Background: COVID-19 has changed the world and strongly affected the health of the people and the quality of their life. These changes might impact employees’ physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB). This study aimed to summarize the literature focusing on the COVID-19-caused changes in physical activity and sedentary behavior among the adult working population. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in June 2021 using multiple electronic databases. The following keywords and synonyms were used during the searching process: physical activity, sedentary behavior, COVID-19, employee. After the data cleaning process (duplicates, inclusion criteria), the title and the abstract of all manuscripts from the searches were screened independently by two reviewers. Results: Thirty-nine manuscripts were selected as a result of the searching process. Of these, 5 were SB related, 15 were PA related and 19 addressed both PA and SB. There were longitudinal (10), cross-sectional (28) and a case study (1) in the selected manuscripts. The majority of studies were conducted in the USA (6) and Europe (18), and four studies examined the PA and/or SB in multiple countries. The majority (34 studies) of the studies used subjective, self-reported, but mostly before-validated questionnaires. Objective measures were less common and used only 12.8% of the examined studies. Moreover, 76.4% of the studies described an overall decrease in the amount of PA during the COVID-19 pandemic. In three cases, researchers observed an increase in PA among the workers. Five studies reported no significant changes in the amount of PA during the pandemic. As far as SB is concerned, 18 out of 24 of the studies reported an overall increase in the amount of SB between the two periods. Four manuscripts reported no significant change in the amount of SB, and there was only one manuscript in the examined studies that reported an overall decrease in the SB time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion: There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdown and work from home (WFH) policies, impaired the PA and SB level of the populations. This period has delivered an important message for the adult working population as well. They should be as active as possible and avoid high levels of SB and uninterrupted sitting time. Therefore, organizations, policies and public health bodies should motivate workers, especially office workers, to be more active and interventions must be developed to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 on PA and SB.

The traditional global food supply chains are not just complex, but they do not support the sustainability of agriculture. The business models with the greatest growth potential are those that would allow consumers to buy more directly from producers. Before COVID-19, these alternatives were not just popular but had a relatively high market share compared to post COVID-19 era. However, due to the pandemic and the changes in consumers’ purchasing behavior, the players of short food supply chains had to adapt to the new circumstances. This is why business model innovation is nowadays a priority, which means a substantial renewal of the value delivered to customers, and a significant transformation of the processes and activities of the company/network. The study aimed to examine the dynamic innovation through applied digital marketing solutions that could open up new sales channels and increase the competitiveness of the companies involved. Since Austria is one of the “greenest” countries, its consumers are interested in purchasing sustainably, so they strive to buy directly from the producers. This motivates the authors to use its representative sample to investigate how well adapted the Austrian direct sellers are to the unsteady circumstances. Based on a previous research framework, a principal component analysis was applied and the elements defined therein were the variables of non-hierarchical clustering. The used methods highlight the lack of online distribution and marketing of the farmer shops, which could multiply the harmful effects of the pandemic. The classification of the shops demonstrated the generally low share of innovative direct sellers. We conclude that in the new era, businesses that effectively apply open business innovation models will be able to compete in the market.

The present work is a selection of empirical studies focusing on the characteristics and attitudes of Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) consumers. Using a systematic literature review approach (PRISMA), we identified five different aspects of the SFSC within the publications: producer participation, swot, state intervention, attitude and “other”. Based on the findings of studies from the academic literature, the results are quite mixed. Though the number of SFSC-related empirical studies has risen in recent years, there is a lack of SFSC-related data, even in the European Union (EU), where a sustainable agriculture and food system must play a crucial role in the implementation of the Green Deal. Overall, it is hard to name those features that, without any doubt, affect the willingness of consumers to purchase from an SFSC. The studies mostly remarked on age and education; however, even these findings cannot be generalized. Therefore, some consumers of non-global food supply chains could be characterized very well, but these observations could differ in diverse cases because of local factors.

Today’s rapidly changing economic and social environment requires many new and sustainable solutions for the agricultural sector, in particular in terms of achieving higher yields and conserving arable land. However, the latest technologies and innovative ideas could answer these issues and even support a smooth transition into a green economy. The current work studies one of the best solutions—consumer acceptance. Even though vertical farming is relatively widely researched, the potential clients are seldom analysed. The applied systematic literature review (PRISMA) approach revealed various vital characteristics related to the consumers based on academic publications. According to the selected studies’ results, consumers’ adoption of innovative technology is most influenced by prior knowledge of vertical farming and the importance of sustainability. Some studies found further correlations between age and gender regarding adoption, while others did not investigate these or found their role irrelevant. Most consumers found vertical farming “too artificial” and identified this as a major inhibiting factor. However, further investigation has shown that appropriate and informative marketing could significantly increase the understanding of the concept and, through this, the acceptance and widespread practical application of the innovation. In addition, the authors want to use the current work to highlight the unsettled state of vertical management. It can be concluded that new regulations could increase confidence in vertical farming, which could be further supported by the theoretical model developed in this study, thus allowing the creation of a fully traceable product chain.

This review synthesises research on fintech implications of integrating machine learning algorithms into cryptocurrency trading strategies to address the fragmented understanding of their impact on trading efficacy, risk management, and financial innovation. The review aimed to evaluate current knowledge on machine learning applications, benchmark algorithmic trading performance, identify risk mitigation techniques, compare algorithm effectiveness, and examine regulatory and ethical considerations. A systematic analysis of diverse methodologies, including supervised, reinforcement, and hybrid learning models across global computational finance and AI literature, was conducted. Findings indicate that deep learning and ensemble methods significantly enhance predictive accuracy and trading profitability under volatile market conditions, while reinforcement learning frameworks improve dynamic portfolio optimisation and risk-adjusted returns. Risk management benefits arise from integrating technical indicators and reward-based safety mechanisms, though universal frameworks remain lacking. Fintech integration advances through blockchain-enabled transparency and automation, yet practical deployment faces scalability and interoperability challenges. Ethical and regulatory discourse is nascent, underscoring the need for responsible AI frameworks to ensure market integrity and investor protection. These findings collectively demonstrate that machine learning substantially transforms cryptocurrency trading strategies, offering enhanced performance and risk control within evolving fintech infrastructures, while highlighting critical gaps in regulatory compliance and ethical governance that warrant focused future research.

The importance of digital marketing is increasing significantly. During the current pandemic situation, its shortcomings are even more easily noticeable. Due to the German consumers' green purchasing behaviour, the poor online performance of German farmer shops appeared. The aim of this paper was to analyse the usage of digital marketing tools in this field. A representative database was applied for the descriptive statistics and the principal component analysis as well. Five clusters were defined by the K-mean method. The research of 375 farmer shops highlighted shortcomings in the usage of the website and social media. More than 70% of the farmer shops did not operate any website or did not provide on it all the required information, while only 20% of the shops were available online as a webshop. The low share of digitally well-managed farmer shops (less than 3%) was revealed by the clustering method. These focus mostly on the sale of alcoholic beverages. The social media surfaces meant in the case of many shops the only contact to the consumers, however, the application of these platforms was not common according to the applied method. For the farmer shops, the lack of digital marketing could mean a disadvantage in a short period, however, the increasing importance of online appearance could cause the decrease of interest and sales for a longer period.JEL Codes: M31, O13, E21 A digitális marketing jelentősége folyamatosan nő, a pandémiás helyzetben pedig az alkalmazásának a hiánya még szembetűnőbb. A német fogyasztók környezettudatos vásárlási preferenciáinak, valamint a COVID-19 okozta helyzetnek köszönhetően a németországi termelői boltok alacsony online jelenlétére hamar fény derült. A kutatás célja éppen ezért, az elsődleges termelői élelmiszerboltok által használt digitális marketing eszközök elemzése. A reprezentatív mintán végzett főkomponens elemzéssel és a K-közép módszer alkalmazásával öt csoportot azonosítottunk. A vizsgálat alapját képező 375 termelői bolt adatai nyomán kijelenthetjük, hogy ezek az üzletek a weboldalaik és a közösségi média felületeik használatára csekély figyelmet fordítanak. Az elemzett boltok több, mint kétharmada nem üzemeltetett semmilyen honlapot, vagy nem tűntette fel azon a törvényileg előírt információkat, és csupán minden ötödik biztosított lehetőséget online vásárlásra (webshop). A digitális marketing nyújtotta lehetőségeket jól kihasználó (leginkább alkoholos termékek értékesítésére fókuszáló) üzletek alacsony száma a klaszterezés során vált igazán jól láthatóvá. A vizsgálati módszerek segítségével azt is megállapították a szerzők, hogy sok üzlet esetében a közösségi média használata jelentette az egyetlen online kapcsolatot a vásárlókkal, viszont még ezen felületek alkalmazása sem nevezhető általánosan bevett gyakorlatnak a német termelői boltok vonatkozásában. A digitális marketing hiánya rövid távon hátrányt, hosszabb távon akár a vevők számának és ezáltal a bevétel nagyságának csökkenését is eredményezheti.JEL-kódok: M31, O13, E21