Search results

Spunlacing is a promising nonwoven technology for the production of fabric with good handle and better structural integrity. Structural parameters such as pore size, thickness and number of binding point/entanglement between fibres are decisive for good mechanical and comfort properties of nonwoven fabrics. This study aims to focus on the effect of different process parameters on the structural change in spunlace fabrics.

Spunlacing is purely a mechanical bonding technology where high-speed jets of water strike a web to entangle the fibres. Different spunlace nonwoven structures were produced by varying processing parameters such as waterjet pressure, delivery speed, web mass and web composition as per four-factor, three-level Box–Behnken design. The effect of these parameters on the structural arrangement was studied using scanning electron microscopy. An attempt has also been made to study the changes in pore geometry and thickness of the fabrics by using response surface methodology with backward elimination.

Significant structural changes were observed with variation in water pressure, web mass and web composition. The test results showed that fabric produced at higher waterjet pressure has lower mean pore diameter and lower thickness. The variation in mean pore diameter and mean thickness due to waterjet pressure is around 26 and 34 per cent, respectively, at 95 per cent significance level. The web composition and web mass also significantly influence the mean pore diameter and thickness at 95 per cent significance level. There is a strong positive correlation (r = 0.523) between mean air permeability and mean pore diameter of fabric, and this correlation is significantly linear. A strong negative correlation (r = −0.627) is found between weight and air permeability of fabric.

The delivery speed failed to show any significant effect; this is in contrary to the general expectation.

The effect of concurrent variation in waterjet pressure, web mass, delivery speed and web composition on the structure of spunlace nonwoven is studied, which was not reported in the literature. The effect of web composition on pore diameter of spunlace nonwoven is interesting finding. This study is expected to help in designing the spunlace nonwoven as per end uses and specifically for apparel application.

Sewing thread plays an important role in transforming a two-dimensional fabric into three-dimensional garment. Over the years, ring spinning has been dominating the yarn market because of its consistent performance. Eli-Twist spinning system, a new method of yarn manufacture, provides a product with improved mechanical and physical properties than the conventional ring-spun yarn. It is the process of producing a two-ply compact yarn with improved fibre utilisation. The purpose of this paper is to assess the feasibility of using Eli-Twist yarn as a sewing thread and to compare its performance with conventional thread.

In this study, regular polyester and Indian cotton were used to produce the Eli-Twist and conventional TFO thread. Three different blends (100 per cent polyester, 50/50 polyester/cotton [P/C] and 100 per cent cotton) were taken to produce three different counts (39.4 tex, 29.5 tex and 23.6 tex) from each composition. The hairiness, tenacity, breaking elongation and coefficient of yarn-to-metal friction of threads were tested and a comparative analysis was made. The seam performance of all the threads was judged by seam strength, seam efficiency and seam elongation.

The results show that the mass irregularity and imperfections are more or less similar for both types of threads. Eli-Twist sewing thread has shown less friction, less hairiness and higher tensile strength. The Eli-Twist sewing thread was found to be better than the conventional two-ply sewing thread. The seam performance parameters, such as seam strength, seam efficiency and seam elongation of the Eli-Twist thread showed significantly improved performance.

The main concern of this study is delineating the performance of the Eli-Twist sewing thread. No study in this regard has been reported so far. The improved physical and mechanical behaviour of the Eli-Twist yarn has prompted to assess its performance as sewing thread.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the various perceived risk facets such as financial risk, performance risk, psychological risk, social risk, and physical risk influence the Indian consumers’ perceived overall risk during the purchase of green products such as energy-efficient LED light bulbs.

A self-administered questionnaire comprising a total of 29 items was employed over a sample of 272 respondents. The structural equation modeling using partial least squares was used for data analysis.

Psychological risk emerged as the most influential of the various risk facets in affecting perceived overall risk. Financial, physical, and performance risks emerged as the second, third, and fourth most influential risk facets, respectively, which affect the perceived overall risk. Surprisingly, social risk did not emerge as an influential facet when it comes to affecting perceived overall risk. Further, psychological and financial risks appeared to have a positive medium-level influence on the perceived overall risk, whereas physical and performance risks appeared to have a positive weak influence on the perceived overall risks. The influence of financial risk on the perceived overall risk was found to be partially mediated by performance risk.

The study is unique in the sense that it reflects the risk perception of potential consumers in one of the largest emerging markets of the world, when it comes to purchase of green products.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between dividend policy and the life cycle of firms in India. In addition, this study intends to examine the variation in dividend behaviour over the life cycle of a firm. The study anticipates that a firm's dividend behaviour varies over its life cycle.

To scrutinize the validity of the proposition, the authors classify 1968 non-financial industrial firms listed at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) into growth, mature and stagnant firms over the period 2000–20. Additionally, to check the robustness of the results, they use an array of techniques such as analysis of variance, pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects models and random effects models.

The empirical findings suggest that dividend behaviour varies over a firm's life cycle. Specifically, stagnant firms are paying significantly higher dividends than growth firms. Mature firms are paying significantly higher dividends than growth firms. The results are consistent after controlling the effects of firm's size, profitability, leverage, operating risk, systematic risk and growth opportunities.

The findings are useful for corporate decision makers in establishing an appropriate dividend policy conditional on firms' life cycle stage and for shareholders in making investment decisions.

The relation between dividend policy and firm life cycle has not been examined before in the context of Indian stock market. Thus, this research bridges this gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for a target searching problem in a two-dimensional region with time constraints. The proposed model facilitates the search operation by minimizing the mission time and fuel usage, and the search operation is performed by a set of agents divided into a number of groups.

The authors have applied optimization techniques, Cartesian product, inclusion–exclusion principle, cooperative strategy, Shapley value, fuzzy Shapley function and Choquet integral to model the problem.

The proposed technique optimizes the placement of base stations that minimizes the sortie length of the agents. The results show that the cooperative strategy outperforms the non-cooperative strategy. The Shapley values quantify the rewards of each group based on their contributions to the search operation, whereas the fuzzy Shapley values determine the rewards of each group based on their contributions and level of cooperation in the search operation.

The proposed model can be applied to model many real-time problems such as patrolling in international borders, urban areas, forests and managing rescue operations after natural calamities, etc. Therefore, defence organizations, police departments and other operation management sectors will be benefitted by applying the proposed approach.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, determining the optimal locations of base stations in a region is not explored in the existing works on target searching problems with fuel constraints. The proposed approach to cooperatively search the targets in a region is new. Introducing the Shapley function and fuzzy Shapley function is a novel idea to quantify the rewards of each group based on their contributions and level of cooperation in the search operation. This paper addresses these unexplored areas.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for a two-agent multi-target-searching scenario in a two-dimensional region, where some places of the region have limited resource capacity in terms of the number of agents that can simultaneously pass through those places and few places of the region are unreachable that expand with time. The proposed cooperative search model and Petri net model facilitate the search operation considering the constraints mentioned in the paper. The Petri net model graphically illustrates different scenarios and helps the agents to validate the strategies.

In this paper, the authors have applied an optimization approach to determine the optimal locations of base stations, a cooperative search model, inclusion–exclusion principle, Cartesian product to optimize the search operation and a Petri net model to validate the search technique.

The proposed approach finds the optimal locations of the base stations in the region. The proposed cooperative search model allows various constraints such as resource capacity, time-dependent unreachable places/obstacles, fuel capacities of the agents, two types of targets assigned to two agents and limited sortie lengths. On the other hand, a Petri net model graphically represents whether collisions/deadlocks between the two agents are possible or not for a particular combination of paths as well as effect of time-dependent unreachable places for different combination of paths are also illustrated.

The problem addressed in this paper is similar to various real-time problems such as rescue operations during/after flood, landslide, earthquake, accident, patrolling in urban areas, international borders, forests, etc. Thus, the proposed model can benefit various organizations and departments such as rescue operation authorities, defense organizations, police departments, etc.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the problem addressed in this paper has not been completely explored, and the proposed cooperative search model to conduct the search operation considering the above-mentioned constraints is new. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no paper has modeled time-dependent unreachable places with the help of Petri net.

The case was an application of a market demand and supply mechanism and its impact on the product’s price and focus on the following objectives:▪ Analyze the vegetable market in India and the challenges faced by the farmers (tomatoes) using demand and supply concepts.▪ Examine the impact of price elasticity on the revenue of the farmers.▪ Assess the challenges faced by the government in controlling prices of vegetables and food inflation.▪ Evaluate diversification strategies in agriculture to mitigate risk.

The market for tomatoes was highly cyclical because of erratic rainfall, and farmers went through a difficult time, especially when the prices fell below the cost of production. They moved out for crops that had stable prices. They expected government support for price stability. Government and policymakers considered price fluctuations a short-term phenomenon that required limited interventions when prices were high. This case was about Dilip, a farmer who was into farming tomatoes on a large scale in Karnataka, India. He was facing a dilemma as to whether he had to continue or move to other crops because of the low price of tomatoes in May 2023 or to diversify into some small but related business. He was worried at the same time, curious to understand the volatility in the prices of tomatoes, government responses, risks and returns associated with the cultivation of this crop and Agri-supply chain. Based on his understanding, he should make decisions to continue or diversify into some other farming or related business.

This case was written for microeconomics and managerial economics of undergraduate and postgraduate students. This case demonstrates the application of the demand and supply mechanism for a perishable product such as tomatoes. Price fluctuations are common in these markets because of various uncontrollable factors such as rain, pests and natural calamities. The case could show the relationship between the firm’s elasticities and revenue. This case also highlights the policy constraints in controlling the prices in the short run. This case could also be used for understanding macroeconomic concepts such as food inflation and its impact on general price inflation. The students or target audience with a background in the functioning of the markets could very well relate to the concepts discussed.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: Entrepreneurship (3); Management Science (7).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic relationship among Gold, Crude oil, Indian Rupee-US Dollar and Stock market-Sensex (gold, oil, dollar and stock market (GODS)) in the pre-crisis, the crisis and the post-crisis periods in the Indian context.

The authors use Johansen’s cointegration technique, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), Vector Auto Regression, VEC Granger Causality/Block Exogeneity Wald Test, and Granger Causality and Toda Yamamoto modified Granger causality to study long-run relationship and causality.

Johansen’s cointegration test results indicate that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables in the pre-crisis and the crisis periods but not in post-crisis period. VECM results report that none of four models of the variables show long-run causality in the pre-crisis period. During the crisis period, both crude oil and Sensex models show long-run causality. However, in some cases, results indicate short-run causality. The authors find one-way causality from USD and Sensex to crude oil, and from gold and Sensex to USD. Thus, the authors conclude that the relationship among GODS is dynamic across global financial crisis.

The research findings of this study are vital to the large group of stakeholders and participants of gold, crude oil, US dollar and stock market in emerging economies like India. The results are useful to importers, exporters, government, policy makers, corporate houses, retail investors, portfolio managers, commodity traders, treasury and fund managers, other commercial traders, etc.

This study is one of its kinds as it investigates the relationship among GODS in India in different sub-periods like before, during and after the global financial crisis of 2008. None of the studies compare phase-wise relationship among GODS in the Indian context. The study contributes to the economic theory and the body of knowledge. It highlights the need to revisit the economic theory to explain the interplay mechanism among GODS.

Since liberalization in the 1990s, India has witnessed a growth in the number of educated middle-class women in professions. However, there are few women in leadership positions and decision-making bodies. While the earlier notion of the ideal woman as homemaker has been replaced by one which idealizes women of substance, a woman’s role in the family continues to be pivotal and is even viewed as central in defining Indian culture. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how and to what extent gender inequalities are reproduced in the organizations employing educated professionals.

Based on the perspective that gender is socially constructed, this paper analyzes gender inequality in Indian organizations through semi-structured interviews of men and women scientists in two private pharmaceutical laboratories.

The findings show reproduction of a gendered normative order through two types of norms and practices: one, norms and practices that favor men and second, socio-cultural norms that devalue women in public spaces which help to maintain masculinity in the workplace. Although these practices might be found elsewhere in the world, the manner in which they are enacted reflects national cultural norms.

The paper highlights how various norms and practices enacted in the specific Indian socio-cultural context construct and maintain masculinity at workplace depriving opportunities to professional women which affect their rise to leadership positions.