While embracing digitalization that is further accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the real business outcome is achieved through a robust and well-crafted ‘Data Science Strategy’ (DSS), as significant constituent of Enterprise Digital Strategy. Extant literature has studied the challenges in adoption of components of ‘Data Science’ in discrete for various industry sectors and domains. There is dearth of studies on comprehensive ‘Data Science’ adoption as an umbrella constituting all of its components. The study conducts a “Systematic Literature Review (SLR)” on enablers and barriers affecting the implementation and success of DSS in enterprises. The SLR comprised of 113 published articles during the period 1998 and 2021. In this SLR, we address the gap by synthesizing and proposing a novel framework of ‘Enablers and Barriers’ influencing the success of DSS in enterprises. The proposed framework of ‘Data Science Strategy’ can help organizations taking the right steps towards successful implementation of ‘Data Science’ projects. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Purpose: Digital transformation (DT) leverages digital technologies to change current processes and introduce new processes in any organisation’s business model, customer/user experience and operational processes (DT pillars). Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in achieving DT. As DT is touching each sphere of humanity, AI led DT is raising many fundamental questions. These questions raise concerns for the systems deployed, how they should behave, what risks they carry, the monitoring and evaluation control we have in hand, etc. These issues call for the need to integrate ethics in AI led DT. The purpose of this study is to develop an “AI led ethical digital transformation framework”. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the literature survey, various existing business ethics decision-making models were synthesised. The authors mapped essential characteristics such as intensity and the individual, organisational and opportunity factors of ethics models with the proposed AI led ethical DT. The DT framework is evaluated using a thematic analysis of 23 expert interviews with relevant AI ethics personas from industry and society. The qualitative data of the interviews and opinion data has been analysed using MAXQDA software. Findings: The authors have explored how AI can drive the ethical DT framework and have identified the core constituents of developing an AI led ethical DT framework. Backed by established ethical theories, the paper presents how DT pillars are related and sequenced to ethical factors. This research provides the potential to examine theoretically sequenced ethical factors with practical DT pillars. Originality/value: The study establishes deduced and induced ethical value codes based on thematic analysis to develop guidelines for the pursuit of ethical DT. The authors identify four unique induced themes, namely, corporate social responsibility, perceived value, standard benchmarking and learning willingness. The comprehensive findings of this research, supported by a robust theoretical background, have substantial implications for academic research and corporate applicability. The proposed AI led ethical DT framework is unique and can be used for integrated social, technological and economic ethical research. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The Indian hospitality and tourism industries, major economic growth drivers and employment generators, have been greatly affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In FY 2020, the Indian tourism sector created 39 million jobs and contributed nearly US$194.3bn, or 6.8%, to India’s gross domestic product. The purpose of this study is to focus on ranking 22 listed hotels and 9 listed travel agencies in India based on their performance across 14 selected financial parameters in both the pre-COVID-19 year ending in March 2019 and the post-COVID-19 year ending in March 2021 to understand how the pandemic affected their businesses. Design/methodology/approach: This research proposes to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial performance of 22 listed Indian hotels and 9 listed travel agencies evaluated over 14 financial parameters using a pipeline of two recently developed multicriteria decision-making techniques, method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) and grey-based combined compromised solution (CoCoSo). First, the criteria weights are objectively determined using MEREC, and then the financial performances of the selected companies in both the hospitality and tourism industries are separately assessed using CoCoSo to get their overall performance score, based on which the companies are ranked in order of preference. Findings: It was observed that Westlife Development, Lemon Tree Hotels, Indian Tourism Development Corporation, Royal Orchid and Country Club performed significantly poorer than their peers in the aftermath of the pandemic, whereas EIH, Advani Hotels and Resorts and TGB Banquets performed relatively better. Travel agencies Easy Trip and International Travel House performed particularly poorly because of the pandemic, but VMV Holidays performed relatively better in FY 2021. Practical implications: The findings of the analysis will aid portfolio construction, corporate investment decisions, competition research, government policymaking and industrial analysis. Originality/value: The proposed model is novel because it fills the research gap in the application of the integrated MEREC–CoCoSo method to study the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality and tourism sectors in India. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

As the world has seen the impact of COVID-19, development of resilient supply chain strategies has emerged as top priority. The inconsistent demands, product consumption and the shorter lifecycle of products during the pandemic needs appropriate planning and designing to make the supply chain more resilient. In this study, an analytical model is proposed to assess the resilience of supply chain to overcome the effect of the disruption impacts. The supply chain risks will depend on the nature of the business and therefore, besides literature review on supply chain resilience the inputs from experts were required. The interdependency among the indicators was analysed by employing Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and demonstrated with the help of a framework. The strength of the interdependence is assessed using Bayesian Network approach. BN transformed the qualitative expert inputs to quantitative assessment by utilising the principles of conditional probability. Three cases from Indian manufacturing industries were used to demonstrate and assess the critical supply chain resilience indicators using integrated ISM-BN approach. The cases showed that the proposed approach can assist decision makers in identifying the critical indicators to be focused towards improving the supply chain resilience to overcome the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. A comparative analysis of the supply chain risk indicators has also been performed, thereby extending the practical implication of supply chain resilience. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

The fashion industry's transition to Sustainable Sourcing (SS) is crucial to address some of the social and environmental problems faced by societies. While previous research has identified SS implementation barriers in the mainstream fashion industry, this article provides a methodical identification, validation, and prioritization of the 20 key SS implementation barriers for the global apparel and fashion-luxury sector. The paper employs a multi-phase research methodology to benchmark the SS implementation barriers in the apparel and fashion-luxury sector. These barriers were analysed through 154 responses received from global SS professionals by employing a survey questionnaire. Through an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), the barriers were categorized into six unique dimensions. To establish their importance, an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) analysis further provided a global ranking of the identified barriers. The results of the study revealed that ‘Management, Government Support, and Infrastructure Barriers’ hold the most significant importance among all barrier dimensions, followed by ‘Material Barriers’, ‘Finance Barriers’, ‘Supplier Barriers’, ‘Certificates and Customer Perceptions’, and ‘Sustainable Packaging and Human Resource Barriers’. Furthermore, the results showed that specific barriers such as ‘Undersupply of Sustainable Raw Materials’, ‘Insufficient Commitment from Top Management’, and ‘Inadequate Awareness’ are the top three barriers according to global ranking. The research theoretically contributes by identifying and ranking the SS barriers that may hinder the efforts of the fashion sector to become more sustainable. This will facilitate researchers, sourcing professionals, fashion retailers, policymakers, and governing bodies in the formulation and deployment of dynamic strategies to overcome them and successfully implement SS practices. © 2022

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is a commercially established technology for direct generation of electricity using solar energy. However, one drawback of this technology is that its electrical efficiency decreases with increase in panel temperature beyond standard surface temperature of 25°C. To maintain the panel surface temperature, photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) cooling technology with earth water heat exchanger (EWHE) could be a suitable solution for the arid and semi-arid regions. The current paper discusses a comparative Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the standalone PV and PV/T systems coupled with EWHE cooling for the conditions of Pilani, Rajasthan, India. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate environmental performance analysis for forced cooling (PV/T+EWHE). Environmental performance of the system was evaluated through cradle-to-grave LCA which was carried out by using Umberto NXT software. The life cycle assessment showed that PV, PV/T and EWHE devices consumes large amount of energy during fabrication and installation process. It was also found out that PV/T+EWHE system has huge environmental impacts, in various midpoint and endpoint impact categories, as compared to normal PV system. But on the other hand, the electrical energy performance was better for PV/T+EWHE system as compared to normal PV system. Finally, it was concluded that, large PV/T+EWHE based power plants would be more sustainable in terms of environmental and energy performance. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.

Several emerging economies have embarked on a path of digitization to provide lean governance through platform-based applications. Platforms and ecosystems can play vital roles in the proliferation of technologies, which can facilitate a digital transformation of society aimed at equitable and efficient service delivery to citizens. Despite being innovative, citizen-centric, and citizen-inclusive, such platforms has been observed to be rare in emerging economies. Our study assesses the factors that lead to the intention to continue to use these platforms, with the objective of establishing a revised approach to better governance through these platform-based services. A conceptual framework is proposed, based on an integration of various models, and tested using primary data from citizens subscribing to platform-based government services. The results indicate that a continuous availability of such services has better predictive power for the continual-use intention. A unique contribution of the study worth highlighting is the significance of the factor, “sovereign structural assurance,” a pre-requisite for strengthening the degree of control. Based on this study's findings, it is recommended that platforms should invest in controls for structural assurance. These interventions can serve as contrivances that create a sustainable model for such services. A successful convergence of the factors would accelerate the government services by transforming the public service landscape. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on academic capitalism, consumerism and commodification (A3C) in higher education. Additionally, this study aims to understand core attributes of educational leadership behaviours with ethical leadership (EL) and transformational leadership (TL) styles can contribute to inclusive and equitable quality education for students belonging to diverse socio-economic status (SES). Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a literature review methodology initially on themes of A3C, EL, TL and SES, adopting social learning theory and social identity theory. Further, organizational behavioural dynamics related to students and faculty in higher educational institutions are illustrated. Simultaneously, suggestions with practical focus are offered. Findings: This paper synthesizes the literature on the convergence of leadership and SES and develops propositions to encourage future inquiry. Further, the study illuminates several attributes of four groups of student populations, namely, “privileged,” “contestant,” “dependent” and “deprived” formed because of this convergence. Research limitations/implications: A3C have posed several severe questions for the sustainable development of society. Educational leaders must benefit society, offer equitable opportunities and develop affirmative leadership. Originality/value: Leaders with high EL and TL behaviours can considerably contribute to achieve United Nations Sustainable Goals of Quality Education. This paper presents realistic solutions and scrutinizes organizational dynamics because of convergence of leadership and SES. Further, pragmatic leadership development strategies are suggested. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The market for corporate control offers a rich framework to study the interaction between investment and financing decisions. Do corporations have specific preferences for the means of financing acquisitions, such using cash or equity to pay the claims of the target firm’s shareholders? This study builds a unique sample of 1041 corporate acquisitions over the period 2000–2018 in India, a major emerging economy with fast-growing capital markets. The study investigates separately corporate preferences for the means of payment and the financing sources for acquisitions, using multinomial logit and nested logit models. First, we find that different factors explain the payment and financing decisions. Second, the cash payment decision is best explained by the target’s relative size, greater tender offers, cross-border deals, and cash reserves. Third, the findings are most aligned with pecking order theory and cost of capital considerations. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to examine decent work (DW) as a critical antecedent of work–family enrichment (WFE). Further, it also focuses on understanding the underlying mechanisms that facilitate the linkage of employees' perceptions of DW and WFE by investigating about the mediating role of knowledge workers' experience of meaning at work and their work engagement levels. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional research design using survey administration among faculty members employed in public and private universities of North India. Findings: Results depicted that in addition to direct relationship between DW and WFE, both meaning at work and work engagement partially mediate the relationship between access to DW and WFE indirectly. These findings showed that the provision of access to DW by organizations will help facilitate WFE via employees' experience of meaning at work and their levels of engagement with their work. Practical implications: The study findings would be useful for organizational practitioners and policymakers to design sustainable human resource development (HRD) policies and practices for enriching the WFE of employees as well as in driving talent retention and engagement. Originality/value: It is one of the few studies that captures perceptions of employees about access to DW policies and practices and its role in enhancing WFE in the South Asian context. Further, it also advances our knowledge on antecedents and consequences of WFE. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The study aims to investigate the impact of “decent work” dimensions on faculty members’ work engagement levels in the higher education institutions in India. Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from 293 faculty members working in higher education institutes in India. The proposed study hypotheses were tested by deploying the statistical technique of multiple regression analysis using statistical package for social sciences Version-24. Findings: Results demonstrated that of the five dimensions of “decent work,” only “access to health care” and “complementary values” were significant predictors of work engagement. “Adequate compensation,” “free time and rest” and “safe interpersonal working conditions” as dimensions of “decent work” were not found to be significantly related to work engagement. Research limitations/implications: Findings encourage education policymakers to implement a “decent work” policy for faculty members with greater emphasis on ensuring workplace-fit and provision of adequate health-care facilities to keep the workforce engaged. Originality/value: It is one of the few studies conducted in the South-Asian context that highlight “decent work” as a crucial job resource, useful in enhancing the work engagement of faculty members in higher education institutions. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This article examines variations in illiquidity in the Indian stock market, using intraday data. Panel regression reveals prevalent day-of-the-week, month, and holiday effects in illiquidity across industries, especially during exogenous shock periods. Illiquidity fluctuations are higher during the second and third quarters. The ranking of most illiquid stocks varies, depending on whether illiquidity is measured using an adjusted or unadjusted Amihud measure. Using pooled quantile regression, we note that illiquidity plays an important asymmetric role in explaining stock returns under up- and down-market conditions in the presence of open interest and volatility. The impact of illiquidity is more severe during periods of extreme high and low returns. JEL Classification: G10, G12 © The Author(s) 2021.

Purpose: Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are of three types: domestic, inbound and outbound cross-border. Inbound M&As provide an inflow of foreign funds into the economy, whereas outbound M&As involve the outflow of domestic funds. This paper examines the impact of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Brazil on each other. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyze M&A activity in Brazil and examine the impact domestic, inbound and outbound M&As have on each other. The study uses a vector auto-regressive model to test the relationships for each quarter of 2000–2018. The M&A activity is operationalized using the total number of deals and the cumulative value of the deals in a particular period. Findings: The results depict stark contrast for M&A activity measured through incidences and monetary value. Overall, the number of deals can better explain each other than value. The authors find that, in terms of incidences, domestic M&A is Granger caused by both outbound and inbound M&As together. Further, inbound and domestic M&As together Granger cause outbound M&As in terms of aggregate monetary value. The impulse response function reveals that incidence shocks created in M&A activity are longer lasting than the value shocks. Practical implications: The results have implications for businesses and policymakers. The study reveals the complexities of crowding effects important for businesses. The government needs to structure its future investment-promotion strategies depending on the objectives related to the number and value of M&A activity. Originality/value: The study uses econometric tools and empirical methods to find the unexplored nature of the relationship between domestic, outbound and inbound cross-border M&As. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Building on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory, this study identifies and empirically tests the prominence of various technology-related, consumer characteristics, and situational variables (Stimuli) on fostering impulsive habits among mobile shoppers. We further examine the direct and indirect effects of consumer impulsiveness on the use of multiple shopping applications for online purchases. Data collected from 275 mobile shopping application (app) users through an online survey were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results confirm the significant impact of mobility, personalization, product assortment, and hedonic motivation on impulsiveness, except the app's visual appeal. Impulsiveness was found to be strongly correlated with users' intention to install another shopping app, whereas consumers behavioral intention was a significant precursor of their multiple app usage behavior. The findings apprise managers of the role of impulsiveness in encouraging split loyalty among mobile shoppers and prescribe new strategies for sustained use of shopping platforms. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Exports are affected by several economic, political, social and cultural determinants. The objective of this study is to examine the role of policy and cultural determinants on export competitiveness for different sectors, estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and suggest focus areas to improve exports. The study uses the method of stochastic frontier analysis on the bilateral trade of India over the period 2000–2016. The result findings highlight that there is underutilization and ambiguous effect of trade agreements for all sectors except intermediate goods (IGs). Foreign direct investments outflow has positive results for all the sectors with capital goods getting benefitted the most. TE of exports shows positive trends for IGs, negative trend for raw materials, and mixed trend for consumer goods and capital goods sectors. IGs show the best export competitiveness, whereas RMs have the highest export potential. The results underline India’s progress in integrating with the global supply chain through increasing TE in exports of IGs. © 2019 International Management Institute, New Delhi.

Purpose: Bicycle sharing offers a novel way to create smart and sustainable mobility solutions for the future. The purpose of this study is to draw on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT 2) framework for identifying the factors necessary to predict bike-sharing intention among users in India. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed across four major cities in India, and 515 responses were analyzed. A sequential approach was employed to analyze the data using Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Findings: The findings from PLS analysis revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and price value are the salient variables that affect users' intentions to participate in bike sharing. In addition, based on fsQCA, six configurations of causal conditions are presented as intermediate solutions that produce the same results. Although antecedent conditions, such as habit and social influence, had an insignificant effect on individuals' BSI, they create conditions sufficient to encourage users' participation in bike sharing in combination with other variables. Research limitations/implications: A few limitations of this research and the implications of the findings in terms of theory and policy implications are also discussed. Originality/value: The reported study is one of the earliest to explain bike-sharing adoption in India using the UTAUT 2 model. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The issue of comparing sales records of competitors is gaining increased importance to both marketing academicians and practitioners to get an idea about approximate trend of customer inclination to their products. Actual sales records of competing products for past few years can be compared in two ways. If sales records exhibit normal distribution, then they can be tested for dominance over the other using t test (paired or unpaired). On the other hand, if normality is violated, then non-parametric tests like Kruskal–Wallis test by ranks or one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) can be applied to test whether samples originate from the same distribution. One-way ANOVA is very flexible in the sense that it can work with two or more independent samples, and sample sizes need not be equal. This article emphasizes the fact that marketing strategies of today must take care of predicted consumer inclination, at least in the near future. Prediction of future sales records of competing products can be obtained using many techniques available in the literature, like linear regression, auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) model etc. All these predictions come up with a certain percentage of error. Therefore, it is wise to fuzzify them by dividing into ranges, before comparison. Here, a novel fuzzy logic–based technique is proposed that compares predicted sales records of competing products and accordingly finds out which one is the best. © 2022 Management Development Institute.

Purpose: The concept of green supply chain management (GSCM) is evolving rapidly due to the environmental concerns and gaining popularity in the research community. This study critically analyze the literature of GSCM pressure, practice and performance for manufacturing enterprises based on the results of bibliometric, network and frequency analyses. Design/methodology/approach: Scopus database is used for literature search. Bibliometric network and frequency analysis are used to critically review the evolution of identified constructs and measures of GSCM pressure, practice and performance. Findings: This study has identified that the selected topic is in growing stage through the collaborative effort of the worldwide researchers. This study also shows the diffusion of influence in developing countries and there are enormous opportunities of research in these regions. The study finds evaluation of GSCM constructs and measures with time and shift in focus areas by the researchers. The study suggests more focus on the measurement of informative pressures, reverse logistics practices and negative impact on economic performance due to the adoption of GSCM practices. There is a need of simultaneous analysis of GSCM pressures, practices and performance to identify the cascading effect in different regions and industrial sectors and developed a conceptual framework to identify this effect. This study also observes the need of more quantitative measures-based case studies and suggests the use of life cycle assessment for the quantification of environmental performance. Originality/value: This study for the first time has analyzed a specific topic of GSCM pressure, practice and performance through bibliometric and network analyses. This study critically reviews the constructs and measures of GSCM pressure, practice and performance and identified the future research directions. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: With past studies indicating a lack of skill development in engineering education, there is a need for new pedagogical tools that are application and skill-oriented. Hackathons are widely accepted in the corporate world, in the engineering domain for skill development and recruitment but have not gained acceptance in mainstream engineering education. Very few studies have discussed engineering educator views regarding hackathons and their benefits. This paper intends to study engineering educators' perception of the hackathon and its benefits after participating in it. The findings could support hackathons as a pedagogical tool to develop an industry-oriented and skill-based engineering education. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods design was employed where initially qualitative study was conducted. Its findings were used to conduct survey of 162 engineering educators who had participated in a hackathon. A five point Likert scale was employed for data collection. Findings: The findings reveal that engineering educators who participated in the hackathon perceived hackathons to support industry-focused learning, problem-solving and new skill development. They also acknowledged its role in their professional development. The further discussion suggests that engineering educators and institutes may collaborate with industry to design and use hackathons as a teaching tool to develop industry-ready graduates. Research limitations/implications: The study was not designed to study how different aspects of hackathon lead to different benefits derived from participating in it. There is a need to study hackathons as a tool of pedagogy and assessment, focusing on how variables linked to it facilitate, moderate and hinder the learning and assessment process in participants. More in-depth studies need to be conducted to adopt the hackathon as a pedagogy and assessment tool in higher education. Practical implications: The discussion suggests that designing hackathons effectively as a tool for learning and skill development will result in skilled graduates. Engineering educators should adopt hackathons as a pedagogy for their students. Management and policymakers of engineering institutes should consider hackathons as a part of pedagogy for students besides conducting hackathons for educators for their professional development that will be investment in skills helpful at workplace. Originality/value: The notable contribution of this paper is to document perceptions of engineering educators regarding hackathons and their benefits after participating in a hackathon. The paper proposes that hackathons can be introduced in the engineering curriculum as they would offer educators a novel method of teaching and assessment and support engineering graduates in recruitment and making them industry-ready. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This paper explores the association between human development (HD) and tourism development (TD) by employing a panel threshold regression and using an extensive dataset of 133 countries for 24 years. We observed that the nexus between TD and HD for the entire dataset is not highly convincing; TD has an insignificant effect on the human development index (HDI). Furthermore, the nature of the relationship depends on the countries’ current status of development. The study used a threshold regression framework to split the dataset based on per capita GDP, urbanization level, and trade openness, and the results revealed four different situations in the relationship between tourism and HD. The most prominent finding is the U-shaped relationship between tourism growth and human development. We find that the initial stages of tourism growth for low-income countries is not linked to supporting human development. The non-linear panel threshold model's estimation shows that HD on the destination population on account of TD depends on its country-specific characteristics. Therefore, each country needs to develop appropriate tourism and business policies based on their current economic parameter value threshold to promote HD. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.