Search

Purpose: Farmer producer organisations (FPOs) are considered as a strategy to improve the livelihoods of small farmers through economies of scale by providing collective strength to farmers for improved access to production technology, value-addition services, high-quality inputs and marketing services for improving their incomes. This study investigates the impact of FPO membership on organic farming household's income in Northeast India. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses field survey data collected from all four districts of Sikkim. Primary data were obtained from a survey of 560 organic farming households, 280 of which are FPO members and the rest 280 are non-members. Propensity score matching (PSM) is used to estimate the impact of FPO membership on net returns, return on investment (ROI) and profit margin. Findings: Results show that the FPO members had, on average, Rs. 7,254–8,133 higher annual net returns, 4.6–4.8% higher ROI and 8–8.4% higher profit margin than the non-members. The findings confirm that FPO membership has a positive and significant impact on net returns, return on investment and profit margin. Also, heterogeneity analysis indicates that FPO membership has larger positive impact on relatively bigger farmers and female-headed households. Research limitations/implications: As the study was based on a cross-sectional survey, the findings may be subjected to some limitations. Originality/value: This study is based on a novel data set, collected specifically to examine the economic impact of FPO membership on organic farming in India. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2023-0451 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance on the bank profitability of Indian banks vis-à-vis South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations. Design/methodology/approach: For the Corporate Governance Index, the authors examined board accountability, transparency and disclosure and audit committee, while Tobin's Q, return on equity and return on assets are used to measure the bank's profitability. The study used a two-stage analysis based on balanced panel data for robust findings. Sample of this study consists of 60 commercial banks from India and 60 banks from SAARC nations for the period of 2009–2021. This study used panel regression and a generalized method of moment approach using the CAMELS framework on banking industry-specific variables to determine their respective impacts. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that board accountability is positive and significantly affects the profitability of banks as indicated by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin's Q. In contrast, the audit committee has a positive and insignificant impact on return on assets, return on equity and Tobin's Q, while transparency and disclosure have a negative and significant impact on these metrics. Furthermore, the country dummy result shows a significant positive impact on all the bank performance parameters, implying that Indian banks have the highest degree of convergence with corporate governance as compared to other SAARC nations. Research limitations/implications: This study provides insight to the regulators, policymakers and financial institutions to evaluate the role of corporate governance in emerging economies. However, the findings of the study should be interpreted with caution, as the results are sensitive to the disparity between India and other SAARC nations' government policies, climatic circumstances and cultural or religious traditions. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to gauge the performance of Indian banks vis-à-vis SAARC nations using the CAMELS framework approach. Further, findings of this study suggest some novel evidence tying corporate governance quality with the profitability of banks among SAARC nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unsatisfactory performance of public sector made the Government introduce Memorandum of understanding and disinvestment. This study has been undertaken to analyze the performance of memorandum of understanding signed firms over the years. In addition, the performance of MoU-signed disinvested and MoU-signed non-disinvested firms have also been examined. Performance has been analysed using different ratios; return on equity, return on assets, net income productivity per employee and sales productivity per employee. In-line to analyze the effectiveness of data, random effect panel regression has been used to study the performance of sixty MoU signed PSEs for 15 years (2004-2018). The results indicate that the profitability of MoU signed non-disinvested firms is better than MoU signed disinvested firms. This could be possibly due to the more substantial managerial autonomy impact on the performance. Assets turnover ratio, leverage, and age have a significant effect on the performance of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As an emerging technology, Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and blockchain have the potential to disrupt many areas of business and social structure. However, it is loaded with significant technical, social, legal, financial and ethical complications that bring difficulty in its widespread use within the public distribution system (PDS). This research aims to analyze the barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption in developing countries' PDS. Furthermore, this study also aims to validate the proposed framework against the Indian PDS. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed framework consists of 10 potential barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption. To identify the barriers, this study referred to the extant literature followed by consultations with domain experts. This study prepared the DEMATEL-based questionnaires, collected the data from four domain experts and analyzed them using an integrated Grey-DEMATEL approach. Findings: The obtained results provide a precise list of barriers and the correlations among them. From the results, it is concluded that the unavailability of a skilled workforce at affordable cost, lack of knowledge about privacy level and unclear return on investment and benefits are the most critical blockchain adoption barriers in the context of Indian PDS. Originality/value: This research proposes a framework consisting of 10 integrated RFID and blockchain adoption barriers in relation to Indian PDS. It also proposes a method for analyzing causal interrelationships between the barriers while allowing for data input from domain experts. Consequently, the framework is capable of coping with experts' biases and data scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide a holistic view of the emergence of shareholder activism (SA) in India. However, specifically, this study aims at fulfilling the research gap by discussing the policy and legal advancement in the area of SA and investigating the chronological evolution of SA, manifestations of SA, motives of SA, outcome of SAs and impact of SA on the financial performance of the firm. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a mixed methodology (both qualitative and quantitative) to draw inferences, including content analysis, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test. The data has been collected from the annual reports of the sample companies and the Prowess database. Return on assets and return on equity have been used as measures of financial performance while investigating the difference in financial performance between firms subjected to SA and firms not subjected to SA. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that there has been significant growth in the occurrence of SA incidents in India in the past decade, with shareholders prominently manifesting by opposing the proposals at annual general meetings/extraordinary general meetings, mostly involving governance-related demands. The findings from the independent sample t-tests revealed that there has been a significant difference in the financial performance of the sample subjected to SA and firms not subjected to SA. Furthermore, the results of the paired sample t-test provide strong evidence of significant improvement in the financial performance of firms' post-SA. Practical implications: The findings of this study have implications for various stakeholders. The findings of this study suggest that SA has been relatively more successful in the Indian context and may encourage minority shareholders to follow active participation through shareholder proposals and votes rather than a passive strategy to trade and exit. For firms, it can provide valuable inferences about the emergence of SA and how it has a positive impact on the financial performance of the firm, which can lead to a change in the perception of investors and promoters who perceive SA as a threat (Gillan and Starks 2000; Hartzell and Starks, 2003). For policymakers, it can act as a tool to investigate whether the regulatory changes have been able to bring the intended transparency, accountability and enhanced shareholder participation. This will encourage policymakers to be more agile, as their efforts are bearing fruit. This will also act as a guide to formulating future policies and regulations. Originality/value: This study is an effort to provide a holistic view of SA scenarios in a developing economy setting like India, where SA is a very recent phenomenon. Although there are studies in the area of SA, there is a dearth of studies that have investigated the various dimensions of SA in the Indian context in a very systematic and extensive manner, investigating all the different dimensions of SA. Furthermore, this study also intends to investigate the impact of SA, which is normally perceived as a threat to financial performance and provide valuable contrasting evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]