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During the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work became a prevalent practice for organizations, raising concerns about counterproductive behaviors like phubbing and cyberloafing. This research investigates the dynamics of these behaviors among employees working from home, focusing on social networking needs (SNN), perceptions of others' online behavior, and the pandemic's influence. Data from 222 remote employees were analyzed using structural equation modelling, revealing positive relationships between SNN, perceptions of others' online behavior, pandemic influence, and phubbing. Moreover, the study reveals the moderating effect of WFH on these relationships. These findings highlight the importance for HR practitioners and policymakers to understand and address phubbing and cyberloafing behaviors in remote work settings. This study fills critical research gaps, offering insights to mitigate the negative impacts of remote work policies, thereby enhancing organizational effectiveness and employee well-being. The chapter, therefore, aims to examine whether remote work can succeed amid rising phubbing and cyberloafing. Through analysis, it offers insights for HR and policymakers to manage these challenges effectively.

Temperature changes in saturated soils may result in volume change and consequently the stress–strain behavior of soils may undergo alterations. These alterations may impose implications on geotechnical stability of soils. Temperature-dependent behavior of soils has been studied in the literature, both experimentally and theoretically. Based on the experimental studies from the literature, this paper aims to review the thermo-mechanical behavior of saturated soils. First part of paper attempts to provide a conceptual insight on the thermally induced volume change behavior of saturated soil and second part reviews the experimental investigations from the literature, for a temperature range of 5–100 °C for clay and 5–600 °C for sand. These experimental studies confirm the irreversible contraction of NC clay at OCR = 1 and quasi-irreversible volume change of normally consolidated and overconsolidated clay with a low overconsolidation ratio (< 2), during drained heating. Similar behavior is also observed for loose to medium dense sand. The parameters like pre-consolidation pressure, secondary consolidation, permeability, drained and undrained shear strength also show temperature dependence.

This work presents the load–displacement response of floating piles with different dimensions. Nonlinear numerical analyses were performed using Abaqus software. The elastoplastic deformation of Ottawa sand was replicated by integrating the constitutive model, CASM (Clay and Sand Model) with the Abaqus software, using soil material subroutines (UMAT and UMATHT). Finally, a parameter sensitivity study was performed to understand the soil state's effect on the thermal pile’s stress–strain response. Analysis outcomes indicate that the pile aspect ratio, soil state and the magnitude of axial load are essential parameters to control the displacements and consequent stresses in thermal piles.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of teachers’ performance expectancy, teachers’ effort expectancy, teachers’ performance anxiety, teachers’ engagement, perceived student engagement, teachers’ digital competence, teachers’ normalization ease and perceived organizational support as predictors of teachers’ satisfaction with online teaching-learning, especially during a pandemic in the context of hospitality, tourism and travel education. Design/methodology/approach: Conceptually, this study is grounded in the normalization process theory and examines teachers’ satisfaction by applying the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. To test the proposed model, 374 complete survey forms were received for data analysis from teachers engaged with higher education institutes offering courses in the field of hospitality, travel and tourism. Minor modifications were made to the survey instrument based on inputs received after a pilot study. Findings: The model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Of the eight constructs predicting teachers’ satisfaction in the online teaching-learning environment, two constructs, that is, teachers’ effort expectancy and teachers’ digital competence, were found to have an insignificant relationship. This finding hints at the emergence of a “new normal.” Practical implications: This study contributes to the literature by presenting and validating a theory-driven framework that accentuates the factors influencing online teaching during the outbreak of a pandemic. This study further extends the unified theory of acceptance and integrates it with the normalization process theory to test and validate the model in the unique context of hospitality education which is considered to be highly practice oriented. Originality/value: The COVID-19 pandemic compelled educational institutions to shift to online learning modes. This is unprecedented for students and teachers of hospitality, travel and tourism, especially in a developing country like India, and it has brought with it a new set of challenges and opportunities. With the extension of the pandemic-induced lockdown in educational institutions, teachers – and other stakeholders – must adapt to this new normal of reliance on remote education.

The present paper tries to: 1) understand the cognitive determinants of the entrepreneurs who engage in business models in order to serve the poor; 2) see the role of altruism in social entrepreneurial venture launch; 3) check whether social entrepreneurs are generalists or specialists in their field. For this purpose the study takes a data triangulation approach. To capture different dimensions of the cognitive determinants of serving the poor, the study has employed interview method, focus group discussion and use of questionnaires. The study found that cognitive determinants studied in the present paper are guiding factors for developing a business model to help the poor, altruism has a moderating role on the relation between cognitive determinants and social venture launch, and that social entrepreneurs have a wide range of experience and generic knowledge in variety of fields as compared to specific knowledge in one area.

The present work aims to gain an understanding of the stress-strain response of sandstone, a sedimentary rock, under high loading rate and further determine the appropriate specimen dimension of sandstone for dynamic testing. The high strain rate characterization of sandstone is done for two different diameters and five different slenderness ratios of sandstone specimens using a 76-mm–diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) device. The stress-strain response of sandstone is studied by systematically varying the length of the striker bars and gas gun pressure of the SHPB device. The petrological and static characterizations of the sandstone rock are also carried out. Finally, the appropriate specimen size of sandstone for SHPB testing is proposed by checking the strength gain of the rock and amount of energy absorbed during the tests. Further, finite element (FE) analysis of the SHPB test on sandstone is performed using the strain rate–dependent Johnson-Holmquist (JH-2) model available in the FE software, LS-DYNA. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data in order to determine the parameters of the JH-2 model for sandstone. A parameter database is thus prepared for sandstone. The determined parameters are then used in the blast analysis of tunnels for a 20-kg trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosion and the tunnel response is studied.

Acoustic emission (AE) technique is a proven effective technique for monitoring underground mines and caverns. With the advancement in the data acquisition technology, AE signals up to 2–5 MHz of frequency can be recorded successfully. However, this generates a lot of data to be analyzed and stored. This paper presents a concept of a simple and cost-effective, low-frequency AE technique for monitoring damages in the rocks. The tests were performed on Kota sandstone rock specimens in compression at three different displacement rates of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mm/s. The AE signals were recorded successfully through thin square piezo-patches (used as the AE transducers) and a commercially available sound card for data logging. The proposed technique has been found to be easy and very much cost-effective in capturing low-frequency AE signals. The recorded data were processed for determining different AE parameters like cumulative AE count, relative energy of an event and event rate.

The aim of the present paper is to understand the nature of the relationship between work-life balance (hereafter, WLB) and employee engagement (hereafter, EE) among women marketing executives working in the (FMCG) sector. The paper attempted to understand the link between WLB and EE through different stress factors that pertains to woman's life. For this purpose, 350 women marketing executives from FMCG sector across India, in the age range of 25-45 years were taken as sample. Data collection was done through questionnaire administration in person, as well as, use of online Google forms. After statistical analysis, the results revealed that overall WLB has a positive relation to EE of the women marketing executives. Stress due to workload, stress due to child care, stress due to unmet career aspirations and stress due to family dissatisfaction moderates the relation between WLB and EE of the women marketing executives. Managers, psychologists and human resource practitioners of the day need to pay attention to the women workforce into marketing. Woman employees' need for autonomy and flexibility in addressing their stress factors and WLB is of utmost importance.

Increased application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites to resist blast loadings necessitated investigating their dynamic behavior. It requires characterization of the CFRP laminates at high strain rates using split Hopkinson pressure bar or comparable device. In this investigation, tensile properties of the CFRP laminates subjected to high strain rates are studied experimentally and numerically. Experimental evaluation of tensile properties of the CFRP laminates using the Hopkinson bar is a tedious, time consuming, and costly exercise. Hence, upon conducting limited experimental evaluation, a numerical model is developed to characterize these composites at high strain rates. The developed numerical model of the Hopkinson bar technique is validated against the results obtained from the experiments conducted using crossbow system on the CFRP laminates. Full-scale tensile stress–strain curves are developed to study the effect of the strain rate on the ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus, and energy absorption capacity of the CFRP laminates. It is observed that the CFRP laminates are sensitive to the strain rates and their ultimate tensile strength and energy absorption increases with the increase in the strain rate. Moreover, the effect of variation in thickness and length to width ratio for a constant stress pulse is insignificant.

Although women entrepreneurs have faced various obstacles in running their business, they have not immediately quit: they sustain their business. Beyond financial returns, these women entrepreneurs expect something that makes them satisfied and engaged in their businesses. This study thus explores factors in women's entrepreneurship. It studied a sample of 120 women digital entrepreneurs through a questionnaire method and telephonic interview. The results show that non-monetary determinants are significant predictors of entrepreneurial satisfaction among women digital entrepreneurs. This study also found that founders vary in their levels of satisfaction with regard to their achievements in factors such as revenue, material comfort achieved, optimism, business satisfaction, innovation, recognition and employee trust.

For women entrepreneurs, the journey of entrepreneurship in not very easy. They need to balance work and family plus sustain business. Encountering a wide range of challenges, they sail through the path and move towards their business success. How can they do so? In this context, the present study will explore the role of psychological factors of locus of control, proactivity and personal efficacy in relation to success and failure of women established enterprises. 200 women entrepreneurs were studied by using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The results suggest that locus of control is found to be internal in successful women, proactivity and personal-efficacy are high. Non-affluent entrepreneurs have higher levels of proactivity and personal efficacy compared to their counterparts. The variables of proactivity, personal efficacy, locus of control (LOC) and the financial conditions of the women entrepreneurs significantly impact success and failure in their ventures.

Creating a performance based culture needs an understanding that high performers are self-managers; self-management is the most important competency of successful people. Coming to the healthcare industry, where services surround managing people, healthcare providers, especially the physicians are very closely related with patients in the hospital; when patients come for treatments leaving their family and near and dear ones; the healthcare providers are expected to identify and manage the emotional aspects of health related issues of those healthcare seekers. The purpose of this study was to identify the nature of perceived (as the patients perceive them to be, not what they actually possess) emotional contagion and empathy among physicians (N = 115) in private hospitals. Responses have been collected from the 115 patients in those hospitals under the care of employed physicians, and the study attempted to explore the relationship between emotional contagion and empathy as perceived by patients in those physicians; and how it impacted the satisfaction of the patients and their further care seeking intention in those hospitals. The study found that empathy and emotional contagion are very significant contributors to patient satisfaction as well as return intention in the hospitals.

Online purchase is one of the most happening things across the globe. In every household there is the practice of online purchase. These purchases are sometimes influenced by the purchases of relatives, friends and other important people in a person's life. Sometimes the consumer prefers to explore the market and the variety of product before taking a buying decision. As online purchase has reached every household today, it is a matter of great interest among all the members in a family; they may belong to different generations, say gen X, gen Y and baby boomers. Each generation has its own exploratory behaviour tendency. This paper is the result from a survey conducted on a cross section of respondents, taken from the four major cities in India. The paper aims to explore the multidimensionality of exploratory behaviour tendencies across seven dimensions, namely, repetitive behaviour proneness, innovativeness, exploration through shopping information seeking, brand switching, risk taking, and interpersonal communication among a group of 595 respondents pooled stratified randomly across the three generations. Standardised as well as semi structured questionnaires were used to obtain data. Findings show that there is a difference between exploratory tendencies in consumer behaviour across the different generations.

The present study deals with three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear finite element analyses of a twin tunnel in soil with reinforced concrete (RC) lining subjected to internal blast loading. Blast load has been simulated using the coupled Eulerian Lagrangian (CEL) analysis tool available in finite element software Abaqus/Explicit. Soil mass and RC lining have been modeled using 3-D eight node reduced integration Lagrangian elements (C3D8R). Beam elements (B31) have been used to model reinforcement of RC lining. A 50 kg trinitrotoluene (TNT) charge weight has been used in the analysis. Eight node reduced integration Eulerian elements (EC3D8R) have been used for modeling TNT explosive and surrounding air. Drucker–Prager plasticity model have been used to simulate strain rate dependent behavior of soil mass. For simulating strain rate dependent behavior of concrete and steel, concrete damaged plasticity and Johnson–Cook (J–C) plasticity models have been used, respectively. The explosive TNT has been modeled using Jones–Wilkins–Lee (JWL) equation of state. Investigations have been performed for studying the deformation, damage of RC lining and surrounding soil mass. Pressure in the RC lining and surrounding soil mass, caused by explosive induced shock wave has been studied for both tunnels. It is observed that damage and deformation of RC lining and soil mass are dependent on charge weight and clearance between the tunnels.

Split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) tests are performed on Himalayan phyllite rock with five different specimen sizes and with different gas gun pressures and striker bar lengths of the SHPB device. The high-strain-rate phyllite parameters investigated are the peak stress, strain at peak stress, dynamic increase factor (DIF), strain energy absorbed, and dynamic modulus. It is observed that the dimensions of the phyllite specimens and the SHPB loading characteristics (i.e., the gas gun pressure and striker bar length) have a strong impact on the phyllite response. Given that SHPB specimen dimensions are small compared to any field rock mechanics problem, the rate-dependent rock mass properties are also determined for each rock using Hoek–Brown criteria. Numerical simluations of the SHPB tests are performed using finite element (FE) analysis in conjunction with the strain rate-dependent Johnson–Holmquist (JH-2) constitutive model to calibrate the JH-2 model parameters for phyllite. The calibrated JH-2 model parameters are dependent on the phyllite specimen size and on the magnitudes of the gas gun pressure and striker bar length. The different calibrated parameters corresponding to different specimen sizes and different SHPB loading characteristics are used to perform FE analysis of a tunnel constructed in phyllite rock and subjected to a blast load. The FE results show that the tunnel responses can significantly differ with strain rate-dependent JH-2 model parameters with difference in the mean stress and vertical displacement at the crown of the tunnel in the phyllite rock as high as 126% and 250%, respectively.