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The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of research and development investment on the firm performance of “small” scale firms vis-a-vis “medium”-scale firms.

The dataset comprised of a balanced panel of 486 research and development conducting Indian manufacturing small and medium enterprises, constructed for the period of 2006–2017. Fixed Effects, Random Effects Model and Hausmann test were used to analyse the determinants of firm performance in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in India.

It was found that from firms’ research and development (R&D) investments in terms of performance could be attained if simultaneously internationalisation and higher capital intensity could be achieved.

Managers could pay specific attention to the antecedents of firm performance and calibrate their R&D investment, internationalisation efforts and capital intensity simultaneously to achieve higher growth and productivity. For policymakers, the results provide an insight into how the firms in both categories could be differently incentivised, such that resources are better utilised.

The study analysed the determinants of firm performance in small and medium-sized firms at a disaggregate level as well as at a sectoral level using fixed effects, random effects and lagged effects to arrive at novel results, which have important implications for their competitiveness.

This paper aims to fill a gap in the authors’ understanding of alliance-level and the partner-level alliance performance by analysing the influence of behavioural factors for alliances formed by SMEs. Prior studies on the topic have arrived at inconclusive results. This study plugs gaps in prior studies' approach such as deployment of inconsistent performance measures, and omission of contingent factors.

The survey method was used to collect responses about 86 alliances of Indian SMEs. The data were analysed using PLS-SEM technique.

Two relationship capital variables – Trust and Commitment – were found to have differential influence on the two levels of SME alliance performance, and their influence was mediated by the presence of two exchange climate variables – Communication and Conflict.

Since the study employs perceptual measures of performance, it is subject to the limitations of these measures. Similarly, given the relatively small sample size on which analyses were based, the results may need to be replicated in order to generalize the findings.

The study tested a comprehensive model for alliance and partner performance in the context of SMEs. The study's results may be particularly useful to managers of SMEs for focusing on the key factors that influence alliance performance as well as their performance.

The model tested in the study is comprehensive and also accounts for the subtleties about the impact of the two key types of behavioural factors – Relationship capital and Exchange climate – on alliance and partner performance.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of innovation on the productivity of firms in India using the data from the World Enterprise Survey. This paper first classifies three different types of innovation measures then further analyses their relation with the productivity of the firms.

The methodology used for this study has incorporated the structural Crépon-Douget-Mairesse (CDM) model wherein productivity is measured using both the innovation inputs and the innovation outputs. Three main equations have been used to quantify this relation includes the knowledge intensity function, innovation function and the productivity equation.

Findings indicate that decision to invest in research and development (R&D) is influenced negatively by financial obstacles and trade obstacles and positively influenced by telecommunication obstacles, government obstacles and the size of the firm in India. Similarly, financial obstacles and the size of the firm are affecting the firm’s research expenditure per employee. Also, financial obstacles seem to hinder the research intensity and larger firms seem to have higher research intensity. The size of the firm contributes significantly to product innovation. However, R&D spending seems to be negatively related to the innovation outcome. The findings relating to productivity shows neither product nor process innovation outputs, independently are not contributing significantly to the productivity of firms. However, product and process innovation, together serve as innovation outputs is a significant contributor to firm productivity. On the other hand, organisational innovation contributes significantly to the productivity of the firms in a negative manner.

The findings relating to productivity shows neither product nor process innovation outputs, independently are not contributing significantly to the productivity of firms (which has been measured by sales per worker is impacted by the capital and the labour inputs). However, product and process innovation, together serve as innovation outputs is a significant contributor to firm productivity. On the other hand, organisational innovation contributes significantly to the productivity of the firms in a negative manner. The reason could be due to the fact that the definition of organisational innovation incorporates both dissolutions and mergers.

The preference of firm internationalization is shaped by different groups of owners and the institutional environment in which the firm operates. Past studies have largely ignored the heterogeneity among the controlling groups in influencing the internationalization decision in emerging economy firms.

In this study, the authors draw understanding from behavioral risk perspective and institutional theory to inspect the risk perceptions and propensities of various ownership groups such as lending institutions, domestic mutual funds and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Empirical analysis was conducted from a sample of 2695 unique BSE-listed nonfinancial Indian firms during 2005−2019 period using Tobit panel regression analysis.

The findings reveal that firms' international investments are impacted differently by ownership share of different types of institutional investors after controlling for firm-level resources and capabilities. While lending institutions and FIIs are supportive of foreign investments by firms, domestic mutual funds are not supportive of this strategic decision on foreign investment.

Further, our results show that family ownership, measured in terms of family shareholding, negatively moderates the lending institutions toward internationalization and does not impact the FIIs and mutual fund investor's decision regarding the foreign investments.

To the best of the author's knowledge, the current paper is the first to address the risk perceptions of various ownership groups on firm's international outlook in an emerging economy context with the latest data. This practical perspective helps the organizations in managing the ownership holdings.

Though Indian economy since 1980s has expanded very rapidly, yet the benefits of growth remain very unequally distributed. The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence about the shape, intensity and decomposition of inequality change between 2005 and 2012. The authors find that Gini, as a measure of income inequality, has increased irrespective of geographic regions.

Based on a recent distribution analysis tool, “ABG,” the paper focuses on local inequality, and summarizes the shape of inequality in terms of three inequality parameters (α, β and γ) to examine how the income distributions have changed over time. Here, the central coefficient (α) measures inequality at the median level, with adjustment parameters at the top (β) and bottom (γ).

The results reveal that at the middle of distribution (α), there is almost the same inequality in both the periods, but the coefficients on the curvature parameters β and γ show that there is increasing inequality in the subsequent period. Finally, an analysis of decomposition of inequality change suggests that though income growth was progressive, however, this equalizing effect was more than offset by the disequalizing effect of income reranking.

This paper shows how it can be possible both for “the poor” to fare badly relatively to “the rich” and for income growth to be pro-poor.

This paper stresses the significance of inequality reduction.

Inequality reduction is very much imperative in ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

Perhaps, this research work is first of its kind to examine the shape and decomposition of change in income inequality in India in recent years.

BigBasket.com, an online supermarket established in December 2011 in Bangalore, India, had become one of the major players in the Indian online grocery market by the end of March 2016.₁ Run by Innovative Retail Concepts Private Limited, BigBasket.com was operating in more than 23 cities across the country in 2016. The online grocery market in India was in a stage of growth and transformation, fuelled by India's large urban population who sought a lifestyle of convenience and ease. It had also attracted many entrepreneurs who competed fiercely with each other in a market characterised by thin margins. Intense competition ensured that only a few companies were able to survive and sustain themselves. One of these companies was Big Basket, which succeeded in spite of the competition, attracting Series D_a funding worth USD 150_b million from the United Arab Emirates-based Abraaj Group in March 2016.₂

The study explores the role of dialogic public communication and information quality (IQ) in evaluating the operational performance of donation-based crowdfunding (DBC) tasks. These tasks are primarily used to support disaster relief operations. The authors also test the influence of cognitive trust and swift trust as moderating variables in explaining the relationship between both IQ and dialogic communication with operational performance.

The authors used a primary survey to test the hypotheses. A total of 203 responses were collected from multiple crowdfunding platforms. The authors used archival data from task creators on donation-based crowdfunding platforms, and a structured questionnaire is also used to collect responses. Data are analyzed using Warp PLS 6.0. Warp PLS 6.0 works on the principle of partial least square (PLS) structured equation modeling (SEM) and has been used widely to test path analytical models.

The authors found out that the operational performance is explained significantly by the quality of information and its association with dialogic public communication. The results support the arguments offered by dialogic public communication theory and trust transfer theory in assessing the operational success of DBC. The study also confirms that cognitive trust positively moderates the relationship between IQ and organizational public dialogic communication and operational performance. It is also revealed that the duration of the DBC task has no significant control over dialogic public communication.

The study lays practical foundations for task creators on DBC platforms and website designers as it sets the importance of both IQ and dialogic communication channels. The communication made by the task creator and/or the DBC platforms with the donors and potential donors in the form of timely and appropriate information forms the key to the success of any DBC task. The study also helps task creators choose a suitable platform to improve performance.

The authors propose a unique framework by integrating two theoretical perspectives: dialogic public relation theory and trust transfer theory in understanding the operational performance of donation-based crowdfunding tasks. The authors address DBC tasks catering to disaster relief operations by collecting responses from task creators on DBC platforms. The study uniquely positions itself in the area of information and communication.

To identify the characteristic features of humanistic leadership in the Tata group in India, and to explicate the key facilitating factors.

Narrative case-study inquiry via semi-structured interviews with top management leaders and middle managers, and secondary sources of information.

The top leaders of the Tata companies emphasised the following values and leadership experience: (1) Adherence to the founder's philosophy and the basic core values, (2) Leadership with Trust, (3) Community as the key purpose of the enterprise, (4) Senior leaders as mentors and role-models, (5) Abiding by the ethical code of conduct, (6) Employee-focus and (7) Tacit alignment with Indian cultural values. These resonated with the humanistic leadership tenets. Based on the literature the authors also identified that in Tata leadership, there is an amalgamation of personal values (humata, hukhta, hvarshta: good thought, word and deed) and national cultural ethos (dharma, karma and jnana: emphasis on duty-bound action and knowledge). These leadership values are conveyed and institutionalised in the organisation via strategic initiatives such as the Tata Trusts, Tata Business Excellence Model, Tata Code of Conduct. This synergy of personal values, national cultural ethos and organisational strategy makes Tata group realise the humanistic leadership objectives, while achieving business targets.

The thematic analysis of interview data provides a contextualised understanding of how humanistic leadership gets realised at both the individual behavioural level, as well as at the broader organisational strategic level. This provides inputs to building the theory of humanistic leadership.

By unravelling the factors that facilitate the realisation of humanistic leadership in the Tata group, the authors provide an exemplar for other organisations and business leaders to draw insights from.

Humanistic leadership, oriented towards upliftment of community and society, and not just profit maximisation, is critical to creating a more sustainable and peaceful world.

This is one of first studies that conceptualises the Tata leadership from the humanistic perspective. The theoretical insights are of basic and applied use.

Online customer communities have become a strategic tool for business-to-business (B2B) firms to drive collaboration among customers around the company’s products and services. This paper aims to argue that the three social capital dimensions, that is, structural, relational and cognitive, themselves driven by brand community trust, can affect brand loyalty for the organization.

The authors use a survey to collect data and structural equation modeling to test the conceptual framework by collecting data from 214 participants across three online B2B communities operated by three technology firms in India.

Brand community trust is found to have a strong association with social network ties, identification and norm of reciprocity and shared vision. These three have concomitant effects on the quality of customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions. Such communication generates functional, emotional and social benefits, which, in turn, curate brand loyalty.

The authors’ findings guide community managers in leveraging such conversations in shaping customer loyalty for the corporate brand.

This work provides an integrated framework to explain the important role of C2C interactions in B2B online brand communities.

One of the most marginalized communities in India is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community which commonly experiences discrimination. Many studies have countered that the LGBT community faces high discrimination in the banking and financing industry. As a result, this study concentrates on this marginalized community and its acceptance and continuation habit regarding mobile wallets. Consequently, this study has considered continuance intentions as a response to confirm the progress of the mobile-wallet industry. Also, this study tried to study the relationship between behavioral intention (BI) and continuous intention (CI) which is seriously lacks in the library of literature. The research operationalized the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework for the conceptual model and surveyed 100 self-proclaimed members of the LGBT community in India. The analysis has been done using the partial least structure (PLS). The findings demonstrate that variables like perceived trust (PT) directly influence the BI. On the other hand, variables like perceived ease of use (PEoU), social influence (SI), and satisfaction (S) doesn’t influence BI of the LGBT Community. The main outcome was a favorable association between BI and CI. It will help the stakeholders to understand how important this new market avenue is and how it can be explored. To ensure safe and secure transactions, a group think tank composed of important parties (financial institutions, mobile-wallet providers, the government, security specialists, etc.) should make recommendations. Mobile-wallet providers will attain benefit from this study’s understanding of user categories and ability to tailor their service offers as per the community.