at:https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/how-will-covid-19-change-business-education/ (Accessed: 1 May 2020).
McKibbin, W. & Fernando, R. 2020. The global macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19: seven scenarios. CAMA Working Papers 2020-19. The Australian National University: Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy.
Mills,J.,Bonner,A.&Francis,K.2006.The development of constructivist grounded theory. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 25-35. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/160940690600500103#articleCitationDownloadContainer (Accessed: 30 September 2020).
Naicker, S., Yang, C., Hwang, S. & Chen, J. 2020. The novel coronavirus 2019 epidemic and kidneys. Kidney International, 1-5. Available at: www.kidneyinternational.org (Accessed: 20 March 2020).
Özden, G.A. & Gürlek, R. 2020. Automatic interpretable retail forecasting with promotional scenarios. International Journal of Forecasting. Available at: https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.forecast.2020.003 (Accessed: 21 May 2020).
Pantano, E., Pizzi, G., Scarpi, D. & Dennis, C. 2020. Competing during a pandemic? Retailers’ ups and downs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Business Research, 116: 209-213. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbusres.2020.05.036 (Accessed: 3 April 2020).
Peters, M.A., Rizvi, F., McCulloch, G., Gibbs, P., Gorur, R., Hong, M., Hwang, Y., Zipin, L., Brennan, M., Robertson, S., Quay, J., Malbon, J., Taglietti, D., Barnett, R., Chengbing, W., McLaren, P., Apple, R., Papastephanou, M., Burbules, N., Jackson, L., Jalote, P., Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Fataar, A., Conroy, J., Misiaszek, G., Biesta, G., Jandrić, P., Choo, S.S., Apple, M., Stone, L., Tierney, R., Tesar, M., Besley, T. & Misiaszek, L. 2020. Reimagining the new pedagogical possibilities for universities postCovid-19. Educational Philosophy and Theory. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/00131857.2020.1777655?scroll=top&needAccess=true (Accessed: 30 September 2020).
Platje, J., Harvey, J.A. & Bacchus, L.R. 2020. COVID-19 – reflections on the surprise of both an expected and unexpected event. Central European Review of Economics and Management, 4(1): 149-162. Available at: https:/doi.org/10.29015/ cerem.874 (Accessed: 19 April 2020).
Quinlan, C. 2011. Business research methods. Hampshire, United Kingdom: Cengage.
Roggeveen, A.L. & Sethuraman, R. 2020. How the Covid-19 pandemic may change the world of retailing. Journal of Retailing, 96(2): 169-171. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2020.04.002 (Accessed: 2 June 2020).
Saldanha, J. 2015. The coding manual for qualitative research. Third Edition. Arizona: Sage Publications Ltd.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. 2016. Research methods for business students. Seventh Edition. Cape Town: Pearson Education Ltd.
Sawahel, W. 2020. Coronavirus outbreak: what should universities be doing? University World News, 28 January. Available at: www.universityworldnews.com (Accessed: 29 March 2020).
Stephany, F., Stoehr, N., Darius, P., Neuhäuser, L., Teutloff, O. & Braesemann, F. 2020. The CoRisk-Index: a data-mining approach to identify industry-specific risk assessments related to COVID-19 in real time. arXiv preprint arXiv: 2003.12432.
Steynberg, L., Grundling, J.P., Liu, B. & Li, Y. 2020. Assessment of China’s 1985-2017 higher education policy reform: nationbuilding directives. 3rd International Conference on Education Research and Policy (ICERP 2020), 22-25 May, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
Sutkowski, T. 2020. Covid-19 pandemic; recession, virtual revolution leading to de-globalization? Journal of Intercultural Management, 12(1): 1-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2478/joim-2020-0029 (Accessed: 3 April 2020).
Tonby, O. & Woetzel, J. 2020. Could the next normal emerge from Asia? Mckinsey & Company Briefing note 20 April. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/ featured-insights/asia-pacific/could-the-next-normal-emerge-from-asia (Accessed: 24 April 2020).
Verhoef, P.C., Kannan, P.K.& Inman, J.J. 2015. From multi-channel retailing to omni-channel retailing. Journal of Retailing,
91(2):174-181.
Yong, Q. 2020. Time for universities to show their commitment to society. University World News. Available at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story= 20200401154815248 (Accessed: 4 April 2020).
Zhang, J.Z. & Watson, G.F. 2020. Marketing ecosystem: an outside-in view for sustainable advantage. Industrial Marketing Management, 88: 287-304. Available at: https:/doi.org/10.1016/jindmarman/2020.04/023 (Accessed: 21 May 2020).
