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The pandemic situation has forced most of the countries to plummet toward a virtual, distant learning format in recent years since 2020. While there are certain undeniable benefits of a virtual, technology-infused setup, it essentially calls for a complete paradigm shift for a country like India which has otherwise been a practitioner of traditional classroom teaching. Despite that, the recent boom in the EdTech market in India coupled with recent government policies indicate that India is going for that paradigm shift. The key thing to note here is that an EdTech-intensive setup is not as primitive as the traditional one. Its feasibility demands more rigorous infrastructural support. This paper looks into the very basic infrastructural requirements of the system in light of a very straightforward strategic analysis model—Objective and Key Results. Under this setup, India's readiness is measured in terms of the availability of electricity, internet, and digital equipment with the intention of making an accessible, affordable and inclusive EdTech-driven education system. Moving one step further, this paper also tallies the recent policies with the specific shortcomings of the existing system to determine whether or not India is moving on the right path to progress. In a nutshell, it is found that there is ample room for improvement in the current arrangement for implementing a large-scale EdTech-enabled system, but the progress is most certainly happening in the right direction. Recent policies make quite an argument in favor of doing away with the digital divide and building an effective and inclusive EdTech-powered education system for the future generations of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When analysing the Covid-19 pandemic potential consequences on education, it is evident that it had adverse effects on the existing educational inequalities worldwide. However, little is known about how the digital divide have worsened the conventional educational system and reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities among the historically marginalised communities. This research paper explores how the pandemic, along with digital divide, deteriorated the educational system among the socially deprived groups (i.e. tribals also known as indigenous or Adivasis) and place them in a disadvantageous position. The paper reflects on how the Covid-19 pandemic re-configured the pre-existing issues of educational inequalities and how the digital dived have been manifested in a way that has particularly affected the young tribal girls. For this study, semi-structured interviews with tribal students, their parents and teachers residing in a remote area of Jharkhand, India, were conducted to understand their experiences of shifting to online education mode. Other than accessibility and infrastructure issue, the findings reveal that the elements of cultural and social issues (related to perceived benefits of education for girls and mindset or beliefs parents and teachers towards effectiveness of digital mode of education delivery) create and reinforce the digital divide for the tribal girls in the hinterlands. Based on the information collected from the interview, the study emphasises on re-thinking the digital learning ecosystem and provide policy recommendations to counteract the worsening digital divide and educational inequalities among socially deprived groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine factors influencing tourism service experience based on social media discussions using a lens of adoption, service quality, and attribution theories. We identified the most prominent themes and formulated seven propositions using social media data followed by sentiment analysis, topic modeling, clustering, and netnography-based analysis. In addition, we validated our proposition using the interview data from service providers. Our findings demonstrate that tourist opinions are related to affordability (i.e., dynamic price), local environment (for example, infrastructure, accommodation), interpersonal inclination (for example, climate, attractions), security and confidentiality-integrity-accessibility at the destination. In addition, we provide critical insights which may help formulate policies for improving tourism sector services. The major imperative implication of this study is twofold: (1) we found seven major constructs related to tourism experience in India; (2) we inductively developed an integrated framework for tourism service experience by exploring the various latent variables and further incorporating these with service quality model, external attribution theory, and extended adoption literature to improve service delivery and experience. This paper presents the role of digitalization in improving the tourism service experience using real-time data from twitter to extract the information instantly without any time lag which help in mining collective intelligence from honest signals of service consumers. We have established the relationship between the various outcomes of tourist posts and digital services using twitter posts to model real-time concerns surrounding digital tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused disarray in the country's formal school education system (Ministry of Education in Initiatives by School Education Sector in 2020–21 for Continuing Teaching and Learning. https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/update/covid%5finitiatives.pdf, 2021). While some children had engaged in learning from home using digital devices, television, radio and also with the guidance of volunteers and peers, dropouts and out of school children have become a major concern as a result of school closures, with other areas of concern also including teaching and learning for children with no access to digital gadgets, continuing learning for children with special needs, teacher's reach/unavailability, access to engaging learning material, internet connectivity, etc., and in this frame of reference, digital divide-free online and blended learning has become a much-needed demand of the hour. Addressing these challenges for a diverse nation, however, necessitates an effective policy and implementation framework to ensure its reach at the grass-roots level while accepting the challenges of operationalization. This paper discusses the challenges of effective digital learning and recommendations for overcoming the barriers of Online and Blended Learning, with a focus on how technology would then take over and shoot through the roof of learning in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of online and hybrid classrooms has penetrated mainstream school education in India during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. It has popularized digital technologies mediated teaching in schools and ensuing digital labor has affected the everyday routine activities of teachers. The sudden shift to the unfamiliar domain of digital labor has an impact on the well-being of teachers. This paper studies well-being through the theory of stress and coping with coping viewed through the lens of social systems theory. For this purpose, articles related to online teaching in the top three Indian English language dailies, namely the Hindustan Times, The Hindu and The Indian Express were analyzed using the Factiva database and content analysis research tool. Eighty-six articles were analyzed from March 2020 to July 2021 when online teaching commenced and continued into hybrid teaching in India. Novel sources of stress factors and their coping using resources among school teachers were identified using selective coding in NVivo software. It was found that only limited resources were provided at different levels of social systems to address the identified sources of stress factors. Finally, sentiment analysis of school teachers revealed negative sentiment indicating low levels of job satisfaction. Hence, it was concluded that digital labor had a deteriorating effect on the well-being of Indian school teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have examined the influence of store atmospherics and social factors independently, limited research has investigated their synergistic impacts across cultures. In particular, the interactions between ambient scents, companionship influences, and cross-cultural shopping customs remain underexplored. Therefore, this study investigates how ambient scents influence retail shopping behaviors with a companion across cultures. Data were collected via surveys administered to customers in Polish and Indian shopping malls (N = 579), examining the impact of detected fragrances on time spent, money spent, purchase decisions, cognitive responses, and attitudes. Shopping with a companion in a scented environment has a more positive influence on time spent, money spent and impulse purchases in India than in Poland. There is no difference between these two cultures regarding cognitive responses to a scented retail environment, but there are significant differences for attitudinal responses and repurchase intentions. We found a positive association between the consumer rating of the shopping environment in terms of the ambient scent and the amount of money spent in India, but not in Poland. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for optimizing atmospheric design according to cultural customs around shopping companionships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to empirically analyse the brand hate framework consisting of its antecedents, consequences and the moderating role of the big five personality traits. Specifically, the study examines the impact of advertisements, rumours and negative past experiences on brand hate and its effect on negative word of mouth, public complaining and desire for revenge. The study also seeks to examine how five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) affect the relationship between antecedents and brand hate, as well as between brand hate and its consequences. Design/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected from 438 faculty members of six public universities in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), India, through a questionnaire. We used a structural equation modelling approach (AMOS) and Hayes process Macro to analyse the data. Findings: The study found that advertisements, rumours, and negative past experiences influence brand hate, which leads to negative word of mouth, public complaining, and a desire for revenge. Among the five traits, conscientiousness moderates the effect of negative past experiences and rumours on brand hate, whereas openness moderates the impact of brand hate on the desire for revenge and negative word of mouth. Also, agreeableness moderates the impact of brand hate on the desire for revenge. Originality/value: The study sought to investigate how the big five personality traits moderate the relationship between the causes and effects of brand hate. The role of advertisements as an antecedent and public complaining as a consequence of brand hate, in addition to the well-explored antecedents and consequences, also contribute to the extended framework of brand hate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is unique in examining the spillover and leverage effect of Smart Beta Exchange Traded Funds (SB ETFs) and their underlying indices and Cap-Weighted (CW) indices. We find unidirectional return spillover from most SB ETFs to CW indices and bidirectional return spillover between SB ETFs and SB indices using VAR/VECM model. Besides, we find that information is transmitted faster from SB ETFs to the indices than from indices to SB ETFs. Interestingly, we observe that innovations in SB ETFs explain 97% of variance in SB indices and 81% of variance in CW indices. Hasbrouck's information share of SB ETFs is highest (88%) followed by CW indices (5.6%). ARIMA-GARCH model shows that bidirectional volatility spillover exists between SB ETFs and the indices. ARIMA-EGARCH model provides evidence of leverage effect in SB ETFs, highlighting that volatility increases more after negative shocks than after positive shocks. Our study provides evidence of greater information transmission from SB ETFs to SB indices and to CW indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for a shift in management research in India away from Euro/US-centric theories and towards indigenous paradigms that are more relevant to the local context. The panelists at the Indian Academy of Management Conference called for pluriversalism, which involves creating alternative and hybrid spaces for decolonized and indigenous knowledge. The article also highlights the importance of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and suggests that management studies can draw from literature, cultural practices, and historical evidence in order to address issues of meaning and sustainability in the workplace. The authors emphasize the need for homegrown journals that support research in Indian management and promote the work of Indian scholars. The article concludes by inviting scholars to contribute to a Special Issue of Decision on the topic of "Indigenous Indian Management." [Extracted from the article]

A live case study incorporates experiential learning through a modified version of the case method pedagogy that treats students as consultants (Roth & Smith, 2009). It is defined by Simpkins (2001, p 1) as a case-based teaching method using a "current problem or issue that a company is investigating where the company provides information regarding the problem/issue seeking input to assist in management decisions. " This case on Novolutions is presented as one applicable for Management Education in the area of decision-making in crisis situations. The case showcases the feedback of 33 students, organized into 5 teams, attending a graduate course in Business Analytics as part of their master's degree program in management. They were presented with a Live Case Study featuring decision-making issues encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic by an Indian entrepreneur-duo running a bootstrapped product company, Novolutions, which manufactures the Hippie Mocktail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has distorted employee and manager's attitudes toward work, impacting businesses, industries, and organizations worldwide. Organizations have begun implementing well-managed work-from-home, teleworking, flexible working, or digital working strategies to respond to these trends effectively. The study's main purpose is to investigate the importance of organizational and supervisory support in promoting employee psychological well-being by providing well-proportioned work-from-home experience to IT employees. Using an empirical research approach, the study collected data from 282 IT professionals forced to work from home fully and partially throughout India's first three waves of covid-19. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis using SPSS and AMOS. The study's findings revealed that supervisory/managers support demonstrated a significant positive association with psychological well-being compared with organizational support practices. However, employees perceived that well-balanced work-from-home experiences require major support from organizations than managers. The study identified that both organizational and supervisory support plays an important role in establishing positive work-from-home experience and the psychological well-being of IT professionals. In response, organizations and supervisors/ managers collective approach is needed in establishing flexible work settings. Flexible work settings have been researched from the perspective of an information technology professional. However, there is a dearth of research on the influence of forced work from home on the psychological well-being of IT employees. Understanding how organizational and supervisory support plays an important role in establishing resilience between work-from-home practices and psychological well-being during covid and beyond would be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of robotics in the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario can change the face of the industries. Robots are becoming more prominent in the hospitality industry. In this scenario, the usage of service robots for hotels is the best option. This study is performed using TAM and TRI theories. The constructs selected for the study are perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes, behavioural intention, discomfort, insecurity, and trust. Survey-based research is carried out with the help of a questionnaire. The target population are the employees working in the hotels. Ten hypotheses are proposed for the study. This study highlights the acceptance of service robots in the hotels of India. Out of ten proposed hypothesis, five hypotheses were accepted, and the rest were rejected. For data analysis, structural equation modelling in AMOS 20.0 was carried out. This study will help the managers and the top management in the adoption of service robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of COVID fatigue on mental health amidst the pandemic. In particular, it tries to understand the mediating role of compassion in the equation between COVID fatigue, corona anxiety, social support, and mental health. Systematic review was conducted to understand the interrelationship among chosen variables. Hierarchical regression was used as a tool of empirical evidence for the derived interrelationships. The results from a survey of 307 white-collar employees from public sector organizations in India confirmed the mediating role of compassion on mental health. The results state that a unit change in the dependent variables of COVID fatigue, corona anxiety, and social support can have an impact of 9.7% on the mental health quotient. It was also found out that introducing a unit of compassion in the equation will mediate the impact to 3.7%. In this study, 61.1% of participants were categorized as psychologically fatigued and 38.9% as psychologically non-fatigued. Implications for the theory and practice of compassion are discussed, and future research directions offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main feature of the Internet and e-commerce is electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) through online reviews. As Internet users and their consumption of eWOM for product information overgrow in India, it is vital to examine the elements that influence the effectiveness of eWOM communication during COVID-19 pandemics. A systematic literature review has been conducted to assess the factors influencing eWOM in the online retailing context. The literature has been segregated into WOM, eWOM, the eWOM source credibility, eWOM message characteristics, eWOM platform, and outcome of eWOM adoption. The organised review provided a eWOM communication model and proposed an appropriate hypothesis to be tested. The finding concludes the significant relationship of eWOM determinants in building purchase intention, brand image, and attitude during COVID-19 pandemics. Previously conducted research examined the effect of source and message credibility; however, source homophily and website credibility in eWOM communication are rarely taken into account along with these constructs. This study will address more vigorous eWOM phenomena and empirical findings in the COVID-19 period. The study's findings will help practitioners manage the power of eWOM communication for all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) are the recent institutional innovations to provide single-window solution for multiple problems of farmers and ensuring better price realisation through establishing direct market linkages. A study was conducted through primary survey during 2018–19 from six villages covering 120 households (60 FPC and 60 non-FPC farmers) associated with two FPCs in West Bengal. Average family income of FPC farmer was 242,765 per year, significantly higher than the average family income of non-FPC farmer (159,732). FPC farmers were better linked with the financial institutions (66 percent) as compared to non-FPC farmers (43 percent). The functioning of FPCs was quite successful in terms of achieving better income, easy input buying, and establishing linkages with the banking/financial institutions. Being member of a FPC, accrued multiple benefits to the farmers, but the functioning of such small institutions was depending on some extraneous factors like activeness and desire to take responsibility by the CEO and others Board of Director members in FPCs; establishment of market linkages with Govt. owned marketing initiative, Sufal Bangla and other organised retailers; prospects of value addition of the commodities produced by the farmers, availability of funds, technical and financial viability; and managing the overhead and maintenance cost like salary payment of CEO, accountant, field supervisor, particularly during initial years. Key determinant socioeconomic factors have been identified that are influencing participation of smallholder farmer in FPCs in the state. The study concluded that formation of FPCs should be promoted in different parts of the state to enhance farmers' income and to bring grassroots level changing in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature provides evidence that business students consider stakeholders' theory than shareholders' wealth maximization theory (Larran et al. 2018). They do consider corporate social responsibility (CSR) ranking of companies while making a job choice decision (Leveson and Joiner 2014). They are more sensitive towards societal issues being addressed by the business vis-à-vis definition of 'CSR' (Andre Soc Bus Rev 11(2):217–230, 2016). The age, gender, nationality, cultural and individual values, religiousness, and emotional stability do influence the CSR perception of business students. (Gonzalez-Rodriguez et al. Qual Quant 47:2361–2377, 2013, Holtbrugge and Oberhauser J Indian Bus Res 11(2):162–178, 2019 and Wong et al. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 17:299–310, 2010). Female business students are more concerned about corporate social responsibility, and male business students assign greater importance to economic dimensions of it (Alonso-Almeida et al. Bus Ethics Eur Rev 24(1):1–17, 2015, Galvao et al. J Clean Prod 215:290–304, 2019, Haski-Leventhal et al. J Bus Ethics 146:219–239, 2017, and Wang and Juslin J Acad Ethics 10:57–82, 2012). The present 15-year study of 1587 students of business schools, located in 14 different States and one Union Territory of India, finds a significant and perceptible shift in future business leaders' perception of corporate social responsibility. Two surveys have been conducted to capture the perception of business students of different times. Four perspectives of social responsibility orientation: strategic, short term, trade-off, and stakeholders, have emerged. Social responsibility orientation of future business leaders is time-variant. The 'strategic perspective'; the numero uno social responsibility orientation in 2008 has given way to the 'short-term perspective' in 2019. Future business leaders had embraced the 'doctrine of social responsibility' and shunned the profit maximization goal in 2008. However, the drift in perception suggests that 'if the stockholders are unhappy, nothing else matters.' It is a silver lining. Gender, age, and experience explain significantly the corporate social responsibility orientation of business students. The design and pedagogy of business ethics course in management education curriculum need to be explored further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversification decisions in banks can be atypical owing to the nature of banking business. Banks diversify across business segments such as retail, wholesale or treasury, and spread their sources of liabilities, asset exposures and income types across customer groups, industry sectors and geographies. While the more granular decisions of diversification have regulatory and policy norms to follow, less guidance is available for making segment diversification. Using data of business segments from annual reports of five private sector banks in India for the period 2008–2009 to 2015–2016, the study attempts to find out the decision factors behind their diversification. It is found that though being highly diversified universal banks now, these banks were initially oriented toward certain segments from where they have shifted their portfolios over time. Bank diversification decision involves pursuing segment growth and executed by making capital expenditure and risk capital allocation to the segments. Banks make higher capital expenditure on segments that contribute more to generation of deposits and liabilities. On the other hand, risk capital allocation is determined by segment's share of assets as well as their risk adjusted returns. Segment growth may be targeted with the intent of achieving higher profitability and capital efficiency, but the outcome appears to be uncertain. Business segment diversification of private banks, therefore, seem to be intended toward enhancing resources generation and targeting higher profitability while economizing on risk capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]