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Optimum utilization of investments has always been considered one of the most crucial aspects of capital markets. Investment into various securities is the subject of portfolio optimization intent to maximize return at minimum risk. In this series, a population-based evolutionary approach, stochastic fractal search (SFS), is derived from the natural growth phenomenon. This study aims to develop portfolio selection model using SFS approach to construct an efficient portfolio by optimizing the Sharpe ratio with risk budgeting constraints.

This paper proposes a constrained portfolio optimization model using the SFS approach with risk-budgeting constraints. SFS is an evolutionary method inspired by the natural growth process which has been modeled using the fractal theory. Experimental analysis has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the proposed model by making comparisons with state-of-the-art from domain such as genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing and differential evolution. The real datasets of the Indian stock exchanges and datasets of global stock exchanges such as Nikkei 225, DAX 100, FTSE 100, Hang Seng31 and S&P 100 have been taken in the study.

The study confirms the better performance of the SFS model among its peers. Also, statistical analysis has been done using SPSS 20 to confirm the hypothesis developed in the experimental analysis.

In the recent past, researchers have already proposed a significant number of models to solve portfolio selection problems using the meta-heuristic approach. However, this is the first attempt to apply the SFS optimization approach to the problem.

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of behavioural biases (i.e. overconfidence, risk-aversion, herding and disposition) on investment decisions amongst gender. The authors further examine the moderation effect of financial literacy in the relationship between behaviour biases and investment decisions amongst gender.

The study considered a cross-sectional research design. For this survey, the data have been collected through a structured questionnaire from 253 individual investors of the Delhi-NCR region. To analyse the validity and reliability, the Pearson correlation and Cronbach's alpha test have been taken into account respectively. For testing the hypothesis, hierarchical regression analysis has been used in the study.

The results of the study reveal that amongst male investors, the influence of risk-aversion and herding on investment decision was negative and statistically significant, while the influence of overconfidence on investment decision was positive and significant. However, the influence of disposition was found statistically insignificant. The results stated that amongst female investors the effect of risk-aversion and herding on investment decision was negative and statistically significant. However, the effect of overconfidence and disposition was statistically insignificant influence the investment decision. It has been observed that financial literacy has significantly influenced investment decisions amongst male and female investors. The results of the interaction effect amongst male investors stated that the interaction between overconfidence and investment decision was significantly influenced by financial literacy. However, the interaction of financial literacy with the remaining three biases, i.e. risk-aversion, herding and disposition was found insignificant. The results for the interaction effect of financial literacy with overconfidence, risk-aversion, disposition and herding were found statistically significant amongst female investors.

Based on this present research finding, the study is more productive for the portfolio manager and policymakers at the time of making an investment portfolio for the investors based on their behavioural biases. The study recommends that investors need training programmes, workshops and seminars that enhance financial literacy and financial knowledge of investors which helps them to overcome the behavioural biases while making an investment decision.

The current study aims to explore whether several behavioural biases can affect investment decisions amongst gender. Moreover, the authors would like to examine whether these associations are moderated by financial literacy. In this sense, financial literacy might also show a substantial part in the prediction of investments. The current study might be of the first study that examines the moderation effect financial literacy amongst male and female investors.

In an emerging economy like India, the contribution of Indians in the stock market is very low, despite having the highest percentage of savings. The research tries to look for the variables which influence the investor's intentions to invest in the Indian stock market, by considering the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Moreover, the study incorporates financial literacy (FL) in the model to examine its influence on investors’ investment intention and also examine the moderation effect of financial literacy.

Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 393 respondents by using the convenience sampling method which is followed by the snowball sampling technique. For testing the research hypotheses, SEM and PROCESS macro v3.0 for SPSS were taken into consideration.

The results explain that factors of TPB i.e. attitude (AT), subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) are significantly associated with investment intentions (IIs). Furthermore, along with the original components of the TPB model, Financial Literacy (FL) was also incorporated in the model, which predicted the investors' intention better. The results also stated that FL has a positive impact on AT, PBC and II. Moreover, results reveal that FL moderates the association between AT, PBC and II.

The study describes that financial literacy can help in increasing the participation of investors in the stock market. Therefore, in this situation, the current research permits the Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI), governments and financial institutions (FIs) to plan and design seminars or courses, programs, to enhance FL among individuals and promote individuals in making well-organized and efficient investment decisions in stock markets that will in turn upsurge individual investors participation. The study contributes to the existing literature of investment behavior by incorporating FL as a moderator. Research avoids considering actual investment behavior. The study also neglects demographic and socio-psychological factors which are the major factor that affects an investment decision. Furthermore, the research has only considered the objective dimension of FL.

The current research tries to incorporate FL in TPB model. Moreover, tries to examine the moderation effect of FL. The research is one of its kind as the past research neglect to examine the moderation effect of FL in relationship between AT, PBC and investment intension to investment in stock market. The research helps to understand how FL encourages investors to invest in the Indian stock market.

This study aims to empirically evaluate the performance of commercial banks operating in India.

The efficiency of the commercial banks is evaluated using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. We measure the technical, pure technical and scale efficiency of the sampled conventional banks using the input-oriented model. We employed an extended DEA window analysis approach based on a panel sample of 47 banks in the Indian scenario. The period of study is from 2009 to 2018.

The results obtained from CRS and VRS measures envisage that Indian banks have failed to manage their inputs efficiently and convert them into outputs. It implies that Indian banks do not operate at an optimum level. Moreover, the results show that public banks exhibit superior efficiency scores followed by private and foreign banks. Apart from the aggregate sector level, we also investigate the performance of Indian banks at the individual level for in-depth analysis. The individual bank-level analysis reports that the public sector banks (PSBs) are the most efficient followed by foreign banks, whereas, the least efficient are the private banks.

The findings of our study have implications for government, financial institutions and policymakers to access the verve and flexibility of the Indian banking system. The government should consider restructuring inefficient banks to enhance overall performance. This can be considered by improvement in managerial efficiency, efficient allocation of scarce resources and appropriate scale of operation. However, the findings of the study should be interpreted in light of the period of study for the banks being operational (as we filter out banks that ceased to exist) in India and empirical methods employed. The results may vary if alternative measures are used.

The present paper investigates the efficiency of the Indian banking sector employing the Data Envelopment Window Analysis (DEWA) technique. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is perhaps the first one to employ the DEWA measure on the Indian banking industry to gauge their performance over time.

This study aims to determine the factors influencing consumers’ organic food purchase intention during Covid-19 and how Covid-19 impacted these factors. Understanding these factors will assist marketers in making strategic decisions on how to market their products during a crisis.

This study used a quantitative approach. Data were collected online from 278 organic food consumers based in India. The partial least squares-path modelling method was used for data analysis.

The results revealed that Covid-19 has substantially impacted consumers' health consciousness, environmental concern, availability, price and intention to buy organic food. This study also revealed that health consciousness, environmental concerns and availability of organic food affect consumers’ purchase intention even during the Covid-19. However, it has been found that price consciousness does not influence consumers’ purchase intention during Covid-19.

Marketers should come up with innovative promotional strategies. Providing information related to quality checks on packages, expanding online sales channels, boosting promotional activities and emphasising the long-term benefits of organic food items should be the go-to marketing strategy of organic food.

The study adds value to the extant literature by examining consumers' purchase intention towards organic food using more customised and thorough constructs that appear to be more practical during the challenging times of Covid-19 and whose findings are not restricted by some pre-established theoretical assumptions.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework to bridge the gap between the dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, brand association and perceived quality) and the purchase intention of transnational higher education.

The paper revisits and critically reviews the concepts of marketing in higher education, brand equity, and self-congruity as well as related past studies.

Several past empirical studies concluded that the dimensions of brand equity have been unable to significantly influence purchase intention. The review and synthesis of the literature have supported the feasibility of self-congruity to mediate the relationship, thus closing the gap. This study has been able to extend the self-congruity concept into external and internal self-congruity to fit the context of this study which is transnational higher education choice.

Focusing on a developing market of Indonesia, it is anticipated that the proposed model will assist the future research in branding of transnational higher education. It was hypothesized that educational brands that are congruent with prospective students' self-image both externally (from the perception by the reference group) and internally (from the perception by themselves) will be more likely to yield positive purchase intention. As a result, this study adds to the current body of knowledge in the field of transnational higher education choice which was found to be lacking.