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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected around 216 countries and territories worldwide and more than 2000 cities in India, alone. The smart cities mission (SCM) in India started in 2015 and 100 smart cities were selected to be initiated with a total project cost of INR 2031.72 billion. Smart city strategies play an important role in implementing the measures adopted by the government such as the issuance of social distancing regulations and other COVID-19 mitigation strategies. However, there is no research reported on the role of smart cities strategies in managing the COVID-19 outbreak in developing countries.

This paper aims to address the research gap in smart cities, technology and healthcare management through a review of the literature and primary data collected using semi-structured interviews.

Each city is unique and has different challenges, the study revealed six key findings on how smart cities in India managed the COVID-19 outbreak. They used: Integrated Command and Control Centres, Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Application-based Solutions, Smart Waste Management Solutions, Smart Healthcare Management, Smart Data Management and Smart Surveillance.

This paper contributes to informing policymakers of key lessons learnt from the management of COVID-19 in developing countries like India from a smart cities’ perspective. This paper draws on the six Cs for the implications directed to leaders and decision-makers to rethink and act on COVID-19. The six Cs are: Crisis management leadership, Credible communication, Collaboration, Creative governance, Capturing knowledge and Capacity building.

Rural communities around the world are searching for solutions to upkeep, restore and improve local services that are deteriorating. They are exploring the potential of a digital transition along with the opportunities and threats created by new patterns of mobility and closer links with urban areas. The expansion of information and communication technologies (ICT)-enhanced applications enables rural communities to improve their quality of life. The concept of smart village is primarily about how rural communities make the best use of both ICT and social innovation by responding to the ongoing and emerging challenges. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate strategies for adoption of smart villages along with the challenges faced.

A quantitative research methodology was adopted in this research. A web-based questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. In total, 110 fully completed and useable questionnaires were received. Statistical analyses were undertaken using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

The results indicate that lack of budget, lack of clear strategies for development of sustainable “smart villages”, lack of collaboration between stakeholders and lack of knowledge related to “smart villages” are the most debated challenges for implementing smart village agenda. Whereas smart energy, smart healthcare, smart transport, smart education and smart water are the top five most important smart village strategies.

Despite the novel insights provided by this study, it has some limitations. Given that the research reported in this paper is based on literature review and small-scale survey, results presented are only tentative and not generalisable. The findings of this paper are limited to the UK context only. Although generalisability outside of this context may be limited, the authors infer that the results are relevant to other comparable developed countries.

Research on smart village development is rare. This paper presents a theoretical basis on the concept of smart villages. It adds to the rich insight that goes into the understanding and awareness of the current smart village strategies along with the key challenges organisations encounter when implementing smart village initiatives. This research has implications towards informing professionals and policymakers on key lessons learnt during the implementation of smart village strategies. Also, this paper contributes to the academic debate on smart village development and provides useful recommendations to both policymakers and practitioners.

This study aims to investigate the connection between digital literacy and women’s empowerment in the rural Himachal Pradesh. It explores how improved digital skills contribute to increased empowerment among women with a specific focus on the role of education in enhancing digital literacy.

This study included 250 rural participants who completed structured questionnaires. Analytical tools, including independent-sample t-tests and partial least squares structural equation modeling, were applied to the data to gain insights into the relationship between digital literacy and women’s empowerment.

This study revealed a significant positive link between digital literacy and women’s empowerment in the rural Himachal Pradesh context. Education has emerged as a key factor that influences women’s digital skills and empowerment levels.

This research adds novelty by examining the digital literacy–women’s empowerment nexus in rural Himachal Pradesh and emphasizing the impact of education. The combination of statistical methods offers a robust approach to understanding this relationship and underscores the importance of digital inclusion and education for gender equality and women’s progress.

Upon completion of this case study analysis, the course audience is expected to achieve four learning outcomes. In particular, students should be able to conduct a comprehensive organizational diagnosis to uncover the peculiarities of managing a family business; analyze the specific challenges faced by family-owned enterprises in the context of emerging markets; evaluate the succession management practices in family organizations and design a profile of a successful successor; assess the effectiveness of managerial decision-making and provide recommendations for securing the sustainability of a family firm.

This case study unveils the tumultuous story of Vishwanath Shetty, an ambitious entrepreneur who transformed his small venture into a profitable family business with operations in Middle East, Asia and Africa. Since the early establishment of Qontrac International in 1989, he relied on the ownership and management participation of several members of his and his wife’s families. Over the years, Vishwanath was successful in pursuing a strategy of continuous growth and geographic diversification by taking advantage of the business opportunities in several regions and opening up branches in Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ghana and India. Yet, almost three decades after its launch, the company was confronted with a number of family, growth and succession management challenges that endangered its survival in the long run. The Shetty family experienced a serious rift due to financial reasons, the performance of the two branches managed by siblings declined, and the old firm structure and management style did not fit well with the newly enlarged and geographically dispersed Qontrac International. To deal with these organizational issues, Vishwanath was faced with an additional dilemma of securing the support of a suitable intra-family candidate who could join the family business and become his successor. By describing the strategic events and family dynamics that shaped the evolution of Qontrac International over time, the case provides an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of managerial decision-making in the context of family firms and provide viable recommendations for ensuring firm survival and longevity.

Upper-level undergraduate audience Graduate audience (in Master of Global Entrepreneurial Management program).

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Strategy.

The study aims to co-create a “priority action roadmap for women's economic empowerment” based on women's top priorities to charting recovery directions. Doing so contributes to the growing body of knowledge on COVID-19 literature in at least four areas: assessing COVID-19 impacts on women entrepreneurs; mapping these impacts with four interdependent women's entrepreneurial ecosystem components; innovating a co-creation methodology based on remote participatory research; and providing a replicable model to perform action-oriented research in the context of COVID-19 impacts.

A co-creation methodology is proposed, combining systems-thinking and remote participatory research to engage women entrepreneurs and institutional stakeholders to prioritize impact, response actions and recovery needs in the wake of COVID-19. A ranking exercise using the analytic hierarchy process was used to derive ranking and assess user inputs' consistency.

The study exemplifies the integration of participatory methods and mathematical tool to engage stakeholders in prioritizing recovery work. PARWEE action items ranked by entrepreneurs and vetted by institutional stakeholders cover: access to finances, capacity building, health care, public and private partnership, marketing opportunities and formation of active advocacy groups to voice out women entrepreneurs' needs to institutional stakeholders. Results show a slight difference in the ranking of priority actions between experience owners and fresh starters.

This study innovated a new co-creation methodology for remotely engaging stakeholders of the women's entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is grounded in evidence and provides a replicable model for performing action-oriented research.

The main purpose of the present work is to introduce two new Schiff bases as corrosion inhibitors (CIs) for carbon steel (CS). The anti-corrosion performance of these Schiff bases having N and S heteroatoms in their structures was investigated and compared in 2 M HCl electrolyte. The inhibitory activity of these Schiff bases was also assessed.

Common electrochemical assays like potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance measurements were used to evaluate the ability of compounds in reduction of the rate of corrosion. Quantum chemical calculations (QCCs) were also used to examine the corrosion inhibitive and the process related to the electrical and structural characteristics of the molecules acting as CIs.

The electrochemical measurements indicate that both Schiff bases acted as the efficient CIs of CS in 2 M HCl electrolyte. The adsorption of the Schiff base on the surface of the CS caused the corrosion to be inhibited. The change of Gibbs energies indicated that both physical and chemical interactions are involved in the adsorption of NNS and SNS on CS surfaces. The predicted QCCs of the CIs neutral and positively charged versions were well-aligned with those obtained by electrochemical experiments.

Using electrochemical experiments and quantum chemical modelings, two new Schiff bases, N-2-((2-nitrophenyl)thio)phenyl)-1-(pyrrole-2-yl)methanimine (NNS) and N-2-((2-nitrophenyl)thio)phenyl)-1-(thiophen-2-yl)methanimine (SNS), were evaluated as anti-corrosion agents for CS in 2 M HCl electrolyte. The DFT calculations were considered to compute the quantum chemical parameters of the inhibitors.