Search results

Bindu Aryais currently a doctoral student in International Business and Strategy at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her dissertation will empirically investigate how collaborative efforts between for-profit, not-for-profit and governmental agencies facilitate outcomes and can function to enhance sustainable development. Her research on how social networks facilitate organizational and group decision-making processes and outcomes has appeared in Journal of Management (forthcoming).

Multinational corporations (MNCs) confront complex challenges to continuously achieve higher levels of social performance across diverse country and cultural contexts. Yet many MNCs have reactive strategies toward corporate social responsibility (CSR). Such strategies do not leverage multicultural team diversity for dynamic learning. Meanwhile, cross-sector alliances between MNCs and not-for-profit entities present a rich opportunity for MNC learning. Multicultural teams often lie at the core of such initiatives in MNCs, although they have been, at best, a peripheral concern of CSR research and theory. We redress this gap in the CSR literature by integrating theory on social capital and the external team perspective and applying this to the CSR context. Our analysis has practical implications for MNCs as well, suggesting further extensions.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the tourism industry globally. It is essential to explore the post-COVID-19 travel intentions of potential tourists. The exploratory study is aimed to investigate the potential Indian tourists' travel plans, tourism perceptions, and their behavioral intentions regarding the adoption of sustainable tourism practices post-COVID-19.

Methodology: The study was based on primary data. Through an online survey, 225 responses were collected using convenient sampling. Data were analyzed with SPSS 20.0 software. Simple percentage, frequency, and mean were calculated to examine the post-COVID-19 travel plans and tourism perception of Indians. Factor analysis was used to analyze the adoption of sustainable practices.

Findings: Since May 2020, with the unlocking process, travel has been resuming in India. People are obligating to their “right to travel” and foreseeing travel plans. The study found that potential tourists will prefer short-duration trips with family and friends and intend to avoid crowded destinations post the pandemic. Indian tourists are inclined to consider environment conservation and sustainability in future travels and are more willing to explore natural sites. Offbeat destinations are expected to gain popularity. People believed that tourists will adopt more sustainable and innovative practices post-COVID-19.

Originality/Value: This study enhances the understanding of tourism policymakers, practitioners, and services providers concerning tourism behavior post-COVID-19.

Implications: The study focused on potential tourists' planning; the perceptions of service providers can also be studied for future research to gain profound insights regarding the tourism sector.

As the world continues to urbanise, cities face increasing pressure to become more sustainable, efficient and livable. Sustainable smart cities are emerging as a promising solution to this challenge, leveraging technology and data to improve urban systems and services while reducing environmental impact. This chapter provides an overview of the concept of sustainable smart cities and its implications for urban development. It explores the key features of sustainable smart cities, including their focus on technology, data and citizen engagement and the challenges they are facing in terms of infrastructure, data management, social equity, environmental sustainability, governance and regulations. The chapter also highlights the implications of sustainable smart cities for urban planners, policymakers and other stakeholders, emphasising the need for collaborative approaches that engage citizens and stakeholders in the design and implementation of smart city initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to explore the indigenous business incubators with special emphasis on the Kente weaving industry. The study highlights the formation, incubation, challenges, opportunities and strategies for success based on the Kente indigenous business model. The Kente subsector is in the clothing industry and accommodates small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. The study adopts a qualitative and descriptive case study design with five SME Kente shop owners as respondents. Findings reveal that some owners inherited their business, whilst others established them themselves. Owners incubate their business via shared services, ad hoc business advice, financial management, family support, employee relationship management and prayers. The challenges often encountered were inadequate financial backing, lack of government support and business competition. The opportunities harnessed were technology, growing market demand and innovation.

Finally, in respect of the knowledge of Kente weaving, it was found that the weavers learnt from their elders that weaving is the skill of a spider, a prestige to Asantes. The chapter concludes that Kente business has the potential to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ghana and Ghanaians. It is recommended that SME owners invest in individual, team and organisational learning and build capacity for technology implementation. The study also provides recommendations for business actors in the textile industry to engage in collaboration with owners of SME Kente businesses to address the challenges.