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The purpose of this paper is to delineate the effect of employee stock option plan (ESOP) on the corporate productivity in view of ever increasing competition among the firms to retain and attract qualified and competent manpower in India.

Based on productivity characteristics in pre‐ESOP adoption period (one year), the research paper studies the ESOP impact on corporate productivity in a three year post adoption period for a sample of 202 listed Indian companies. Nearly half of these companies (99 companies) were classified into control group (non‐ESOP companies) and the others (103 companies) were categorized as experimental group (ESOP companies). Asset turnover ratio (ATO), based on the exhaustive literature survey, was identified and considered exclusive productivity parameter in this research. The significance of productivity differentials among the control and experimental groups were tested using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test.

The empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that ESOP does not improve the productivity performance of Indian corporate sector in short‐run. Furthermore, the variation of the two respective variables is not significant at any level of risk against the alternate hypothesis for 103 ESOP companies.

The results reported in the study are based on the single productivity parameter (ATO) for three year post ESOP measurement period, which is also limiting factors for obvious reasons.

The outcomes of the study have wider implications for the HR professionals (designing a prudent ESOP plan), HR executives (ESOP implementations and its pitfalls) and the corporate‐employee combine for enriching mutual benefits for harmonious industrial relations.

The research paper under consideration is expected to be a valuable contribution to the existing literature and to different stakeholders identified above.

This impact assessment provides empirical evidence from household producer surveys to test the assumptions surrounding the contribution of participatory varietal selection (PVS) activities on seed sector development. The purpose of this paper is to focus on household access and adoption of common bean varieties from seed provision services and local markets to determine if, and under what social conditions, PVS activities stimulated seed uptake and market participation.

The propensity score matching technique and simple regression analysis were used to estimate the impact and compare household performance across three farmer groups located in Hoima, Uganda.

PVS increased access to and adoption of improved varieties and supported additional intermediate development outcomes when farmer group characteristics were aligned with PVS efforts. Specifically, PVS was more likely to stimulate market purchases of newly introduced varieties in the farmer group located closest to markets. The project did not however, improve all the development objectives that were evaluated. PVS most critically, did not increase the probability that households received the specific varieties they desired.

This study found that PVS can support the key pillars of seed sector development. In addition to increasing household access to new varieties, free seed dissemination promoted market participation and stimulated local seed market development.

This study addressed the need to consider intermediate development outcomes in impact assessments of development interventions. The findings clarified the contribution of PVS in the context of broader development goals and identified farmer group dynamics associated with enhanced impacts among rural producers in Uganda.

Maize and rice constitute the two major staple crops in Ghana. The demand for maize and rice outstrips production levels in Ghana, creating deficits for farmers to capitalize on to increase yield. Farmers procure certified seeds from different supply outlets to improve crop yield. This study assessed the effectiveness of supply outlets of certified maize and rice seeds. This study also examined factors that influence smallholder farmers' decisions in sourcing seed from the identified supply outlets.

Multi-stage sampling was used to collect data from smallholder farmers. A total of 360 farmers were interviewed for the analysis. The multivariate probit model was used to estimate the main drivers of the supply outlets of certified seeds.

The findings revealed that farmers' decisions to use certified seeds from a particular supply outlet are contingent on household size, years of farming, extension contacts, distance to the nearest market, distance to the district capital, access to credit and farm size.

Sourcing certified seeds from National Seed Traders Association of Ghana, Research Institutions and Ministry of Food and Agriculture is more effective than input dealers, open market and family and friends.

This study is one of its kind that looked at how effective are the supply outlets of certified seed purchasing outlets.

Northern Vietnam is a mountainous area where most farmers' livelihoods depend on maize production. Beside training in farming techniques, since 2013 extension courses on market access have been gradually delivered to maize farmers to help them save production costs and increase earnings.

By applying robust regression and Tobit models to estimate technical efficiency (TE), the difference-in-difference (DID) technique is used in this study to determine the change in the TE of 1,035 farmers in the period 2013–2015 in Northern Vietnam.

The DID estimator indicated the initial success of extension courses by showing a faster increase in the TE of the receivers compared to that of non-receivers. However, co-operation in production and marketing by maize farmers and access to micro-credit resulted in an insignificant impact on the TE of maize farmers in 2015. These low impact results highlighted the inefficiency of the extension and micro-credit programmes and that raised the concern of policymakers. The distance to local market signifies the determination of farmers on their crops affected by how close their location to their input/output marketplaces.

The Land Policy of the government should take into careful consideration measures to exploit all potential production and to mitigate poverty as well as foster the development of the region.

The expansion of extension courses on access to market has been recognised as an effective method to increase farmer's efficiency.

New varieties of paddy are constantly being developed in India in order to sustain yield gains in the face of biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, the authors attempt to identify the drivers for adoption of new varieties of paddy in India; the authors also estimate the impact on yield of the adoption of new paddy varieties.

Survey data consisted of the reported information from approximately 20,000 paddy farmers in India. The study employs Cragg's double-hurdle model to study the probability and intensity of adoption of new varieties; we use regression discontinuity design to estimate the change in yield due to adoption of new varieties.

The authors’ findings indicate that the adoption of new varieties of paddy in India varies significantly within and between regions; further, the adoption of new varieties is affected by a number of socioeconomic and demographic factors; the authors also find that the adoption of new varieties increases yield significantly.

These are observational data and not based on the experiments. The authors relied on farmers' memory to recall the information.

The authors suggest the formulation of strategic policies that can cater to the needs of regions and states that are lagging behind in the adoption of new paddy varieties.

Financial knowledge (FK) is considered one of the major factors influencing performance of farm enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of FK on performance of women farm enterprises. Performance is measured using levels of savings and enterprise margins.

The study uses primary data of 384 farmers from three sub-counties in Kericho County, Kenya. It employs a propensity score matching (PSM) approach to control for possible selection bias and to model the impact of FK on performance of women farm enterprises.

The analysis reveals that high FK has a significant positive impact on performance of women farm enterprises. Specifically, respondents with higher levels of FK were also associated with higher amounts of savings and enterprise margins.

Econometrically, robust strategies were employed using PSM to ensure minimal estimation bias. Although PSM captures selection bias due to observable characteristics, it fails to capture selection bias due to unobservable factors.

The paper contributes to the growing debate on the role played by FK on performance of small and micro enterprises. It provides insights on the state of FK among women farmers and identifies knowledge gaps and policy implications from a developing country perspective.

Rice is the primary staple crop in South Asia and is cultivated mainly on lowland ecosystems usually fed by the monsoon. With increasing climatic volatility, exclusively rain-fed rice paddies have experienced a triple threat in droughts, floods and salinity. This study investigates the linkages of these abiotic stresses on yield and subsequent farmer decisions on varietal choice.

A path analytic model is conceptualized where the relationship between yield (conditional on abiotic stresses) and the varietal choice decision is mediated by adaptation motive (latent construct) and market exposure (observed construct). The path model is validated using 2,523 observations from Bangladesh farmers to obtain parameter estimates for direct effects and mediated effects indicated above.

Findings reveal that drought and flood impacts, in contrast to salinity impacts, are influential to both yield and varietal choice. The adaptation motive, however, is clear only in the case of salinity. Time preference of farmers and previous exposure to climate shocks predict adaptation motive substantively. The study reveals that market exposure is also a significant mediator of varietal choice in addition to the mediating effect of adaptation.

The study adopts a path analytic model which is able to capture direct, indirect and mediated effects between exogenous factors and varietal choice decision. While the models provide conclusive statistical evidence to the above hypotheses, within-area variations of behavior may not be captured adequately by the method.

Analyzing the complexity of varietal decision-making choice using a path analytical model is a novel contribution to the literature. The application itself is unique to the context applied. The findings complement the literature on varietal adoption in the context of climate resilient paddy systems.