Technology, Management and Business: Volume 31

Digital technology has had a massive impact on business management procedures, driving modifications. The goal of this study is to figure out how human resource management (HRM) in businesses should change as digital technology develops. Via social, mobile, analytic and cloud technology, businesses can monitor and ensure that preconceptions and assumptions inside the organization drive acceptable behaviour. The outcomes of this study reveal that information transformation has influenced jobs growth, labour supply and the composition of corporate talent. Management and control in management of human resources (HR) should give way to empowerment. The goal of the current review is to examine current technological trends in HRM-related enterprises. Peer-reviewed articles from databases like EBSCO, Emerald and Sage publications provide the foundation of the review. Since there are few academic articles on the subject of the study, which covers technology in HRM and cloud in HRM, references from organizational reports have also been incorporated. Utilizing digital technologies in HR will increase organizational performance through decisions involving talent, forecasting workforce requirements and maximizing talent through planning and development. Informed decision-making will also allow HR to assist an organization in achieving corporate objectives. It also makes it possible to manage staff members through hiring, training, job happiness, productivity and task assignment based on qualifications. Additionally, it aids in determining the cause of attrition and locating high-value individuals who are departing.

The evolution of new technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and block chain has led to phenomenal growth of the FinTech Industry. The digital-only banking also known as neo, virtual or challenger banks leverage these technologies with the ultimate aim of enhancing the reach of the formal banking sector to the hinterlands of our country which are currently plagued with the problem of inadequate infrastructure. It is evident that convergence of the neo-bank with the traditional banking system would be a path-breaker as it caters to the gamut of services which can be offered to the end customer. Recent trends indicate that regulators are concentrating on consolidating different enactments in the form of codes instead of separate and piecemeal laws to control regulatory cholesterol and promoting digital technologies, thereby nurturing competitiveness in the market. Through this chapter we aim to do a comparative analysis of the technological advancements and its implementation in India with other jurisdictions. We will be relying on secondary data sourced from various governmental websites, surveys and journals. With the FinTech industry gaining traction and decentralization of this sector, it becomes imperative to have proper regulations to curb unwarranted risks, the absence of which might just halt the potential growth and can turn out to be a nightmare for the economy if not dealt with caution. There exists unexploited potential in the digital sector which can also be used across the borders to realize its true worth. However, it should be based on responsible innovation which attends to the interoperability issues while preserving the functioning and stability of the financial system.

Experts believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a far greater impact on the world than the Great Depression and World War II. While people were seen battling for their life on one side, there were also those who were battling for everyday necessities due to lack of income. Businesses are rethinking strategies and rewriting business plans as the game rules seem to have changed overnight with the entry of the virus. The objective of this chapter is to review the disturbing effect the pandemic has had on the Indian and world economy and further discuss the strategies that would help businesses in the short as well as long run to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic. Literature review has been carried out to gather the data for this study. This is a narrative review and not a systematic one. A few strategies that have helped organizations to win over the COVID situation are digital transformation, reworking cost structures and implementing agile operations. Utilizing remote workforce, opting for digital transactions and providing services online have become the new normal. The researcher concludes that businesses need to accept the challenge before them and adapt people-centric strategies which rely on key technologies that are resilient and work hand-in-hand with government agencies to help reconstruct the local community that they are a part of. This collaboration will prove to be beneficial in the long run for both the organization as well as the community.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between individuals' preference for teamwork and communities of practice (CoPs) mediated by individuals' concern for team members built from the perspective of social learning system for knowledge sharing and learning. A cross-sectional study with data collected from the respondents through a convenience, non-random, non-probability sampling technique was employed in this research. The data of 240 were collected from the respondents belonging to manufacturing and service organizations in India and analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and PROCESS macro from Hayes with bootstrapping technique. The findings from the analysis showed a positive relationship between individuals' preference for teamwork and CoPs, while concern for team members mediated the relationship between preference for teamwork and CoPs. When employees prefer to work in teams, they positively consider participating in CoPs. Thus, organizations should strategically formulate conditions for employees to enable them to prefer working in teams and groups so that they collaborate as CoPs for knowledge creation, sharing and learning. Such learning through CoPs can pave the way for skill development and high-quality performance, thereby evolving as a framework for human capital development. This chapter provides an understanding of the relationship between individual employees' preference for teamwork and CoPs, mediated by individuals' concern for team members in an Indian context. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, along with limitations and future research direction.

Companies are constantly striving for superior customer service that meets consumers' expectations. Products that do not provide consumers with good service quality are unlikely to meet the expectations of consumers. The aim is to maximize customer satisfaction and achieve financial success by closing gaps to provide high-quality service to consumers. Customers use quality of service to choose a service provider. This does not only include the quality of products or service but also the quality of customer service. The five essential elements (5Es) – experience, emotions, exclusivity, execution and engagement – must be used by companies to ensure that their products and services meet defined standards or customer's expectations. The customer's opinion of a service is formed immediately, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. The result of a negative customer experience is negative word of mouth, which would cause loss in business from dissatisfied customers as well as from potential customers who will no longer use the services. Using the gap model for service quality, this study proposes the essential 5Es of service quality. As a result of the synthesis of this current research, the company's service delivery will be improved by identifying weaknesses. The use of these 5Es for the control of service quality and monitoring of quality defects leads to better understanding and reduction of cost.

This research examines and analyzes the impact of employee branding and employer branding in multinationals that exceeded the national boundaries in globalization. The motive of the research is to identify the significance of employer and employee branding for the success of the multinationals. The emergence of a MNC culture in India is widespread, and it promotes an employee-oriented philosophy by making all the amenities available to the employees. Multinational organizations focus on employee and employer branding to achieve the desired goals. Employee branding is a new term in the service industry that emphasizes the internal marketing of the organization Infront towards the external image of a company. India has a significant presence of service sectors as in the top 10 around the world. Employment rate in the service sector in India is more that 32.33% as per the collected data by the World Bank in 2020, wherein the large number of employees contributing their services in the different fields becomes a matter of concern for a company’s policies. This research was conducted on a population sample size of 204 respondents working in multinational organizations of Gurugram, India, using convenience sampling through a structured questionnaire. Data analysis of the survey was coded in Ms-excel 2015 and SPSS-21. Primary and secondary data are used in this study. Primary data are collected through questionnaire method, and secondary data are collected through journals, books, websites etc. This study will help human resource managers to improve HR policies and organization culture and to increase employee branding to gain desired success in organizations.

The competition is increasing every moment for the organizations and hence organizations are putting their best possible efforts to compete. This chapter is designed with the objective to explore various HR practices that can contribute in achieving the total quality management (TQM) in business. The basis for the study is taken from the aspects of competition that are cost reduction, differentiation and innovation. The extensive literature review from Scopus, J-gate, EBSCO and Springer databases are studied to integrate various aspects of TQM and HR practices that inculcate the competitive advantage for organizations. The framework may be developed for the reference to introduce and implement HR practices and manage TQM in the organization. The study may also help the professionals in designing the relevant HR practices for more value to the organizations. The linkage between various factors of the study may be helpful for the academicians and corporate organizations.

Social entrepreneurship is an area that has been extensively researched from a variety of angles and across a broad range of academic disciplines. Parallel to this, practitioners have applied social entrepreneurship ideas to a variety of industries and at varying degrees of complexity. The purpose of this study is to understand how the social capital of an entrepreneur drives the growth of social enterprises by contributing to the social entrepreneur skills. A systematic assessment of available literature was carried out based on searches of major academic databases (Web of Science, EBSCO and CAPES Portal de Periódicos), with an initial list of 3,106 publications being narrowed down to 472 articles that were subjected to content analysis after being narrowed down. Further, a theoretical proposal and research propositions were developed, highlighting the relationship between social capital and the activities of social entrepreneurs, as well as their relationships with the collective actors and institutions that make up social entrepreneurship in its totality. The conclusion of the chapter is that the interface between social entrepreneurship and social capital is a latent field for research. Further contributions of the chapter are a theoretical model to help researchers consolidate their efforts by identifying three key themes identified by intensive literature: creation of social capital by the social entrepreneur, relationships between institutions and the formation of groups and social capital as a formation of groups. In these words, a future agenda for discussing these topics is outlined for discussion.

The study emphasizes the role of an individual's mindfulness and temperance in making employees fit their organizations by comparing the direct effect of mindfulness and its indirect effect through temperance on the employees' person–organization fit (P-O fit). Data were collected from 185 Indian employees working at managerial positions in manufacturing and service industries through an online questionnaire in a cross-sectional research design. Structure equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the associations, and it was observed that mindfulness among employees is positively related to their P-O fit. Similarly, employees' temperance is also positively associated with their P-O fit. Furthermore, it is observed that temperance acts as a partial mediator between mindfulness and P-O fit. Mindful employees would be more aware of their surroundings, making them aware of the values that the workplace demands. The same awareness would compel the employees to have temperance (self-control) to keep their values in line with organizational values. The study contributes to the virtue theory and the value congruence theory in the organizational context. This study recommends that the management promotes mindfulness and temperance among the employees through various interventions and new technological aids to promote the P-O fit of the employees. To the best of our knowledge, this original work has novelty to investigate the relationship of mindfulness with P-O fit, taking into account the role of temperance of the employee.

Purpose: Consumer acceptance is considered the most important factor in functional food success and is given top priority in new product development. This study focussed on finding factors that influence consumer perceptions about active food and the pattern of active food consumption. This chapter aims to provide a deeper understanding of taste trading based on a consumer decision-making framework.

Research Methodology: Cross-sectional consumer data were collected by floating G-Doc containing the questionnaire which was supposed to be answered by people according to their behaviours, preferences, knowledge regarding functional foods etc. It contained questions about their income, gender, preference towards functional foods, factors affecting decision-making while purchasing functional foods etc.

Results of the Study: The findings suggest that the consumers' attitude towards functional foods was mainly influenced by the quality and suitability of the product. Purchase intent was found based on age, literacy of population, income and health benefits of active foods. Awareness of functional foods and their price significantly affected the purchase of functional foods. Most people were willing to spend more on functional foods in the future regardless of the taste and provided high quality and product suitability.

Drawing insights from Piaget's theory of cognitive development and exploring their applicability to working adults while assessing the role of tenure, as appreciated by multiple studies associated with adaptability and openness, the current study examines the influence of work experience in the relationship between an individual's adaptability and openness to people's ideas in the context of the Indian workplace. The study followed a cross-sectional survey-based design, and data were gathered from 202 junior, middle and senior executives from Indian manufacturing and service organizations. Using PROCESS macro in SPSS, the moderating effect of work experience on the linkage between adaptability to situations and openness to people's ideas was examined. The study results depicted that adaptability to situations is positively associated with a person's openness to people's ideas. Such a result indicates that promoting adaptability among employees could lead to openness in behaviour towards ideas of their colleagues and other people, which may promote team cohesiveness and learning in the long run. Also, the work experience of employees was found to be moderating the relation between adaptability and openness such that the increasing years of work experience tend to enhance the positive relationship between adaptability and openness. These results suggest that as the work experience increases, the positive association between adaptability and tendency to be open towards people's ideas strengthens. Further, the implications for the domains of research and practice, limitations of the study and directions for future studies have been discussed.

Gender equality and women empowerment which are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals have attracted researchers and policymakers worldwide. Various programmes and interventions aiming at empowerment have been designed and implemented by both national and international agencies. One of the flagship programmes of NABARD introduced in the year 1992, the self-help group (SHG)–bank linkage model is also known for its impact on the availability of credit and empowerment of women. Later, the SGSY scheme was restructured into the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the year 2013. Initially, SHGs focussed on savings and credit linkage, but now the emphasis has been changed to generate livelihoods and economically empowering women on a sustainable basis through training women to establish micro-enterprises. In this facet, the journey of microfinance in empowering women is systematically analyzed. The state of Haryana has consistently outperformed other states in terms of economic and agricultural growth but it ranks poorly in terms of its key human development indicators. Despite high productivity and low poverty, the state faces challenges related to the health and nutrition of children. Literature provides evidence that the health and nutrition status of children and women is closely linked to women empowerment. Using secondary sources of data, we conclude that micro-finance can be a useful tool for empowering women provided the roadblocks are identified and the requisite support is provided to women entrepreneurs.

Purpose: Post COVID-19 disruptions, a new era of online education has begun in India providing new opportunities for imparting quality education. This study aims to explore, identify and understand the factors motivating students to enrol in online courses and facilitate decision-making for students, EdTech firms and policymakers at government level.

Methodology: The study used predominantly a qualitative research design drawing data from students pursuing graduation/post-graduation from universities in the Delhi NCR region. In the first phase, 10 groups with 8–10 members were formulated, and focus group discussions were held. The deliberations were analyzed to identify and screen factors influencing their choice to enrol in online courses. In the second phase, identified factors were presented to the students for giving their rankings to identified factors.

Findings: The student inputs in focus group discussions led to identification of factors, namely low cost, convenience, accessibility, quality education, personalized attention, availability of expert faculty, scholarship opportunities, attractive course design, availability of internet technologies like Google Meet, credibility of degree, usefulness of knowledge and skills learnt and value of online courses towards employability.

Research Limitations/Implications: The study is limited to students from the Delhi NCR region. Thus, findings cannot be generalized for other regions.

Originality/Value: Existing literature suggests that no study has been conducted in India to explore factors influencing student choice of online education. The growth of EdTech companies and government inclination towards online education necessitates research on student perceptions of online courses.

Several inferential procedures are advocated in the literature. The most commonly used techniques are the frequentist and the Bayesian inferential procedures. Bayesian methods afford inferences based on small data sets and are especially useful in studies with limited data availability. Bayesian approaches also help incorporate prior knowledge, especially subjective knowledge, into predictions. Considering the increasing difficulty in data acquisition, the application of Bayesian techniques can be hugely beneficial to managers, especially in analysing limited data situations like a study of expert opinion. Another factor constraining the broader application of Bayesian statistics in business was computational power requirements and the availability of appropriate analytical tools. However, with the increase in computational power, connectivity and the development of appropriate software programmes, Bayesian applications have become more attractive. This chapter attempts to unravel the applications of the Bayesian inferential procedure in marketing management.