Sustainable Management in COVID-19 Times: Volume 30

In the academic field of business management, several potential theories were established during the last decades to explain companies' decisions, organizational behavior, consumer patterns, and internationalization, among others. As a result, businesses and scholars were able to analyze and decide based on theoretical approaches to explain the current conditions of the market. Secondary research was conducted to collect more than 36 management theories. This chapter aims to develop the most famous theories related to business applied in the international field. The novelty of this chapter relies on the compilation of recognized previous research studies from the academic literature and evidence in international business.

This chapter explains how smart cities can be resilient in pandemic times through small business continuity strategies. A review of definitions of smart cities and urban and business resilience is presented to understand smart cities' resilience. The City Resilience Index is introduced as a tool that cities can use to measure and monitor their resilience in which the economy and social dimension highlight business continuity as a factor in promoting a sustainable economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses, as the engine of smart cities, have made their vulnerability to crises more evident and lack a roadmap or guideline to help them become resilient; for this reason, some business continuity strategies are proposed based on business paper reviews.

Integrating tourism and sustainability in achieving an eco-friendlier industry, this chapter highlights current trends in sustainable tourism, both in hospitality and recreational activities. The chapter describes sustainable, tourism, hospitality, and recreation trends. The research analyzes the origin of these trends, the vast majority motivated by the aftermath of the pandemic.

The increase in population in the world has brought an overpopulation in various parts of the world, with those cities where their countries are developing being most affected, mainly because these usually have corrupt governments that make urban planning difficult in an optimal way. The increase in the construction of urban areas generates problems in the environment due to the increase in carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, and the extraction of natural resources. Therefore, governments must promote urban innovation based on compliance with sustainable development that allows for preserving the ecosystem and the population's quality of life. Urban innovation must incorporate technologies that allow sustainable activities to be carried out efficiently and monitor the progress of environmental regulations.

Business models are constantly innovating to adopt international trends. Business models are shifting toward sustainable practices to meet expectations and standards and keep on with the rest of the competitors in their industries. Recently, sustainability took a greater emphasis, and this chapter seeks to describe the main sustainability initiatives generated in international markets. Through a qualitative study made of secondary sources, strategies aligned to different sustainability initiatives are shown. Interestingly, adopting technology, digital transformation, and blockchain can enhance sustainable development.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, its importance, and its difficulties have been defined. This chapter seeks to present the digital tools that have been used during the pandemic period and that have been focused on promoting STEM education at different levels. The efforts made by educational organizations worldwide are mentioned. Different regions are shown presenting the best experiences of digital tools that enhance the elements of STEM and can be extended to different levels of education from elementary school to university. On the other hand, successful experiences of the use of technological tools from the teachers' point of view are shown, depicting the tools that have worked the most during the process of adapting to online classes to devise a much better educational plan that continues to take advantage of digital tools for STEM education.

Food insecurity in the Latin American region has become a complex problem that significantly impacts people's physical and mental well-being. The factors causing food insecurity are varied, ranging from social, political, and economic causes. Ensuring access to food is not a task with limited responsibilities; on the contrary, both public and private institutions must contribute to creating sustainable and innovative solutions. In general, it is necessary to ensure that the food system flows correctly, ensuring the availability of balanced and nutritious food for the diet of the inhabitants of a given nation. Alternative solutions apart from the government's help include sustainable cultivation, finger millet, and close cooperation with the farmers from the agriculture sector. The present research aims to consolidate theoretical information on the Latin American situation and seek the leading solutions of the parties involved.

Latin American countries must prioritize energy efficiency and renewable energies in their energy policies. This has been debated for the past few decades. However, it is impossible to deny that energy efficiency and renewable energies have significant potential to mitigate the adverse effects of ever-increasing energy consumption induced by economic growth and the transformation of societies toward more energy-intensive models. This chapter identifies how sustainable energy policies could be considered successful in various Latin American economies through an active review and comparison of traditional energy models and their transition and respective consequences. The chapter concludes that there are national energy plans in countries in the region with a sustainable approach, and that clean energy and renewable sources have great potential. But it is also concluded that there is still a long way to go concerning legislation and legal frameworks.

The current world is characterized by VUCAT (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, and Technology). These elements provoke in workers a need for leadership that must be addressed continuously (Deepika & Chitranshi, 2021). Companies must dedicate efforts to leading their employees in a homogeneous way for team integration (Contreras et al., 2020; Sandeep & Latasri, 2021). It should be noted that remote work is a permanent feature for more organizations. Despite the difficulties that workers at all levels have had to adapt to remote work, an adaptation has been achieved in general terms based on communication technology. However, in many cases, it has altered the traditional performance of resources in companies, which makes the leading global and local institutions design new rules in favor of the health of workers and, at the same time, contribute to their better performance. For that, managers in the areas of Human Resources, Finance, and Information Technology (IT) must be able to propose strategies to take care of the human capital of companies in all their departments. For the process to work efficiently, leadership is necessary. The transition of workers from the Asia Pacific region to teleworking, the influence of leadership, and the impact on job satisfaction, which is a measure that shows the optimal management of this new way of working in companies, are described. The organizational models related to business management, the barriers in the first steps of teleworking, the strategies used, the legislation created, and the results achieved by the company are described.

The Travel and Tourism sector is continuously changing over the years. Indeed, a wide range of interests has been evidenced worldwide. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists have experienced a drastic change in their expectations and necessities, demanding new kinds of services added value, among other variables. Uncertainty and COVID-conscious tourists remain evidenced after postpandemic recovery. Moreover, domestic, eco and digital tourism grow exponentially due to the current trends. The public and private sectors must understand the tourists' patterns and adapt their strategies to help the sector recover. Thus, by working together, tourism, despite being affected by COVID-19, regained its strength and continues to grow, inviting local and international tourists to travel to different destinations, adding the adaptation of those who offer services in this industry to meet the expectations of new trends and consumer behaviors.

In a pandemic framework (COVID-19), this chapter explores the impact of the global economy and socio-cultures concerning three axes: recreational, tourism, and hospitality. Although we slowly see an economic revival, it is well known that this sector of study is very susceptible to being affected by the context of nations. Following restrictions and measures taken by governments around the world to reduce the number of cases of coronavirus infections, many nations closed their borders, affecting international travel and by 2020 tourism had been reduced to the near cessation of operations due to the imminent fear of this poorly studied disease, and the service sector was negatively affected. It should be added that, according to the World Tourism Organization's projections, a decrease of between 20 and 30% is forecast for 2020 compared to the previous year.

It is essential to understand how the countries with the highest number of tourist arrivals have managed to recover or not based on the competitiveness of the tourism industry during the pandemic stage. It is necessary to evaluate the policies implemented by each government to maintain the competitive performance of their industries. This chapter proposes a comprehensive review of the policies implemented in the 10 most visited countries according to UNWTO data. Most of these policies are geared toward economic and financial flexibility strategies for companies and individuals in the industry under study. The effectiveness of these policies is evaluated with statistical information extracted from a unified UNWTO database to reduce biases in the effectiveness analysis. Finally, concluding remarks are offered on the effectiveness of the policies and their contribution to the sector's recovery.

An important sector that presents continuous growth year after year and one of the most notable economic sectors worldwide is hospitality and tourism (H&T). For this reason, many enterprises have been created and developed. Each journey could face several challenges, such as economic, social, political, environmental, and technological. This study examines research and case studies about H&T entrepreneurship and provides new insights into the current industry about all aspects that affect entrepreneurship development. Additionally, the impacts of the spread of COVID-19 in the current industry and the changes in the awareness of tourists to enjoy more sustainable tourism that protects the planet during their daily operations are addressed; this being a new opportunity for business so that entrepreneurs can compete in a hypercompetitive market.

The tourism and hospitality industry has been one of the most important in the world for decades, being essential for the economic, social, and cultural growth of the communities in which it is present. Both its importance in the world economy and its resilience have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict measures taken to combat it; despite suffering one of its worst years ever seen, it is still expected to continue growing in the future, and with this, to continue evolving. This industry cannot meet growth and evolution expectations to return to the same approach as prepandemic times. It is necessary for businesses focused on the sector to adopt a new intercultural approach to providing these services. In this way, by adapting the services to tourists, they have a better experience and thus, considering all the characteristics involved in the provision of tourist services, it is possible to achieve what is known as sustainable tourism, encompassing both the need of consumers to be understood as well as to consider the care of ecosystems and local workers. The present work seeks to identify the influence of an intercultural and sustainable approach in the choice of tourism destinations and companies, influencing the growth of tourism businesses focused on hospitality services. For this, literary research was carried out, and the case study of the company Airbnb and its implementation of an intercultural approach is presented.

The higher education after the pandemic has put the entire university education system to test, bringing to light the need to build a genuinely sustainable academic system composed of administrative, pedagogical, and governance processes with a social and environmental scope and oriented to the training of resilient professionals, with the ability to manage a sustainable future. Seen from a management perspective, the actors of this system have begun to work focusing on rebuilding the postpandemic world into a sustainable planet for the continuity of humanity. Regarding students, the most affected individuals by the health crisis, UNESCO indicates that the impact of the temporary cessation of on-site activities has affected them in various dimensions in terms of student stability, bringing with it more significant evidence of crises due to social, emotional, cultural, and familiar problems, among others. In that sense, the change of means of interaction in student environments represents a negative turning point in the future of professionals who are now receiving education. This allows us to reflect on the high risks involved in achieving the acquisition of not only technical and specific skills and competencies of the professional specialties but also social, ethical, and citizenship skills that take much greater relevance, especially in this context.