Social distancing and security measures have contained the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the return to face-to-face activities is necessary for specific companies, and some higher education institutions have already done so. The various disorders that this new reality could generate have motivated the present study, which aims to analyze the emotional state of teachers and administrative staff. The instrument used was the abbreviated depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21), with an internal consistency index of 0.87. The methodology was based on applying a survey to 202 participants from Quito, Ecuador. The sample consisted of 97 men and 105 women aged between 23 and 59 years. A quantitative and cross-sectional design was used in this research. The results show that 40.1% of the respondents presented anxiety, 36.63% depression, and 38.61% stress between mild and highly severe categories. Additionally, when analyzing the depression, anxiety, and stress levels compared to productivity variables, we found that five disorders, i.e., fear, anxiety, over reactivity, skeletal muscle effects, and dysphoria, directly affect productivity variables, such as performing simple tasks, performing difficult tasks, the number of products made, and the number of products rejected. Thus, returning to face-to-face mode has affected the emotional state of many people, showing differences according to the job position, with anxiety being the highest self-identified incidence rate.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been feeling great pressure to advance in digital transformation. This pressure has been intensified with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019. Because the digital transformation of HEIs has been attracting a growing number of publications, the present study sought to carry out a bibliometric analysis of such titles. For this purpose, 643 relevant documents were identified from the Scopus database in January 2022. The descriptive results show an accelerated growth of the relevant literature, with conference papers being the main form of publication, followed by articles, conference reviews, and book chapters. The areas with which the majority of documents were associated were computer science, followed by social science, engineering, and business and management. An analysis of the co-occurrence of terms based on the titles and abstracts enabled the identification of three thematic areas of interest: 1) digital transformation in teaching, particularly under the pressure exerted by COVID-19; 2) environmental influences on the digital transformation of HEIs; and 3) enabling technologies for digital transformation. A longitudinal analysis also based on titles and abstracts allows us to see how the primary focus shifted from the economic issue (in 2019) to the COVID issue (in 2021). This study concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the findings, demonstrating as a particularly interesting area for future research the study of the digital transformation of HEIs in a future post-COVID scenario.

The present paper addresses one of the most important assumptions in consumer preference patterns: transitivity. This assumption states that, logically, selections between goods are rational because of the transitivity statement, which posits that people always prefer goods in the following order: A is preferred to B, and B is preferred to C, so A is preferred to C. With the aim of proving this principle's validity, we conducted an experiment with 70 subjects and probed their preferences in relation to edible and nonedible goods. We used a survey methodology, which allowed us to analyze three distinct situations: 1) individuals faced with goods choices without restrictions; 2) individuals facing budget restrictions and price changes; and 3) individuals faced with decreased disposable income. The results mostly showed that there was no evidence of transitivity in consumer preferences. On average, transitivity appeared in only 8% of the sample, and in cases where transitivity was proved, it was revealed to be strong. The preferences were transitive primarily in relation to edible rather than nonedible goods.

Purpose: Green entrepreneurship is a topic of transcendental importance for today's societies. Studies on why entrepreneurs engage in green business have primarily focused on external influences, paying little attention to internal factors such as cognitive mechanisms. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the characteristics of the perceived (psychological) time of entrepreneurs who choose green businesses.Design/methodology/approach: Using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, this study conducts a series of 20 in-depth interviews with green entrepreneurs in Russia, an emerging economy, and then formulates the hypotheses. The hypotheses are tested in the quantitative phase by surveying 389 green and non-green entrepreneurs.Findings: The data obtained in the survey phase support several hypotheses. Specifically, green entrepreneurs think more critically about their past than their non-green colleagues. Similarly, green entrepreneurs have a longer time perspective and are more focused on possible future events. Finally, green entrepreneurs are farsighted and perceive the future more negatively than non-green entrepreneurs.Research limitations/implications: The data obtained in the survey phase support several hypotheses. Compared with non-green entrepreneurs, green entrepreneurs think more critically about their past, have a longer time perspective and are more focused on possible future events. In addition, green entrepreneurs are farsighted and perceive the future more negatively than their non-green counterparts.Originality/value: This study contributes to the least examined area in the relevant literature by identifying internal factors that explain green entrepreneurship. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is one of the first to provide an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the perceived (psychological) time of green entrepreneurs.

Though numerous scholars have studied subjective time, its predictors and effects, the general model considering demographic variables, cultural values and level of wellbeing is not presented. This study seeks to bridge this gap by contributing a comparative study of two very different countries: Ecuador (N=745, aged 19—76, 48.7% male), a Latin American developing country, and Russia (N=428, aged 18—72, 40.2% male), an emerging Eurasian nation. We assumed that temporal focus plays the role of a mediator in the relationship between cultural values and subjective happiness in both countries. To predict the temporal focus (Temporal Focus Scale by Shipp, Edwards, and Lambert, 2009) in both countries, based on the previous literature the study tests the importance of three groups of variables: demographic factors (gender, age, education, income), subjective happiness (Subjective Happiness Scale by Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999), and cultural values (Cultural Values Scale by Yoo, Donthu and Lenartowics, 2011). The first stage of analysis involved confirmatory factor analyses and invariance tests for the scales used. Subsequently, multiple regression models made it possible to establish that sociodemographic variables, introduced as covariates, had little influence on the prediction of people's temporal orientation. However, the cultural and psychological variables (long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance and subjective happiness) introduced as predictors played an important role in the prediction of temporal (current, past and future) focus. Additionally, there are some cultural and psychological predictors of temporal focus specific for each country. Ultimately, structural equation models demonstrated that temporal focus plays the role of the mediator in the relationship between cultural values and subjective happiness in both Ecuador and Russia.