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The purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a performance‐based allocation model for university libraries in India.

Using economic models with weighted values, a system of allocating funds to university library departments is illustrated.

The paper finds that many university libraries in India struggle to continue their existing operations and services due to financial problems. Careful budgeting and most appropriate use of financial resources is essential to solve the existing financial problems.

The model takes into account efficiency and equity considerations, which can assist the library in allocating its budget in a transparent and fair manner.

Development of new radiation‐curable materials for the application in radiation curing technology is of significant importance. Most of the commercially available radiation‐curable resins are derived from synthetic raw materials. The synthesis of acrylated, epoxidised soybean oil (ESO) from ESO had been carried out by reacting acrylic acid with the oxirane group in ESO. The acrylated ESO products were characterised using a variety of analytical techniques. Thus, the oxygen value, the iodine value, the acid value and the infrared spectra of the acrylated ESO products were obtained. Pigmented acrylated ESO systems were prepared and found to cure on exposure to UV radiation.

The study aims to identify the major challenges encountered by Indian exporters of agricultural products in the course of fulfilling export orders.

To achieve the objectives, a questionnaire and interview method are used to gather data from a randomly selected sample of 300 agri-exporters in Haryana, India. The study categorizes the various perceived constraints into problem variables or factors using factor analysis. Then, the aggregated scales are regressed against predictors, to validate the proposed hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that the broad challenges faced by agri-exporters of India are related to logistics, technological and quality assurance, financial, supply-chain bottlenecks and customs-related documentation. Furthermore, the findings confirm that the predictors have a significant effect on the identified constraints. Notably, the export experience emerged as the most influential variable contributing to overcome the challenges faced by Indian agri-exporters.

The study’s exclusive focus on the exporter’s perspective limits a comprehensive understanding. Incorporating data from logistics providers, customs agents and financial institutions could offer a more holistic view of the challenges.

The study offers new insights and contributes to the existing knowledge base by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the challenges faced by exporters and modeling them.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of strategic plans in the planning of information services and systems in the University of Malawi libraries.

A case study approach was used as the research design. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Quantitative data were collected from the budget estimates from 2004/2005 to 2009/2010 the financial years. Quantitative data were collected from the UNIMA Strategic Plans (2004/2005‐2009/2010) and (2012/2013‐2016/2017). Other views were collected from a forum group discussion of librarians in UNIMA on what they knew about the two strategic plans. Both qualitative and qualitative data are presented in the form of tables. Quantitative data were analysed by calculating percentage increase/decreases in the figures from the previous year. Qualitative data were analysed thematically

The strategic plans have guided the planning, budgeting and financing of UNIMA, including the planning of library services and systems. However, despite the formulation of the strategic plans, political, economic, social, internal and external forces have negatively impacted the implementation of the plans. The strategic plans have also failed to represent the wishes of the libraries as an appropriate environmental scan for the UNIMA libraries was not taken into account.

Although planning has been a popular topic in business circles, little is known about the planning that occurs in libraries in developing countries. This study seeks to bridge the information gap on the planning for information resources in the University of Malawi libraries.

The authors empirically examined the theoretically recognized industrial linkages between manufacturing and services from the trade perspective. In particular, they confirmed the trade effect of manufacturing on services, given that global value chain fragmentation pervades and splits manufacturing and services segments separately in developed and developing countries.

Based on observations of 47 countries with manufacturing and service trade data from 1990 to 2020 and with gravity model specification, the authors primarily used the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation with multiple levels of fixed effects. Considering that many zero values are included in the dependent variable and potential endogeneity, other methods such as Tobit regression, Heckman estimation and two-stage least squares estimation (2SLS) are used. Subsample estimation also supplemented the empirical research.

The results showed that manufacturing trade is a stepping-stone rather than an obstacle to service trade. This finding exhibited significant robustness under different model specifications, instrumental variable estimation and subsample checks. Moreover, in contrast to the north–north country ties, manufacturing trade between northern and southern countries has played a prominent stepping-stone role; meanwhile, manufacturing trade among core–peripheral countries has a considerably more significant impact than the outcomes of core–core and peripheral–peripheral countries.

The authors provided direct clarification and revealed that trade in manufacturing remains the demand basis for service trade. As trade in manufacturing and services are typical phenomena of transnational production linkages, the authors suggested exploring the underlying role of global value chain (GVC) fragmentation and the offset and even barrier effect of biased institutional arrangements on GVC fragmentation.

Corporate treasurers manage the currency risk of their organization by hedging through futures contracts. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of hedging by US currency futures contracts by taking into account the efficiency of the currency market.

The static models for calculating hedge ratio are as popular as dynamic models. But the main disadvantage with the static models is that they do not consider important properties of time series like autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity of the residuals and also ignore the cointegration of the market variables which indicate short-run market disequilibrium. The present study, therefore, measures the hedging effectiveness in the US currency futures market using two dynamic models – constant conditional correlation multivariate generalized ARCH (CCC-MGARCH) and dynamic conditional correlation multivariate GARCH (DCC-MGARCH).

The study finds that both the dynamic models used in the study provide similar results. The relative comparison of CCC-MGARCH and DCC-MGARCH models shows that CCC-MGARCH provides better hedging effectiveness result, and thus, should be preferred over the other model.

The findings of the study are important for the company treasurers since the new updated Indian accounting standards (Ind-AS), applicable from the financial year 2016–2017, make it mandatory for the companies to evaluate the effectiveness of hedges. These standards do not specify a quantitative method of evaluation but provide the flexibility to the companies in choosing an appropriate method which justifies their risk management objective. These results are also useful for the policy makers as they can specify and list the appropriate methods for evaluating the hedge effectiveness in the currency market.

Majorly, the studies on Indian financial market limit themselves to either examining the efficiency of that market or to evaluate the effectiveness of the hedges undertaken. Moreover, most of such works focus on the stock market or the commodity market in India. This is one of the first studies which bring together the concepts of efficiency of the market and effectiveness of the hedges in the Indian currency futures market.

This paper aims to understand the influence of velocity slip, nanoparticle volume fraction, chemical reaction and non-linear thermal radiation on MHD three-dimensional heat and mass transfer boundary layer flow over a stretching sheet filled with water-based alumina nanofluid. To get more meaningful results, the authors have taken nonlinear thermal radiation in the heat transfer process.

Suitable similarity variables are introduced to convert governing partial differential equations into the set of ordinary differential equations, and are solved numerically using a versatile, extensively validated finite element method with Galerkin’s weighted residual simulation. The velocity, temperature and concentration profiles of nanoparticles as well as skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number for different non-dimensional parameters such as volume fraction, magnetic, radiation and velocity slip parameters as well as the Prandtl number are examined in detail, and are presented through plots and tables.

It is noticed that the rate of heat transfer enhances with higher values of nanoparticle volume fraction parameter. It is worth mentioning that the heat transfer rates improve as the values of increase. Increasing values of M, R, θ_w and β decelerates the thickness of the thermal boundary layer in the fluid regime. The heat transfer rates decelerate as the values of suction parameter increase.

The authors have written this paper based on the best of their knowledge on heat and mass transfer analysis of nanofluids. The information in this paper is new and not copied from any other sources.

This article aims to explore the meanings of positionality and demonstrate how reflective memos can illustrate positionality in a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) study.

Acknowledging the positionality of the researcher through a reflective approach is an essential element of CGT studies. The first author (IS) used reflective memoing in her CGT study on Indian immigrant children's asthma to practice reflexivity and make her positionality explicit. Through memos, IS acknowledges her knowledge, beliefs, practices, experience and pre-existing assumptions about the research topic. This article is a compilation of the reflective memos that IS wrote during the initial phase of her research and draws on her motivations as they relate to the topic under study in the context of current literature.

The reflective accounts of a researcher's background and experience can act as a lens for understanding the research question and the choice of methodology.

This article may be useful to novice qualitative researchers who are struggling to define and establish their own positionality. John Dewey's and David Schon's works on reflective thinking serve as valuable tools to practice reflexivity. Philosophically underpinned reflections in the form of memos, employed from the outset and throughout the study, can enhance the study rigour by making research decisions transparent.

This article provides practical guidance on how to outline positionality at the outset of a CGT study.

Small and ignorant investors have had very unpleasant experiences in the stock market. They should be alert and have proper knowledge and understanding of the various problems that can arise in their dealings and how these can be resolved. This paper aims to analyse the investors’ probable solutions to their investment-related problems by using descriptives and factor analysis technique. Only Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) can ensure a free and fair market and take India into league of major global capital markets in the next round of reforms.

By personally visiting the offices of the stockbrokers, 1,000 questionnaires have been distributed among retail equity investors of Punjab, i.e. Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali. Stockbrokers have been selected using simple random sampling technique because of their large number. In total, 373 questionnaires have been filled up by the respondents, and 45 questionnaires have been found to be incomplete and thus have been excluded from the analysis. Remaining 328 questionnaires have been used for the analysis. The objective of the research is to study the investors’ probable solutions to their investment-related problems. The collected data have been analysed using descriptives and factor analysis technique.

It has been found that 24.7 per cent retail equity investors have filed complaints while dealing in the securities market; on the other hand, 75.3 per cent retail equity investors have not filed any complaint neither against the company nor against the intermediaries. It has been found that the authorities have taken 12-90 days and even four-five months in providing first reply to their complainants. Moreover, it has been found that in some of the cases, SEBI has written to the concerned companies to resolve the complaints, and some issues have been still pending with SEBI. It has been revealed that SEBI has taken quite long time to resolve the complaints, and equity investors have not been satisfied with the decisions of the SEBI. This study has further highlighted the importance of variables considered by investors as probable solutions to their problems while dealing with securities. The highest mean score has been found for the variable grievance redressal mechanism has been slow, followed by investors have been exploited by the malpractices of companies, merchant bankers and auditors, stronger regulations have been required to strengthen investor protection, investor has yet not educated enough to discriminate between good and not-so-good scrips, etc. These 22 variables measuring the construct of investors’ probable solutions to their problems have been analysed with the help of factor analysis. Six factors have been identified with the help of factor analysis, i.e. stability measures for stock market, investor awareness and education norms, measures to impart knowledge to investors, measures to protect investor rights, audit of companies and investor grievance redressal, and these factors have together explained 68.441 per cent of the variance in data.

Based on the study done by the researcher, the following suggestions are identified for further research. As the present study is at a state level, it could be extended to national level. The impact of retail investment in capital market may be studied in view of rural investors. The study may further be carried out to analyse the impact of reforms on the functioning of stock exchanges. A study on the awareness of women investors about retail investment pattern could be attempted. Implications of internet stock trading in India can be taken up for study. Impact of technological innovation in capital markets can be studied.

This study would be of great use for investors who make decisions regarding investment. This study will help policymakers in formulating strategies and will also help credit rating agencies in rating the investment instruments.

This study is of great help for investors and SEBI. This study guides the investors regarding various laws that have been formulated for their protection and guides the SEBI in making strict regulations for the protection of the investors.

This task is 100 per cent original and some authors have been quoted.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of work-related factors, namely work overload and work support on work-life balance (WLB) dimensions and its significant impact on work satisfaction particularly among South Indian nurses in the healthcare sector.

The study was carried out in the healthcare sector comprising of 182 nurses employed in various hospitals located in southern parts of India through a structured questionnaire. The study adopted Barron and Kenny’s mediated regression analysis.

Work satisfaction showed a significant negative relationship with work overload and a positive relationship with work support. WLB dimensions, namely work to personal life strains, personal life to work strains, work to personal life gains (WPLG) and personal life to work gains mediated the relationships between work support and work satisfaction. However, WPLG mediated the relationships between work overload and work satisfaction.

The present investigation directed toward the importance of work-personal life balance experienced by the nurses in the healthcare sector imperatively influence both work and personal life domains and the study suggests that support from the organization, superiors and peers can go a long way in helping the incumbents to attain improved organizational outcomes.

This study focuses on investigating the mediating role of WLB dimensions in the relationship between organizational-related factors and work satisfaction among nurses in the healthcare sector in South India.