This article aims to analyze the implementation of teleworking as a security practice to face the crisis resulting from the Covid-19 disease. The present paper provides both theoretical and practical results. From a theoretical standpoint, the Baruch and Nicholson approach is extended with environmental, safety, and legal factors that explain telework. From a practical perspective, a database of companies that have introduced telework as a measure to face coronavirus in a crisis context has been obtained. In short, the Covid-19 crisis demonstrates how teleworking has been used by companies to ensure their employees’ safety and to provide continuity to economic activity. Consequently, safety factors are relevant in the study of teleworking and should be considered in further research.

Purpose: This article aims to analyze individual-, organizational- and country-level factors that determine the use of home-based telework across Europe according to the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the technology–organization–environment model.Design/methodology/approach: To examine the impact of individual-, organizational- and country-level factors on telework, multilevel models are estimated to prevent problems derived from biased standard errors when micro- and macro-level data are combined.Findings: The main findings show that, according to the usefulness side of the TAM, employees with family responsibilities, those that live away from their work and highly qualified workers use more home-based telework. Additionally, and according to the ease of use side of the TAM, empowerment in firms facilitates home-based telework. At the country level, lower power distance, individualism and femininity, better telework regulations and technology developments are also facilitators of home-based telework.Research limitations/implications: The study is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data. This prevents the estimation of causal effects. Additional research would benefit from the use of panel data and from a more detailed analysis of the effects of country dimensions.Practical implications: From an applied perspective, politics related to cultural dimensions are suggested to stimulate home-based telework.Originality/value: The research contributes to previous literature by: (1) considering a large sample to conduct an empirical analysis of the use of home-based telework across Europe, (2) including micro and macro factors, (3) providing a theoretical framework to explain home-based telework, (4) applying a rigorous definition of home-based telework and (5) focusing on employees who are able to adopt home-based telework.

Although it was first developed in the field of psychology, action research is a methodology of growing importance in business and management contexts. In this research article, we focus on a significant aspect of action research: the variety of methodologies that can be used jointly in an action research study and its relationships. More specifically, the aim of this study is to underscore the definition of action research as a meta-methodology that encompasses different ways of carrying out empirical research. To this end, we perform a meta-analysis of articles discussing empirical research that used an action research methodology. The meta-analysis is based on a systematic review of articles published between 2000 and 2018. The main findings suggest that action research may be regarded as a multidisciplinary method and that it can be implemented jointly with other methodologies; not just qualitative methods but also quantitative research. Consequently, action research may now be defined as a meta-methodology or an umbrella process. In this way, action research is a tool whose implementation ought to be promoted in the business/management field as a way of enhancing relevant, rigorous empirical studies and serving as a framework reference in projects based on research and practice contribution as well as active collaboration between researchers and practitioners.

This paper addresses a key issue in the development of youth-focused social work: the role of digital skills in the relationship between young people and social workers who work with these native digital users. To this end, we analysed data from the International Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 and Eurostat. Information from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a survey conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the British Association of Social Workers supported the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal a gap between the level of digital skills required in the labour market and the actual level of digital skills in both young people and social workers, despite efforts by both groups to improve their skills. Initiatives to foster digital skills are therefore recommended to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, it was concluded that both groups could act as mutual drivers of digital transformation.

Purpose: This article aims to analyse the impact of data analytics and robots on firms' performance across Europe.Design/methodology/approach: This paper aims to examine the impact of data analytics and robots on companies' performance, multilevel models are estimated. Empirical research is based on the fourth round of the European Company Survey 2019.Findings: The main findings show that human resource management practices (HRMP) are relevant to explain firms' profits. Therefore, human resource practices and technology are complementary resources to achieve higher results. A positive and significant relation between profits and the use of data analytics to monitor employee performance was found. In addition, positive and significant relations between human resource practices and profitability were obtained.Practical implications: From a practical perspective, this article helps to understand the role of technological and human factors in profitability, and it emphasises the relevance of human resource strategies and technology to accomplish business outcomes.Originality/value: This study’s findings reinforce the concept of Industry 5.0 which highlights the role of humans in the digitalisation process.