Search results

The increasing awareness among the stakeholders demands the companies to be more transparent in their annual reporting. In the absence of standardized reporting norms, companies are free to structure sustainability report as per their understanding, willingness and intent. Although some voluntary guidelines have been issued by the regulatory authorities in India, the norms are still not clear as to what to report and how to report. This paper aims to look in to sustainability reporting practices by top companies listed in Bombay stock exchange and its impact on financial performance.

Using this sample of 68 companies from top 100 in the list of ET500 for 2016, self-constructed sustainability reporting score has been computed for each company for the financial year 2012-2013 and 2015-2016. The two periods represent pre- and post-disclosure reform periods in India. A sustainability reporting scale has been constructed using 16 parameters of sustainable performance based on social, environment and governance aspects as reported in the annual report, sustainability report and business responsibility report.

It has been found that there is a significant improvement in sustainability reporting by Indian companies after the introduction of disclosure reforms. Different sectors show significant difference in the sustainability reporting during pre-reform period but as the sustainability reporting improves after the reforms, sector difference reduces. Sustainability reporting is a significant predictor of financial parameters of return on sales, return on equity and Tobin’s Q in pre-reform period, but in the post-reform period, no significant impact was found on financial performance.

Disclosure reforms have made a significant impact on sustainability reporting by Indian companies. Companies need to identify the core areas of social responsibility, to implement Indian model of mandatory 2 per cent spending on corporate social responsibility. Disclosure of carbon foot prints should be mandatory and more number of independent directors should be appointed for successful implementation of these reforms. Market regulators should be made more powerful and given a free hand to prosecute the companies involved in frauds and high penalties should be imposed for non-compliance.

Sustainability reporting has drawn increased strategic attention in India to make reporting more transparent and responsible toward society and environment. The structural changes and introduction of disclosure reforms make an interesting case to investigate their implications on Indian companies. Accordingly, this research studies the sustainability reporting by Indian companies before and after the introduction of disclosure reforms. No previous research has investigated the impact of these reforms considering two different periods.

This paper aims to identify changes in individual investors’ preferences, prominent sentiments in the market, behavioural tendencies and biases demonstrated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the study is exploratory social research, the design is also structured as such. In total, 69 Securities and Exchange Board of India-registered investment advisors catering to investors of diverse profiles, experiences and locales are engaged through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The responses are categorised thematically using a data structure model.

Investors are guided by an inclination for safer and liquid asset classes and prefer fixed income securities. The authors observe various emotional reactions – inexperienced investors panic, experienced investors act maturely, while a few of both naïve and sophisticated investors are opportunistic contrarians. Lower valuations, ease of access to digital infrastructure for trading and social norms attract many first-time individual investors, causing a phenomenon identified as the “new investor boom”. Apart from the biases identified during the financial crisis, the authors also detect evidence of cognitive dissonance, bandwagon effect, fear-of-missing-out syndrome, disposition effect and others.

The paper also discusses some noticeable behavioural tendencies displayed by the individual investors and compiles helpful strategies to successfully navigate any such financial crisis.

An individual investor is a least aware and most affected stakeholder in any crisis, so this study contributes newer insights to ensure their financial well-being.

The study’s originality lies in adopting a qualitative methodology that uses investment advisors’ professional experience to unveil the sub-structures of investor psychology and decision-making behaviour during COVID-19.

Given the strong religious background of India, it is quite surprising that the country is ranked as the most corrupt nation in the Asia Pacific region in 2017. This prompts the authors to investigate the role of religiosity in shaping an individual’s preference for ethical behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore the conceptual linkage between religiosity and attitude towards business ethics (ATBE) and also assess the role of gender and profession in shaping it.

Using a cross-sectional survey on two divergent professional groups, management students and working professionals, this study explores the causal role of religiosity on ATBE using pre-validated religious commitment inventory (RCI-10) and ATBE through multiple regression. The difference between ATBE owing to the difference in gender and profession is investigated using independent sample t-test and Levene’s F-test. Multiple analysis of variance and multiple analysis of covariance are used to test the difference in ethical business philosophies.

The findings of the study indicate that gender and profession do not influence ATBE, though religious individuals have an ethical approach towards business issues. The significant causal relationship between composite religiosity and ATBE is documented. Further, assessing the predictor role of intra- and inter-personal religiosity on ATBE, the authors see that only intra-personal religiosity, which measures individual’s meta-physical belief is found as a significant predictor of ATBE.

Individuals with higher intrapersonal religiosity would exhibit superior ethical conduct. For a developing country like India, such conduct at both private and public organizations would lead to reduced scams or frauds, stimulating economic growth.

Religion plays a significant role in the life of Indian people but its meaning and understanding differ from person to person. Evidence supports that people with strong religious beliefs whether management students or working professionals, tend to have a strong ethical attitude towards different situations in decision-making.

Even after appreciating multi-faceted merits of retail participation in stock markets and extensive efforts by policymakers and financial service industry to increase it, the present low retail participation in Indian stock markets is cause of grave concern. The purpose of this paper is to identify plausible drivers and deterrents of prospective and current household individuals through a multi-stage qualitative enquiry.

Two qualitative studies are conducted. In Study 1, scholarship of stakeholders is engaged through participative diamond model to propose behavioural classification of retail investors based on two-parameter framework. In Study 2, behavioural substructures of retail investors that drive or deter investment intentions and actions are identified through in-depth interviews.

Financial self-efficacy, past experience (own or peer group), financial eco-system, operational literacy, higher charges by financial experts and low liquidity in the hands of the investors are some key factors that influence investment intension and action of individual investors. Though digital platforms have helped to overcome hurdles faced by an investor but its availability, awareness and ease of use still remain a concern.

The inductive findings of this study uncover some important take-aways for the financial service industry – improve operational literacy, digital awareness, ease of use and incorporate risk assessments in client portfolios – and for the policymakers – improve investment eco-system through digital availability, financial literacy workshops focussed on operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the initial attempts to adopt a multi-stage qualitative enquiry to propose behavioural classification of retail investors and uncover reasons that drive or deter individual investors’ intentions and actions in the context of Indian stock market. Moreover, this study provides necessary impetus to analyse and improve operational literacy (instead of financial literacy) and financial eco-system for higher retail participation.

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to c-exist with humans despite many TB control programs and elimination strategies. This depicts that some barriers are not allowing achieving the desired results. The current study aims to focus on identification and ranking of such barriers to facilitate TB control programs in developing countries.

In the present study, 13 barriers that can influence success rate of TB elimination strategies have been recognized with an in-depth assessment of related literature and opinions of specialists from medical industry and academic world. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques have been employed for the ranking of barriers.

Based on driving power of barriers, the study coined that underinvestment is a major barrier followed by poor implementation of government policies and programs, poverty and poor primary health care infrastructure.

The findings may guide healthcare service providers and researchers in analyzing the barriers and understanding the necessity of further advancements to decrease the count of already existing and incident cases.

Policy- and decision-makers may utilize the information on dependence and driving power of barriers for better planning and effective execution of TB control strategies.

Although a lot of literature is available on different barriers that are affecting success of TB strategies, the current study analyzes all the key barriers collectively for the prioritization of barriers.