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In highly competitive environments, sustainability positioning is crucial for firms, as they are evaluated based on their sustainable practices. This study aims to draw on the legitimacy and information asymmetry theories to explore attributes that impact business-to-business (B2B) sustainability positioning in emerging economies, such as India, within the service industry.

This study used a mixed-methods exploratory research design to examine the attributes affecting sustainability positioning. In the first phase of the study, a qualitative research method was used to explore the attributes influencing B2B sustainability positioning. In the second phase, this study used these factors to develop a structural model.

A variety of attributes was critical in assessing the sustainability positioning of B2B firms. This study identified a number of factors that explain the attributes affecting sustainability positioning in B2B markets. Some of them included environmental consciousness and external assurance.

This study significantly contributes to the theoretical discourse on sustainable practices in B2B businesses in multiple ways. First, it provides empirical data on the relationship between firms’ environmental consciousness and sustainability positioning in the B2B context, thereby adding to and expanding the current literature on this topic. Second, this study investigates the impact of external assurance on B2B firms’ sustainability positioning and shows how it can enhance credibility, transparency and accountability. Finally, it analyzes sustainable positioning in the service sector, specifically in India, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to check the impact of financial inclusion on economic development of marginalized communities through the mediation of socio-economic empowerment.

In order to fulfil the objectives of the study, primary data were collected from 382 bank customers belonging to marginalized communities breathing in Jammu district of J and K by using purposive sampling technique. The data were collected during the month of April–August 2020. Multivariate statistical techniques such as EFA, CFA and SEM were used for data analysis and scale purification.

The study’s results reveal that financial inclusion has a direct and significant impact on economic development of marginalized communities through the mediation of social and economic empowerment. The study highlights that despite various initiatives taken by the government towards financial inclusion, there is a denial from the financial institutions to extend the credit to the marginalized communities due to lack of education, illiteracy, lack of awareness, attitude of bankers and policy directions to the banking sector, which confine these communities to feel proud, dignified, confident and self-reliant to face any financial crisis.

First the in-depth analysis of the study is restricted to Jammu district only that restricts the generalization of the results to the whole population of J and K. Second, the data were collected from respondents belonging to marginalized communities only. Third, comparative study of marginalized households who are covered under the financial inclusion drive and those who are still financially excluded has not been done yet. Fourth, the questionnaire approach was the only way to gather primary data and thus, the results might have a common-method bias.

The study makes contribution in the direction of financial inclusion narrative relating to socio-economic empowerment and economic development of marginalized communities. It looks into how for the socio-economic aspects of marginalized communities influence their exclusion from the financial system of the country. The study also provides valuable insights for the policymakers, researchers and academicians both at the countrywide and intercontinental level to devise and put into practice programmes that will widen right to use financial products and services leading to cutback of poverty incidence, income parity, social and economic empowerment, economic development and reduction in caste and gender based discrimination.

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the literature focusing on defining and measuring sentiments so as to understand their role in stock market behavior.

Critical review of the literature by analyzing myriad scholarly articles. The study is based on an analysis of 81 scholarly articles to critically analyze the approach toward defining and measuring market sentiments. The articles have been examined to identify and critique different classification of sentiment measures. A discussion is built to scrutinize the sentiment measures under the purview of theoretical underpinnings of the investor sentiment theory as well.

With more than five decades of research, the sentiment construct in finance literature is still ill-defined. Myriad empirical proxies of sentiment measures have led to conflicting results. The sentiment construct defined in financial theories needs to be revisited from the lens of sentiments defined in psychology.

The study is limited to analyzing the role of individual and institutional sentiments in equity markets. There is a need to explore sentiments with respect to different investment styles and strategies along with the type of investors.

Developing a suitable sentiment proxy can result in devising profitable trading strategies for investors. Understanding factors driving investor sentiments will help regulators to become more proactive and frame better policies.

This paper has leveraged psychology literature to highlight the limitations in development of sentiment construct in finance literature. By identifying stylized facts from reviewing the empirical literature, it highlights areas for future research.

Women are the change agents in today's society. They are not only the harbingers of growth and development but also act as a major catalyst in the economic advancement and prosperity of the nation. India has been witnessing an expansion in women entrepreneurs given the conducive startup ecosystem we have created over the years. It has inspired women to break the shackles and switch to being a game changer for themselves and many others over the years. The study aims to explore the impact of social entrepreneurial leadership on women empowerment and how does benchmarking help in this process.

Using a semi-structured questionnaire, the study conducted one-to-one in-depth and focused group interviews with the five women social entrepreneurs and their team. NVivo was used for content and thematic analysis.

Major themes identified from the study include financial independence, women empowerment, social identity, autonomy, mobility, attaining self-confidence, creativity and innovation, fulfillment of motives, action and social learning, and setting standards (benchmarks). The findings revealed that social entrepreneurial leadership has a significant impact on women empowerment through benchmarking.

Social entrepreneurial leadership has the potential to revolutionize the very concept of women empowerment. The research tries to study specific cases of social entrepreneurial leadership and how they have been instrumental in shaping up the life of others through their efforts and determination.

This study aims to empirically examine environment, social, and governance (ESG) as an effective strategy to reduce major impediments for a corporation in the form of costs of capital (COC) and systematic risk, especially for emerging markets such as India.

A sample of 114 Indian firms from eight prominent industries based on Thomson Reuters classification (TRBC) are used in the study. A panel regression with industry-fixed effects is carried out to account for industry heterogeneity. For robustness, the authors also carry out a matched sample analysis.

The authors observe a negative and significant relationship between ESG performance with COC and systematic risk, respectively. For the pillar-wise analysis, the authors observe that only governance performance is negatively and significantly related to COC whereas the environmental and social performances are negative and insignificant. For ESG pillar level analysis for beta, the authors observe that all pillars are negative and significant, thus making a case for how firms can fine-tune their ESG strategies according to each pillar.

As the ESG concept is still in a very nascent stage, data availability is a definite challenge in India.

As ESG is increasingly becoming relevant for multiple stakeholders, this study aims to provide evidence that can potentially guide the regulators, practitioners, and academicians to address the contemporary needs of these stakeholders, while also doing good for the firm in the traditional sense.

The transition to a sustainable economy is a challenge for emerging economies, especially for a country like India where stakeholders are not only varied but also huge in number. With this study's contribution towards an incremental understanding of ESG, Indian regulators and policymakers can bring forward mandates as to ESG compliances that are rewarding for the firms and give them enough impetus towards complying with ESG norms.

The extant literature on ESG majorly discusses the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance. This study addresses the lacuna of the relationship of ESG with COC and beta in the Indian context.

The purpose of this work is to reduce the power consumption of KSA and to improve the PDP for data path applications. In digital Very Large – Scale Integration systems, the addition of two numbers is one of the essential functions. This arithmetic function is used in the modern digital signal processors and microprocessors. The operating speed of these processors depends on the computation of the arithmetic function. The speed computation block for most of the datapath elements was adders. In this paper, the Kogge–Stone adder (KSA) is designed using XOR, AND and proposed OR gates. The proposed OR gate has less power consumption due to the less number of transistors. In arithmetic logic circuit power, delay and power delay products (PDP) are considered as the important parameters. The delays reported for the proposed OR gate are less when compared with the conventional Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) OR gate and pre-existing logic styles. The proposed circuits are optimized in terms of power, delay and PDP. To analyze the performance of KSA, extensive Cadence Virtuoso simulations are used. From the simulation results based on 45 nm CMOS process, it was observed that the proposed design has obtained 688.3 nW of power consumption, 0.81 ns of delay and 0.55 fJ of PDP at 1.1 V.

In this paper, a new circuit for OR gate is proposed. The KSA is designed using XOR, AND and proposed OR gates.

The proposed OR gate has less power consumption due to the less number of transistors. The delays reported for the proposed OR gate are less when compared with the conventional CMOS OR gate and pre-existing logic styles. The proposed circuits are optimized in terms of power, delay and PDP.

In arithmetic logic circuit power, delay and PDP are considered as the important parameters. In this paper, a new circuit for OR gate is proposed. The power consumption of the designed KSA using the proposed OR gate is very less when compared with the conventional KSA. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed KSA are improved and suitable for high speed applications.

The present study was carried out to standardize the method for preparation of naturally carbonated fermented paneer whey beverage by incorporating pineapple and strawberry fruit juice and to check their suitability in the beverage by evaluating the organoleptic characteristics and shelf life of product.

Beverage was inoculated with yeast culture Clavispora lucitaniae at 0.5 per cent v/v and fermented at 35 ± 1°C for 36 h aerobically. Standardization of total soluble solids (TSS) (16, 15, 14, 13 and 12oBrix) and juice concentration (15, 20, 25 and 30 per cent) of beverage was done on the basis of organoleptic evaluation, and the beverage with TSS 12oB and 30 per cent juice was selected best for further storage study. Two types of beverages were prepared: paneer whey beverage blended with pineapple juice and paneer whey beverage blended with strawberry juice, and were stored at refrigerated (4 ± 1oC) and ambient (25 ± 5oC) conditions. Effect of storage on physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory attributes were studied periodically after every 15 days for 90 days of storage period.

There was significant decrease in brix:acid ratio (p = 0.0008) from 12.0 to 9.3, total sugar (p = 0.017) from 10.8 to 6.8, ascorbic acid (p = 0.002) from 17.8 to 9.3 mg/100 mL and lactose (p = 0.037) from 3.1 to 0.6 per cent content over 90 days of ambient storage period. Total yeast count increased during the initial stages of fermentation and started declining after 60 days of storage. The alcohol production started after 15 days and reached 0.7 per cent after 90 days for paneer whey beverages blended with strawberry juice. The more variations were found in the physico-chemical and microbiological properties of the beverage at ambient storage than refrigeration storage. Highest score for color, flavor, mouthfeel and overall acceptability was found on third days, which decreased further during the storage. The comparative study of the paneer whey beverage blended with strawberry juice stored at ambient and refrigeration temperature showed that maximum decrease was found for score of appearance/color, flavor, mouthfeel and overall acceptability at ambient temperature as compared to refrigeration temperature. Beverage stored at refrigeration temperature was found more acceptable than the beverage which was stored at ambient temperature irrespective of all types of beverages.

The refrigerated beverage was found more acceptable up to 90 days, whereas beverage stored under ambient conditions was found acceptable up to 60 days. The products so obtained had naturally produced CO₂, and little alcohol content added effervescence, sparkle, tangy taste and flavoring characteristics.

The study explores extant knowledge on the nature of the relationship between internal and external corporate governance mechanisms, particularly board characteristics and audit quality, respectively, while also investigating how the relationship varies across geographies.

The extant knowledge is synthesized using a meta-analysis, which is conducted using a sample of 56 empirical studies from publications of varying grades. The studies span over 25 years (1996–2021) and cover 147 empirical samples (343,787 firm-year observations) across more than 20 countries. The dependent variable is audit fees, and the independent variable captures 12 different measures of board characteristics.

Overall, the results reveal a positive association between board characteristics and audit fees, indicating complementarity between governance mechanisms. Effect size analysis shows board characteristics, like size and independence, are positively associated with audit fees. However, heterogeneity is noted for some characteristics, and further analysis by geography (developed vs emerging countries) explains the heterogeneity.

This study helps multiple stakeholders like firms, shareholders, boards, regulators and policymakers in designing and strengthening governance frameworks.

Both governance and auditing literature benefit from identifying specific board characteristics that drive audit quality consistently across different institutional settings and samples. Heterogeneity analysis helps improve the understanding of contradictions documented in prior literature.

This meta-analysis is the first to explore the interplay between internal and external corporate governance mechanisms, with a focus on board characteristics and audit quality. The study provides valuable insights on how different governance mechanisms influence each other while highlighting, for the first time, how the interaction between governance mechanisms varies by a country's level of development.