COVID-19 Outbreak and Business

The COVID-19 outbreak has a large impact on business in operation all around the world. It is expected that this outbreak will have a much larger impact on the world economy than the epidemic of SARS in 2003 or arguably even than the global financial crisis in 2008. While the healthcare systems in the world scramble to combat this emergency, businesses, such as tourism, hospitality, airline, and restaurant, are hit hard with immediate and probably long lasting impact. Many other businesses, particularly manufacturing, struggle to get back to their normal operation due to the strict cordoning-off policies implemented in many countries.

Given the urgency and the scale of the impact by COVID-19 outbreak on China and the world, Frontiers of Business Research in China (FBR) calls for business scholars to contribute to the society by sharing their intelligence and research on related issues.  

Examples of topics suitable for this special call may include, but are not limited to:

• Global value chain restructuring/resilience
• The outbreak and firm’s digitalization transformation
• The impacts of the outbreak upon firms, especially SMEs
• Firm's business strategies during and after the outbreak
• Social entrepreneurship in responding to the outbreak
• How to facilitate virtual work/learning from home
• Employees' risk perception and wellbeing during the outbreak
• How the company can support employees during the critical time
• How to help employees to recover from traumatic experience

FBR accepts studies using various methodologies including survey research, archival data analysis, experimental studies, case studies, qualitative methods, and other creative methods. We will do our best to expedite the peer review process and ensure timely publications. Accordingly, the time window for revision and resubmission may be shortened. To promote global communication, FBR sponsors Open Access and all published papers can be downloaded from our SpringerOpen website for free shortly after editorial acceptance.

The submission deadline is May 31, 2020. However, any new submission will be processed with double-blind peer review immediately. To submit a paper, please go to FBR’s SpringerOpen website: https://fbr.springeropen.com. When submit your paper, please select “COVID-19 and Business” under “Thematic Series” to be included in this special call.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Zhaoli Song (bizszl@nus.edu.sg) is an Associate Professor of at School of Business, National University of Singapore. Prof. Song obtained his Ph.D. at University of Minnesota. His research interests include behavior genetics, leadership, social interactions, new comer socialization, job search and unemployment experience, and work-family boundary. He was the Associate Editor of Applied Psychology: An International Review during 2014-2017, and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Organizational Behavior. His papers have been published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Business Venturing.

Wu Liu (wu.liu@polyu.edu.hk) is a Professor and Head of Department at School of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Liu obtained his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University. His current passion of research centers on (1) leader-member and team dynamics on voice behavior, and (2) under which social conditions that cross-cultural differences in conflict resolutions may appear or disappear. His works have appeared in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal Organizational Behavior. Professor Liu serves on the editorial board of Management and Organization Review.

Ziliang Deng (dengziliang@rmbs.ruc.edu.cn) is a Professor of International Business and Associate Dean (Research) at Renmin Business School, Renmin University of China. Prof. Deng obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham. His research interest is international business in emerging markets (China in particular) and institutional environment, and his recent papers appeared in Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, among others. He is Executive Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers of Business Research in China, an editor of Journal of International Management and Asia Pacific Journal of Management.

ABOUT FBR

Created in 2007, FBR (ISSN 1673-7326; e-ISSN 1673-7431; CN11-5746/F) is a double-blind refereed quarterly journal in business research jointly managed by Renmin Business School, Renmin University of China, SpringerOpen, and Higher Education Press. FBR encourages interdisciplinary studies and interactions between Chinese and international researchers in the broad area of business administration. FBR is abstracted and indexed in major international databases including EconLit, ESCI, INSPEC, SCOPUS, and ProQuest. In 2019, FBR is awarded “The Highest International Impact Academic Journal of China (Humanities and Social Sciences)”.