Introduction to the COVID‐19 Commentaries
本文是管理学论坛的引言，指出新冠疫情对全球经济、企业战略和学术研究产生深远影响，并邀请顶尖学者探讨疫情对国际商务、创业、供应链等领域的启示，为后疫情管理研究提供方向。
The Editors The COVID-19 pandemic confronted the world with a rapid, unexpected and far-reaching global crisis. While it began as a healthcare emergency, it very rapidly became clear that the pandemic would have unprecedented political, economic and social consequences. While both the healthcare crisis and its broader consequences are still unfolding, it is becoming obvious that many countries will be faced with unprecedented economic recessions, leading to business failures, mass unemployment, rising debt levels and placing additional strain on political, economic and civic institutions. Furthermore, COVID-19 is affecting existing businesses, their strategies, processes and practices as supply chains are disrupted, operations are shifted online and increasingly costly regulations are implemented often at very short notice. More dramatically, the pandemic is undermining the profitability and even the viability of entire sectors, including travel and tourism, higher education, hospitality and the performing arts. Of course not all sectors have been equally affected; some, such as those with existing online channels like some retailers, have found it relatively easy to rebalance towards that side of their operations. Others like professional services firms have managed to adjust to home working practices. Some sectors such as couriers, video-conferencing solution providers and streaming platforms have even benefited from the pandemic. What is clear is that whatever ‘new normal’ emerges from the pandemic, many established assumptions, concepts and practices in management studies and its many sub-disciplines will require revisiting and rethinking. Further, the current crisis and responses to it may generate entirely new research questions and directions while displacing or redirecting established ones. In this forum, we seek to help set the agenda for post-COVID management research by bringing together a number of world leading academics to share their thoughts on what the pandemic may mean for a specific topic or disciplinary focus. Examples include: international business, entrepreneurship, global supply chains, strategy, employment relations, organizational culture, team work, and social networks to name a few. The effects of the pandemic are of course ongoing and unpredictable and while there may be disagreement in terms of its impact on a particular area, we believe that the ideas and suggestions in this collection represent an important contribution and source of inspiration for academics working in these areas. Over the years to come, we look forward to colleagues addressing the many questions posed in this forum.