Cornelius Riordan and Jaya Sarkar
Describes Childreach – a US child‐focuses development organization which sponsors children and their families in developing countries – and a recent project in development…
Abstract
Describes Childreach – a US child‐focuses development organization which sponsors children and their families in developing countries – and a recent project in development education, “Buffalo banks and borewells: Childreach makes sense of development”, which involved creating and distributing educational newsletters on Third World and development issues. Lists the goals of the project and how they were addressed. Outlines what was gained from the exercise. Links this to the paradoxical situation in the USA whereby the public think money should go towards foreign aid but are reluctant to actually fork out any money themselves. Considers the role of trust and the concept of social capital, emphasizing that sponsors need to trust that their investment is making an important contribution to improving the life of the sponsored child and its family or community.
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Introduces a special issue of the journal, focusing on sociological practice and its relevance to the modern world. Investigates the meaning of sociological practice, making a…
Abstract
Introduces a special issue of the journal, focusing on sociological practice and its relevance to the modern world. Investigates the meaning of sociological practice, making a distinction between applied sociology and clinical sociology. Cites seven principles of US sociological practice, linking them to the articles included in this journal. Concludes by saying that sociology should be designed so that it is accessible and useful to everyone, helping people to improve their lives.
Catalogues how Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are meeting, individually, the AIDS epidemic with governmental and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). Uses data from the United…
Abstract
Catalogues how Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are meeting, individually, the AIDS epidemic with governmental and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). Uses data from the United Nations and World Bank. Gives background of NGOs in East Africa and their field work. Concludes that the social dimensions of each country are very restrictive in slightly differing ways, with the various religious beliefs also having an effect which is deleterious in nature. States that, even so, there are more similarities than there are differences in the three countries.
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Neeraj Bhanot, Jaya Ahuja, Humaid Imran Kidwai, Ankit Nayan and Rajbir S. Bhatti
The impact of COVID-19 has caused a recession in economies all over the world. In this context, the current study aims to analyze the prevailing economic scenario using a machine…
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of COVID-19 has caused a recession in economies all over the world. In this context, the current study aims to analyze the prevailing economic scenario using a machine learning approach and suggest sustainable measures to recover the global economy taking the case of Make in India (MII) initiative of developing the economy as a base for the study.
Design/methodology/approach
A well-known topic modeling technique – Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm has been employed to extract useful information characterizing the existing state of selected sectors under the MII initiative alongside catalytic policies that have been implemented for the same. The textual data acts as the base of the study upon which suggestions are provided.
Findings
The findings obtained suggest that digital transformation will play a key role in concerned sectors to optimize the performance of manufacturing organizations. Additionally, inter-relationship between Key Performance Indicators for the economy's revival is crucial for effective utilization of foreign direct investment resources.
Practical implications
The novel efforts to utilize MII initiative as a case present crucial information which can be used by policy makers and various other stakeholders across the globe to enhance decision-making and draft legislation across different sectors to empower the economy.
Originality/value
The study presents a novel approach to utilize the MII initiative by identifying important measures for crucial sectors and associated policies that have been presented by employing a text mining approach which in itself makes it unique in its contribution to research literature.
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Nasrin Rasouli, Mohammad Alimohammadirokni, S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Ayatollah Momayez and Nafas (Atefeh) Emadlou
This study aims to investigate the effect of brand transgression severity on different behavioral responses (BRs). In addition, the role of perceived brand betrayal (BB) is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effect of brand transgression severity on different behavioral responses (BRs). In addition, the role of perceived brand betrayal (BB) is examined as a mediator between brand transgression severity and BRs.
Design/methodology/approach
A total number of 331 customers of Tehran travel agencies were recruited as the statistical sample. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4 software was used to analyze the collected data.
Findings
The results showed that the severity of brand transgression significantly affects perceived BB and customer BR, including avoidance and retaliatory behaviors. Moreover, the results showed that perceived BB has a mediating role in the relationship between brand transgression severity and reparatory and retaliatory behaviors.
Originality/value
This study adds to the understanding of consumer behavior by demonstrating how customers react to brand transgression severity through perceived BB.
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Vartika Kapoor, Jaya Yadav, Lata Bajpai and Shalini Srivastava
The present study examines the mediating role of teleworking and the moderating role of resilience in explaining the relationship between perceived stress and psychological…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study examines the mediating role of teleworking and the moderating role of resilience in explaining the relationship between perceived stress and psychological well-being of working mothers in India. Conservation of resource theory (COR) is taken to support the present study.
Design/methodology/approach
The data of 326 respondents has been collected from working mothers in various sectors of Delhi NCR region of India. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for construct validity, and SPSS Macro Process (Hayes) was used for testing the hypotheses.
Findings
The results of the study found an inverse association between perceived stress and psychological well-being. Teleworking acted as a partial mediator and resilience proved to be a significant moderator for teleworking-well-being relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based at Delhi NCR of India, and future studies may be based on a diverse population within the country to generalize the findings in different cultural and industrial contexts. The present work is based only on the psychological well-being of the working mothers, it can be extended to study the organizational stress for both the genders and other demographic variables.
Practical implications
The study extends the research on perceived stress and teleworking by empirically testing the association between perceived stress and psychological well-being in the presence of teleworking as a mediating variable. The findings suggest some practical implications for HR managers and OD Practitioners. The organizations must develop a plan to support working mothers by providing flexible working hours and arranging online stress management programs for them.
Originality/value
Although teleworking is studied previously, there is a scarcity of research examining the impact of teleworking on psychological well-being of working mothers in Asian context. It would help in understanding the process that how teleworking has been stressful for working mothers and also deliberate the role of resilience in the relationship between teleworking and psychological well-being due to perceived stress, as it seems a ray of hope in new normal work situations.
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Chee Yoong Liew and S. Susela Devi
This paper examines the relationship between the number of domestic banks that the firm engages with and firm value and how this relationship is moderated by ownership…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between the number of domestic banks that the firm engages with and firm value and how this relationship is moderated by ownership concentration at low and very high level on a sample of Malaysian family and non-family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
For hypotheses testing, panel data analysis using the fixed effects model (FEM) is used because the FEM can address any endogeneity problems effectively (Chi, 2005). The panel data regression is conducted on both family firms and non-family firms.
Findings
We find that there is a significant negative relationship between the number of domestic banks engaged by family firms, operating in industries where these firms do not have absolute monopoly, and firm value. However, there is no evidence that this significant negative firm value effect is stronger in family firms compared to non-family firms. Furthermore, the significant positive moderating effect of ownership concentration on this relationship within family firms in such industries is evident only at low level of ownership concentration. Interestingly, at very high level of ownership concentration, this significant positive moderating effect becomes negative. There is no evidence that these significant moderating effects are stronger in family firms compared to non-family firms.
Research limitations/implications
This research has focused only on family and non-family firms.
Practical implications
An implication of this research is that there is a need for the capital market regulators to introduce appropriate policies to deter family firms from having a close relationship with domestic banks as well as monitor the number of domestic banks engaged by such firms. There may be policy implications for consideration by the Central Bank of Malaysia as well.
Originality/value
This research provides some insights to both academia and industry regarding the consequences of domestic banking relationship and different levels of concentrated ownership in family firms in an emerging market. These insights can help improve the corporate governance as well as ownership structure of Malaysian public-listed family firms which dominate the capital market. Our findings refute the argument by Peng and Jiang (2010) by demonstrating that corporate reputational effects may be a substitute for institutional deficiencies.
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Navneet Kumar, B.C. Sarkar, H.K. Sharma and Sunil Kumar Jha
The utilisation of food waste/by‐products helps to increase produce recovery and enhances nutrition in low‐cost food without any appreciable increase in product cost. The storage…
Abstract
Purpose
The utilisation of food waste/by‐products helps to increase produce recovery and enhances nutrition in low‐cost food without any appreciable increase in product cost. The storage behaviour of the product must be studied before commercialisation of the product. This paper aims to focus on this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Extrudates (25 g) prepared under optimised conditions of proportion (rice flour, pulse powder and carrot pomace), moisture content, screw speed and die temperature, were sealed using a polythene sealing machine in LDPE bags and aluminium laminated LDPE bags. The bags were then stored for six months in an incubator at temperature of 38±2°C to evaluate the stability of the product. The extrudates were analysed for change in colour, hardness, moisture content and sensory characteristics.
Findings
Zero‐ and first‐order models were fitted for prediction purposes. The minimum overall change in color ΔE value, minimum increase in moisture content and minimum increase in hardness was observed in aluminium laminated LDPE bags. The zero order model better predicted the variation of L*, b*, ΔE, moisture content and hardness during storage, whereas first order model was better fitted for the a* value.
Originality/value
The carrot pomace has the potential to be used as a food ingredient that enhances the nutritional attributes of products along with a reduction in cost. Extruded products were successfully developed in the laboratory using carrot pomace as one of the ingredients. This study evaluates the kinetic changes during the storage of carrot pomace based extruded snacks.
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Shrawan Kumar Trivedi, Jaya Srivastava, Pradipta Patra, Shefali Singh and Debashish Jena
In current era, retaining the best-performing employees has become essential for businesses to compete in the dynamic technological landscape. Consequently, organizations must…
Abstract
Purpose
In current era, retaining the best-performing employees has become essential for businesses to compete in the dynamic technological landscape. Consequently, organizations must ensure that their star performers believe that company’s reward and recognition (R&R) system is fair and equal. This study aims to use an explainable machine learning (eXML) model to develop a prediction algorithm for employee satisfaction with the fairness of R&R systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study uses state-of-the-art machine learning models such as Naive Bayes, Decision Tree C5.0, Random Forest and support vector machine-RBF to predict employee satisfaction towards fairness in R&R. The primary data used in the study has been collected from the employees of a large public sector undertaking from an emerging economy. This study also proposes a novel improved Naïve Bayes (INB) algorithm, the efficiency of which is compared with the state-of-the-art algorithms.
Findings
It is seen that the proposed INB model outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in many scenarios. Further, the proposed model and feature interaction are explained using the explainable machine learning (XML) concept. In addition, this study incorporates text mining techniques to corroborate the results from XML and suggests that “Transparency”, “Recognition”, “Unbiasedness”, “Appreciation” and “Timeliness in reward” are the most important features that impact employee satisfaction.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to use INB algorithm and mixed method research (text mining along with machine learning algorithms) for the prediction of employee satisfaction with respect to the R&R system.
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Selim Ahmed, Dewan Mehrab Ashrafi, Pradeep Paraman, Bablu Kumar Dhar and Sanmugam Annamalah
The purpose of this research article is to explore the behavioural intention of consumers to use app-based shopping for green-tech products in the emerging economy of Bangladesh…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research article is to explore the behavioural intention of consumers to use app-based shopping for green-tech products in the emerging economy of Bangladesh. The study investigates the indirect effects of perceived ease of use, usefulness, perceived delivery and perceived security on the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for purchasing green-tech products by considering the mediating role of perceived trust.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research approach was applied to collect data from the respondents who had previously used app-based shopping for green-tech products in Bangladesh. An online, self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 348 respondents. The survey data was analysed using SmartPLS-4 to measure the reliability and validity of the constructs. In addition, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the research model and hypotheses.
Findings
The study's results reveal that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and delivery positively and significantly influence perceived trust, leading to a higher behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for green-tech products. Additionally, perceived trust significantly mediates the relationship between the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived security and perceived delivery.
Practical implications
The study's findings have important implications for app-based shopping services to support customers interested in purchasing green-tech products in an emerging economy. The results also indicate that green-tech product companies must adopt new service delivery channels and ensure consumers' convenience and cost and time savings. The present research findings suggest that green-tech product companies need to ensure that they integrate digital technologies into their services for secure and timely delivery of products, improving customer convenience.
Originality/value
The study's findings can be insightful for app-based shopping service providers to foster their businesses by focussing on developing a positive trust perception in the consumer's mind, leading to a positive intention to use the app-based shopping services. The present study will enrich the current literature by investigating how consumers' perceived trust affects their behavioural intention to use app-based online shopping for purchasing green-tech products. It will also expand the existing knowledge on app-based shopping by exploring how perceived delivery impacts perceived trust, which subsequently affects customers' intentions to adopt the purchase of green-tech products.