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The purpose of this study is to evaluate empirically the perceptions of the stakeholder regarding their relevance based on their perceived preference in terms of climate strategy proactivity (CSP) which is an outcome of the importance and influence of the category of the stakeholders of Indian companies. Revolutionized by the liberalization–privatization–globalization, the practices and strategies of the companies in the developing country such as India have been marked by dynamic changes in the several past decades. In these circumstances, it has become imperative to understand the relevance of the stakeholders in terms of CSP displayed by these companies to seek help in developing appropriate strategies in the emerging competitive market.

This paper used a research design comprising descriptive analytical method using non-probability purposive sampling method to collect data from a sampled 701 respondents representing eleven categories stakeholders, with the help of a cross-sectional, self-administered online survey questionnaire.

The findings of the study detail the evaluation of the stakeholders relevance based on their perceived preference in terms of CSP attaching significance to the stakeholders’ perception as a useful tool. While the findings hint at the incessant growth of stakeholder awareness urging corporations to analyze effects and adopt appropriate strategies in developing countries, they also evaluate empirically the perceptions of the stakeholder regarding their relevance based on their perceived preference in terms of CSP which is an outcome of the importance and influence enjoyed by the category of the stakeholders of Indian companies. The findings confirmed the adequate level of awareness of the stakeholders of Indian companies responsible for making them adopt CSP.

This study had the limitations such as collection of information through a self-reported questionnaire which might have the impact of self-bias despite all the preventive and corrective measures, and the risk of creation of a subjective viewpoint due to the assessment of the perceptions of varied stakeholders. Nonetheless, meeting the objective of this study, the study succeeds in providing a stakeholder perspective to the existing body of knowledge with respect to CSP, a stakeholders-centric concept which is in infancy in the context of developing countries and their corporations.

The paper is original as it adds value by providing empirical evidence from the perspective of different stakeholders, including but not limited to managers or shareholders only, like majority of previous studies. By doing so, it successfully attempts to contextualize them indicating the need to unlock huge potentialities and substantial significance for other developing countries.

This study was conducted with the objective of conducting a primary validation of a newly developed climate strategy proactivity questionnaire (CSPQ) scale for evaluating the relationship of climate strategy proactivity displayed by Indian companies with competitive advantage which it intends to attain and sustain through sources of sustained competitive advantage.

Research design includes an exploratory factor analysis, conducted with a diverse sample of stakeholders of Indian companies, resulting into four internally consistent factors. This was followed by a confirmatory factor analysis with strong model fit estimates which confirmed the initial factor structure and resulted into a new final CSPQ scale. The scale without substituting any existing scale facilitated testing of all but criterion validity.

Findings mainly comprise the primary validation of the CSPQ scale as psychometrically strong confirming acceptability of all major fit indices.

CSPQ scale designed in the context of Indian companies is expected to make corporations and managers more aware in developing countries to help them draw an extensively enhanced scope of proactive climate strategy while making efforts to attain and sustain competitive advantage. However, the self-reported information collected through a common survey questionnaire might be affected by self-bias. Further, cross-sectional data to validate a new non-substituting scale prevented the researcher from conducting criterion validity test.

Basing the development and validation of the CSPQ scale on the data collected from diverse stakeholders of Indian companies in as diverse a country as India, the scale can demonstrate significant robustness and implicative potential. The scale, by virtue of possessing significant attributes, can add remarkable value to strategic management applicable under any major theoretical perspective. It can serve the requirements of the empirical research and competitive management practices simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain as an intangible resource for open and distance learning (ODL) to attain and sustain competitive advantage by creating a more learner centric learning ecosystem.

Research design included review of the literature, desk research and case analyses to conduct this study so that the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain, a technological innovation, for ODL could be explored adequately.

The findings of the paper reveal that ODL must not miss out on the opportunity of harnessing the hitherto unexplored strategic potentialities of blockchain in its quest of attaining and sustain competitiveness vis-a-vis conventional system of learning. Results of this study sufficiently hint at the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL.

Results of this study sufficiently indicate the possible viability of considering blockchain as a strategic resource for ODL which in turn make them significant for decision-makers and policymakers engaged in developing ODL. Findings hint that ODL needs to make efforts to harness the strategic potentialities of blockchain for attaining and sustaining competitiveness which would also be helpful for ODL to contribute towards achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper attempts to provide a strategic viewpoint to the use of this technological innovation as a significant intangible resource discussing primarily the strategic perspectives of blockchain helpful in the further development of ODL.

Although uses of blockchain-enabled applications in ODL are relatively new, the growth is very fast. The present paper offers originality and value by filling the gap created by the inadequacies of studies focusing on the idiosyncratic characteristics including but not limited to decentralization and security of blockchain. Findings suggest that blockchain offers huge potentialities in terms of benefits for entire ODL ecosystem comprising different stakeholders such as institutions, learners, educators, etc.

This paper aims to derive criteria for a strategic selection of learning management system (LMS) after making an analysis of the feedback data collected from learners and academic counselors in open and distance learning (ODL) to evaluate their perceptions. This analysis hints at the need to implement a learning management system (LMS) in ODL. Selecting an appropriate LMS can prove to be a strategic approach for ODL in achieving self-reliance and competitiveness.

Research design includes qualitative design intended to discuss the features, advantages and attributes of different popular LMSs and compare them. In addition, the quantitative design (a questionnaire-based online feedback) to analyze the perceptions of the learners and academic counselors in order to know their e-learning needs has also been used. Results have been exhibited in tabular/graphical formats for easy comprehension and enhanced understanding.

Findings of the study suggest that availability of plethora of LMSs in the market, which also include open source (OS) LMSs, makes the decision- making as regards selection of an appropriate LMS strategically crucial requiring adequate consideration of every aspect such as cost, quality, usage, capacity, budget and most importantly priorities and objectives.

This study will help educational administrators and decision-makers in ODL for building a quality civilized life and empowered society by removing the constraints related to financial problems, disabilities, time, geographical conditions and many others in bringing education to the doorstep of every willing learner. The technical details of LMS, however, were intentionally kept simplified to achieve the objective and provide easy comprehensibility for the reader with little technical background, which might be a limitation of this study.

This study highlights that ODL has tasted success with optimum exploitation of different technological advancements in its transformational expedition from conventional learning to innovative e-learning and to the newest adaptive e-learning system. The huge potential of LMS, in providing learners and educators in ODL with an effective web-based learning system incorporating almost all the academic activities, has attracted organizations for using it not only for imparting education to learners but also for providing appropriate trainings to their human resources.

This paper aims to offer exploratory remarks by discussing whether blockchain can help organizations attain sustained competitive advantage in view of its increased applications and untapped potential. Organizations are yet to test its utilization as an intangible strategic resource at a time when organizational strategic landscapes – rapidly changing in a globally networked digitally empowered world – require them to enhance capability of combining resources for meeting stakeholders’ expectations.

Blockchain as an emerging technology draws frequent industry announcements and specialists’ posts on daily basis in media, and there exist inadequacies with respect to the availability of relevant studies in the extant literature on the subject of blockchain, which itself is in infancy. Keeping in view the limitations associated with the traditional understandings of scholarship underscoring, thereby that research and knowledge discovery have been restricting the progress across disciplines on account of which knowledge domains fail to make a meaningful effect; research design of the paper comprises the scholarship of integration method, which might appear to be less systematic but was more emergent in comparison to a traditional methodology of systematic literature review, and suitable for conducting this study.

Findings of this study suggest that blockchain with huge popularity as a technological innovation has huge potentialities and promises to be a strategic intangible resource for organizations helpful in attaining sustained advantage. However, the findings also suggest several cautionary remarks.

This paper offers exploratory remarks by discussing blockchain in the context of its consideration as a significant intangible strategic resource helpful in attaining sustained competitive advantage, emphasizing the need for continuous attention and revision with its increased applications. It attempts to assess the untapped potential of blockchain incorporating ample scholarly value in this era of fourth industrial revolution. The findings offer greater significance for different stakeholders including researchers and policymakers. However, this paper limits itself by throwing light on the strategic aspects only while attempting to touch upon only those aspects of blockchain that were perceived to be helpful in understanding it as a resource of sustained competitive advantage.

This paper presents originality and value by offering exploratory remarks that can be immensely useful given the scarcity of literature on the novel blockchain with respect to its consideration as a strategic resource. This paper attempts to provide much needed underpinnings to the notion whether blockchain can help organizations attain and sustain competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to make an assessment of the challenges in disseminating higher education to the learners in tribal communities, and problems solving capacity of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) by strategically making use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) taking a case of Madhya Pradesh (MP), which is the most tribal dominated state of India. The paper offers valuable insight in to the usage of ICT as a strategy for the ODL system presenting an account of how it can be utilized effectively to disseminate higher education in tribal communities.

Exploratory and descriptive techniques were utilized in this paper adopting the research strategy of case study in terms of the strategic potentialities of ICT in disseminating higher education in tribal communities by ODL using it as a strategy for their empowerment and development.

The findings of the paper reveal that dissemination of higher education in tribal areas is a challenging task especially due to their socioeconomic conditions and ethno cultural settings in addition to numerous infrastructural and access related issues. In view of the need of integrating education with the Indigenous perspectives, ICT can be used as an effective strategy by ODL for disseminating higher education amongst learners in those communities by reaching out to them.

This paper concludes that ICT can help ODL immensely in developing countries such as India strategically in reaching the tribal learners surpassing financial and geographical constraints with a learner centric approach increasing the capacity, quality and cost effectiveness of education system bringing the concept of strategy to center stage, at a time when ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including education with the unprecedented growth in its use.

This paper concludes that ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including higher education with the unprecedented growth in its use. It also concludes that Indian higher educational sector faced with multitude of challenges is not insulated from the effect of ICT, and its emancipatory and transformative potentials in higher education can play a major substantive role by extending support to meet the increasing higher educational needs of the tribal communities by sufficiently embedding it so that their greater contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be ensured.

This paper aims to assess the perceptions of stakeholders as regards the practices of Indian companies vis-à-vis climate change seeking underpinnings from stakeholder theory and collecting data using a structured questionnaire.

This paper used a descriptive analytical research design based on the data collected from a diverse sample of stakeholders of Indian companies through a cross-sectional, self-administered online survey questionnaire.

The study attaching significance to the stakeholders’ perception as a useful tool underscores that Indian companies have started to engage in preventive measures to minimize the externalities of climate crisis taking cognizance of the stakeholders’ interests amidst their increased awareness, also underlining that their perceptions substantially determine climate strategy proactivity (CSP) in their quest of competitive advantage beyond regulatory compliances. The study finds that incessant growth in the stakeholder awareness has not left companies to remain reluctant from analyzing effects and adopting suitable strategies in India also which, as a fast growing developing country, has witnessed immense growth in the post-liberalization era.

This study would help decision-makers in businesses, policymakers, practitioners and standard-setters by providing further insights on the relevance of stakeholders’ perspectives in CSP in the developing countries. Stakeholders’ perceptions though representing varied categories hint that the actions beyond regulatory compliances need to be in focus in future studies.

The paper elaborates the significance of CSP in developing countries to eliminate the impact of inadequacies that previous studies undertook primarily in developed countries have failed in contextualizing these issues of developing countries.

This paper aims to develop a scale to measure climate strategy proactivity (CSP) displayed by corporate in developing countries to attain competitive advantage (CA) and sustain it through sources of sustained competitive advantage (SOSCA). It attempts to derive sound operational definitions of CSP, CA and SOSCA through horizontal analysis of previous studies and discussions with experts and practitioners to construct a measurement scale.

Research design includes broad stages, namely, item generation, scale development and assessment of psychometric properties of the scale starting with review of literature and discussions with experts and practitioners, which were followed by a pilot and full study carried out through a cross-sectional, self-administered online survey questionnaire and assessment using suitable tools and techniques.

Findings of the study comprise development of sound operational definitions and construction of a valid and reliable measurement scale of CSP displayed by corporate to attain CA with strong psychometric properties, which is expected to be useful in developing countries not only for researchers and academics but also for the practitioners and organizations.

The information was self-reported by respondents through climate strategy proactivity questionnaire (CSPQ) and consequently can be at risk to have been influenced by bias. Nonetheless, this CSPQ scale devoid of conceptual problems can be used in developing countries in future empirical studies with the caution that its reliability and validity require further tests.

Using the CSPQ scale will help managers in developing countries in enhancing their awareness with the provision of these conceptually clear comprehensive operational definitions of CSP, CA and SOSCA with respect to the conceptual nature and the latent expressions, and draw an extensively enhanced scope of climate-conscious strategy to bring about CA.

With the data collected from a sample representing different stakeholders of Indian companies from across the country, CSPQ scale possesses significant robustness and implicative potential which can contribute to the evolution of the strategic management field by providing a valid and reliable measure of CSP in developing countries applicable under any major theoretical perspective in strategic management serving the needs of not only the empirical research but also of the management practices intended to attain CA.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This conceptual paper concentrates on the strategic use of blockchain as a way of organizations gaining ongoing competitive advantages. Moving deeper into the fourth industrial revolution, the organizational advantages of blockchain implementation are the secure, verifiable, peer-to-peer transparency of agreement or communication mechanisms like smart contracts, since they can enhance organizational efficiency and therefore competitive performance. However, blockchain currently remains in a nascent phase on a practical use level, meaning organizations can now strategically prepare to adopt its capabilities in future. This is done by teams educating themselves about blockchain, and by defining problems that the technology could solve.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.