This study examines the potential macroeconomic effects of Covid-19 on the tourism sector of Europe, the USA, and China as well as provides policy suggestions in light of previous scholarly works. The study finds that the global tourism sector is geocentric and the tourism sector of EU countries is interdependent. The study also finds strong domestic tourism in the USA and China whereas domestic tourism in EU countries is not that strong. As domestic tourism is less income-elastic than international tourism countries should promote domestic tourism to recover the loss of this sector from the adverse effect of Covid-19. Although the probable loss of the tourism sector can be estimated with reference to the recent previous global economic crises, the study assumes far-reaching and massive effects of Covid-19 on the tourism sector due to strictly restricted or banned global and domestic travel as well as the unknown duration of the pandemic. The study also finds the similarity of age groups participating in tourism and infected and died by Covid-19. So, combined and comprehensive policies should be formulated to save the international tourism sector from the drastic catastrophe of Covid-19.

Online shopping is one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in Bangladesh. But during the Covid 19, when other sectors are stable, only online shopping has gained a greater positive response. Thus, for online shopping, customers’ behavior is influenced by various factors including fare price, product quality, and durability, trust & security, etc. The study aims to identify the factors that influence the customers’ online shopping behavior during the Covid-19 in Bangladesh under the effect of control variables. The results indicate that of the eight dimensions, features and quality, fair price, performance and durability, trust and reliability, security, E-service quality, ease of use, and time are positively and significantly affect customers' online buying behavior during the Covid-19 in Bangladesh. Concerning the influence of these factors on customers, the study finds that features and quality, performance and durability, trust and reliability, e-service quality, ease of use and time factors influence the customers’ online buying behavior during the pandemic in Bangladesh. Online shopping companies must focus on these factors to get a higher response from people in Bangladesh.

PurposeThis study examines the innovation-efficiency linkage for Indian and Chinese manufacturing and service firms.Design/methodology/approachWe applied the stochastic production and cost frontier approach to determine the output and cost efficiency of the firms surveyed in World Bank enterprise surveys. We then used both unconditional and conditional propensity score matching (PSM) estimation techniques to examine the effects of innovation as well as R&D on output and cost efficiency of the firms surveyed.FindingsThe study results suggest that innovation-efficiency linkage varies between countries and sectors. Innovations significantly raise output and cost efficiency of Indian manufacturing firms, whereas innovations in Chinese manufacturing firms are cost-oriented and negatively affect output efficiency. For the service firms of both countries, innovations are significantly positively linked with output and cost efficiency. The study also suggests that R&D acts as a crucial moderator for innovation-efficiency linkage for Chinese manufacturing firms but not for Indian firms, and the interaction effects of innovations are not substantially higher in magnitude than their individual effects. Finally, conditional PSM results suggest knowledge spillover for effective innovations of Indian firms, whereas R&D is a must for substantial innovation-efficiency linkage in Chinese firms.Originality/valueThis study offers quite a few crucial policy decisions concerning the relationship between innovation and efficiency as well as the moderation effect of R&D on innovation-efficiency linkage. It concludes that the effects of innovation on firms' efficiency and the role of R&D as a moderator of the innovation-efficiency relationship differ between India and China across the manufacturing and service sectors.

PurposeThis study examines the survival probability of the firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies the effects of pandemic-era business strategies on firm survival across sectors and sizes.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines World Bank Enterprise Survey data with three consecutive follow-up COVID-19 survey data. The COVID-19 surveys are the follow-up surveys of WBES, and they are done at different points of time during the pandemic. Both WBES and COVID-19 surveys follow the same sampling methods, and the data are merged based on the unique id number of the firms. The data covers 12,551 firms from 21 countries in different regions such as Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East. The study applies Kaplan–Meier estimate to analyze the survival probability of the firms across sectors and sizes. The study then uses Cox non-parametric regression model to identify the effect of business strategies on the survival of the firms during the pandemic. The robustness of the Cox model is checked using the multilevel parametric regression model.FindingsThe study's findings suggest that a firm's survival probability decreases during the pandemic era. Manufacturing firms have a higher survival probability than service firms, whereas SMEs have a higher survival probability than large firms. During the pandemic period, business strategies significantly boost the probability of firm survival, and their impacts differ among firm sectors and sizes. Several firm-specific factors affect firm survival in different magnitudes and signs. Except in a few cases, the findings also indicate that one strategy positively moderates the influence of another strategy on firm survival during a pandemic.Originality/valueCOVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the business across the globe. Firms adopted new business processes and strategies to face the challenges created by the pandemic. The critical research question is whether these pandemic-era business strategies ensure firms' survival. This study attempts to identify the effects of these business strategies on firms' survival, focusing on a comprehensive firm-level data set that includes firms from different sectors and sizes of countries from various regions.