Gaurav Tripathi and M. Durgamohan
The political and economic environment of business.
Abstract
Subject area
The political and economic environment of business.
Study level/applicability
The case is suitable for students of MBA and equivalent courses; courses on the international business environment, international marketing and related subjects.
Case overview
The case focuses on cross border acquisitions in the sub-Saharan economy of Zimbabwe. It discusses Essar Steel's attempt to acquire a stake in Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Company (ZISCO) with long term goals. However, recent political developments have led to the situation hanging by a thread. The case attempts to provide an overview of the complex business environment in Zimbabwe.
Expected learning outcomes
Students are expected to highlight the economic and political factors during the analysis of any country's business environment.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.
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Nuraddeen Abubakar Nuhu, Kevin Baird and Sophia Su
This study examines the impact of environmental activity management (EAM) on triple bottom line (TBL) performance and the role that sustainability strategies play in mediating…
Abstract
This study examines the impact of environmental activity management (EAM) on triple bottom line (TBL) performance and the role that sustainability strategies play in mediating these relationships. Data were collected using a survey of Australian managers and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that each of the three levels of EAM – Environmental Activity Analysis, Environmental Activity Cost Analysis, and Environmental Activity Based Costing – influence-specific aspects of performance, either directly and/or indirectly through environmental and social sustainability strategies. The findings suggest that managers could enhance their use of EAM practices through the use of sustainability strategies in order to enhance performance. This study provides empirical insight into the impact that EAM practices and environmental and social sustainability strategies have on all three aspects of TBL performance.
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The purpose of the paper is to explore the issues and potential that this festival brings forth. Festivals are an integral part of the cultural and social fabric of India…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to explore the issues and potential that this festival brings forth. Festivals are an integral part of the cultural and social fabric of India. Festivals have been celebrated from times immemorial. One such festival is Hampi festival, which was in vogue in the Vijayanagara Empire. The Government of Karnataka revived this festival.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus group discussions with the festival stakeholders were held to explore the cultural and economic impact of Hampi festival. Recommendations are made regarding improving the festival.
Findings
Held at Hampi, a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and the world’s largest open air museum covering 26 sq km, having 550 monuments, Hampi festival is a cultural extravaganza of dance, drama, music, fireworks, puppet shows and spectacular processions, all combined to recreate the grandeur of a bygone era. It has tremendous untapped potential from a cultural and economic perspective.
Practical implications
An understanding of the opportunities and issues in organizing the festival, with implications for multiple stakeholders including the government at multiple levels.
Originality/value
Building a discussion on how a large-scale festival that generates national and international visitation be leveraged for cultural and economic gains.
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Given the growing importance of religious tourism, the purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature around the area.
Abstract
Purpose
Given the growing importance of religious tourism, the purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature around the area.
Design/methodology/approach
All papers with the term “religious tourism” have been searched via Emerald Insight from January 2006 to December 2017. The search was run in June 2017 for the last time and all early cite papers falling under the criteria were also included. This has ensured that key literature produced after the seminal work by Timothy and Olsen (Eds) (2006) has been reviewed. Certain exclusions apply which have been listed in the paper.
Findings
Key themes from the literature on religious tourism along with new developments and overlaps with other tourism sectors have been highlighted.
Originality/value
This paper reviews literature spanning more than a decade on religious tourism.
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Sandeep Munjal and Vinnie Jauhari
This paper aims to summarize and review the opportunities and challenges that India offers in terms of leveraging the cultural and economic potential of the fairs and festivals…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to summarize and review the opportunities and challenges that India offers in terms of leveraging the cultural and economic potential of the fairs and festivals.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws from the findings of the theme issue contributors. All the papers in the theme issue have drawn inputs from diverse types of fairs and festivals organized in different parts of India.
Findings
The paper summarizes the key opportunities and challenges with respect to leveraging the cultural and economic potential of fairs and festivals in India. Some of the issues that emerge across the board revolve around lack of basic infrastructure, indifferent government support, local apathy toward cultural commodification and poor stakeholder engagement.
Practical implications
There are a number of practical implications for practitioners and policy-makers that will allow India to optimally leverage the huge cultural and economic potential that the various fairs and festivals offer, but this requires a holistic understanding that will ensure that aspirations and concerns of all key stakeholders are taken into account.
Originality/value
The on-the-ground narrative brings out the real issues, challenges and opportunities that can then be analyzed to offer direction to policy-makers, tourism sector and government at various levels. The outcomes of the theme issue summarize the above.
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This study aims to look into the scope of exploring and promoting business zakah for the enhancement of the well-being of the underprivileged in society.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to look into the scope of exploring and promoting business zakah for the enhancement of the well-being of the underprivileged in society.
Design/methodology/approach
This is mainly a qualitative research conducted using both primary and secondary data. Primary data have been collected from 34 business entrepreneurs in Bangladesh through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The secondary data have been collected from annual reports with a view to calculating business zakah of five business enterprises for providing an indicative picture of prospective volume of business zakah in Bangladesh. Finally, collected qualitative data have been analyzed thematically following the due procedures with a view to addressing the research questions.
Findings
The findings reveal that around thirty five percent of sample entrepreneurs have used business zakah fund for fully and partially financing their social projects. It also reveals that on average annual business zakah fund amounts to nearly 144m BDT (around US$1.7m) per business enterprise. These findings bear clear witness that business zakah has extensive scope and promising prospect to be an instrument of financing social projects aimed at ensuring social well-being of the disadvantaged.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can be used as a guide to promote business zakah to finance social programs aimed at ensuring the well-being of the underprivileged of all societies particularly of Muslim countries representing one-fourth of the world population.
Originality/value
Exploring and promoting business zakah as an initiative of broadening the base of zakah is an innovative move and net addition to the literature of Islamic finance. It contributes greatly to the poverty alleviation movement in the sense that Muslim business entrepreneurs will now find their business zakah fund readily available to finance their social projects aimed at ensuring well-being of the impoverished.
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Nazamul Hoque, Mahi Uddin, Mohammad Tazul Islam, Abdullahil Mamun, Mohammad Nazim Uddin, Afzal Ahmad and Md Thowhidul Islam
This study looked into the scope of integrating the aspirations of zakah and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to counter poverty, inequity, illiteracy, malnutrition and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study looked into the scope of integrating the aspirations of zakah and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to counter poverty, inequity, illiteracy, malnutrition and environmental pollution to ensure peace, happiness, prosperity and sustainability as envisaged in sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative research study conducted using both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from 29 business enterprises in Bangladesh employing a semi-structured interview protocol. The secondary data were collected through content analysis of annual reports, websites and CSR publications of sample organizations. Finally, collected qualitative data have been analyzed thematically following the due procedures to address the research questions.
Findings
The findings reveal that integration of the aspirations of zakah and CSR is a convenient and wholehearted approach for entrepreneurs resulting in pursuing SDGs. In addition, business entrepreneurs in Bangladesh consider such practices as killing two birds with one stone because this approach warrants performing both religious and social obligations simultaneously. Interestingly, the study explores that shariah compliance acts as a guiding force for selecting well-being-oriented projects in zakah-funded CSR resulting in pursuing the priority goals – No Poverty (1), Zero Hunger (2) – of SDGs, thereby addressing some of the most critical issues of emerging economies such as Bangladesh.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can be used as a guide to incorporate the spirit and principle of zakah into the CSR programs aimed at pursuing SDGs mainly in Muslim countries representing one-fourth of the world population.
Originality/value
Integration of the aspirations of zakah and CSR is an innovative move and net addition to the literature on sustainability, CSR and zakah because Muslim business entrepreneurs will now conveniently be able to use the entrepreneurs' zakah money – readily available in each financial year – to fund the entrepreneurs' various CSR projects (within shariah framework) relating to poverty alleviation, humanitarian and disaster relief, health and sanitation and environmental conservation which will eventually contribute to pursuing various SDGs.
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K. Thirugnanasambantham, Pillai K. Rajasekharan, Vidya Patwardhan, G. Raghavendra and Shreelatha Rao
India has a marvelous distinction of hosting religious and cultural extravaganzas on an enormous scale, keeping in with its rich lineage and civilizational assortment. The…
Abstract
Purpose
India has a marvelous distinction of hosting religious and cultural extravaganzas on an enormous scale, keeping in with its rich lineage and civilizational assortment. The philosophical threads of such festivals are eventually subjective well-being and spiritual awakening. In this context, the authors examine how the visitors' festival motivation culminates in life satisfaction and subjective well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows a theory-driven deductive approach to test the construed relationships. The data were collected from the sites of religious fiesta when the participants were immersed in their cultural fervor. The study uses structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized model.
Findings
The study finds that place attachment and life satisfaction empirically mediate the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being. However, the relationship between place attachment and subjective well-being is not empirically strong when life satisfaction mediates their relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a convenience sample and is limited to the visitors of local religious festivals. Future research must verify the suitability of the model in other types of festivals of other religions and different locations. Also, this research deliberates on the relationship between only four variables. Future researchers could discuss other variables such as authenticity, emotional solidarity, festival images, festival values, religious faith, etc. to develop a more robust model to explain the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being.
Practical implications
In India regardless of social strata, people are religiously conscious and inclined toward attending publicly celebrated religious festivals. The scale of these festivals is significant and given the scenario, the local Government has to join hands with the temple administration, local people and visitors to reap the full benefits of the festival. These temple festivals not only foster coordination and involvement among various stakeholders, but also invoke the devotion of the people to jointly organize the celebrations.
Social implications
As some of the religious festivals go beyond caste, creed and nationality, the celebrations should evolve as multi-cultural mass events uniting the societal cohesiveness, spirit and national culture. The variables chosen and results found in this study will surely support publicizing the significance of religious festivals in the region and provide an idea to the organizers and supporters to develop new strategies to promote similar events.
Originality/value
The results claim several implications for theory and practice. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on religious tourism and event management. Practically, the study discussions indicate the importance of disseminating the significance of religious festivals as a platform for local tourist attractions to generate social, cultural and economic benefits.
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Mohammad Badrul Muttakin and Nava Subramaniam
This paper aims to examine whether the extent and type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Indian public listed companies are associated with firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine whether the extent and type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Indian public listed companies are associated with firm ownership and board characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Data analysis is based on the top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (2007-2011) using a 17-item CSR disclosure measure.
Findings
The extent of CSR disclosure is positively associated with foreign ownership, government ownership and board independence and negatively associated with CEO duality. Promoter ownership has a negligible effect on the extent of CSR disclosure. In terms of the type of CSR disclosure, community information increases with government ownership and board independence, while environmental information expands with foreign ownership and board independence. Information on employees/human resources has a positive association with foreign ownership but decreases with CEO duality. The amount of product and services information increases with promoter ownership, foreign ownership and board independence and CEO duality.
Practical implications
Given the positive impact independent directors have on the extent of CSR disclosure, their role can be further strengthened in terms of overseeing quality of information disclosed. Stakeholders and regulators will need to develop greater awareness of firm CSR disclosure biases associated with ownership and more carefully scrutinize firm CSR activities that firms are “not” reporting on.
Originality/value
Empirical evidence on the link between corporate governance and CSR disclosure from a developing nation context is limited. This paper provides much needed evidence in this area from India – one of the largest, rapidly developing economies in the world.
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Vinnie Jauhari and Sandeep Munjal
– This paper aims to discuss the opportunities and challenges that India offers in terms of leveraging the cultural and economic potential of the fairs and festivals.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the opportunities and challenges that India offers in terms of leveraging the cultural and economic potential of the fairs and festivals.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper sets the tone for the theme by evaluating “fairs and festivals” being organized all year round in different parts of the country, as drivers of economic growth and cultural continuity.
Findings
The paper probes the key opportunities and challenges with respect to leveraging the cultural and economic potential of fairs and festivals in India.
Practical implications
There are a number of practical implications for practitioners and policymakers that will allow India to optimally leverage the huge cultural and economic potential that the various fairs and festivals offer. This requires a holistic understanding that will ensure that aspirations and concerns of all key stakeholders are taken into account.
Originality/value
The research through this theme issue will document the cultural and economic impact of a range of specific fairs and festivals in India. Can these cultural resources be sustained and deployed effectively to have a positive economic impact on the lives of communities connected?