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The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has caused disruptions in various supply chains and people's lives. At the same time, it has paved the way for drone technology (Aerial bots). With the countries gone into lockdown for an unspecified time, it is self-evident that people will run out of food, medicine, and other essentials because of the middleman's unavailability to move products from supply to demand point. Lack of medical infrastructure and distant testing laboratories is another challenge faced by the countries, which result in a delayed testing report leading to delay in medical treatment—such critical problems arising in the fight against COVID-19 highlight the need for improving the efficiency of supply chains. Recently used for commercial purposes, drone technology has already proved its utility in inventory and logistics management. Therefore, we argue that drones could be a viable option to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chains working for humanitarian aid to combat COVID-19. Specifically, the focus is on food, administrative, and healthcare supply chains that are the core to combat the pandemic. Moreover, in this article, we highlight various present and future application areas for drone technology, which could pave the way for future research and industry applications.

PurposeThe disruption caused by COVID-19 exhorts to reiterate the role of operations and supply chain management (OSCM) in achieving social sustainability. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a conceptual understanding of the OSCM ecosystem's role in enabling the world to accelerate towards social sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the integrative review method to achieve the stated objectives. The study first identifies the societal disruptions caused by COVID-19. Then based on dynamic capabilities (DC) theory, stakeholder theory and real-life examples, the study puts forward the stakeholder dynamic capabilities (SDC) view as an approach to overcome these social challenges.FindingsTaking the SDC view, the study identified ten social challenges aggravated by the COVID-19. Response actions for OSCM have been proposed to mitigate these challenges.Research limitations/implicationsThe pandemic has brought new challenges to the OSCM to achieve social sustainability. Therefore, the study's proposed response actions aim to assist OSCM managers in leveraging their expertise to do good for society and create a better world. Moreover, the study also provides avenues for future research on the topic.Originality/valueBased on the SDC view, the study attempts to conceptualise social sustainability for OSCM during a pandemic. The SDC view helps capture internal and external social challenges emerging due to COVID-19 and utilise firms' capabilities to overcome these challenges.

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to explore the presence of the EKC hypothesis in emerging economies. Additionally, the present study also explores the existence of the “resource curse hypothesis” (RCH), and the causal relationship among the variables that are considered for testing the presence of EKC and RCH hypothesis for a panel of selected emerging economies for the time period between 1990 and 2014. Design/methodology/approach The authors performed unit root test followed by cointegration test to test the existence of cointegrating relationship among the variables. Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) methods are used to obtain long-run estimates of considered variables, and the Granger causality test is performed to test the directional causality. Findings The long-run estimates obtained from DOLS and FMOLS techniques support the presence of the EKC (inverted U-shape) and the RCH. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present work is the pioneer study for EKC and RCH investigation in the context of emerging economies. The policy implication is that these economies should look forward to drafting new policies to reduce environmental degradation and promote sustainable development.