Search results

This paper aims to explore the governance of external entities that lie outside the boundaries of digital platform firms by using the theoretical lens of the transaction cost theory (TCT). TCT offers alternative modes of governance for effectively managing transactions in market, hierarchy or hybrid scenarios providing a perfect framework to study platform governance.

The paper explores governance issues between restaurant partners and online food delivery platforms in India via qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews of various stakeholders, including restaurant partners and platform managers.

The study reveals that information asymmetry, opportunism, control and trust deficit are the major strategic governance issues in online food delivery platforms.

Though care had been taken to cover all types of restaurants, due to lockdown number of restaurants studied was restricted in number. Despite the restrictions, findings provided valuable insights into the governance issues of the digital platform. Challenging times like Covid-19 make the study even more crucial from the strategic perspective. The study also adds to the literature on platform governance and provides practical implications for account managers and policymakers.

The study uncovers various critical governance issues. These, if resolved using the right combination of governance mechanisms, will lead to increased partner participation and value creation on the platform.

Platforms outsource the value creation to external entities without having any hierarchical control over partners. The paper studies governance outside the boundaries of the firm using TCT. Hence, it helps to extend governance outside the boundaries of the firm.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand and examine the strategies that help platforms fight competition and manage networks; to analyse the role of platform governance in the management of the networks and partners’ trust; and to evaluate the strategic risks of disintermediation and multi-homing firms face while trying to sustain profits and capture value.

The case presents the dilemma faced by Deepinder Goyal, the young founder and CEO of Zomato in formulating the growth strategy for its food delivery platform, struggling to retain its market leadership position amid intensifying competition and other challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zomato has become a public company with an IPO announced in mid of July 2021. Therefore, there is growing expectation for profitability among its shareholders and investors considering tailwinds of COVID-19 crisis, which have given the push towards adoption of food delivery among the customers. This has also resulted in increased competition in the industry. On other hand, there is growing dissatisfaction among its restaurant partners who have been hit hard by COVID-19 and struggling for survival. CEO Deepinder has to find how he will ensure the long-term growth for Zomato to tap the growing food delivery market in India and regain its restaurant partner’s trust.

The case is intended for post-graduate courses (MBA, PGDM) on digital business strategy or strategic management of technology-oriented businesses. The case can be used to understand the nature of competition and different strategies for platform-based businesses in the digital world. The case can also be used to study the role governance can play in efficient value creation and capture on the platform by the partner entities. Finally, the case also highlights how are platform businesses are coping with the Covid challenge. There are no specific prerequisites but knowledge on basic strategy concepts and platform business concepts will be good for better understanding. Level of difficulty is medium.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to sustainable tourism management (STM) implementation in a protected area (PA) of a developing country, India, by taking a case study of National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS).

This study develops a framework to analyse the interaction among a set of barriers of STM using the interpretive structural modelling approach.

In this study, 16 relevant barriers responsible for the failure of STM in Indian scenario have been selected. The lack of coordination among various stakeholders and the lack of government incentives are found as the most significant barriers among the selected barriers of STM implementation in the sanctuary.

This study provides most influencing barriers and how these barriers hinder the sustainability efforts in NCS. The study’s main limitation is its generalisation. The problems in implementing sustainable practices may differ with the region.

This study provides strong practical inferences to both practitioners as well as academicians. The practitioners are suggested to focus on identified barriers and formulating strategies to achieve sustainability in the tourism sector. Academicians may propose the solutions and necessary interventions for identified barriers.

Identification and presentation of barriers to STM implementation in the context of a PA are rare to find in literature.

Drawing upon theories of ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) and work locus of control, this study aims to examine how ethical ideology in job seekers influences their use of deceptive impression management (deceptive IM) behavior during job interviews.

A time-lagged study was conducted with two measurement waves to test our hypotheses. AMOS-SEM, which included bootstrapping (5,000 re-sampling) procedures to analyze the data, was used.

Results indicate that a job seeker's relativistic ethical ideology influences their use of deceptive IM behavior during job interviews and work locus of control – internal [WLOC (internal)] mediates this relationship. Exploring the relationship between ethical ideologies of job seekers and their deceptive IM behavior at job interviews, this study found that relativistic individuals with WLOC (internal) were more inclined to engage in deceptive IM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore the role of ethical ideology in influencing deception IM behavior during job interviews. Knowledge of the relationship between job seekers ethical ideologies and deception IM behavior at job interviews would alert HR managers to adopt additional screening processes to detect candidates who indulge in deceptive IM behavior to exaggerate their image to influence the interviewer's perception.

This study aims to assess the recreational value of the National Chambal Sanctuary highlighting the potential benefits of conservation and the need for sustainable practices.

This study uses the Individual Travel Cost Method to evaluate the expenses of individuals visiting the National Chambal Sanctuary.

The study reveals that the National Chambal Sanctuary has a significant recreational value, with an average visitor value of INR 35,335.69 or USD 434 and an annual value of INR 132,473,501.81 or approximately USD 1.62m, indicating substantial economic contribution.

The study's limitations may stem from data collection constraints, visitor reporting biases or other factors affecting estimates' accuracy. Future research could explore socio-economic factors or factors affecting low tourist inflow in India's protected areas (PAs).

This study suggests raising entrance fees for the National Chambal Sanctuary to ensure financial sustainability, based on its high recreational value and average consumer surplus. This has practical implications for policymakers, conservationists and the tourism industry.

The study underscores the significance of protecting PAs like the National Chambal Sanctuary, suggesting that public attitudes towards biodiversity conservation can be influenced by highlighting its economic and recreational value and promoting awareness of its significance.

The study evaluates the recreational value of a wildlife sanctuary in India, offering insights into conservation's economic benefits and sustainable practices and promoting further research.

The inclusion of LGBTQ + persons (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and having other sexual orientations and gender identities) is a crucial step in improving gender diversity in the workplace; however, till date, it remains a significant challenge for human resource management professionals. The current study critically examines this issue of an inclusive workplace for LGBTQ + people through a systematic review of the existing research that has empirically studied their experiences at the workplace. It also examines the resistance and challenges organizations face in LGBTQ + diversity training and provides future research avenues.

For systematically reviewing the literature, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model has been used. A total of 101 empirical studies have been reviewed.

The result shows that LGBTQ + people encounter multiple negative workplace experiences, including proximal (hiring discrimination and housing discrimination) and distal workplace discrimination (unsafe work climate, microaggressions and harassment). These aversive experiences lead to work stress while also mandating that people manage their sexual identity and style of dressing. This stress, in turn, impacts their work–family outcomes, job satisfaction and decision-making with regard to their careers.

The paper provides a holistic understanding of the aversive workplace experiences encountered by sexual minorities.

The research paper explores the role of faculties in teaching collaborative online international learning (COIL) courses as a pedagogical tool toward Internationalization at Home. The study examines what motivates faculties to teach COIL courses and what is their experience in designing and delivering a COIL course as a pedagogical tool for Internationalization at Home.

The research paper explores the role of faculties in conducting a COIL course through qualitative research of 16 faculties selected through purposive sampling. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews taken were analyzed through Braun and Clarke thematic analysis.

COIL is an innovative Internationalization at Home initiative built on the internationalization of curriculum. Faculties perceived COIL as an innovative pedagogical tool enhancing their professional advancement and providing equal global learning opportunities to all students at home, thereby ensuring inclusivity. COIL promotes enhanced cross-cultural student engagement and cultural understanding, thereby developing the global competency of students.

This research is a qualitative study done with a sample of 16 faculties using the in-depth interview as a tool. The outcome may not be applicable to the population at large.

This research would guide higher education institutions (HEIs) to enhance Internationalization at Home and enable inclusivity in providing international exposure to a large number of place-bound students. The findings of the research would encourage HEIs to train faculties to design innovative COIL courses and enhance cross-cultural student engagement. The research would motivate policymakers in the higher education sector to design policies and practices to embed COIL in the curriculum of HEIs.

COIL ensures quality of education (SDG 4) and reduces inequalities (SDG 10). Therefore, this research would pave a pathway for HEIs to attain sustainable development goals, especially SDG 4 and SDG 10.

The study is original in the area of the international virtual education sector.

This paper aims to examine the comovement among green bonds, energy commodities and stock market to determine the advantages of adding green bonds to a diversified portfolio.

Generic 1 Natural Gas and Energy Select SPDR Fund are used as proxies to measure energy commodities, bonds index of S&P Dow Jones and Bloomberg Barclays MSCI are used to represent green bonds and the New York Stock Exchange is considered to measure the stock market. Granger causality test, wavelet analysis and network analysis are applied to daily price for the select markets from August 26, 2014, to March 30, 2021.

Results from the Granger causality test indicate no causality between any pair of variables, while cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence analysis confirm strong coherence at a high scale during the pandemic, validating comovement among the three asset classes. In addition, network analysis further corroborates this connectedness, implying a strong association of the stock market with the energy commodity market.

This study offers new evidence of the temporal association among the US stock market, energy commodities and green bonds during the COVID-19 crisis. It presents a novel approach that measures and evaluates comovement among the constituent series, simultaneously using both wavelet and network analysis.