Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that “the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” According to the World Economic Forum (2021), income disparity is at the top of global risks in the coming years. The development of income inequality is a growing concern worldwide, particularly since the Great Recession. This study is based on available data on the Gini coefficient of equivalized disposable income from 2005 to 2019 for the 27 European Union countries. We found that the indicator’s value demonstrates a reasonably even distribution of income (not exceeding 40%) in all European Union countries, except Bulgaria. We used the FORECAST ETS function (Excel for Microsoft 365) that is based on the AAA version of the Exponential Smoothing (ETS) algorithm to conduct our analysis. We grouped the EU 27 countries to investigate income equality behavior. According to the interval’s median of the sample’s standard deviation, we selected Italy, Spain, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria for further investigation. We conclude the absence of general trends in the inequality of income distribution in society due to the financial crisis factors. The research presents exploratory insights into income inequality in the European Union.

The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) developed by Xavier Salai-Martín, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, has been measuring the factors that drive the growth and prosperity since 2005. This paper focuses on grouping the European nations according to global competitiveness. It uses the hierarchical and K-means cluster with a particular focus to examine the grouping of countries from 2008 to 2017 and to reduce the complexity in examining the relationship between European countries. The drivers of competitiveness are grouped into 12 critical pillars, namely, institutions, macroeconomic environment, infrastructure, higher education and training, health and primary education, goods market efficiency, financial market development, labor market efficiency, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation respectively. The mean score of Europe during the study period was 4.7 and 40% of the European countries were found to be above the average and have been consistently performing well ahead of the average on competitiveness. This study can be generalized to other nations as well as compared with other indexes for exhaustive research that can be useful for policymakers.

The current paper aims to explore the association between rewards and employee performance in the Oman banking sector. This study evaluates data of 500 bank employees across 18 listed banks in the Sultanate of Oman. A theoretical framework is discussed to assess the effects of rewards on employee performance. According to this literature review, it is proven that rewards influence employee performance. Güngör’s (2011) study shows that organizations develop reward strategies to motivate and increase employee performance. Salah (2016) proves that rewards have a strong influence on employee performance, and he further states that incentives encourage employees to work with purpose and increase organizational performance. The outcomes are examined using factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multivariate analysis of variance. The results of this study provide critical insights into how companies can adopt effective reward management to sustain and compete in the dynamic business landscape and modulate performance management in Omani banks. Overall, a statistically significant association between the rewards system and employee performance in Oman’s listed banks is established in this study. The study further underscores the need to design and evolve employee-centric policies to get optimum performance. It also offers guideposts for managers and policy planners working in the Middle East countries’ banking sector to develop holistic policies to succeed in stiff, cut-throat competition and ensure participatory management for best performance. Herein, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are studied concerning their impact on the performance matrix. A proper insightful reward management system may lead to optimum performance, better outcomes, and a robust financial plan

The purpose of this paper is to examine the work strategies adopted by leading Indian IT companies post COVID-19 and their institutional and individual level implications. Following the exploratory sequential mixed-method approach, in the first phase, the data were collected from 8 leading IT companies in India to understand the work strategies implemented post COVID -19 to ensure employees’ safety without disrupting client deliverables. In the second phase, the primary qualitative interviews were conducted and selected IT companies’ financial statements with a systematic analysis of financial indicators were used to gauge the impact of new work strategies. The study reveals the selected IT companies were embracing Work-From-Home or Work-From-Anywhere as their work strategies by ensuring little to no disruption, were armed with a host of technology tools that allowed employees’ swathes to new work-norm within hours. The study findings manifold implications of the new work-norm are that it has no negative impact on the companies’ client deliverables and profitability. The paper confirms that the remote-working approach has resulted in reduced carbon footprint, work-life balance, and de-urbanization while identifying the flip side of this approach as the negative impact on team cohesiveness and employee emotional wellbeing. This research confirms the critical lesson learned from COVID-19 is agile companies must plan for a range of incomprehensible contingencies to ensure business continuity and growth. The research findings contribute towards understanding the Indian IT sector experiences in adopting the remote-work strategies and taken as lessons that can be useful for other global IT sectors.

The Global financial crisis of 2008-2009 severely impacted the developed economies of the world. It occurred at a time when most countries had started gaining economic growth, stability, and vibrance. Each country experienced a jolt to its economy, causing financial fragility, shocks, tragedy, and struggle. Attempts have been made to understand the root causes, economic instability, and the lessons learned from the great recession. Given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research paper seeks to examine the global recession, its effect on the economy and finances. Our research is based on the qualitative analysis of comparing the impact of the global financial crisis and strategic recovery recession plans of the top five GDP countries in the European Union-particularly Germany, the UK, France, Spain, and Italy to draw some similarities between a recession and COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the economy. The findings indicate that the great recession had a devastating impact on the entire economy, and the world can learn valuable lessons. It notes that out of the selected five EU countries, Germany was the first to recover and bounce back by 2011, but Italy and Spain were severely hit and took longer to recover only partially. The recession recovery strategies demonstrate some similarities in economic and employment measures and differences concerning tax reforms and financial support packages initiated by all five countries. There needs to be a mechanism in which each country must prepare for untimely recessions. Thus, a developmental model has been created to enable countries to be more prepared when faced with recessions in the future years.

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This paper examines and ascertains the dominant and latent characteristics of the new economy post COVID-19. It acknowledges the far-reaching repercussions and long-term societal and economic impacts caused by COVID-19. The study administered online questionnaires to professionals globally and conducted online semi-structured interviews of economists, entrepreneurs, and organizational leaders across ten countries. The study tested the hypothesis with the non-parametric Chi-square test. The interview transcripts were subjected to thematic and content analysis. The research findings have indicated the emerging changes in the economy and way of life leading to a new normal. Projections have been reported to increase digitalization and implementation in business, deglobalization, geopolitical developments, fluctuations in macroeconomic variables, and climate change. The study further revealed that hybrid work strategies would be embraced, requiring the labor market to upskill and reskill to stay competitive. Digitalization of businesses will become essential to gain a competitive advantage in domestic and international markets. The paper predicts the anticipation of changes in human behavior regarding health, personal care, and consumption patterns. The study noted the variations in the new economic trends, possibilities, challenges, and coping strategies to survive and thrive in the new economic paradigm. Therefore, these research findings provide valuable and insightful economic releases which will have profound implications in the post COVID-19 world.

Purpose This paper aims to develop a pedagogy combining analytic reasoning with a more exploratory skill set that style practitioners have embraced and business schools have traditionally neglected. It proposes a viable business which will be converted into market opportunities. The study aims to expand the domain of design thinking (DT) by applying the concept in the higher education sector with special reference to management education. Design/methodology/approach This paper emerged out of an application of one of the models of DT in the field of higher education. While several models of DT are deployed by various sectors, the 3I model developed by IDEO in 2001 was chosen as appropriate to design a pedagogy for MBA students. The data were complemented by classroom teaching experiments, evaluation and student performance. Findings This paper provides empirical insights about how a change is brought about during implementing a new pedagogy in the system. This innovative pedagogy was named as “Integrative and Interactive Approach.” It was offered to first-year postgraduate students of management. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Researchers are encouraged to test the model in a smaller group before implementing. Practical implications The paper focuses on the testing and implementation of DT in innovating a pedagogy with reference to one chosen institute. The cost, benefits and challenges may differ when applied to other institutes of same kind. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to have an integrated approach of teaching in management education using case study approach.