Search Results (4)

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented mobility disruptions worldwide as governments imposed strict lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. In India, prolonged restrictions severely affected economic activity, particularly for migrant workers, leading to a large-scale and unplanned exodus from urban employment centres to native places. This sudden population movement undermined containment efforts and contributed to the spatial diffusion of infections. Understanding evacuees’ behavioural responses during such crises is therefore critical for effective emergency logistics and evacuation planning. Methods: This study examines the determinants of transport mode and shelter choice decisions made by migrants during the COVID-19-induced evacuation in India. Using primary survey data, a multinomial logistic regression model is developed to analyze how socio-economic characteristics influence evacuees’ choices of travel mode and shelter type. Results: The results reveal significant heterogeneity in decision-making, highlighting the role of economic vulnerability and accessibility constraints in shaping evacuation behaviour. Conclusions: The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers and emergency planners to design inclusive evacuation strategies, improve crisis-responsive transportation planning, and enhance shelter provisioning in future pandemics or large-scale disruptions. The study contributes to the logistics and humanitarian operations literature by providing empirical evidence on evacuation behaviour under public health emergencies. Full article

Background: Low-quality jobs, long working hours and difficult scheduling of hours have been usually reported in the hotel industry. The situation is more difficult for people with disabilities (PWD), even more in the COVID-19 crisis, especially in terms of labour inclusion (due to the labour discrimination usually suffered by this collective). Thus, Special Employment Centres (SEC) have been created in Spain to spread protected employment of PWD. Although they are improving the situation in the short term, the long-term impact developing sustainable employment is not clear. The objective of this paper is to analyze the Spanish situation, the possible differences between sheltered employment and the ordinary labour market, how SEC could be improving (or not) their labour situation in the hotel sector in the long term, and the potential of incorporating Corporate Social Marketing to overcome the problem. Methods: A content bibliographic analysis has been carried out according to the latest research about this topic, using a ProKnow-C methodology. Results: There seems to be two different groups of papers (supply and demand sides), being the supply side one (focused on HR practices about PWD inclusion and managers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities) more related to our research objective. Furthermore, few articles were found about SEC and Corporate Social Marketing in relation to this topic, highlighting the originality of this research approach. Conclusions: According to our bibliographic portfolio, the presence of labour discrimination in the regular market is more evident; and, in the long term, two opposite situations could be happening simultaneously: (a) SEC would be reinforcing the social stigma, hindering the labour situation of PWD; (b) SEC could be changing the social perspectives of clients and all society in a positive manner. Therefore, it would be necessary to go in-depth into the present subject, from an academic but also practical perspective, incorporating an innovative Corporate Social Marketing approach in order to shed new light on this issue and improving effective sustainable employment of PWD. Full article

The situation of labour inclusion of people with disabilities in Spain is still too negative, in spite of the different efforts carried out by public and private sector. Previous research points to social discrimination as one of the main causes of the situation. Ilunion Hotels is one of the most important hotel companies in Spain focused on labour inclusion of people with disabilities. The objective of this paper is to explore the social inclusion case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol, the actions that they have developed to improve the labour integration of this collective, based on a behavioral economics theoretical model (with a high relevance of the influence of social stigma, stress theories and coping to stress responses). We look into the specific situation of two of the three hotels developed as Special Employment Centres (sheltered employment contexts defined by Spanish legislation) and the possible impact of their Support Units for Professional Activity. Case study methodology is considered the most appropriate, according to the research objective, supported by semi-structured interviews with the hotel managers. The results show that, although Special Employment Centres are effective in improving labour integration in the short term and could contribute to change the long-term social perspectives about workers with disabilities, they could be also reinforcing the social stigma existing in the ordinary market. Full article

Sheltered employment centres are social enterprises where at least 70% of their workers have disabilities. They are a way of helping people with disabilities to work in good working conditions and of allowing disadvantaged people to live a full life. However, some people criticise these businesses for being ghettos where public subsidies are used inefficiently. Our paper aims to test if this criticism is valid by analysing whether these companies provide social and economic value to society in return for public funding and are also economically sustainable over time. Using a sample of 997 Spanish sheltered employment centres, a descriptive analysis of the main variables has been carried out. Additionally, the results of a PART algorithm show the relationship between these companies and economic sustainability. Our findings corroborate that these firms are economically sustainable and, at the same time, socially sustainable. These results highlight the great work that such companies perform for society and the country’s economy. Full article