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This study aims to develop a hierarchical model that uncovers the relationships between challenges confronting Africa's organ transplant supply chain systems.

Eleven challenges (variables) were identified after a comprehensive review of the existing literature. The contextual interactions among these variables were analysed from the perspectives of health-care stakeholders in two sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries (Nigeria and Uganda), using Delphi-interpretive structural modelling-cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) techniques.

The findings reveal that weak regulatory frameworks, insufficient information systems and a lack of necessary skills make it challenging for critical actors to perform the tasks effectively. The interaction effects of these challenges weaken organ supply chains and make it less efficient, giving rise to negative externalities such as black markets for donated organs and organ tourism/trafficking.

This paper establishes a solid foundation for a critical topic that could significantly impact human health and life once the government or non-profit ecosystem matures. The MICMAC analysis in this paper provides a methodological approach for future studies wishing to further develop the organ supply chain structural models.

The study provides valuable insights for experts and policymakers on where to prioritise efforts in designing interventions to strengthen organ transplantation supply chains in developing countries.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine the challenges of organ transplant supply chains from an SSA perspective, including theoretically grounded explanations from data collected in two developing countries.

This work presents the results of a case study aimed at revitalizing an agricultural equipment manufacturing consortium facing prolonged losses. The purpose of this paper is to enhance productivity and profitability by identifying and eliminating waste within the manufacturing processes. The study uses lean principles and tools to achieve this objective.

The study begins with the creation of a questionnaire, administered to the consortium to gather insights. The questionnaire responses serve as a foundation for pinpointing critical areas in need of immediate attention. To tackle the challenge of demand forecasting without customer data, a demand forecasting model is introduced. Value stream mapping (VSM) is used to identify and highlight process inefficiencies and waste. The findings are further analyzed using a Pareto chart to prioritize waste reduction efforts. Based on these insights, the study proposes alternative manufacturing methods and waste elimination strategies. A multiphase lean framework is developed as a step-by-step roadmap for implementing lean manufacturing.

The study identifies a broken process flow within the consortium’s manufacturing processes and highlights areas of waste through VSM. The Pareto chart analysis reveals the most significant waste areas requiring immediate intervention. Recommendations for process improvements and waste reduction strategies are provided to the consortium.

This study contributes to the field by applying lean principles and tools to address the unique challenges faced by an agricultural equipment manufacturing consortium. The integration of a demand forecasting model and the development of a multiphase lean framework offer innovative approaches to enhancing productivity and profitability in this context.

A “state-driven” approach suggests that colonists use census categories to rule. However, a “society-driven” approach suggests that this state-driven perspective confers too much power upon states. A third approach views census-taking and official categorization as a product of state–society interaction that depends upon: (a) the population's lay categories, (b) information intellectuals' ability to take up and transform these lay categories, and (c) the balance of power between social and state actors. We evaluate the above positions by analyzing official records, key texts, travelogues, and statistical memoirs from three key periods in India: Indus Valley civilization through classical Gupta rule (ca. 3300 BCE–700 CE), the “medieval” period (ca. 700–1700 CE), and East India Company (EIC) rule (1757–1857 CE), using historical narrative. We show that information gathering early in the first period was society driven; however, over time, a strong interactive pattern emerged. Scribes (information intellectuals) increased their social status and power (thus, shifting the balance of power) by drawing on caste categories (lay categories) and incorporating them into official information gathering. This intensification of interactive information gathering allowed the Mughals, the EIC, and finally British direct rule officials to collect large quantities of information. Our evidence thus suggests that the intensification of state–society interactions over time laid the groundwork for the success of the direct rule British censuses. It also suggests that any transformative effect of these censuses lay in this interactive pattern, not in the strength of the British colonial state.

The demand-side view of creditor rights posits a negative association between creditor rights and corporate borrowings. The purpose of this paper is as follows: first, the author examines whether the demand-side effect is more pronounced amongst firms with excess promoter shareholding. Subsequently, the authors analyze the impact of high promoter holdings on investment decisions owing to bankruptcy reforms.

To answer the above questions, the authors exploit the passage of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) (2016) that strengthens the creditor rights of lenders, which impacts the borrowings and financing activities of Indian corporates. Using a panel of listed Indian firms over the period of 2012–2019, the authors analyze how the IBC affects firms’ borrowings and financing decisions with excess promoter holdings.

The authors find that bankruptcy reforms led to a statistically significant decline in the use of borrowed funds (primarily secured and long-term debt) by firms with high concentrated holdings. The analysis also indicates that firms with excess promoter ownership face an increased cost of debt due to bankruptcy reforms. As a result, firms with excess promoter holdings curtail their investments. Overall, the results indicate that India’s bankruptcy reforms significantly affect the firms’ financing and investment decisions with highly concentrated ownership.

While past research has explored the relationship between bankruptcy reforms and demand for/supply of debt, the authors provide novel empirical evidence on the role of promoter holdings that affects the relationship between bankruptcy law and financing and investment decisions. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the role of ownership structure in the context of bankruptcy reforms by using a quasi-natural experiment.

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.

This study aims to examine the role of economic political uncertainty (EPU) on various corporate policies, namely, cash reserves, investment, capital structure and operating activities of Indian listed firms.

To assess the influence of policy-related uncertainties, the author uses the India-specific EPU news-based index constructed by Baker et al. (2016) as a proxy for policy uncertainties. This study uses data from listed Indian firms spanning the period 2003 to 2019. The author uses panel regression models with firm-fixed effects to analyze the impact of EPU on corporate policies, including cash reserves, leverage and CAPEX, while considering key control variables.

In response to heightened EPU, firms tend to increase their cash reserves, curtail their investment activities and favour secured financing options. Notably, this study aligns with the “real options” framework, demonstrating that firms with substantial investment irreversibility significantly reduce their capital expenditures during periods of elevated EPU. Additionally, the results reveal that rising EPU corresponds to heightened borrowing costs and increased operating expenses for firms.

In contrast to prior research that predominantly investigated the impact of EPU on the decisions of listed firms in developed markets, this study delves into the role of EPU on corporate policies among listed firms in India. This focus is particularly relevant, given the significant policy changes that have transpired in the Indian business landscape in recent years.

This research examines the influence of business strategy and intellectual capital on firm performance and bankruptcy risk of Oman's non-financial sector companies.

The data comprises 380 firm-year observations collected from 2015 to 2019 for the non-financial sector companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market. This study measures business strategy using the Miles and Snow typologies and Porter's strategies as alternative measures. The study uses the Granger-causality test to measure the bi-directional causality between independent and dependent variables. The authors use alternative measurements of business strategy and 2SLS/IV estimation to validate the OLS results.

According to the Miles and Snow typologies, most of Oman's non-financial firms were analyzers. The empirical results show a negative relationship between business strategy and return on equity (ROE), suggesting defender-type strategy leads to an increase in firm performance. The OLS results show no influence of A-VAIC on firm performance and Altman-Z score. The structural capital efficiency is positively associated with ROA, and Altman Z score consistent with the hypothesized relationship. The Granger causality test shows no inference of causality between any independent and dependent variables except for Z score and CEE.

The business strategy results from the firm performance and bankruptcy risk models are valuable to the researchers from an emerging market and non-financial companies' perspective. Oman's diversification strategy of its economic activities through non-financial sector companies receives an impetus through the findings of this study. As this study is limited to Oman's non-financial sector companies, future research on business strategy impact can be extended to the financial sector, other GCC, and emerging countries.

The findings of this study contribute to the sparse literature on business strategy in an emerging market like Oman. This study enriches the knowledge of business strategy typologies proposed by Miles and Snow, and Porter. It also contributes to the extant literature on firm performance and bankruptcy risk.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the economic (namely cost, revenue and profit) efficiency and its association with intellectual capital of 37 BSE-listed Indian banks over the period 2005–2018.

This study employs truncated Tobit regression to compute the relationship between intellectual capital and estimated cost, revenue and profit efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the 37 BSE-listed Indian banks within the panel data framework.

Estimates suggest that banks’ overall annual average cost, revenue and profit efficiency are 0.4466–0.7519, 0.4825–0.8773 and 0.4905–0.8803, respectively, during the sample period. Further, Tobit regression results indicate that the aggregate intellectual capital (value-added intellectual coefficient or Modified Value-added Intellectual Capital) has a positive but minimal impact on these efficiency parameters at 1 percent significance level for the overall sample as well as public sector banks. Among all the sub-components of intellectual capital, human capital, structural capital and relational capital have a positive and moderate impact on these efficiency measures for the overall sample. Control variables, particularly bank size, are significant drivers of the estimated efficiency of banks.

Findings suggest that banks should invest adequately to enhance their overall intellectual capital to further augment these economic efficiency measures in the long run.

This study computes cost, revenue and profit efficiency of 37 BSE-listed banks based on DEA followed by intellectual capital using the Pulic approach (1998 and 2000) and the Bontis (1998) approach in the first stage. Later, it examines the dynamics between the computed efficiency parameters and intellectual capital using Tobit regression within the panel data framework.