In this chapter, I illustrate the use of visual ethnography to uncover the nuanced role of informal processes and structures, henceforth referred to as informality, in navigating…
Abstract
In this chapter, I illustrate the use of visual ethnography to uncover the nuanced role of informal processes and structures, henceforth referred to as informality, in navigating the complex challenges of water governance in India through enabling repair. By repair, I refer to the ability of informality to act as a transformative approach, adept at navigating and addressing the multifaceted governance challenges faced by Indian cities. The mapping of informality in repair within urban water governance uncovered three dilemmas: 1) the difficulty of documenting transient oral narratives, 2) the discrepancies between verbal accounts and observed practices and 3) ethical concerns associated with documenting illicit activities. To address these dilemmas, I coupled ethnographic approaches with photographic methods. Ethnography provided reflection, clarity and a documented record, although it introduced a delay in capturing observations. Photographic methods compensated for this by offering an immediate visual record and facilitating live analysis alongside textual notes. I outline five routines of conducting visual ethnography, applied in the cities of Bhopal and Bhuj, to shed light on how various actors enact informality in addressing the gaps within urban water governance. These routines served as a photographic praxis to critically engage with both human and non-human actors in these locales. Through these routines, I illustrate how informality results in two types of repairs: reactive and reparative. Reactive repair serves as a temporary measure to restore the status quo. In contrast, reparative repair aims at fostering long-term change, illustrating the dynamic ways in which informality contributes to repairing the intricacies of water governance in India.
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Automobile industry has been the backbone of manufacturing sector in any country. During the past decade, passenger car industry has emerged as the one of the growing sectors in…
Abstract
Purpose
Automobile industry has been the backbone of manufacturing sector in any country. During the past decade, passenger car industry has emerged as the one of the growing sectors in the Indian economy. Technological features in the passenger cars industry has been evolving in the global market, and customers have been the most important stakeholders to judge the requirement of these features. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the customers’ need for these emerging technologies using Kano model of customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has used the Kano model to assess the customer satisfaction for Indian passenger car companies. Overall, 250 customers of passenger cars from Northern India have been surveyed using well-structured questionnaire designed as per the Kano model. On the basis of responses, this study has categorized the technological attributes of passenger cars as attractive, must be, one-dimensional and indifferent.
Findings
“Auto Gear Shift” system has emerged as a must be attribute. “Premium surround system” has been categorized under one-dimensional attribute. “Communication between vehicles,” “integration with smart phone,” “connecting applications,” “dual-stage airbags,” “in-dash navigation system,” “rearview camera,” “heated and cooled seats,” “built-in fourth generation long term evolution,” “Wi-Fi system” and “automated window cleaning system” have emerged as attractive features. The customers have been indifferent about “gesture control,” “reality display on car wind screen” and “run-on-flat tyre.” In contradiction to the popular belief, this study has found that customers have shown Indifferent attitude toward “hydrogen fuel-operated cars” and “battery cars.”
Research limitations/implications
This present study gives insight about the acceptability of various emerging technological features in Indian car market. This study has fulfilled the existing dearth in assessing the customers’ insight about the implementation of these emerging technologies in Indian cars. This paper will be helpful to the manufacturers to inculcate the voice of the customers in designing the new technologies for the passenger cars.
Originality/value
Previous studies across the globe have applied Kano model for assessing customers’ satisfaction in various industries, but according to the authors’ knowledge, hardly any study was conducted in context of technological attributes for Indian passenger car companies.
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Dandub Palzor Negi and E.P. Abdul Azeez
This paper critically examines the state of tribal health in India by analyzing the accessibility and availability of traditional medicine and modern healthcare.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper critically examines the state of tribal health in India by analyzing the accessibility and availability of traditional medicine and modern healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
This essay is the product of an extensive review of the literature and authors' personal experience in working with the tribal communities.
Findings
The traditional medicinal practices once very prevalent among the tribal communities are diminishing due to various socio-economic, environmental and political factors. Modern healthcare in India's tribal region is characterized by a lack of availability, accessibility and affordability. As a result of the diminishing traditional practices and inaccessible modern healthcare provisions, tribal communities depend on quacks and magico-religious practices.
Originality/value
This essay advocates for urgent policy interventions to integrate traditional medicine and modern healthcare practices to address critical tribal health issues. Preservation of traditional medicinal knowledge-base and improving research in the field have the potential to address the health of tribal communities and of others. The accessibility and availability of modern healthcare facilities in tribal regions should be improved to ensure better health outcomes.
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Urmila Rani Srivastava, Shefali Mohaley, Aishwarya Jaiswal and Meena Singh
The primary objective of the present study was to develop an appropriate scale for evaluating LMX by investigating how individuals personally perceive and encounter distinct…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of the present study was to develop an appropriate scale for evaluating LMX by investigating how individuals personally perceive and encounter distinct relationships (both high quality and low quality) with their supervisors, with a specific focus on the Indian context.
Design/methodology/approach
The scale was administered on a sample of 290 middle-level managers from two large manufacturing organizations located in North India.
Findings
The factors identified as important for the construct of leader-member exchange were affect, loyalty, and contribution.
Research limitations/implications
The internal consistency reliability of the LMX contribution dimension is very low. Future researchers should add a few additional items to increase the reliability of the contribution scale of LMX scale so that it fulfills adequate criteria of reliability. Further, the supervisor–subordinate relationship from both supervisor and subordinate perspectives should also be examined.
Practical implications
This study has made significant advancements in the field of LMX. The findings will also be utilized by the authorities of the organization in focusing future training for its managers.
Social implications
The findings of this research will help not only advancement in the field of LMX but will also help the manager using LMX to influence subordinates to have better knowledge on which factors to focus on to get better results.
Originality/value
Overall, the results of the current study provide evidence for the sound reliability and validity of the leader-member exchange scale with employees of Indian manufacturing organizations, supporting its use with these populations. Further, this scale is suitable not only in Indian culture but also in the Western cultural context, as the results corroborate the findings of Western scholars, indicating a fair level of cross-cultural validity. However, future research should also address the cross-validation of the factor structure of LMX on other samples and occupations.
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All entrepreneurs face challenges during their venture start-up process, but immigrant entrepreneurs face additional and distinctive challenges due to their contextual newness…
Abstract
Purpose
All entrepreneurs face challenges during their venture start-up process, but immigrant entrepreneurs face additional and distinctive challenges due to their contextual newness. This paper focuses on understanding the intertwined journeys of nascent entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation of immigrants in a small Western European country where immigrant entrepreneurship is still a relatively new phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The induction-driven, 18-month longitudinal empirical inquiry focused on six early-stage nascent entrepreneurs. Qualitative methods included participant observation during an enterprise program, qualitative interviews and ongoing informal communication.
Findings
The data uncovered the interplay between the nascent immigrant entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation. This led to the development of a novel conceptual framework which highlights how the cross-cultural adaptation domain links with the process of recognition, evaluation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities by immigrant entrepreneurs. While varying temporarily and contextually, cross-cultural adaptation was found to create both enabling and constraining tensions within the nascent entrepreneurial experiences of immigrants.
Research limitations/implications
It is recognized that undertaking just six cases may present a significant limitation of the research, but a close examination of even one individual's lived experience can yield valuable insights. It is hoped that future work will test the highlighted research propositions and other findings in different empirical contexts, and so add to the emerging conceptual framework on nascent immigrant entrepreneurship within the context of cross-cultural adaptation.
Originality/value
No previous qualitative studies have been undertaken seeking to understand how cross-cultural adaptation interacts with the early stages of nascent immigrant entrepreneurial activity. By integrating new venture creation and cross-cultural adaptation theories, this research contributes to the conceptualisation of early stages of nascent entrepreneurial activities of immigrants in a new host environment. The implications of the research are also relevant to enterprise support bodies, policymakers and practitioners who support immigrant entrepreneurship.
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Jasvir S. Sura, Rajender Panchal and Anju Lather
The main aim of this paper is to examine the claim that economic value added (EVA) advocates its superiority over the traditional accounting-based financial performance measures…
Abstract
Purpose
The main aim of this paper is to examine the claim that economic value added (EVA) advocates its superiority over the traditional accounting-based financial performance measures, i.e. profit after tax (PAT), earnings per share (EPS), return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on investment (ROI) in the Indian manufacturing sector and at the same time, give empirical facts. It also tests and examines the information content of various performance measures and their relationship with stock returns.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the sample of 534 Indian manufacturing companies from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during the period 2000–2018. Multiple regression models are applied to examine the information content of EVA and traditional performance measures in explaining shareholders’ returns.
Findings
Relative information content tests revealed that traditional accounting-based measures such as EPS, ROE and ROA performed better than EVA in explaining the returns of Indian manufacturing companies. Incremental information content of EVA adds little contribution to information content above traditional performance measures. The claim of superiority of EVA over accounting-based measures in association with shareholder returns is proved invalid in Indian manufacturing companies.
Originality/value
This study concludes that EVA has no superiority over traditional accounting-based financial performance measures in explaining stock returns of Indian manufacturing companies. To achieve heftiness in outcomes, panel data are tested by using Breusch–Pagan–Godfrey (BPG) test for heteroskedasticity, Hausman’s test for fixed and random effect, variance inflation factor (VIF) test for multicollinearity and Durbin–Watson test for autocorrelation.
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Vennan Sibanda, Khumbulani Mpofu and John Trimble
In manufacturing, dedicated machine tools and flexible machine tools are failing to satisfy the ever-changing manufacturing demands of short life cycles and dynamic nature of…
Abstract
Purpose
In manufacturing, dedicated machine tools and flexible machine tools are failing to satisfy the ever-changing manufacturing demands of short life cycles and dynamic nature of products. These machines are limited when new product designs are introduced. The solution lies in developing responsive machines that can be adjusted or be changed functionally when these change requirements arise. These machines are reconfigurable machines which are becoming the new focus, as they rapidly respond to product variety and volume changes. A sheet metal working machine known as a reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine (RGS&BPM) has been developed. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology, function-oriented design approach (FODA), which was developed for the design of the RGS&BPM.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the machine is based on the six principles of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), namely, modularity, scalability integrability, convertibility, diagnosability and customisability. The methodology seeks to optimise the design process of the RGS&BPM through a design of modules that make up the machine, enable its conversion and reconfiguration. The FODA is focussed on function identification to select the operational function required. Two main functions are recognised for the machine, these being cutting and bending; hence, the design revolves around these two and reconfigurability.
Findings
The developed design methodology was tested in the design of a prototype for the reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine. The prototype is currently being manufactured and will be subjected to functional tests once completed. This paper is being presented not only to present the methodology by to show and highlight its practical applicability, as the prototype manufacturers have been enthusiastic about this new approach.
Research limitations/implications
The research was limited to the design methodology for the RGS&BPM, the machine which has been designed to completion using this methodology, with prototype being manufactured.
Practical implications
This study presents critical steps and considerations in the development of reconfigurable machines. The main thrust being to explore the best possibility of developing the machines with dual functionality that will assist in availing the technology to manufacturer. As the machine has been development, the success of the design can be directly attributed to the FODA methodology, among other contributing factors. It also highlights the significance of the principles of RMS in reconfigurable machine design.
Social implications
The RGS&BM machine is an answer for the small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as the machine replaces two machines with one, and the methodology ensures its affordable design. It contributes immensely to the machine availability by eliminating trial and error approaches.
Originality/value
This study presents a new approach to the design of reconfigurable dual machines using principles of RMS. As the targeted market is the SME, it is not limited to that as any entrepreneur may use the machine to their advantage. The design methodology presented contributes to the body of knowledge in dual reconfigurable machine tool design.
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Diya Sharma, Renu Ghosh, Charu Shri and Divya Khatter
Cryptocurrency, an emerging asset class, is a virtual form of currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on decentralised networks based on blockchain technology…
Abstract
Purpose
Cryptocurrency, an emerging asset class, is a virtual form of currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on decentralised networks based on blockchain technology. It offers both challenges and opportunities for investors, particularly in terms of diversification, risk management and potential returns. Considering this, the present study attempts to investigate the sentimental factors influencing cryptocurrency while unravelling the intricate interplay among these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this, interpretive structure modelling (ISM) identifies the hierarchical model of critical sentimental factors, while Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) explores their dependency and driving power. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is adopted to rank the drivers.
Findings
Findings reveal that the pandemic, war, religiosity and economic uncertainty are top-level factors dominantly shaping cryptocurrency trends. Simultaneously, Google Search Trends and Herding emerge as the most dependent factors, influenced by sentiments that emerged from other factors.
Practical implications
The study unpacks implications, acknowledges limitations and proposes avenues for future research.
Originality/value
By exploring the interactive interrelationships among identified sentimental factors through ISM-MICMAC analysis and ranking via the AHP, this paper will have a great influence while contributing towards this evolving field.
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Twitter is the most widely used platform with an open network; hence, tourists often resort to Twitter to share their travel experiences, satisfaction/dissatisfaction and other…
Abstract
Purpose
Twitter is the most widely used platform with an open network; hence, tourists often resort to Twitter to share their travel experiences, satisfaction/dissatisfaction and other opinions. This study is divided into two sections, first to provide a framework for understanding public sentiments through Twitter for tourism insights, second to provide real-time insights of three Indian heritage sites i.e., the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Golden Temple by extracting 5,000 tweets each (n = 15,000) using Twitter API. Results are interpreted using NRC emotion lexicon and data visualisation using R.
Design/methodology/approach
This study attempts to understand the public sentiment on three globally acclaimed Indian heritage sites, i.e. the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Golden temple using a step-by-step approach, hence proposing a framework using Twitter analytics. Extensive use of various packages of R programming from the libraries has been done for various purposes such as extraction, processing and analysing the data from Twitter. A total of 15,000 tweets from January 2015 to January 2021 were collected of the three sites using different key words. An exploratory design and data visualisation technique has been used to interpret results.
Findings
After data processing, 12,409 sentiments are extracted. Amongst the three tourists' spots, the greatest number of positive sentiments is for the Taj Mahal and Golden temple with approximately 25% each. While the most negative sentiment can be seen for the Red Fort (17%). Amongst the positive emotions, the maximum joy sentiment (12%) can be seen in the Golden Temple and trust (21%) in the Red Fort. In terms of negative emotions, fear (13%) can be seen in the Red fort. Overall, India's heritage sites have a positive sentiment (20%), which surpasses the negative sentiment (13%). And can be said that the overall polarity is towards positive.
Originality/value
This study provides a framework on how to use Twitter for tourism insights through text mining public sentiments and provides real- time insights from famous Indian heritage sites.
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Nsikak P. Owoh and M. Mahinderjit Singh
The proliferation of mobile phones with integrated sensors makes large scale sensing possible at low cost. During mobile sensing, data mostly contain sensitive information of…
Abstract
The proliferation of mobile phones with integrated sensors makes large scale sensing possible at low cost. During mobile sensing, data mostly contain sensitive information of users such as their real-time location. When such information are not effectively secured, users’ privacy can be violated due to eavesdropping and information disclosure. In this paper, we demonstrated the possibility of unauthorized access to location information of a user during sensing due to the ineffective security mechanisms in most sensing applications. We analyzed 40 apps downloaded from Google Play Store and results showed a 100% success rate in traffic interception and disclosure of sensitive information of users. As a countermeasure, a security scheme which ensures encryption and authentication of sensed data using Advanced Encryption Standard 256-Galois Counter Mode was proposed. End-to-end security of location and motion data from smartphone sensors are ensured using the proposed security scheme. Security analysis of the proposed scheme showed it to be effective in protecting Android based sensor data against eavesdropping, information disclosure and data modification.