Trust Leadership: A Work-from-Home Scenario in Its Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The study covers aspects of leadership trust among the information technology (IT) employees in India, with the help of data collected from a cross section of 205 IT employees. The article has assessed leadership trust factor from the employee’s (workforce) perspective with COVID19 pandemic and work-from-home situation. The outcome of data establishes a positive relationship between leadership trust and factors such as communication, decision-making, integrity, and motivation. The study also suggests that the IT sector and its leadership have created a positive trust among the employees during the COVID-19 work-from-home scenario. Findings suggest that in areas like integrity and making decisions quickly, the IT leadership has exhibited high trust levels, while in some other areas like communication and keeping the employees motivated (inspired), there have been few minor gaps that require attention from the leadership, which could preclude the wilting of established trust between the leader and his employees.

Impact of Susceptibility of Interpersonal Influence, and Vanity Aspects on Luxury Brand Consumption

The present study has demonstrated the impact of consumer’s susceptibility of interpersonal influence and vanity aspects on luxury brand consumption. Study was conducted in the northwestern region of India with 650 research participants; quota sampling was used in the process of research. Researchers used SPSS 21.0 to explore reliability, factorability, and correlation among the variables. For analyzing the structural model, AMOS 21.0 was used. Results found that value-expressive influence affects luxury brand consumption more than utilitarian influence, and informational influence is positively related to luxury brand consumption. Results found that luxury brand consumption is associated with achievement aspects of luxury.

Does Financial Inclusion Promote Human Development? Evidence from India

The present study investigates the relationship between Financial Inclusion Index (FII) and Human Development Index (HDI) of Indian economy. The study developed FII for the Indian economy from 1991 to 2020 by using the dimensions of banking penetration, banking availability and usage of banking services. The well-known techniques of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to develop FII. The ARDL bound test confirms the existence of a long-run relationship between financial inclusion and human development. Granger non-causality confirms the existence of bidirectional causality between financial inclusion and human development. As financial inclusion acts as a key for human development, government should adopt policies to speed up the financial inclusion process in India.

Investigating the Effect of Broad Money Supply on Stock Market Index and Market Capitalization: Evidence from Liberalized India

The present study investigates the effect of changes in money supply on both Indian stock market sensitive index and stock market overall capitalization by employing unit root test with break point, Johansen’s cointegration test, vector error correction (VEC) model, VEC Granger causality test, variance decomposition, and impulse response function. The result of the unit root test reveals that all the variables are nonstationary in levels but become stationary at the first-order difference. The unit root test further reveals that there are structural breaks in the mid-1990s or 2000s. The Johansen’s cointegration test reveals that the Indian stock market index and stock market capitalization are individually cointegrated with money supply. Further, the long-run co-movement between the Indian stock market and money supply and stock market capitalization and money supply is found to be positive. The results of the VEC model shows that the error correction term in the lnSENSEX–lnMS model is negative and statistically significant, while the error correction term in the lnMARCAP–lnMS model is found to be insignificant. The VEC Granger causality test shows that there is no short-run causal relationship between the variables. The variance decomposition indicates that both Indian stock market index and stock market capitalization are strongly exogenous. The impulse response function suggests that money supply has an immediate positive effect on both Indian stock market index and stock market capitalization. The investors and fund managers should take investment decisions keeping in view the positive co-movement of Indian stock market performance and broad money supply. The study recommends that the government should avoid aggressive tightening of money supply.

Electricity Consumers’ Satisfaction During COVID-19 Lockdown in Some Selected States in Nigeria

This work studies the satisfaction experienced by electricity customers in Osun, Lagos, and Ogun States during the recent lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures of the satisfaction are based on the hours of electricity supply during the period, easiness experienced for payment of prepaid bill and swiftness in faults correction of the distribution companies involved. A questionnaire was developed using Google Forms. The form was shared through various online platforms. A total of 274 electricity consumers responded to the questionnaire, but after sorting, 259 consumers across the three states were analyzed. From the responses, majority of respondents claim there was increased hours of supply during the period when compared to before the period. For prepaid customers who had reasons to pay electricity bill, majority claim it was easy paying while most of those who claimed it was not easy was because of their payment method choices, which is using designated points. Majority of those who have reasons for faults to be corrected by the distribution companies claim that there was not promptness in fault correction.

Measuring Entrepreneurial Orientation in Developing Economies: Scale Development and Validation

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) refers to entrepreneurial activities of established and existing firms. It is different from individual entrepreneurial orientation (Popov et al., 2019, Education + Training, vol. 61, pp. 65–78). EO refers to the processes, practices, and decision-making activities that lead to new venture creation (Walter et al., 2006, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 21, pp. 541–567). The EO scale by Lumpkin and Dess (1996, Academy of Management Review, vol. 21, pp. 135–172) consists of innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy. This scale is widely used in literature with major drawback of it being developed and evaluated in a developed economy (the USA) on large corporations. Very little literature is available with reference to validation of EO scales in developing economies, particularly India where firms are generally small. New Comprehensive Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale (CENTORES) has been developed and validated by adding additional dimension of strategic flexibility, which is the novelty of the present study. Data were collected using a survey instrument comprising of 19 items. The scientific scale development procedure as suggested by Schwab, (1980) was followed, first an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was done to explore factors and later confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was done to confirm factors (using SPSS and Amos). Six stable factors emerged from EFA which were subsequently confirmed through CFA. The measurement model confirmed the factors with good model fit indices as suggested by Hair et al. (2014). The model has CMIN/df = 2.237, CFI = 0.917, GFI = 0.928, NFI = 0.882, and RMSEA = 0.052

An Examination of Innovation Capabilities and Corporate Reputation in Banking Sector

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of innovation capabilities on corporate reputation in banking sector. A quantitative method was used for collecting the data and fulfilling the stated objective. Specifically, the data were collected from 188 employees in banking sector in the United Arab Emirates. The analysis for the collected data was conducted using the partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings indicated that product innovation as well as service innovation have significant positive impacts on corporate reputation. The results also confirmed that process innovation has a positive effect on corporate reputation. Finally, the outcomes verified that marketing innovation has a significant impact on corporate reputation. The results confirm the significance of innovation capabilities in enabling business practitioners in the banking sector to improve their businesses reputations and thrive in today’s dynamic market environment.

Millennial’s Tide Over the COVID-19 Crises: Buying Behavior of Indian Millennial’s Post-COVID-19 Crises

The COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic effect on the economies of the world. The COVID-19 crises had a huge impact on the way in which buying and selling is done. Complex consumer buying behavior became all the more unpredictable. For most companies, the pandemic had created a situation for innovation like never before. Generation Z (Gen Y) and generation Z (Gen Z) were the most affected segments during the turmoil. These generations are experiencing a roller-coaster ride. These cohorts were fast in adapting to the new challenges arising out of the COVID-19 upheaval. Gen Z had to attend online classes, while Gen Y was either attending online classes or those with jobs were working from home. Purpose: This article makes an attempt to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the buying behavior of the Indian millennials and to know the major sectors of the Indian economy which were exorbitantly influenced by them. Methodology: The research article is based on secondary data obtained from leading financial dailies, news reports observations and discussions with acquaintances. Findings: The research study hopes to shed light on the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the buying habits of the young generation in India. It will act as a beacon for companies to develop marketing strategies that are in congruence with the mindset of the millennial. Successful business models can be worked out keeping the millennial as the focus. Originality: The research is genuine and creatively inscribed; it visualizes the researchers’ speculation about the situation

The Impact of HR Practices on Perceived Gender Sensitivity and Gender Bias: A Multilevel Analysis of Hotel Industry

Gender sensitivity aids as a probable solution for facilitating female talent in an organization. This study measures gender sensitivity by applying multilevel modeling in hotel industry with a twofold objective: to identify explanatory predictors at the organizational level as well as to check whether insensitivity is the result of inherent bias in the industry at the individual level. Primary data were obtained from 355 employees and 10 HR (human resource) managers of both five and four-star hotels of Udaipur, India. Since 19.132% of the variation in gender sensitivity lies among the hotels and variation at the individual level is 8.731%, the data is analyzed through hierarchical linear modeling. Perceived gender bias (PGB) and human resource policies and practices (HRP) were found to be both significant and enough to explain variation in gender sensitivity among hotels. Also, an inverse and significant relationship between perceived gender bias (PGB) and perceived gender sensitivity (PGS) and a positive and significant relationship between PGS and HRP were identified.

An Econometric Investigation of Dynamic Linkages Between CO2 Emissions, Energy Consumption, and Economic Growth: A Case of India and China

The article investigates the co-integrating relationship between economic growth, energy, and environment for India and China for the period 1970–2014 (using log transformed yearly data). Whereas gross domestic product per capita is taken as the growth proxy, CO2 emissions per capita represents environmental degradation and fossil fuel consumption is the proxy for energy consumption. The methodology adapted is autoregressive distributed lag “F” Bounds test with single structural break. The results of the study showed that co-integrating relation was established among all the variables except when CO2 (China) is taken as dependent variable. The “error correction model” term was negative and significant in all the cases (except for CO2 China again). Further the speed of adjustment toward equilibrium was highest at 16% per annum (p.a.) for CO2 in India while it was between 3% and 8% p.a. for rest of the variables. Chow breakpoint test even confirmed that India CO2 emissions had a break in 1996.