Search results

We have used data mostly from published sources like The Economic Times, Forbes, The Times of India and the annual reports of Nestlé India Ltd. Because we classify it as a Teaching Case Study as per the guidelines of Emerald Publishing, we have ensured that any data presented in the case has been acquired only from published sources and is not internal company data. Citations have also been provided wherever necessary.

On 6 June 2015, Nestlé India’s top product Maggi instant noodles was banned nationwide for an unspecified period. The ban was imposed due to allegations of Maggi containing high amounts of lead and message, and consequently violating the food safety standards. What followed was the destruction of massive stocks of Maggi which had been taken off from shelves of stores countrywide. Furthermore, the company faced a huge blow financially as its sales plummeted. This case delves into how Nestlé India adopted relevant strategies to successfully avert the Maggi crisis. Some remedial measures included appointing a Managing Director who understood the market, improving the communication channel and boosting the churn out of new products along with greater emphasis on marketing and advertising.

This case is aimed mainly at undergraduate level students in the field of management studies and public relations management. This case is also relevant for students pursuing a specialization in Crisis Communication, Public Relations, Marketing and Organizational Change.

Iron deficiency is the number one nutritional disorder in the world and is quite common in Pakistan. Iron deficiency anaemia may result from a low dietary intake, inadequate intestinal absorption, excessive blood loss, and/or increased needs. While iron overload is also responsible of number of diseases. The normal iron status of our body is usually maintained by controlling amount of iron absorbed from food. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for adult male and female in the age from 19 to 50 years is 8 and 18mg, respectively. While RDA above 50 years is it for both genders i.e. 8mg (NIH, 2002). Nutritional status of dietary iron was estimated to combat the iron related diseases in Pakistani population.

Food samples were collected from major cities/districts of the country using market basket method. Daily diets were prepared and analyzed for iron contents using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS).

An average value of iron concentration was measured to be 52±15μg/g, which leads to an average daily dietary intake of 31±9.5mg/d, with a variation of 12 to 52mg/d. The estimated values of our daily iron intake are about 2 times higher than the recommended daily allowance set by international committee of radiological protection (ICRP) and US food and nutrition board (FNB). Apparently our diet seems enriched in iron contents. But its bioavailability may be low due to dietary composition. Major portion of our diet is based on plant food (71 per cent), followed by milk products (17 per cent) and other miscellaneous items, whereas consumption of animal food is only 5 per cent. This dietary composition and our food intake habits in the presence of iron inhibiters (i.e. phytate in plant food, tannin and polyphenols in tea and calcium) could be the leading cause of iron deficiency anemia among the Pakistani population.

Iron deficiency anemia is quiet common and cause of concern in Pakistan. The findings of the study indicate that bioavailability of iron to Pakistani population can be enhanced/improved with slight alterations/adjustments in dietary habits.

Family business has been widely discussed in the literature. Still, a holistic approach summarizing the family business concept in entrepreneurship is fragmented to date. This paper aims to explore the multimedia view of family business research in entrepreneurship and finds the key theme discussed by researchers.

In this paper, a systematic literature review on family business and its role in entrepreneurship have been conducted. The literature review consists of bibliometric and content analyzes. Bibliometric research offers quantitative insights, whereas content analysis provides the qualitative evaluation of the literature.

The findings suggest that recent research in this area focuses on exploring the role of women entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship in the family business. The literature also finds that because of the nature of family businesses, successors get the opportunity to use their family’s network, social status, financing and opportunity toward a well-developed market.

This paper may help researchers and practitioners to identify the past and current research trends related to family business and entrepreneurship.

The concepts from network theory are applied for content analysis to identify and explore various family business and entrepreneurship literature sub-domains.

The purpose of this paper aims to assess the intake of dietary selenium among Jordanian adults in Madaba Governorate.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional study in Madaba Governorate. Convenience sampling was done at Madaba Governorate for this study. The subjects comprised 500 subjects (325 women and 175 men) aged from 18 to 60 years. A 24-h recall (24-HR) and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) were used to estimate the selenium intake in the studied population.

Mean of dietary selenium was more than the recommended amount by at least 2.5-fold in both methods FFQ and 24-HR (p = 0.004), while no significant difference was observed in selenium consumption per day for women and men respectively using FFQ. The results indicated that selenium consumption is higher than the RDA among Madaba population. A moderate correlation was found between both methods for all subjects, women and men, respectively (p < 0.05).

The authors conclude that the selenium intake in Jordanian population is significantly above the RDA. However, future studies are required to correlate this high intake with health benefits and exclude toxic effects of Selenium.

Organic solar cells have potential as an alternative to conventional inorganic solar cell due to low processing cost, flexibility and easy fabrication technique.

The goal of this paper is to study the characteristics of the CuPc and PCBM based organic solar cell by introducing a thin layer of Ag at the interface of donor (CuPc) and Acceptor (PCBM), their photovoltaic and optical properties were investigated. The heterojunction solar cells with and without silver inter layer were fabricated through thermal deposition in HR vacuum. The OPV solar cells were characterized using current-voltage graphs, absorbance spectrum and Impedance spectroscopy. Impedance spectroscopy was taken to identify the traps using series resistance, parallel resistance, and Impedance spectrums under different frequencies. Optical behaviors of these devices have been investigated with absorbance spectrum.

Introducing Ag to interfacing point produced traps and these traps causes to decreased Voc, Isc, FF, and efficiency. The effect of silver layer at donor acceptor interface was studied.

Family businesses dominate the economic landscape and contribute to the market for corporate control across the globe, either as acquiring companies or as target. However, there is still limited research investigating acquisitions by or of family firms. The authors begin to remedy this gap by providing a narrative review of extant research. Findings indicate that acquisitions in family firms are primarily regarded as a tool to solve succession problems, and not as a strategic tool to achieve growth. A greater dialog between acquisition and family business scholars can be an important means to improve theory and practice of acquisitions involving family businesses across the globe.

The study analyses the effectiveness of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework in fostering sustainability. The study utilises a library research by surveying prior literature on issues related to the subject matter. Differing philosophical schools of thoughts of proponents and opponents of the current state of ESG reporting were analysed vis-à-vis their pros and cons, and the resulting outcome of the discourse utilised to set forth a position for engendering sustainable development. The study proposes the development of a holistic integrated framework that incorporates quantitative ESG disclosures with financial reporting, achieved through the monetisation of the ESG indices. The study outlines that despite the perceived herculean nature of the quantification of ESG indices, along with its incorporation into the financial reporting framework, the feat is nevertheless achievable. The integration might, however, be required to occur within phases, as well as a committed participation from the requisite stakeholders. Despite the seemingly precarious nature of the monetisation of the ESG indices, in our opinion, it remains the best bet yet for the promotion of true sustainability of not just the firm, but of the entire planet.

The proposed theoretical model offers a systematic approach to synthesize the fragmented research on organizational crisis, disasters and extreme events.

This paper offers a theoretical model of organizational responses to extreme threats.

The paper explains that organizations choose between hypervigilance (freeze), exit (flight), growth (fight) and dormancy (fright) when faced with extreme threats. The authors explain how the choice between these responses are informed by the interplay between slack and routines.

The study’s theoretical model contributes by explaining the nature of organizational responses to extreme threats and how the two underlying mechanisms, slack and routines, determine heterogeneity between organizations.

The authors advance four key managerial considerations: the need to distinguish between discrete and chronic threats, the critical role of hypervigilance in the face of extreme threats, the distinction between resources and routines during threat mitigation, and the recognition that organizational exit may sometimes be the most effective means for survival.

The novelty of this paper pertains to the authors’ use of the comparative developmental approach to incorporate insights from the study of individual responses to life-threatening events to explain organizational responses to extreme threats.

Selenium deficiency in combination with iodine also has profound effect in the generation of thyroid related diseases and on neonatal growth and its survival. In Pakistan, occurrence of thyroid related diseases are common. Low levels of iodine in food have been established and published estimates are available, but data on selenium intake levels were scarce. The purpose of this paper is to generate baseline analytical data on dietary intake of selenium to investigate its impact on occurrence of thyroid related diseases in Pakistani population.

Food samples were collected from major cities/districts of the country using market basket method. Daily diets were prepared and analyzed by using neutron activation analysis.

Measured levels varied from 51 to 453ng/g with geometric mean value (GM) × geometric standard deviation (GSD) of 163 × 1.6ng/g. This leads to daily intake variation from 31 to 270 μg/d with GM × GSD value of 97 × 1.6 μg/d. The measured levels were compared with reported values of other countries and recommended estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intake (ESADDI) range of 50‐200 μg/d for adults. The estimated selenium levels are adequate and safe as per international standard.

The paper provides baseline data and indicates that Pakistani diet contains sufficient amount of selenium and may not be cause of concern for thyroid related diseases in our country.

The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to examine the relevance of specific strategic orientations for family businesses in the context of an intense crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) to investigate the role of a family adaptability in surviving the crisis; and 3) to assess how proactive strategic responses connected with marketing or retrenchment responses connected with reducing costs relate to the expected survival of the crisis.

The method adopted is a quantitative research approach. The theoretical framework uses a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for the data collected from an online survey of a sample of 544 family businesses in the accommodation industry.

This paper makes three main findings. First, family businesses that invest in operational marketing actions as a strategic response to the crisis have a high expectation of surviving the crisis. Second, family businesses that reduce their operational and labor costs as a strategic response have a low expectation of surviving the crisis. Third, the family business’s adaptability is also fundamental to their expectation of survival.

This is the first paper to identify the possible reactions of family businesses to the COVID-19 crisis. the authors show that there are proactive or retrenchment strategic responses, and the authors relate those responses to the expectancy of surviving the crisis. This is also the first study to examine the relevance of family adaptability as a measure of the resilience of family businesses and, therefore, as a determinant of the expectation of surviving the crisis.