Purpose: This paper aims to focus on compliance of workplace sexual harassment-related provisions under Indian companies and securities law, based on an empirical analysis of companies’ sexual harassment-related disclosures contained within their directors’ annual reports (ARs). Specifically, sections devoted to sexual harassment-related disclosures, inbuilt within directors’ ARs for the financial year 2019–2020 for a selected sample of companies listed under the National Stock Exchange, have been analysed. Design/methodology/approach: To examine the nature of companies’ disclosures to demonstrate their compliance with statutory requirements under the POSH law, aligned with the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 and Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulations, an empirical-based, descriptive content analysis of ARs of 200 listed companies were used. Findings: This study primarily finds that the majority of companies from the sample have disclosed to have prepared a corporate-level policy, as required under the POSH law. As also required under the POSH law, companies, reportedly, have constituted an Internal Complaints Committee to adjudicate and dispose of incidents related to sexual misconduct reported at their workplaces. However, companies lack in disclosing qualitative information, with sufficient detail, on many important aspects related to prevention and resolution of reported cases of workplace sexual harassment. Originality/value: This paper adds to the broader narrative of the lacunae within the disclosure and reporting requirements on enhancing the liabilities of the companies to prevent and address sexual harassment under India’s corporate and securities regulations. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Independent professionals represent a highly skilled contractual based workforce. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework that explains the career construction mechanism of independent professionals. Specifically, we theorize that their boundaryless career orientation favorably influences the perception of their marketability via their involvement in career construction activities. Additionally, we elucidate the intervening role of their career competencies, physical and psychological mobility in augmenting or dampening perceived marketability as a career outcome. Differing to traditionally employed professionals, we argue that independent professional careers can be better explained conjointly, rather than separately, by boundaryless career theory and career construction theory. This paper has practical relevance in highlighting the significance of career construction activities by independent professionals for achieving positive career outcomes while pursuing a boundaryless career. © 2023 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Data-driven approaches have noteworthy significance in managing and improving logistics in E-commerce enterprises. This study focuses on the development of an integrated framework to analyse the Brazilian E-Commerce enterprise public dataset. From the analysis, it is found that sellers of Ibitinga city of SP state had the most count of late deliveries where 42 sellers are under-performing in terms of estimated delivery time. Locations of customers and sellers were spotted on a map to get a geographical representation. The proposed framework may help E-Commerce enterprise owners and retail merchants to make better decisions related to sales and E-Commerce enterprise logistics. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The high-speed train (HST) system is one of the most critical components of national and international passenger transportation networks. Selecting the appropriate train sets is a critical task for railway operators to build an efficient, productive, safe, inexpensive and environmentally friendly passenger transport network system. On the other hand, selecting the proper HST set is a highly complex process since many conflicting criteria, and decision alternatives make it difficult for decision-makers. This paper suggests the fuzzy Grey Relational Analysis technique. In addition, the fuzzy technique proposed in the current paper has been implemented in two ways: using both the experts’ linguistic evaluations and crisp numbers to compare real numerical values and fuzzy evaluations. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was then conducted to assess the validation of the proposed fuzzy technique and its results in applying this method. The decision alternative of A8 Siemens is the best option for all scenarios, and it has been observed that there are slight differences, which cannot change the overall result in the ranking positions of the options. The analysis results prove that the fuzzy method can be applied to solve these complicated decision-making problems and that the obtained results are robust, accurate, applicable, and realistic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Globalization has added new dimensions to consumers’ decision-making. Consumer Ethnocentrism is among the critical variables affecting consumers’ decisions to purchase foreign products. Consumer Ethnocentrism research has gained momentum in the last few decades, and a copious amount of literature is available on this subject. This article presents an overview of Consumer Ethnocentrism literature and a compressive review of research work on the relationship between “Consumer Ethnocentrism” and “Product Evaluation” with critical insights from previous literature findings. There is a fractured opinion on the subject of whether Consumer Ethnocentrism leads to a lower quality evaluation of foreign products or whether consumer preference for the domestic product is purely out of a feeling that it is unfair to buy a foreign product. We also provided future research directions using TMC (Theory, Methodology, and Context) framework in line with earlier studies. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

In recent years, there have been dramatic changes in manufacturing systems in many industries depending on technological developments. Robotics is one of the essential components of these changes. Today, the usage of robotics in manufacturing processes has become widespread in almost all industries. Also, it has become a very strong desire ever-increasing for even small and medium-sized enterprises at present. Almost all the previous studies emphasized that industrial robot selection is a highly complex decision-making problem as there are many conflicting factors and criteria. Besides, different and advanced specifications of these robotics added by robotic manufacturers have caused to increase the complexities much more. Hence, decision-makers encounter more complicated decision-making problems affected by many uncertainties. Because of that, an integrated fuzzy group MCDM framework can help overcome many ambiguities proposed in the current paper. The proposed fuzzy integrated model consists of the fuzzy SWARA (F-SWARA'B) and the fuzzy CoCoSo (F-CoCoSo'B), which are extended with the help of the Bonferroni function. The model selected the appropriate industrial robotics used in the automotive industry by considering 15 criteria and ten alternatives. According to the result of the study, the three most significant criteria have been determined: Working Accuracy, Reaching Distance, and Performance; and the most suitable option is the A8. The obtained results were validated with the help of a comprehensive sensitivity analysis consisting of different 150 scenarios. The results are also compared with some existing techniques. The sensitivity analysis results approve the validity and applicability of the proposed model. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: The paper aims to identify the most supply chain resilient company suitable for the customized preferences of partner firms in the context of the Chinese supply chain framework during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A hybrid multicriteria model, i.e. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), was used to assign weights to each criterion, which was subsequently analyzed by three approaches, namely Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory), and Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDA), to rank the top ten companies in descending order of supply chain resilience. Further, sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the consistency in ranking with variation in weights. The rankings are validated by a novel Ensemble Ranking algorithm and by supply chain domain experts. Findings: The rankings suggest the company “China Energy Construction Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd” is the most feasible and resilient company, presenting interesting findings to partner firms, and Bosch is the least reliable supply chain company of the ten firms considered, thus presenting interesting findings to partner companies. Practical implications: “Crisis Management Beforehand” is most critical in the current pandemic scenario. This implies that companies need to first prioritize taking proactive steps in crisis management followed by the need to minimize the “Expected impact of pandemic.” Performance factors also need to be regulated (sales, supply chain rank and financial performance) to maintain the company's overall reputation. Considering the consistent performance of the China Energy Construction Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd., it is recommended as the most reliable supply chain firm to forge strategic partnerships with other supply chain stakeholders like suppliers and customers. On the other hand, Bosch is not recommended as a supply chain reliable company and needs to improve its crisis management capabilities to minimize the pandemic impact. Originality/value: The paper aims to identify the most supply chain resilient company suitable for the customized preferences of partner firms in the context of the Chinese supply chain framework during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rankings suggest the company “China Energy Construction Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd” is the most feasible and resilient company, presenting interesting findings to partner firms, and Bosch is the least reliable supply chain company of the ten firms considered, thus presenting interesting findings to partner companies. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: This research identifies the enablers for implementing circular supply chains (CSCEs) and analyzes interrelationships between them to quantify their driving and dependence power to understand the critical CSCEs. Design/methodology/approach: Initially, 10 CSCEs are identified for the Indian apparel industries through an extant literature review and validated using the Delphi method by seeking experts' opinions. The identified CSCEs are subjected to a novel neutrosophic interpretive structural modeling (N-ISM) method to capture the interrelationships between CSCEs and compute the driving and dependence power of CSCEs. Findings: The findings of the present research work revealed that “supportive legislative framework, awareness of circular economy's potential for revenue gain and availability of trained research and development (R&D) team” are the critical CSCEs that need to be considered while implementing a circular supply chain in apparel industries. Research limitations/implications: This study offers insightful implications to guide practitioners in implementing the circular economy in apparel supply chains. Originality/value: This research work is one of the earlier studies to analyze the enablers for implementing circular supply chains. This study has explored CSCEs in the context of apparel industries. From a methodological perspective, the novel N-ISM method is worth highlighting as the originality of the work. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted 222 countries across the globe, with millions of people losing their lives. The threat from the virus may be assessed from the fact that most countries across the world have been forced to order partial or complete shutdown of their economies for a period of time to contain the spread of the virus. The fallout of this action manifested in loss of livelihood, migration of the labor force and severe impact on mental health due to the long duration of confinement to homes or residences. Design/methodology/approach: The current study identifies the focus areas of the research conducted on the COVID-19 pandemic. Abstracts of papers on the subject were collated from the SCOPUS database for the period December 2019 to June 2020. The collected sample data (after preprocessing) was analyzed using Topic Modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Findings: Based on the research papers published within the mentioned timeframe, the study identifies the 10 most prominent topics that formed the area of interest for the COVID-19 pandemic research. Originality/value: While similar studies exist, no other work has used topic modeling to comprehensively analyze the COVID-19 literature by considering diverse fields and domains. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The organic food market has emerged as a growing trend among consumers. The present study examines the relationship between Health Consciousness (HC), Organic Food Knowledge (OFK), Subjective Norms (SN), Price Perception (PP), Environmental Concern (EC), Attitude (ATT), Willingness to Purchase (WP), and Actual Buying Behaviour (ABB) towards organic food. Furthermore, the study explores the mediating effects of ATT and WP in the relationship between the aforesaid variables and ABB. The data was collected from 240 respondents using convenience sampling approach. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) using ADANCO 2.2 is used to test the hypotheses of the conceptual model proposed in the present study. The study found that the variables HC, OFK, SN, EC, ATT, WP significantly affect the ABB. Also, it is observed that EC is the strongest predictor of ATT, WP, and ABB in organic food purchase, whereas PP is the least influencing factor. Further, HC positively influences ATT and WP but shows a negative association with ABB. The antecedents HC, OFK, SN, PP, EC has shown a significant indirect effect on ABB among respondents through ATT and WP. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Purpose: Knowledge sharing is increasingly important in today’s information age and extant literature considers knowledge hoarding as an undesirable form of knowledge-withholding behavior. As knowledge hoarding is a generic, nonintentional behavior, specific attitudes and organizational processes are unlikely to curb it. Hence, the study postulates that reflection, awareness and group identification are necessary to combat innate tendencies toward knowledge hoarding. To test these hypotheses, this study aims to explore the role of mindfulness and relational systems in reducing employees’ knowledge hoarding by increasing their meaning-making through work. Design/methodology/approach: The study results are based on a cross-sectional survey of 203 employees in India working for different organizations. Standardized scales were used for capturing data, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for analysis. Findings: Mindfulness and team cohesion were positively related to an increase in meaning-making through work. Supervisor support improved perceptions of team cohesion. However, contrary to expectations, team cohesion and meaning-making through work were positively, rather than negatively, related to knowledge hoarding. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional nature of the study prevents strong inference of causal relationships. Future studies may use a longitudinal design to test the relationships. Practical implications: It highlights the role of meditation sessions and supervisory support in improving employees’ perceptions of meaning-making through work. It exhorts managers to systematically assess the impact and societal perceptions regarding knowledge hoarding rather than automatically assume a negative attitude. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the impact of mindfulness, team cohesiveness and meaning-making through work on employees’ knowledge hoarding behaviors. The study results suggest that knowledge hoarding may be perceived positively in certain cultures. It highlights the inconsistencies in the conceptualization and operationalization of knowledge hoarding and suggests the need for better construct delineation and empirical studies related to knowledge hoarding. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Artificial Intelligence for Capital Market throws light on the application of AI/ML techniques in the financial capital markets. This book discusses the challenges posed by the AI/ML techniques as these are prone to "black box" syndrome. The complexity of understanding the underlying dynamics for results generated by these methods is one of the major concerns which is highlighted in this book. Features: Showcases artificial intelligence in finance service industry Explains credit and risk analysis Elaborates on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology Focuses on the optimal choice of asset pricing model Introduces testing of market efficiency and forecasting in the Indian stock market This book serves as a reference book for academicians, industry professionals, traders, finance managers and stock brokers. It may also be used as textbook for graduate level courses in financial services and financial analytics. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Syed Hasan Jafar, Hemachandran K, Hani El-Chaarani, Sairam Moturi, and Neha Gupta.

One of the significant challenges in the sports industry is identifying the factors influencing match results and their respective weightage. For appropriate recommendations to the team management and the team players, there is a need to predict the match and quantify the important factors for which prediction models need to be developed. The second thing required is identifying talented and emerging players and performing an associative analysis of the important factors to the match-winning outcome. This paper formulates a hybrid machine learning-clustering-associative rules model. This paper also implements the framework for cricket matches, one of the most popular sports globally watched by billions around the world. We predict the match outcome for One day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty 20 s (T20s) (two formats of Cricket representing fifty over and twenty over versions respectively) adopting state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, and Deep neural networks. The variable importance is computed using machine-learning techniques and further statistically validated through the regression model. The emerging talented players are identified by clustering. Association rules are generated for determining the best possible winning outcome. The results show that environmental conditions are equally crucial for determining a match result, as are internal quantitative factors. The model is thus helpful for both team management and for players to improve their winning strategy and also for discovering emerging players to form an unbeatable team. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

This study leverages the upper echelons theory to investigate the effect of board diversity (gender, age, education, and tenure) on the strategic orientation of a firm in terms of its exploration- exploitation. It also investigates the moderating role of the technological intensity of the industry for analyzing the relationship between board diversity and exploration–exploitation of the firm. The technological intensity of the industry is classified as high-tech and low-tech. This study brings to light the role of the contingency factors in influencing the board's strategic choice. The study is based on panel data set of Indian Top-200 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange for the period between 2010 and 2015. The present study's findings indicate that an increase in board diversity leads to more exploration than exploitation. Further, the effect of board diversity is more pronounced in high-tech than the low-tech industries. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Purpose: Although growing Internet penetration in the hinterlands has attracted agribusinesses to promote digital platforms, farmers are sceptical about using them. The literature discusses agricultural platforms from the theoretical perspective of technological determinism, where the platforms are developed and promoted by firms in a top-down manner to be accepted by farmers. However, this approach results in poorly configured platforms with limited utility for farmers. It is evident from the existing literature that the mere creation of a platform business is not sufficient to guarantee adoption by users. Hence, this study explores how to make the agricultural platform more attractive for farmers. Design/methodology/approach: The present study is based on a discrete choice experiment performed on 126 Indian farmers using agricultural platforms. The data were analysed using the conditional logistic regression method. Findings: The study suggests that farmers expect government and cooperative entities to be also embedded with the platforms. Complementary features such as prompt service, competitive pricing and farm credit were identified as essential attributes. Further, the platforms should enable smallholders to trade farm produce by providing a mechanism for real-time online nudging and bargaining with buyers. Research limitations/implications: The study is based on the applications of random utility theory. The research has utility for Agtech managers, cooperative institutions and agricultural policymakers. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies focussing on agricultural platform design from the farmers' perspective. The study implies that incorporating preferred attributes can help practitioners configure platforms to benefit farmers with prospects concerning farm management decisions. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Prevailing consumption-based business models and capitalist practices place significant strain on the environment and society. Buddhism, as a practicing religion, may provide insights on practicing models as a solution to sustain society, the environment, and businesses. The present investigation adopts a structured literature review methodology to take stock of such prior studies and articulate its representation of Buddhism-based business models, practices, ethical frameworks, and economic views. Based on the findings, it is clear that the prior studies have discussed the practitioner context of Buddhism religion in order to promote ethical and mindful business practices at the consumer, managerial, and business levels; to reduce the negative effects of identity politics in the workplace through spirituality; to introduce the idea of considering factors other than purely financial profitability; and to encourage the long-term viability and genuine happiness of individuals, communities, and organizations. In relation to these topics, research avenues are proposed. © 2023 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Governments across the globe initiated various tax reforms in the post- Global Financial Crisis period to rein in aggressive corporate tax avoidance for managing budget deficits. These developments created new realities in the international business environment by altering the costs and benefits of corporate tax management. Yet, we have a limited understanding of the effectiveness of tax reforms in controlling corporate tax avoidance at the global level. COVID-19 offers a litmus test for how corporates manage their taxes during the pandemic in light of past tax reforms. We use financial constraints and reputational costs as two contradicting theoretical perspectives to explain corporate tax avoidance during the crisis. Consistent with the financial constraints hypothesis, we find that firms avoid taxes amid COVID-19 to prevent liquidity crunches. Our study also highlights the role of country-level information and governance quality in curbing tax avoidance during extreme events like COVID-19. Our findings call for an immediate tax policy intervention to limit corporate tax avoidance during the ongoing pandemic phases. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

This study investigates the critical firm-level strengths and weaknesses that explain cross-sectional variations in abnormal stock returns of Hospitality and Tourism (HT) firms during different phases of a crisis. We used the event study and multivariate regression framework for analysing the Indian HT firms’ data around the COVID-19 crisis. While reporting a significant negative influence of COVID-19, we identified the early crisis, market crash and continuation of the crisis periods. Furthermore, we observe that during the early-crisis period, business diversity, financial stability and board diversity improved HT firms’ strength to withstand the risk, while business group affiliation was of little help. During the market crash and continuation of the crisis phase, better capital intensity and financial stability proved helpful. The managers of HT firms can take cues from this study to understand firm-level characteristics that provide resilience to their firms’ value in managing different phases of the crisis. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Employee proactivity has elicited great interest among academicians and practitioners alike. However, unfortunately, the underlying mechanisms and theoretical boundaries that amplify or dampen employee proactive behaviour at work remain under researched. Thus, to accelerate the discourse on employee proactive behaviour, this study explores the relationship between empowering leadership and employee proactivity through person-job fit and person-organization fit. Drawing insights from the person-environment theory, the study further examines the moderating role of role-based self-efficacy. Data were collected from 295 employees of Indian five-star hotels through a questionnaire survey and analysed through structural equation modelling. The results of this study confirm the significant direct impacts of empowering leadership, person-job fit organization-job fit on employee proactivity behaviour in a luxury context. Moreover, the study demonstrates the partial mediating role of person-job fit and person-organization fit while also confirming the moderating influence of role breadth self-efficacy; between the relationships of empowering leadership and employee proactivity. Given that the study uncovers the positive influence of leadership on employee proactive behaviour this study has important practical implication for managers working in luxury contexts, especially, hotels. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Do firms generate financial flexibility by retiring debt? Using Indian data, we document that firms channel approximately 39% of current cash flow to repay debt. This higher debt-cash flow sensitivity facilitates the firms to maintain investment in the future. Firms prioritise reducing dependency on external finance, increasing investments, and saving cash in the short run. In the long run, firms enhance investments primarily through borrowing. Unlike in developed markets, we find that Indian firms respond symmetrically to positive and negative cash flow shocks by changing their borrowing. © 2023