WhatsApp Generation in Zoom University: Online Pedagogical Challenges and Innovations

Management education has undergone significant changes owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The classroom delivery has moved from an offline mode to a completely online mode, unravelling many pedagogical challenges and constraints. This study explores the pedagogical challenges faced by academicians and the innovative remedial measures adopted by them. This study follows an inductive approach using qualitative interviews and uses the cognitive apprenticeship model as the theoretical underpinning. Findings indicate that all domain aspects of the cognitive apprenticeship model are not equally relevant in an online teaching scenario compared to offline teaching. Findings also indicate that the interpersonal and communicational aspects of the learning environment have gained more prominence in online teaching. This article contributes to the existing literature by bringing early evidence on the challenges and innovations in online teaching. In addition, this study also contributes to the understanding of the cognitive apprenticeship model in an online scenario. Even though the scope of the study was limited to academicians from the finance and accounting area, the findings are globally relevant. They have practical implications for other disciplines as well. JEL Classification Codes: M0, I20, I29, Y7

Online Learning: Challenges and Solutions for Learners and Teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an expansion and increase in the demand for online teaching and learning across the globe. Online teaching and learning is attracting a large number of students for enhanced learning experiences. However, there are many challenges and hindrances that pose a problem in the smooth learning. The impediments in the learning process are suppressing the advantages that may aid the learners with augmented learning sessions. The article presents some challenges faced by teachers and learners, supplemented with the recommendations to remove them. JEL Code: A20

From Brick to Click Classrooms: A Paradigm Shift During the Pandemic—Identifying Factors Influencing Service Quality and Learners’ Satisfaction in Click Classrooms

The most crucial determinant of success in any service environment is the perception of the customers about the service quality or the product quality as it derives satisfaction and loyalty. Considering this imperative, the present review focuses on the service quality of online teaching, which has become a new normal during the pandemic. The pandemic has resulted in a paradigm shift of imparting education from brick to click classrooms. Hence, this article reviews the literature on the factors influencing service quality of click classrooms and mentions the parameters that lead to learners’ satisfaction. The systematic review helps in understanding how the research in this field has progressed. It is evident from this review that creating an interactive learning environment, giving prompt feedbacks, providing rich digital resources and course content, competent and skilled faculty members and continuous student support play a crucial role in enhancing the service quality of click classrooms leveraging learners’ satisfaction. The findings of this study support the educational institutions towards developing a sound and sustainable online learning environment by comprehending the students’ expectations about the service quality of an online learning environment. The study aims to propel future research works towards improving the service quality of click classrooms and enriching learners’ experience to impart quality education for all the stakeholders.

Best Practices in Finance Education in COVID Era: IIM Sirmaur

This piece of contribution is the experience sharing from the finance educators teaching various finance courses at Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur.

Finance: Teaching, and Learning, Online

I began teaching finance ‘online’—or ‘virtually’—long before the pandemic. It was in 2004 that I first taught on a virtual platform; and I continued teaching on various virtual platforms right up to 2019, the year before the pandemic. The programs offered on these platforms were mostly targeted at working executives. The classes were beamed during the evenings, or on weekends. Each student was participating in a maximum of three hours of classes per day.

Evidence on Online Higher Education: The Promise of COVID-19 Pandemic Data

Among the many disruptions caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic was the sudden move to online teaching in colleges and universities across the globe. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of existing literature on the effectiveness of online college programs relative to traditional in-person programs. We argue that pre-pandemic studies may have drawn overly pessimistic conclusions about online teaching in higher education. We highlight two important limitations of pre-pandemic studies, namely endogeneity bias and the use of older instructional technology. The data that will emerge from the forced shift to online instruction during the pandemic will help correct several of these biases and provide a more accurate picture of the hopes and challenges of online higher education. Finally, we also provide some preliminary evidence on virtual instruction and evaluation methods using a survey of online undergraduate and graduate classes. We find that large undergraduate classes benefitted greatly from the online format, while smaller graduate classes faced significant challenges. Empirical studies of post-pandemic data will help in identifying when and how online instruction can provide the effective instruction to students to address both the short-term goals of course and degree completion and long-term outcomes in the labor market.

Non-Probabilistic Approach to e-Banking Adoption: The Moderating Impact of Trialability

The purpose of this study is to assess the factors influencing the adoption of e-banking in a developing country and to explore the moderating effects of trialability on the relationship between behavioural intention and the actual use of e-banking services. The study has employed the convenience and cross-sectional data collection approach in three of the 16 regions in Ghana. Data was collected from 568 respondents through an online survey. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions positively and significantly influence the intention to adopt e-banking. The structural path analysis also showed that trialability positively and significantly moderates the relationship between behavioural intention and actual use of e-banking platforms. This research fills the existing gap in the e-banking literature by integrating trialability into the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to assess its moderating impact on the relationship between behavioural intention and actual e-banking adoption in a developing country.

Empirical Relationship Between Macroeconomic Variables and Stock Market: Evidence from India

This study investigates the relationship between the Indian stock market price behaviour and macroeconomic variables. The proxy for the Indian stock market is the BSESENSEX while Foreign Reserve, Exchange Rate (Indian vs. US Dollar) and CPI are proxies for the macroeconomic variables. The Johansen Cointegration Test and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) on monthly data collected from websites of Reserve Bank of India and Bombay Stock Exchange within the time period of January 2000 and February 2020 have been applied. We observe a contradiction between the results of trace statistics and the maximal eigenvalue of the Johansen Cointegration. The -trace statistics of cointegration allude to the long-run association between the Indian stock market and its constituent macroeconomic variables. The VECM is then applied to examine the long-run and short-run causalities and the results reveal the same. This study has profound implications for investors to diversify their portfolio, considering the impact of the constituent selected macroeconomic variables in the short run and long run. JEL Codes: B22, J11, R53

Human Resource Metrics for Enhancing Organizational Performance: Case of Indian State-owned Enterprises

As a result of a growing concern regarding agility, Human Resources (HR) has become one of the most challenging fields of management. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) face people-related issues, from attracting talent to managing performance, while creating employee experience. This article is an attempt to explore the pattern of usage of the HR metrics in Indian SOEs and to examine other metrics that need to be included as part of a strategic HR approach to enhance organizational performance. Primary data was collected using formal interviews with HR executives. The outcomes suggest that Indian SOEs are in the infancy stage when it comes to the adoption of HR metrics. It is important that Indian SOEs initiate the first-level of HR metrics and thereafter make planned progress to the third-level impact. Based on the study, a framework for sustainable and competitive HR is proposed. All of this has implications for SOEs in developing countries. JEL Codes: M12

Straws and Bundles: Reviewing the Diversity Management Agenda at the Strategic Level

Diversity management as a research domain has led to the emergence of a rather mixed bag of studies with conflicting findings. This review article seeks to synthesize these insights and then uncover the major theoretical perspectives that guide the crafting of the strategic human resource (HR) function specific to promoting diversity praxis in organizations. Eighty papers are reviewed using thematic review and content analytic methods. There are three sequential parts. First, we spend some time on how diversity has been conceptualized in academic literature and how it came to be linked to organizational performance. Second, we attempt to understand the definition of ‘diversity management’, review its implications for the strategic HR function and locate it with regard to functional HR practices. In the final part, we actually look at the black box contents, i.e., we review organizational HR activities that have been documented by scholars and the theories that have informed these activities at firm level and extra-firm level. Extensive research directions are suggested. A critique of praxis is offered, and how it is currently limiting academic inquiry is discussed.