In the United States, during the early outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, African Americans experienced disproportionately high rates of infection and mortality relative to their share of the United States population. New Orleans, Louisiana was one of the places most heavily affected by the coronavirus during its early outbreak. The study that follows explores the attitudes of African Americans in New Orleans toward the virus, social and normative conditions which affected individual behaviors, as well as access to healthcare services and COVID-19 testing. In part one of the study, qualitative responses were collected from a sample of African Americans in the New Orleans area to garner perspective about their attitudes and behaviors related to the coronavirus outbreak. Part two of the study builds on findings from Study 1 with parameter estimates from a Logit regression to examine how social, economic and physical conditions determine vulnerability to COVID-19 infection among African Americans. Implications for how healthcare organizations can address the needs of vulnerable populations during a health-related crisis are discussed.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between marginalization, Web presence and firm performance for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies upon interviews and surveys of managers and/or owners of SMEs. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, the authors tested an integrated model of the relationship between marginalization, Web presence and firm performance.
Findings
Findings indicate that marginalization enhances the risk perceptions entrepreneurs assign to internet use. This enhanced risk perception then limits the extent to which an entrepreneur responds to online customer feedback, which has implications for the SME’s relationship and reputation management efforts with buyers, ultimately impacting the enterprise’s performance.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the overlooked phenomena of marginalization and internet avoidance among entrepreneurs. The findings provide insight for entrepreneurs on the deleterious consequences associated with lacking an online presence.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.