Unleashing the financial aspect of Covid-19: How organizations managed the crisis?

Abstract Globally the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both individuals and organizations. Challenges on the financial, psychological, and physical levels have been felt, especially in the business sector. The purpose of this research is to examine how COVID-19 has financially affected firms in Pakistan and the United States. In order to do this, surveys and interviews with experts in various business disciplines were carried out to utilize convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Partial least squares (Smart PLS) statistical analysis employing structural equation modeling was used in the research. The results showed that COVID-19 greatly impacted the workers’ financial and psychological health. The research also demonstrated that moderators were crucial in lessening the pandemic’s effects. Discussion in this research also includes the study’s ramifications and practical implications.


Introduction
Despite the global impact of the SARS pandemic, it seems that we have not fully learned its lesson.
Although not all global entities were affected, some of the most prominent ones and financial markets suffered a significant impact (Asriati et al., 2022;Sunarsi et al., 2020).Today, we are taking precautionary measures to protect ourselves, just as we should have done then.The COVID-19 outbreak began in China and rapidly disseminated all around the globe, becoming one of the most dangerous diseases to affect humanity in recent years.Millions of lives have been lost due to this virus, not only in underprivileged economies but also in the world's largest economies (Al-Awadhi et al., 2020;Asriati et al., 2022;Sunarsi et al., 2020).As a result of the rapid increase in positive cases, many countries globally implemented complete lockdowns, despite some individuals exhibiting no or mild symptoms.
There are several reasons given for include the United States and Pakistan in the research.The COVID-19 outbreak, as we know, has a significant impact on worldwide economies, firms, and workers (Alsamhi et al., 2022).Even large economic nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, and other European countries have been severely impacted (Loi & Dang, 2023).The United States of America, in particular, was one of the nation's most struck by the epidemic.Economic disruptions have occurred in both Pakistan and the United States of America, although the nature and scope of these impacts varied owing to variances in their economies (Alsamhi et al., 2022;Li et al., 2022;Wang & Han, 2021).Size and economic resilience, sector composition and susceptibility, healthcare infrastructure and capacity, fiscal and monetary policy measures, digital infrastructure, and e-commerce are all examples of variations.These factors influence the extent of economic contractions, the efficacy of policy measures, the resilience of particular sectors, and the rate of recovery (Li et al., 2022;Loi & Dang, 2023).It is critical to include these disparities when studying and comparing the economic effects of the epidemic (Loi & Dang, 2023), which is why we chose these two nations for our research.Several major elements come into play when assessing the economic effect of the pandemic on the United States and Pakistan.The United States has a bigger and more varied economy, as well as strong financial markets and sufficient fiscal ability to implement stimulus measures (Li et al., 2022;Sharif et al., 2020).Therefore, the government was able to withstand economic shocks and adopt significant fiscal and monetary measures to reduce the pandemic's impacts, resulting in a speedier recovery and less severe economic contractions than in Pakistan (Wang & Han, 2021).
The composition of industries in both countries played a role.The US economy has a larger services sector, which was hit hard during the pandemic (Wang & Han, 2021).In contrast, Pakistan's economy relies more heavily on agriculture, manufacturing, and informal sectors, which faced issues due to disruptions.The healthcare infrastructure and capacity also differed between the two nations, with the US possessing higher resources and capacity to respond to the epidemic (Li et al., 2022;Sharif et al., 2020).
Fiscal and monetary policy measures were also implemented in both countries, but on a much larger scale in the US (Li et al., 2022;Wang & Han, 2021).These measures aimed to support impacted individuals, businesses, and sectors and varied in their scale and effectiveness, influencing the speed of economic recovery and the severity of impacts on households, businesses, and financial systems (Li et al., 2022).Furthermore, the US has more advanced digital infrastructure and e-commerce capabilities compared to Pakistan.This allowed the country to adapt to remote work arrangements, online shopping, and digital services during lockdowns, while Pakistan faced challenges due to a less developed digital ecosystem.
Well-known American and European brands located in underprivileged countries have been stabbed strongly by the epidemic, as highlighted by research conducted by (Haroon et al., 2021).Despite having a crisis management department and active research and development programs, these companies have still felt the impact of the pandemic, though they have managed to maintain their economic position.While past pandemics have provided valuable lessons on managing and securing systems, programs, and investments, the current situation is more severe and destructive, affecting businesses and people's lives financially and emotionally (Alsamhi et al., 2022;Li et al., 2022;Wang & Han, 2021).
The financial effect of the epidemic on industries and their operations, investments, and transactions was strong.It affects alternative job opportunities and self-efficacy as well which is the severe outcome of the crisis.The content of this paper draws on survey results, interviews with people in Pakistan and the United States, personal experiences and observations, academic colleagues, and family and friends who were directly affected by the pandemic.The interviews revealed that people experienced extreme stress, financial difficulties, and health issues due to a lack of financial resources, communication breakdowns, and a lack of support from their organizations, colleagues, and families.
The study also found that alternative job opportunities and self-efficacy played a noteworthy role in reducing the impact of the pandemic on employees.The research was motivated by the global crisis caused by the epidemic, which has had a destructive effect on Pakistan's struggling economy.Despite the United States being one of the giant nations and having access to sophisticated services, businesses, and households have still been severely affected by the epidemic.This paper aims to cover the space that exists in research by comparing the financial impact of COVID-19 on businesses and crisis outcomes in both countries.COVID-19 affected more than 54 million American inhabitants, and they have lost their jobs since it started.Most of these residents are now living in low-income households (Raifman et al., 2021).
These people are more likely to experience food insecurity because of a lack of income, which has been connected to a host of other health problems and financial difficulties, all of which contribute to clinical depression and suicidal thoughts.As a result, it disrupted family life, made people uncomfortable, and hampered kids' growth (Raifman et al., 2021).As a result of the ongoing pandemic, unemployment benefits have been extended until the end of July 2020, and the federal Coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security (CARES) Act has permitted a weekly federal addition to state unemployment insurance payments of $600.The CARES Act has extended the UI program's eligibility and duration through 26 December 2020.In the United States, food poverty was reduced when Congress increased unemployment insurance eligibility and duration funding to $300 a week between 27 December 2020 and 14 March 2021 (Raifman et al., 2021).
The COVID-19 epidemic had a serious effect on the American economy, with many experts comparing it to the Great Depression of the 1930s.In fact, it was predicted that the gross domestic products (GDP) dropped by approximately 15 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, while unemployment rates reached 8.4 per cent by the end of April.Across most of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, work hours have decreased significantly, with the first three months of the pandemic seeing a ten-fold increase in work hours compared to other global crises (Demmou et al., 2021).In America, work hours fell by approximately 15 per cent during this period (Demmou et al., 2021).
Unemployment rates in America have seen a significant increase, rising from a 50-year, low of 3.5 per cent in February 2020 to 14.7 per cent in April 2020, marking the most substantial jump in unemployment rates since January 1948 .However, there has been some recovery since June 2020, with economic activities gradually resuming and the redundancy rate falling to 11.1 per cent.Fewer job seekers can be ascribed to temporary layoffs, with 60 per cent of the unemployed still affected by the redundancy rate in April 2020, compared to 78 per cent previously (Ali et al., 2020;).
To combat the rising redundancy rates, America has introduced several job retention programs and increased income assistance, as businesses begin to reopen.Policymakers need to respond in the right direction, focusing on mandatory restructuring to maintain a balance between continuous assistance and boosting business activities (Ali et al., 2020, ;Tawaha & Ardito, 2021).Tawaha and Ardito (2021) emphasizes the mutual effect of crisis strategies regarding COVID-19 to support and assist companies in building the organizational culture and organizational strategic orientation.There were 26 states in America operate short-time compensation schemes, the program's utilization has been limited due to factors such as a lack of employer awareness and managerial blockages.To address these issues, America has initiated the Paycheck Protection Program, providing loans to small businesses of approximately a little over three per cent of the GDP (Iyke, 2020).The Employee Retention Tax Credit program is another initiative that reimburses 50 per cent of tax credits earned.Despite these efforts, it is estimated that the redundancy rate will remain at its peak of 10.4 per cent in the last quadrant of 2020, with employment rates deteriorating up to eight per cent by the year-end.If there is a second wave of Covid-19, employment rates may decline even further, up to 15 per cent by the end of 2020 (Gupta et al., 2020;Iyke, 2020;).
Low-wage workers, women in the workforce, the self-employed, and those in temporary positions have been hit more than average by the pandemic crisis.In contrast, chief executive officers (CEOs), senior managers, and permanent workers often had the option of working from home.During the height of the epidemic in April 2020, 59% of Americans in the highest income quartile began working remotely, compared to 34% of those in the lowest income quartile (Gupta et al., 2020, ;Tawaha & Ardito, 2021).
Corporations and economies throughout the globe have felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (Walmsley et al., 2021;Wang & Han, 2021).The number of confirmed cases is skyrocketing, and new, more lethal strains are constantly appearing.Lockdown policies have had a disproportionately negative impact on third-world nations, already struggling under the weight of extreme poverty, widespread hunger, and inadequate infrastructure.Pakistan's economy is among those that have taken a hit from the epidemic and is on the verge of collapse.The poverty and unemployment rates are predicted to rise dramatically, from 23.4% to almost 59%, according to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).IPSOS found that around 51% of people worried about losing their employment in the next few months, and this fear was widespread throughout both affluent and underprivileged areas of the nation.The non-resident Pakistani workforce has also been impacted since they have been unable to continue working on repatriation.Pakistan, in contrast to the United States, has fewer resources to help affected companies and workers recover from the pandemic's effects.Damage has been done across the board, but especially in the fields of production, petroleum, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, farm implements, and electricity and energy.Also suffering losses and shutting their doors are small and medium-sized enterprises.The situation is critical, with damage to the economy totaling PKR 2.5 trillion.

Sample and data collection
For the current paper, information was gathered by utilizing suitability and snowball specimen methods and distributed questionnaires to the employees working in pharmaceutical companies, healthcare institutions, financial organizations, and other related companies of Pakistan and the USA.
The respondents selected have huge sources of information about the studied constructs because they have close connections with the customers, colleagues, managers, business personnel, and their day-to-day involvement in business operations.These respondents even know and/or got a family ties, buddies, and/or collaborators and were completely related to the current paper.In-Thorough consultations were also managed with non-willing persons to fill out forms and/or were not well and had severe COVID-19 positive symptoms.These interviews were conducted through mobile calls and video calls.Prior appointments were taken with the selected respondents and checked their availability on the date and the time duration they can spare.Final confirmations were also taken one day before the interviews.G* power was utilized to compute the volume of the illustration (Faul et al., 2009).A total of 500 samples were distributed (267 in Pakistan and 233 in America) out of which 459 samples were received (247 from Pakistan and 212 from America), 424 samples (217 from Pakistan and 207 from America) were found completely authentic for the current study (Table 1) and the rest 35 samples were found irrelevant.Among these 35 samples, 23 were incomplete and 12 were discarded because of technical errors.41 respondents didn't respond at all despite multiple attempts.The limitation of the responses which were not received or incompletely received might be due to the COVID-19 situation in both countries.Secondly, the aftereffects of the pandemic have also affected the lives of the people and maybe they didn't take out time to respond to these questionnaires.Therefore, for the current study, Smart PLS (Partial Least Squares) was found relevant for numerical analysis due to the small test volume (Hair et al., 2021).

Instrument design
For conducting a survey, its tool was designed in the initial place.Many expressive statistics were used to recognize population illustrations concerning their characterization and sociodemographic traits.Afterwards, the constructs of the current paper were examined by using closeended inquiries which were based on a 5-point Likert ratio, having options of sturdily disagree (5) to strongly agree (1).
The variables of the paper were established for gratified legality and to enhance the instruments of the survey, follow-up revisions were given related to the outcomes given by the professionals of the area and the faculty members of the university who were aware of the corporate industries and research methodology.

Descriptive analysis (shortened)
A total of 424 responses to the survey were received and the details of the respondents (Table 1).Among the total respondents, there were 58.53% males and 41.47% were females in Pakistan, while 57.49% were males and 42.51% of female respondents participated in the survey from the USA.As most of the respondents were associated with pharmaceutical, healthcare, and financial institutions as they were deemed fit for the recent paper.The work experiences of the respondents out of a total of 217 respondents in Pakistan, 18.43% of men participants and 13.36% of women participants have fewer than five years of work experience.Whereas 6.91% of males and 4.61% of females do not have work experience and are full-time students of finance, healthcare management, and pharmacy.In the context of America, out of a total of 207 respondents, 22.71% of males and 14.49% of female participants respondents have fewer job experience than 5 years, whereas 2.42% of males and 1.45% of females were full-time students of finance and healthcare management.and sidelong multicollinearity happens in the examination prototype.The GoF esteem is 0.540 is more prominent as compared to 0.36 that is implies on the attack of the model is excellent.Additionally, the SPR, RSCR, SSR, and NLBCDR esteems connect to the edge models which is demonstrated in Table 2.It implies indicators in the exploration model don't happen to be commonly related and there is no collinearity issue between the indicators and the measure in the examination model.
To assess the external model three rules were utilized build dependability, merged legitimacy, and discriminant legitimacy (Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT)) (Hair et al., 2019).While assessing the dependability and legitimacy prototype, Cronbach alpha(α), which is the composite unwavering quality (CR), and normal difference removed (AVE) were checked.All in all, the worth of external loads which is more noteworthy as compared to 0.70 (Hair et al., 2017).Those things whose external loadings lie in the scope of 0.40-0.70ought to be eliminated just if erasing them expands α, CR or AVE esteems (Hair et al., 2017).Henceforth, composite dependability is a suitable proportion of unwavering quality and differs from 0 to 1. Qualities above 0.70 are suggested as an edge (Hair et al., 2016).The edge level of AVE is 0.50 or above as per the rules of (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).In any case, Table 3 shows the concurrent legitimacy and unwavering quality of the model.The idea of Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) proportion was introduced by (Hair et al., 2017).It is the proportion of the normal relationship of the pointers among various builds and the normal connection of markers of the connected development.As per (Hair et al., 2017), models with develops that are theoretically comparative have an edge level of 0.90 while those builds that are irrelevant to one another have an edge worth of 0.85 or beneath.
From Table 4, it tends to be seen that not a solitary worth is more noteworthy than 0.85.Thus, discriminant legitimacy is set up.
To look at both the immediate and backhanded impact of the underlying condition prototypes, 4 rules were explicitly utilised: (R2) for endogenous inactive factors are evaluated to discover the measure of change clarified by all developers (Cheah et al., 2018).Although an acceptable R2 worth depends on the paper setting (Schmidt & Bohannon, 1988) displays the worth of 0.26, 0.13, and 0.09 convey elevated, ordinary, and trough measures of fluctuation individually.
To appraise the impact of PCV19, FAO, AJSE, and UJMJO on the pioneering goal variable, it tends to be seen from R2 as demonstrated in Table 5, Group A = 0.170 and Group B = 0.483.This implies that the enterprising aim is contributed by PCV19, FAO, AJSE, and UJMJO of 17.0% in Group A and 48.3% in Group B. Furthermore, a cross-approved repetition measurement (Q 2 ) to evaluate the gauge meaning of the exploration prototype (Hair et al., 2014).It was adequate to support the appraisal meaning for the immediate impact prototype since Table 5 exhibits Q2 worth which is more noteworthy as compared to 0 in A-Group = 0.200 and B-Group = 0.240 both.Thusly, it very well may be counted as an agreeable prescient significance of the model.Furthermore, p-values were intended to get the two-tailed test to construe the coefficients' importance.Table 6 illustrates PCV19 which has a meaningful impact on FAO in A-Group (β = 0.403, p < 0.05) also B-Group (β = 0.169 p < 0.05) also pairs of groups are meaningful (β = 0.107, p < 0.05).The direct effect of PCV19 on UJMJO has significant in A-Group (β = 0.132, p < 0.05) and Group B (β = 0.467, p < 0.05) also these pairs of group findings (β = 0.286, p < 0.05).Finally, FAO on UJMJO has direct and meaningful findings in A-Group (β = 0.214, p < 0.05) and important findings in Group B (β = 0.037, p > 0.05) however meaningful findings of group pairs (β = 0.324, p < 0.05).
As portrayed in Table 6, the inverse effect of PCV19 on UJMJO with the use of arbitrating part of FAO is insignificant in Group B (β = 0.006, p > 0.05) and Significant in both A-Group (β = 0.086, p < 0.05) and the findings of-pairs group (β = 0.034, p < 0.05).Lastly, the moderating role of AJSE on the relationship between FAO and UJMJO in A-Group is meaningful (β = 0.022, p > 0.10) however noteworthy in both B-Group (β = 0.141, p < 0.05) and the findings of the pairs of groups (β = 0.170, p < 0.05).The results are almost similar in the context of both Pakistan and the United States.

Conclusion & limitations
This paper uncovers the profound ramifications of the COVID-19 epidemic on economic activities in both the United States and Pakistan.The United States, which had similar challenges as Pakistan, shown more resilience in mitigating the financial crisis as a result of its stronger economic structure.Regrettably, both countries experienced a surge in unemployment, disproportionately impacting those with low incomes and compelling them to endure dire living conditions with few alternatives.In response to the crisis, the United States implemented a range of emergency legislation and restoration programs aimed at safeguarding the ongoing social, financial, and economic well-being of its populace.In contrast, Pakistan did not undertake such steps, hence exacerbating the country's already tenuous economic predicament.The prevailing conditions provided additional challenges for Pakistan in managing the repercussions of the pandemic, particularly in relation to the significant issues of unemployment, poverty, and limited financial investment and resources.The findings of the research demonstrate that PCV19 significantly affected FAO in both countries and had a sizable influence on UJMJO directly.PCV19's indirect effect on UJMJO via FAO's mediating function was minimal in Pakistan but substantial in the USA.Ultimately, the study revealed that AJSE had a moderating role in the relationship between FAO and UJMJO in both markets.Notwithstanding the paper's managerial implication, the pandemic posed challenges in establishing interactions with people.Finally, the survey was conducted only among individuals known to the author or inside their social network, thereby limiting the scope of the investigation.It's worth noting to acknowledge that individuals who had signs of COVID-19 May have potentially provided inaccurate responses to survey inquiries.

Table 2 . Model fit and quality indices No Model fit and quality indices Criteria fit Results Remarks
Source: Authors own source

Table 5 . Coefficient of determination in the PLS method
Note: Group A reflects the United States and Group B reflects Pakistan.