The education sector in Bangladesh has been affected severely by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis like many other countries around the globe. Both the public and private universities faced different types of challenges to continue the teaching-learning process during this time. The chapter has explored these challenges and mitigation strategies based on quantitative and qualitative studies with undergraduate and graduate students of public and private universities. The study has covered both public and privately owned general and engineering universities to explore more specific issues and directives. Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers to learn the problems they faced and subsequent strategies to cope with the challenges to minimize these challenges and educational loss. The study identified the infrastructural, technical, psychological, health, educational policy, and financial-related challenges faced by key stakeholders. The study incorporated directives to overcome these challenges and provide guidelines for policymakers at home and abroad.

The chapter examines how women-owned small businesses in Bangladesh responded to crisis episodes such as COVID-19 and discusses their resilience to shocking events. The study involved a qualitative exploration of three women-owned online small businesses conducted using the case study method. The cases included businesses that sold jewelry and fashion accessories, both imported and locally procured, and exclusively operated on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The findings suggest that the businesses adopted innovative social media strategies to survive the crisis episode, including page boosting and paid promotions, Facebook and Instagram Live coupled with sales and discount promotions, temporary closure, vendor switching, and product basket modification. The enterprises showed an overall moderate level of resilience, with a moderate level of adaptability, agility, and low flexibility with a high vulnerability to crisis events. Recommendations for policymakers and credit institutions are also discussed.

Though COVID-19 has affected all sectors, the effect varies from industry to industry, and so does their employment condition. Layoff, retrenchment, salary cut, upskilling, and reskilling for new work conditions made the work environment agile. This chapter investigated the career challenges that employees faced to maintain a sustainable career in the education, telecom, retail, restaurant, fintech industries through a qualitative research approach. The information was collected through the in-depth interviews (IDI) method with the employees across five different industries. Findings of the investigation reflected that transition from offline to the online platform was common which required new skill acquisition and execution in the job to survive in the agile environment. Adaptability with technology, self-development with skill acquisition in digital mode, regular participation in training, innovation, and so on may help the employees across the industry to make their career sustainable in an agile environment.

Purpose: This study proposes a framework combining crisis challenges and response actions for crisis survival of small enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach: We adopted a qualitative research design using a multiple case study method collecting data from four small firms in Bangladesh. Findings: The findings of this study are expected to contribute to the literature on the small enterprise and COVID-19 context, providing useful insight into crisis survival for small firms, especially in developing countries. Research limitations/implications: To counter these challenges, firms adopted short-term and long-term response strategies that resulted in survival for these businesses. Practical implications: We derive a conceptual framework for crisis survival based on the learnings from the cases that would enable small firms to build resilience to crisis episodes. Additionally, we suggest recommendations that small enterprise owners and policymakers can adopt to improve the resilience during exogenous crisis periods. Originality/value: This paper is original Paper type: Research paper

COVID-19 has changed the way the whole world used to operate, and education is no exception. Worldwide, a massive transition has been observed in the education sector. During the pandemic situation, the world has experienced the mode of education shifting to a digital platform. This chapter investigates the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurs, their challenges, and adoption strategies that have created a pathway for innovation in the private education sector in Bangladesh. A qualitative investigation on 57 observations along with 18 detailed case studies was included in this study. The study sheds focus on primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education in Bangladesh. The outcome of the study emphasized the strategies taken by the entrepreneurs that focus on the bright and dark sides of the educational sector. Private institutions face technological, financial, and operational challenges during the pandemic time. Urgent initiatives need to be taken by the government or other agencies for addressing these issues for the sustainability of this sector.