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Start-ups require a competitive advantage to integrate sustainable practices and develop organizational capabilities to thrive in dynamic business environments. However, implementation of these practices presents several ethical challenges. This study aims to quantify the influence of organizational capabilities (information technology capabilities and organizational virtues) on start-ups' competitive advantage and readiness to implement environmental, social and governance practices.

This study employed a survey design, and data were collected from 320 start-up founders and/or managers in India. The data were analyzed using Smart PLS 4.0.

The findings suggest that organizational capabilities, including information technology capabilities and organizational virtues, play an important role in enhancing start-ups' competitive advantage and readiness to implement sustainable practices. Dynamic capability mediates these relationships, while entrepreneurial orientation moderates the relationship between organizational virtues and dynamic capability.

This study has significant implications for organizations implementing sustainable business practices through the development and nurturance of organizational virtues and information technology capabilities. The study is also useful for leaders, managers and entrepreneurs in training and development, managing tradeoffs and maintaining important organizational capabilities to establish a balance between people’s concerns, the environment and profits.

Few studies have examined the role of organizational capabilities, sustainable business practices and competitive advantage in the context of start-ups. This study contributes to the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship and organizational capabilities.

This paper draws attention to the importance of Smart Human Resource Management (Smart HRM) practices in Industry 4.0. Human Capital is inevitable in the growth and development of the organization. Hence, it is germane that the companies align their HR processes with the ever-changing technological landscape to harness growth, productivity and create value. The paper illustrates the smart HR practices of Tech Mahindra and the benefits derived from them.

The paper illustrates the case of Tech Mahindra’s HR digitalization journey to transform HR processes in the era of Industry 4.0

Smart HR 4.0. implementation is vital to coping up with the challenges of Industry 4.0.. The transformation of HR processes in Tech Mahindra led to improved productivity, reduced cost, reduced manual work, smart workforce, retention of talent and competitive edge.

To match the pace of industry 4.0 and leverage its true benefit the companies should focus on automation of HR processes, make the workforce smarter and agile to drive efficiency, innovation, improve productivity, save cost and stay hyper-competitive. This paper offers insights on that how Tech Mahindra promoted the Industry 4.0 technologies in various HR functions to foster a climate of innovation, growth, and development, thereby facilitating the company to stay ahead of the curve.

Job performance literature has evolved to address the aspects of performance thinking where knowledge sharing (KS) and emotions on the job are considered important. This study evaluates the influence of emotional intelligence (EI), mediated through KS, on job outcomes measured as job performance (JP) and job satisfaction (JS).

Structural equation modeling methods are used to investigate the degree of influence of EI on job outcomes through KS. The data for analysis has been collected from 227 project managers at Information Technology-Information Technology Enabled Services (IT-ITeS) firms.

The findings suggest that the EI has a positive and significant effect on KS. This implies that employees with high EI scores are more involved in the KS behavior. Furthermore, the findings suggest that KS partially mediates the relationship between EI and JP, and it fully mediates the relationship between EI and JS.

For KS, the answer lies in the recruitment and retention of emotionally intelligent persons rather than investing only in information technology. The study enhances the literature on knowledge management, sharing and EI.

The proposed research model suggests a successful infusion of KS within IT-ITeS firms. Knowing the EI of employees and, accordingly, changing their behavior towards sharing knowledge is probably a distinctive, most efficacious and essential strategy for augmenting job outcomes.

The study establishes the role of KS in translating the impact of EI on JP and JS. Furthermore, it contributes a novel framework of KS behavior.

The learning outcome is that it will help to sustain your startups in the ever-changing business environment especially in the context of emerging markets.

The present case is about Dilkhush Kumar from village Bangaon, India who developed a cab booking platform “AryaGo”, an innovative platform completely dedicated for rural road transport connectivity. AryaGo is the service line of Aryan Cabs and Rural Trans-solution Pvt. Ltd., a Startup founded in the year 2016 under Startup Bihar, a seed capital support scheme of State Government. The idea was to provide comfort, convenience, safety and affordability to all the commuters travelling from or within far-off villages. The biggest challenge during implementation in villages includes availability of updated geo-mapped images for app development and vehicle tracking. Company was foremost in providing the kiosk-based booking facility for its customers. It took the decision based on the profiling of customers and their preferred booking methods. When a customer booked a cab using IVR, they did not had access to app-based customer panel and hence they could not avail services such as, location tracking, SoS, real time tracking of vehicle. However, heavy invest in IT has put the company in financial stress and Kumar is wondering whether to expand fast or penetrate in the given target market. Should he re-design his business model so as it can really make a difference in terms of service delivery?

Post Graduate/ MBA.

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CSS 8: Marketing

Human history observed an arduous time fighting the novel infectious respiratory disease Covid-19 coronavirus, which started in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly across the globe in 2020. Economies and the countries including India around the world experienced dismay with nationwide lockdowns and the fear of the unknowing. The unforeseen circumstances enforced immediate transitions in the organizations' work environment through remote working, digital infrastructure, online collaborations and new ways of interaction. The pandemic altered the workplace trajectories in lasting ways as the employees settled into a new routine of working from home more quickly than imagined. Now, as India and many other countries slowly move beyond the crisis, there exists a need to realize the implications of the pandemic on the workplace and articulate the future of work. This article, therefore, investigates the key perceived benefits and the HR implications of the new and emerging concept of hybrid workplaces and presents an HRM framework for their successful adoption in India. The findings may prove crucial in framing new workplace norms and shaping them. Moreover, this research would provide practitioners, policymakers, business leaders and HR professionals insights about the need to review the existing workplaces and successfully roll out hybrid work models in accordance with HR strategies.

The methodology of Systematic Review of Literature (SLR) was adopted to study the key perceived benefits and the HR implications of hybrid workplaces.

The findings of the study would help business leaders, HR professionals, policymakers and researchers in developing HR policies and approaches for the adoption of the hybrid workplace as they chart the path toward the post-pandemic future.

The study stresses the HR implications of the future of work as the hybrid workplace paradigm evolves. The approach is explorative and would require quantitative validation in different sectors and countries.

The study makes a direct link between the hybrid workplaces and the impetus for the transformation of HR strategies. It also examines the changing role of the human resources (HR) functions and professionals after the pandemic.

The purpose of the paper is to prepare the hygrothermal model with fraction order theory in a mathematical aspect.

In this study, linear hygrothermoelastic theory is adopted to analyze and discuss the memory effect in a finite length hollow cylinder subjected to hygrothermal loading.

Analytical solutions of temperature, moisture and stresses are obtained in this study by using the decoupling technique and the method of Integral transform.

The paper deals with the original work based on hygrothermal response in hollow cylinder by theory of uncoupled-coupled heat and moisture.

The present work is concerned with the solution of a fractional-order thermoelastic problem of a two-dimensional infinite half space under axisymmetric distributions in which lower surface is traction free and subjected to a periodically varying heat source. The thermoelastic displacement, stresses and temperature are determined within the context of fractional-order thermoelastic theory. To observe the variations of displacement, temperature and stress inside the half space, the authors compute the numerical values of the field variables for copper material by utilizing Gaver-Stehfast algorithm for numerical inversion of Laplace transform. The effects of fractional-order parameter on the variations of field variables inside the medium are analyzed graphically. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Integral transform technique and Gaver-Stehfast algorithm are applied to prepare the mathematical model by considering the periodically varying heat source in cylindrical co-ordinates.

This paper studies a problem on thermoelastic interactions in an isotropic and homogeneous elastic medium under fractional-order theory of thermoelasticity proposed by Sherief (Ezzat and El-Karamany, 2011b). The analytic solutions are found in Laplace transform domain. Gaver-Stehfast algorithm (Ezzat and El-Karamany, 2011d; Ezzat, 2012; Ezzat, El Karamany, Ezzat, 2012) is used for numerical inversion of the Laplace transform. All the integrals were evaluated using Romberg’s integration technique (El-Karamany et al., 2011) with variable step size. A mathematical model is prepared for copper material and the results are presented graphically with the discussion on the effects of fractional-order parameter.

Constructed purely on theoretical mathematical model by considering different parameters and the functions.

The system of equations in this paper may prove to be useful in studying the thermal characteristics of various bodies in real-life engineering problems by considering the time fractional derivative in the field equations.

In this problem, the authors have used the time fractional-order theory of thermoelasticity to solve the problem for a half space with a periodically varying heat source to control the speed of wave propagation in terms of heat and elastic waves for different conductivity like weak conductivity, moderate conductivity and super conductivity which is a new and novel contribution.

Strategic management.

Undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA.

The decision analysis case in the context of family-managed mid-market business of Vikas Spool Private Limited focuses on the efforts and challenges of a market leader in sustaining growth in a B2B industry, which has a derived demand. The case charts way to the historical foundation of India's largest spool manufacturer and captures the dilemma in comprehending the growth model in an industry stricken by low barriers to entry/exit, high bargaining power of customers and suppliers, high substitutes and intense global competition. The organization has to decide whether it needs to enter the rigid non-bottle household plastic packaging industry or not to achieve the targeted growth of INR 1 billion by 2015?

The case analysis aims to make students learn: the challenges in sustaining growth in a labor-intensive industry marked by low barriers to entry, low profit margins because of intensive competition, low economies of scale and no clear brand differentiation; how to negotiate a choice between intra industry participation; how a firm locked in an industry environment characterized by commoditization and intense competition should plot its growth path to retain market position; how to evaluate growth options based on financial implications and analysis.

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Introduction: The insurance sector is playing a crucial role in the sustainable growth of the Indian economy. But in India, this sector loses crores of rupees every year due to the increasing fraud cases. With the increase in insurance customers, insurance companies need to efficiently equip themselves with a robust system to handle claims fraud. Detection of insurance fraud is a pretty challenging problem. Nowadays, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are the strategic choices of many leading organisations that want to proceed in a new digital arena.

Purpose: This chapter’s main objective is to highlight the fundamental market forces driving the adoption of AI and ML and showcase the traditional and modern methods to predict insurance claims fraud intelligently.

Methodology: Various research papers have been reviewed, and ML methods have been discussed, which are all being used to predict insurance fraud claims. This chapter also highlights various driving forces influencing the adoption of ML.

Findings: This study highlights the introduction of blockchain technology in fraud detection and in combatting insurance fraud. Literature indicates that the quantity and quality of data significantly impact predictive accuracy. ML models are beneficial to identify the majority of fraudulent cases with reasonable precision. Insurance companies should explore the benefits of experienced resource persons from the same domain and develop unique business ideas/rules.

Purpose: The banking sector is facing a challenge in the quality of services rendered to the ultimate customers for the adoption of Fintech applications in an efficient way. Due to dynamic market conditions, it is difficult for the banks to win the heart of the customers. It can be done only by providing them with updated technological applications and excellent services. Here, service quality plays a major role in this regard. It acts as an optimum strategy for the service providers to attain the interest of their customers and change their perceptions towards the banks in a positive way by providing them satisfactory services. This chapter aims to critically analyse and assess the quality of banking services rendered for Fintech applications to the customers.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study evaluated the preference for public/private banks for Fintech applications across various demographic factors. In this research, users of public or private banks have been considered as respondents who are using Fintech applications. The service quality of both banks has been measured using a service quality scale, i.e., SERVQUAL. With the help of the Questionnaire, data were collected from 100 respondents from Punjab State on a convenience sampling basis. The Chi-square method was used to check the preference for different types of banks across demographic profiles.

Findings: ‘Responsiveness’ and ‘Tangibles’ are the most significant service quality dimensions. The present study revealed that the preference towards public/private sector banks has no dependency on occupation but found dependence on age and education level.

Research Limitations/Implications: The present study merely concentrates on the banking sector’s service quality towards Fintech applications. It could be used for the security market, insurance and other sectors in the future period. The present study provides implications for future interdisciplinary research addressing the need for Fintech applications as Fintech has become the need of every industry.

Originality/Value: This study is conducted to explore the opportunities for Fintech in the banking sector vis-á-vis service quality. The authors anticipate that the current study will contribute to existing literature and thus become the reference for academicians, researchers and industry professionals.