Purpose - Popularity of organic food and food products is growing across the globe due to rising awareness towards health and environment, leading to quality life. However, the multitude of challenges associated with the purchase and consumption of organic food remain insufficiently addressed within the context of developing nations, such as India. This study attempts to fill this gap by identifying the crucial barriers and analyzing them further to establish contextual relationships among them. Design/methodology/approach - In total, 18 barriers identified with a literature review are classified into 6 major barriers (constructs) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Further, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach is employed to relegate these barriers and sub-barriers into the cause-and-effect group. Moreover, causal relationships among these barriers are also established to assist organic food producers and food processing industries in developing the strategies to overcome these barriers. Findings - The study results indicate that acceptability, preferability and reachability are the most prominent barriers. Moreover, reachability' is the leading cause group barrier, while acceptability is the major effect group barrier. Usualness, visibility and readiness of the organic food exhibit significant challenges in the organic food consumption. Practical implications - The findings of this study act as a roadmap and guiding principle for various stakeholders, such as organic food manufacturers, organic food processing industries, government policymaking bodies and food certification agencies, in organizations and government regulatory agencies for devising and implementing targeted strategies to enhance the accessibility, appeal and, in turn, adoption and consumption of organic foods. This successively contributes to broader efforts in improving public health and ensuring sustainable agricultural practices. Originality/value - The contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it investigates the interdependences among the organic food consumption barriers. Second, it provides policy-related recommendations to enhance the consumption of organic food, especially in India.

The inopportune organization of spice supply chains (SSCs) results in aided risks, resource wastages, and sustainability issues. Nevertheless, practitioners and academicians alike must investigate spice supply chain management (SSCM) in terms of long-term sustainability. This study draws on the available literature to compile a collection of characteristics and maintain sustainable spice supply chain management techniques which come up with associated risks and relevant obstacles. Existing studies claim that due to a lack of resources, the associated risks are the root of poor SSCM performance. As a result, the goal of this study is to identify the primary risk variables using qualitative data; nevertheless, the attributes must be converted into a scale that is comparable. The fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) was used to obtain valid and reliable attributes from qualitative data, while the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (FDEMATEL) was used to address uncertainty and interrelationships simultaneously. FDM results suggest that there are eighteen critical risk variables and seven risks threatening effective SSCM. FDEMATEL results reveal qualitative data translated into crisp, comparable values in order to investigate causal linkages between variables and confirm the compatibility of the theoretical structure with industry realities. The findings show fluctuation in the Price (C8), diseases and pests (C20), human contamination (C23), spice adulteration (C24), and loss of food quality, and quantity (C36) are all important risks and sub-risks in these causative interrelationships. The primary risks involved in enhancing SCM include Financial Risk (A5), Ergonomic Risk (A8), and Operation and Management Risk (A10). The study recommends that industry professionals use future marketing tools to protect themselves from price changes which allow them to assess supply and demand circumstances and manage price risks over distance and time. Spices are the key contributors to earning a sizable amount of foreign currency through export in a developing country. It suggests to policymakers, regulatory organizations, and practitioners to develop regulations, raise farmer understanding about pest control, impose stiff penalties on vendors and businesses proven to be involved in spice adulteration, and develop a sustainable fertilizer distribution system. These corresponding action plans for improving the SSC sector and comparing it with agro-food and short-supply chains are investigated. This study contributes to theory by utilizing FDM and FDEMATEL methods for addressing the uncertainty and interrelationship among associated risks that hinder SCM from attaining sustainability.

PurposeThis paper analyzes the impact of the perceived ability motivation opportunity (AMO) framework on talent retention via employee engagement, which act as a mediator. Moreover, the study also explores the moderating role of transformational leadership between employee engagement and talent retention.Design/methodology/approachThe survey responses were gathered from 360 frontline employees of five-star hotels in the Indian hospitality industry. Structural equation modeling using SMART PLS-4 was used to test the measurement model, construct reliability and validity, and hypotheses were tested using partial-least square structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study results demonstrate that AMO-enhancing HR practices positively affect talent retention. Concerning the indirect effects, results indicate that employee engagement partially mediates the relationship between the perceived AMO framework and talent retention. The moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between employee engagement and talent retention showed a significant interaction effect.Practical implicationsThe study results suggest that hospitality organizations must focus on effectively designing and implementing HRM bundles catering to their employees' abilities, motivation and desired opportunities. Also, industrial practitioners must focus on nurturing the transformational leadership style to ensure higher employee engagement and talent retention.Originality/valueThe paper offers significant implications for the hospitality industry struggling to retain talented professionals. Also, the study provides a comprehensive framework that suggests a positive influence of the AMO framework on talent retention among hospitality employees in the context of developing countries, in which there is minimal empirical research.

PurposeSchools provide high priorities to offer innovative curricular and cocurricular programs, and leaders make necessary efforts to promote enablers and overcome disablers for sustaining their innovativeness. With the background of quality management and stakeholder theories, the present study examines the interplay of hindrances to quality between empowering leadership, stakeholder involvement and organizational innovativeness.Design/methodology/approachResponses of 157 American school principals collected through the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2018 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development were used and analyzed to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsResults show that empowering leadership behaviors of school principals support promoting organizational innovativeness, and involvement of stakeholders with the school activities also promotes organizational innovativeness. Interestingly, when American schools faced a high level of hindrance to providing quality education to their students, principals' high level of empowering leadership behaviors promoted organizational innovativeness.Originality/valueThis is the first time in the literature that the interplay between empowering leadership, stakeholder involvement and hindrance of quality education has been examined to promote organizational innovativeness.

One of the most pernicious and pervasive threats to the integrity of governments, economies, and societies worldwide is the insidious and corrosive influence of corruption. E-government, everywhere, is expected to play a pivotal role in combating corruption. Nevertheless, academic research has yielded varying outcomes. To address the inherent variability, this study employed data from 188 countries to thoroughly investigate the impact of e-government on corruption. Using a path modeling approach and following New Institutional Theory, this study examined the association between the two. We found an inconsistent relationship between e-government and corruption, primarily owing to a nonlinear association between the two and an omitted mediator variable of an institutional nature. Further, accountability, a social instrument, mediates this relationship. Our study offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between e-government and corruption by establishing the crucial role of accountability in the context of corruption.

The rapid increase in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the utilization of fossil fuels to meet global energy needs has made the transition to cleaner energy sources imperative. Past studies show that energy transition not only improves the environment that we live in but is also a means to fulfill many of the United Nation's sustainable development goals. Even though studies as early as the 1980s focused on energy transition, there has been a spurt in the volume of literature in the mentioned area over the last five years (post-2018). Consequently, researchers face a daunting task in scanning through this large literature body and identifying the key research trends and gray areas in energy transition research. The current study tries to address this problem by the use of an unsupervised machine learning technique topic modeling via latent Dirichlet allocation model implemented on the abstracts of 1221 research articles (related to energy transition) extracted from the Scopus database. The topic modeling approach reveals eight meaningfully interpretable unique topics. The use of technology and models for energy transition, energy transition and policy, environmental impacts of energy transition, and the impact of transition on energy markets are the most researched topics. However, benefits from energy transition, energy distribution, importance, and socio-economic impacts of energy transition are largely understudied. The study not only conducts a comprehensive analysis of the energy transition literature but also provides lots of implications and future research directions for the benefit of various stakeholders.

It is estimated that the recent ongoing supply chain disruptions have forced a transition in the traditional food supply chain business models. Organizations across all sectors are now adopting digital transformation strategies for embracing the new normal. Food security in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is threatened by country's heavy reliance on food imports. Innovative urban farming systems are anticipated to improve the food security and sustainability to a great extent. Using a survey-based methodology, the present study aims to develop, validate, and apply a multi-dimensional innovative urban food production system framework for UAEs agricultural sector. Based on the data collected from 299 stakeholders across the whole agri-food supply chains in the UAE, the study determines ways of reducing dependency on food imports by scaling up technology-driven and resource-efficient innovative urban farming systems. Data were analysed and the model were moderated using Analysis of MOment Structures (AMOS) and Partial Least Squares- Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings from the study highlight that digital technology moderates the relationship between innovative urban farming systems and sustainable urban farming. Resource efficiency and conservation practices were positively associated with sustainable urban farming. The study offers several managerial and theoretical insights.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks pose a challenging threat to the availability and performance of cloud-based Software-Defined Networks (SDNs). Detection and classification of DDoS attacks in such dynamic and highly virtualized environments is critical to maintaining network stability and ensuring uninterrupted services. Therefore, this study develops a metaheuristic with Multi-Layer Ensemble Deep Reinforcement Learning for DDoS Attack Detection and Mitigation (MMEDRL-ADM) technique in the Cloud SDN Environment. The presented MMEDRL-ADM technique leverages metaheuristics with deep learning model for the recognition of DDoS attacks in the SDN data plane. To accomplish this, the presented MMEDRL-ADM technique initially preprocesses the network data. Next, the MMEDRL-ADM technique designs African buffalo optimization algorithm-based feature selection (ABO-FS) to reduce the computation complexity and increase the detection rate. For DDoS attack detection, the multilayer ensemble deep reinforcement learning (MEDRL) technique is used. To adjust the hyperparameter values of the MEDRL technique, an improved grasshopper optimization algorithm (IGOA) is exploited. The design of MEDRL approach with IGOA based hyperparameter tuning demonstrates the novelty of the work. The experimental validation of the MMEDRL-ADM system is tested under a benchmark dataset. The comparison study highlighted the improved performance of the MMEDRL-ADM technique over other models.

The study highlights that banks in India recommend mutual funds based on higher commissions rather than superior performance. We further show that bank recommendations and distributor commissions can both significantly influence the growth of fund assets -under -management (AUM). JEL classification: D82, D140, G18, G28

Information security policy (ISP) compliance has emerged as a significant challenge for contemporary businesses. This underscores the crucial role of employing fear appeals to encourage employee compliance with ISP. However, the existing literature is rife with mixed and inconsistent findings regarding the influence of fear appeals on employees' intentions to comply with ISP. In an effort to address this inconsistency and delve into the mechanisms through which fear appeals impact ISP compliance, we expanded the Protection Motivation Theory by incorporating the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. Notably, we introduced a positive emotion, eustress, into the mediating mechanism alongside fear. Our hypothesis posited that fear appeals not only generate fear but also evoke eustress, subsequently positively influencing ISP compliance. We conducted a study among financial sector employees and validated our hypothesis using structural equation modeling techniques. Our primary theoretical contributions include highlighting the critical role of eustress in enhancing ISP compliance and proposing a parallel mechanism through which fear appeals impact ISP compliance. From a practical standpoint, we demonstrate that eustress plays a more significant role in motivating employees to comply with ISP. Furthermore, we provide insights into how organizations can design fear appeal messages by incorporating the concept of eustress, thereby optimizing their effectiveness in promoting ISP compliance.

PurposeDrawing on the conservation of resources theory, the current study examines the mechanisms by which individual-focused transformational leadership (i.e. individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation) is associated with employees' taking charge by investigating the mediating roles of psychological capital and thriving at work.Design/methodology/approachA three-wave research study was conducted, and the data for the study included 220 employees'-supervisors' dyads from Indian IT (information technology) organizations. Further, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to assess the measurement model, and study hypotheses were tested using Process macro.FindingsThe study results showed that individual-focused transformational leadership (IFTL) is strongly associated with psychological capital, thriving at work and taking charge. The findings of Process macro analyses indicated that IFTL, directly and indirectly, impacts taking charge behavior via psychological capital and thriving at work.Practical implicationsThe study offers significant practical implications to managers, counsellors and HRM practitioners for crafting workplace interventions to augment employees taking charge behavior. The study findings would aid HRM practitioners in designing individualized-oriented leadership programs for building employees' positive psychological capabilities and thriving experiences for taking charge.Originality/valueThis paper broadens the existing leadership literature by proposing new pathways through which IFTL encourages employees to take charge. Mainly, research studies need to shed more light on leadership characteristics that influence employees' positive psychological behavior, that is psychological capital and thriving at work. Consequently, this study examined the underlying mechanism through which leadership, psychological capital and thriving interact to stimulate employees taking charge behavior.

PurposeDigital lean implementation can solve the dual problem of stagnating quality and rising costs in healthcare. Although technology adoption in healthcare has increased in the post-COVID world, value unlocking using technology needs a well-thought-out approach to achieve success. This paper provides a prescriptive framework for successfully implementing digital lean in healthcare.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method approach to achieve three research objectives. Whilst it uses a narrative review to identify the enablers, it uses qualitative thematic analysis techniques to categorise them into factors. The study utilises the delphi method for the thematic grouping of the enablers in the broader groups. The study used an advanced ordinal priority approach (OPA) to prioritise these factors. Finally, the study uses concordance analysis to assess the reliability of group decision-making.FindingsThe study found that 20 identified enablers are rooted in practice factors, followed by human resource management (HRM) factors, customer factors, leadership factors and technology factors. These results further counter the myth that technology holds the utmost significance in implementing digital lean in healthcare and found the equal importance of factors related to people, customers, leadership and best practices such as benchmarking, continuous improvement and change management.Originality/valueThe study is the first of its kind, providing the prescriptive framework for implementing digital lean in healthcare. The findings are useful for healthcare professionals and health policymakers.

PurposeThe present study examines the nexus between workplace relationship conflict, perceived sincere apology, interpersonal forgiveness, trust restoration and future cooperation at work after a trust violation episode has occurred.Design/methodology/approachThe data for the analysis were collected from 226 employees using scenarios and survey methods and quantitative techniques were applied to analyze the data.FindingsThe results show that perceived sincerity of apology serves as a mediating variable in the link between workplace relationship conflict and interpersonal forgiveness. Interpersonal forgiveness is found to be positively related to future cooperation at work with the mediating role of trust restoration.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study have practical implications for strategy makers, human resource managers and practitioners interested in stimulating future cooperation at work after a trust violation episode has occurred. The study advocates that sincere apology and interpersonal forgiveness serve as an important link to recovering from trust violation damages and cultivating future cooperation at work after a relationship conflict has occurred.Originality/valueThe findings of the present study bring new insights on the role played by sincere apology and interpersonal forgiveness in facilitating trust restoration and future cooperation at work after a relationship conflict episode has occurred.

This experimental research examines the effect of brand placement (prominent or subtle) and use of technology (2D or head-mounted-display (HMD) VR) in in-game advertising (IGA) on brand recall and how persuasion knowledge moderates this relationship. Results showed that for a prominent brand placement, a 2D game resulted in higher brand recall than an HMD VR game. Players with high persuasion knowledge, showed superior recall for the embedded brands in two game conditions: a prominent placed 2D game and a prominent placed HMDVR game. However, insignificant results were found for a subtle brand placement-2D game and a subtle placement-HMD VR game irrespective of whether the player has high or low persuasion knowledge. Further the study provides strong theoretical and managerial implications and avenues for future research in the gamified-advertising context.

PurposeDrawing on the transformational leadership theory, this study empirically tests the relationship between individual-focused transformational leadership (IFTL) (i.e. individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation) and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (Ch-OCB), proposing the mediating mechanism of job crafting. Also, this study examines the moderating role of employee resilience on the relationship between job crafting and Ch-OCB.Design/methodology/approachA nested data model using a 4-wave time-lagged sample of 210 employees-supervisors dyads from Indian information technology (IT) organizations was tested using hierarchical linear modeling.FindingsThe study results showed a significant association between IFTL and Ch-OCB. Furthermore, job crafting mediated the relationship between IFTL and Ch-OCB. Additionally, the findings indicate that the positive relationship between job crafting and Ch-OCB was found to be stronger when employee resilience levels were higher.Practical implicationsThe study offers significant practical implications to managers, counselors and human resource management (HRM) practitioners for stimulating Ch-OCB. The study findings would aid HRM practitioners in designing individualized-oriented leadership programs to encourage employees to exhibit proactive job-crafting behavior, further augmenting Ch-OCB.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the existing transformational leadership literature by proposing new pathways through which IFTL stimulates job crafting, further leading to enhanced Ch-OCB. Mainly, research studies need to shed more light on leadership characteristics that influence employees' proactive and adaptive work behavior, i.e. job crafting and Ch-OCB. Essentially, this study examined the underlying mechanism through which IFTL relates to employees' Ch-OCB.

PurposeThe trend among the financial investors to integrate cryptocurrencies, the very first completely digital assets, in their investment portfolio, has increased during the last decade. Even though cryptocurrencies share certain common characteristics with other investment products, they have their own distinct characteristic features, and the behavior of this asset class is currently being studied by the research scholars interested in this domain.Design/methodology/approachUsing the text mining approach, this article examines research trends in the field of cryptocurrencies to identify prospective research needs. To narrow down to ten topics, the abstracts and the indexed keywords of 1,387 research publications on cryptocurrency, blockchain and Bitcoins published between 2013 and 2022 were analyzed using the topic modeling technique and Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA).FindingsThe findings show a wide range of study trends on various aspects of cryptocurrencies. In the recent years, there have been lots of research and publications on the topics such as cryptocurrency markets, cryptocurrency transactions and use of blockchain in transactions and security of Bitcoin. In comparison, topics such as use of blockchain in fintech, cryptocurrency regulations, blockchain smart contract protocols and legal issues in cryptocurrency have remained relatively underexplored. After using the LDA, this paper further analyzes the significance of each topic, future directions of individual topics and its popularity among researchers in the discussion section.Originality/valueWhile similar studies exist, no other work has used topic modeling to comprehensively analyze the cryptocurrencies literature by considering diverse fields and domains.

PurposeThe study examines the IPO resilience grounded on the firm's intrinsic factors.Design/methodology/approachWe examine the association of IPO performance and post-listing firm's performance with issuers' pre-listing financial and qualitative traits using panel data regression.FindingsIPOs floated in the Indian market from July 2009 to March 31, 2022, evince the notable influence of issuers' pre-IPO fundamentals and legitimacy traits on IPO returns and post-listing earning power. Where the pandemic's favorable impact is discerned on the post-listing year earning power of the issuer firms, the loss-making issuers appear to be adversely affected by the Covid disruption. Perhaps, the successful listing equipped the issuers with the financial flexibility to combat market challenges vis-a-vis failed issuers deprived of desired IPO proceeds.Research limitations/implicationsHigh initial returns followed by a declining pattern substantiate the retail investors to be less informed vis-a-vis initial investors, valuers and underwriters, who exit post-listing after profit booking. Investing in the shares of the newly listed ventures post-listing in the secondary market can shield retail investors from the uncertainty losses of being uninformed. The IPO market needs stringent regulations ensuring the verification of the listing valuation, the firm's credentials and the intent of utilizing IPO proceeds. Healthy development of the IPO market merits reconsidering the listing of ventures with weak fundamentals suspected to withstand the market challenges.Originality/valueGiven the tremendous rise in the new firm venturing into the primary market and the spike in IPOs countering the losses immediately post-opening, the study examines the loss-making and young firms IPOs separately, adding novelty to the study.

PurposeThis research addresses the pressing need for comprehensive studies in the rapidly evolving field of city tourism. This study aims to understand the overall performance of the International Journal of Tourism Cities (IJTC), the structure of knowledge in city tourism research and the prevalent themes and trends arising from IJTC.Design/methodology/approachA bibliometric analysis was conducted to scrutinize the publication patterns in IJTC. This involved examining parameters such as the annual count of published articles, the keywords used in them and their respective authors.FindingsThe findings reveal that IJTC has a growing and diverse publication output, establishing itself as a reputable and influential publication within urban tourism research. The results reflect various aspects and themes in city tourism research.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has certain limitations. The data used for analysis was obtained exclusively from the Scopus database. The analysis was conducted using only one software package, Bibliometrix. Other software packages may offer different features for bibliometric analysis. The study relied exclusively on quantitative methods for data analysis. Qualitative methods could have provided more nuanced interpretations of the data.Practical implicationsComparative analyses could be conducted between IJTC and other journals within urban tourism or related disciplines. Such research would yield valuable insights into the current state of the field and aid in identifying areas warranting further investigation.Social implicationsThe findings from this study can inform the decisions and actions of various stakeholders involved in urban tourism. Practitioners and policymakers can draw from this research to make informed decisions. Existing and emerging authors can identify relevant topics for their research. Readers can access pertinent information for their needs.Originality/valueThis study offers a unique contribution by thoroughly comprehending the performance of IJTC between 2015 and 2023. It progresses the existing body of knowledge on city tourism research by examining its current status and future trends.