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Employee engagement (EE) can result in multiple positive impacts not only on the individual and his/her team but also on the organisational and financial outcome of the business. If artificial intelligence (AI) can be used as a tool to facilitate EE, organisations will be more than satisfied to adopt it. The paper aims to study the penetration of AI for EE in corporate India.

Based on the information gathered through secondary research, a framework of questions was built and sent to some senior people in the area of AI and HR to check for its completeness. Respondents based on inclusion criteria were selected through random purposive sampling to be a part of the study. A total of 23 respondents participated in the study. Qualitative data analysis of the transcripts was conducted using MAXQDA 2022 (Verbi Software, Berlin, Germany), which is a qualitative data analysis software. Multiple readings were undertaken to identify the patterns and relationships in the data.

The participants described a variety of issues while using or planning to use AI for EE. Some of the issues mentioned were related to cost, challenges, mindsets and attitudes, demography of employees, comfort in the use of technology, size of the organisation, change management strategies, software vendors and vendor support. The most common responses were grouped into headings such as Organisation, Process, Employee and Software Choice Related aspects.

Lately, the overall work environment, work and personal life balance, and quality of life have become more desirable than earning a good salary. AI is becoming a part of various aspects of business but its role in HR is yet to be explored. AI’s capabilities to predict may result in more employee work satisfaction. The paper explores the possibility of using AI as a tool in every aspect of employee life cycle, thereby attempting to make HR processes more productive and enhance EE.

The learning outcomes of this study include: recognizing the strategic inflexion points and related business and strategic perspectives in the life of an organization; understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage and connect it with resource-based view for internal analysis; applying dynamic capability theory to identify capabilities that help an IT company stay relevant in an IT sector characterized by VUCA (an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) environment; analyzing the multi-dimensional and multi-contextual challenge an organization faces, or is likely to face, in the foreseeable future and the possible ways it addresses or should address them; evaluating strategies adopted at various points of an organization’s journey for their effectiveness; and helping a company co-create value for its customers.

This case of Nitor Infotech Private Limited (Nitor), a mid-sized software product outsourcing company, outlines its decade-long journey, highlighting its achievements. While the company has consistently grown by leveraging its expertise in software product engineering and its domain knowledge in the healthcare segment, it entered into a stage of its life cycle where it had to develop a long-term strategy to effectively compete in the product engineering market. Nitor’s strategy was built around product engineering and outsourced product development. The two major choices for a software company were either to develop its own product and thereby own the intellectual property (IP) or to develop modules which would be part of a product that would be owned by a client. In the latter case, the IP would be held by the client. So far Nitor chose to follow the second option by developing components for its client’s products. Although this strategy allowed it to develop expertise in a particular domain, and serve different customers in a particular market, the chances of a competitor attacking its position was high. On the other hand, if it developed its own product, it can create its own brand name and can sell packaged software to several different customers. However, the challenge with the latter is that the cost of marketing could be very high. The choice for the company in the future is to decide on selecting a specific strategy to expand its international business.

This case is appropriate for an undergraduate and postgraduate management course in the area of strategic management. The level of difficulty can be from medium to high depending on the learning level. Knowledge of management fundamentals is not a prerequisite but is desirable for case analysis.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy

The purpose of this paper is to study the perceived relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate effectiveness (CE) amongst undergraduate and post-graduate students in India and Mauritius. The paper explores the differences in perception of CSR and CE w.r.t profitability, long-term success and short-term success between the different student groups.

This paper explores past studies done by researchers and practitioners and uses a survey method for data collection amongst students in India and Mauritius.

Set in the context of current ethical and business challenges facing business leaders, the paper provides insights and recommendations on the perceived relationship between CSR and CE. Recommendations have been provided for leveraging the perception of CSR amongst students as they aspire to become future business leaders.

Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to explore and test the proposals further in different contexts and countries.

The paper suggests that the research reinforces the relationship between CSR and CE in the context of business and current student perception globally.

Management students are future managers and the study of their perception towards social responsibility has a lot of bearing on their future decision making with respect to these issues.

This paper highlights the different student views on CSR and CE in India and Mauritius and will encourage future researchers and organizations to further expand on this perception.

The learning outcomes are to get an understanding of the greeting cards (GCs) industry – appreciate the evolution of the industry and the changes that have been impacting the industry; analyze the external environment situation and assess the current strategy of Archies; analyze the existing strategy of Archies and apply the knowledge of strategic frameworks to the current business context of Archies; and create a new strategy for the company to overcome its current challenges.

The case highlights the situation faced by Archies Limited, a company, which pioneered the growth of the social expression industry in India and developed the market for GCs, a quintessentially Western concept in the Indian market. While it experienced phenomenal growth for two and a half decades, in the past 10 years, things have become more difficult for the company. Based on secondary data, this case presents various facts related to the case and seeks answers related to possible strategies that the firm may explore in the future.

Undergraduate and postgraduate management course in the area of strategic management. The level of difficulty can be from medium to high depending on the learning level.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Degradation measurement of some products requires destructive inspection; that is, the degradation of each unit can be observed only once. For example, observation on the mechanical strength of interconnection bonds or on the dielectric strength of insulators requires destruction of the unit. Testing high-reliability items under normal operating conditions yields a small amount of degradation in a reasonable length of time. To overcome this problem, the items are tested at higher than normal stress level – an approach called an accelerated destructive degradation test (ADDT). The present paper deals with formulation of constant-stress ADDT (CSADDT) plan with the test specimens subject to stress induced by temperature and voltage.

The stress–life relationship between temperature and voltage is described using Zhurkov–Arrhenius model. The fractional factorial experiment has been used to determine optimal number of stress combinations. The product's degradation path follows Wiener process. The model parameters are estimated using method of maximum likelihood. The optimum plan consists in finding out optimum allocations at each inspection time corresponding to each stress combination by using variance optimality criterion.

The method developed has been explained using a numerical example wherein point estimates and confidence intervals for the model parameters have been obtained and likelihood ratio test has been used to test for the presence of interaction effect. It has been found that both the temperature and the interaction between temperature and voltage influence the quantile lifetime of the product. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out.

Most of the work in the literature on the design of ADDT plans focusses on only a single stress factor. An interaction exists among two or more stress factors if the effect of one factor on a response depends on the levels of other factors. In this paper, an optimal CSADDT plan is studied with one main effect and one interaction effect. The method developed can help engineers study the effect of elevated temperature and its interaction with another stress factor, say, voltage on quantile lifetime of a high-reliability unit likely to last for several years.

This study was conducted to analyse the socio-ecological problems faced by the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary and understand its potential and challenges for developing ecotourism following Triple Bottom Line (TBL) principles. The study also benchmarked best ecotourism practices across the globe to create an ecotourism plan that would provide alternative livelihood and help in sustainable management of the area by reducing poverty, dependency on forests and biodiversity protection.

Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary was chosen because this area has several socio-ecological crises with limited livelihood options, and there is an urgent need for alternative livelihood opportunities in the form of ecotourism. The study followed an ethnographic approach through observation, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Content and thematic analysis was conducted through Atlas Ti9.0 software for data analysis. Subsequently, benchmarking best ecotourism practices through a literature review was done to develop an ecotourism action plan.

The First finding was related to the study area divided into three themes: problems, potential for ecotourism development, and challenges for ecotourism development. The second finding was related to benchmarking best practices and suggesting an action plan.

This work studied an area not sufficiently acknowledged by academicians and policymakers concerning ecotourism development. The work also benchmarks the best practices for ecotourism and proposes a sight-specific ecotourism action plan in accordance with TBL.

This article documents instances of racism that have previously acted as barriers to Indian students' academic success in Australia. It is felt that such incidents would not have happened to students from, for example, China or Japan, as their governments would have taken more serious steps against the Australian government. There is a feeling in India that the Indian government can be seen as weak. Against this background, the article looks at potential reasons for racially motivated attacks against Indians in Australia, and at what can be done to reduce these, as well as both the Australian and Indian government responses to the particular instances reported.

Zero-failure reliability testing aims at demonstrating whether the product has achieved the desired reliability target with zero failure and high confidence level at a given time. Incorporating accelerated degradation testing in zero-failure reliability demonstration test (RDT) facilitates early failure in high reliability items developed within short period of time to be able to survive in fiercely competitive market. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The triangular cyclic stress uses one test chamber thus saving experimental cost. The parameters in model are estimated using maximum likelihood methods. The optimum plan consists in finding out optimum number of cycles, optimum specimens, optimum stress change point(s) and optimum stress rates.

The optimum plan consists in finding out optimum number of cycles, optimum specimens, optimum stress change point(s) and optimum stress rates by minimizing asymptotic variance of estimate of quantile of the lifetime distribution at use condition subject to the constraint that total testing or experimental cost does not exceed a pre-specified budget. Confidence intervals of the design parameters have been obtained and sensitivity analysis carried out. The results of sensitivity analysis show that the plan is robust to small deviations from the true values of baseline parameters.

For some highly reliable products, even accelerated life testing yields little failure data of units in a feasible amount of time. In such cases accelerated degradation testing is carried out, wherein the failure termed as soft failure is defined in terms of performance characteristic of the product exceeding its critical (threshold) value.

Gender studies have become an important area of study in recent times. It is being accorded an important place in the curriculum, both at the school and university levels. The many misconceptions that exist regarding the term “gender” need to be addressed, the most common being that gender has solely to do with women and their issues only. The basic important idea that gender studies is inclusive of female, male, and third gender and their issues isn't understood nor made aware to many. The role of education has become all the more important so that we are able to break the prevalent societal stereotypes and address the existing gender inequality. This chapter attempts to present various feminist theories that have contributed to the understanding of gender. The important role of the schools and in particular the textbooks in socializing and building learners' understanding of the sociopolitical contexts cannot be negated. Hence, the chapter will conclude by analyzing how gender content and issues are experienced and get represented in the school curriculum and the textbooks. Many researchers have emphasized the need for gender inclusion to achieve holistic and sustainable development goals. This is important because only with the achievement of social equality can we work toward economic equality.

This chapter examines the bamboo-based livelihoods of the tribal artisans of Tripura and studies entrepreneurship, through the perspective of innovative small and medium enterprises, as a way to achieve sustainable development. Under a cluster-based approach of the Tripura Bamboo Mission, this chapter intends to understand how tribal entrepreneur’s belief in sustainability motivates them to develop and enhance livelihood opportunities. It is in addressing this basic question of an entrepreneur’s ‘drive’ in achieving sustainable livelihood that the development goals are met.