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Global warming and drastic environment fluctuations have given rise to worldwide emergency, demanding to discover the most unexplored area in the field of social responsibility that is, consumer social responsibility (CnSR). This study aims to define the novel term “CnSR” and its antecedents to accomplish long-term sustainability. An in-depth analysis is executed to discover key antecedents, and proposed tool validation is implemented with the help of the big size of consumer population.

Primary data are collated using consumer responses, and reliability statistics were analyzed implementing Cronbach's alpha, and factor analysis is performed for required validation.

Probing existing research, CnSR was mostly correlated with consumers’ ethical and moral behavior. The present work proposes a unique tool which has successfully revealed a broader approach resulting in four vital antecedents: environmental orientation (EO), ethical and moral disposition (EMD), spiritual orientation (SO) and orientation toward shared consumption (OSC). Cronbach's alpha is adopted to determine internal consistency of the survey and has showed precision of 0.953 which affirms accuracy of the proposed tool.

Splitting of EO using factor analysis into environmental oriented preference (EOP) and recyclable oriented preference (ROP) has indicated further required inputs for better understanding.

Sustainable issues were limited to corporates in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Present work demands consumer awareness about their consumption consequences and fix their responsibility to achieve long-term sustainability.

The present study is the first to identify the antecedents of CnSR and effectively demonstrates a tool for the same.

All aspects like finances, marketing strategy, competitors, etc. have been taken into account to provide the readers a complete and realistic image about the working, decisions and their outcomes for boAt. Secondary data has been used from blogs, company website and other sources in this study.

This case presents boAt’s growth in the Indian market because of India’s exponentially growing customer base in the tech and audio industry. This case brings to light all the factors considered and the business decisions to be made while growing in the market. The challenges faced by boAt after they entered the market and the company’s business decisions to overcome these challenges are also discussed. This case provides an opportunity for students to understand the dynamics associated with expanding in a competitive market to maintain growth and maximize profits.

This case is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students and can be used for courses in strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship and business management.

The concept of modularity has gained considerable traction in technology studies as a way to conceive, describe, and innovate complex systems, such as product design or organizational structures. In the recent literature, technological modularity has often been intertwined with business model innovation, and scholarship has started investigating how modularity in technology affects changes in business models, both at the cognitive and activity system levels. Yet we still lack a theoretical definition of what modularity is in the business model domain. Business model innovation also encompasses different possibilities of modelling businesses, which are not clearly understood nor classified. We ask when, how, and if modularity theory can be extended to business models in order to enable effective and efficient modelling. We distinguish theoretically between modularity for technology and for business models, and investigate the key processes of modularization and manipulation. We introduce the basic operations of business modelling via modular operators adapted from the technological modularity domain, using iconic examples to develop an analogical reasoning between modularity in technology and in business models. Finally, we discuss opportunities for using modularity theory to foster the understanding of business models and modelling, and develop a challenging research agenda for future investigations.

The case study is designed to help students understand how the “growth at all costs” attitude can lead to compromised corporate governance in a start-up leading to disastrous implications for all the stakeholders. This case study aims to make students understand the components of the fraud triangle, the impact of financial fraud on various stakeholders, the role of venture capitalist (VC) investors and the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups. The case study presents an excellent opportunity for students to discuss the consequences of ignoring good governance in the pursuit of growth in a start-up. After analyzing the case study, the students shall be able to explain the concept of the fraud triangle and to be able to identify the motivation, opportunity and rationalization of financial irregularities in a start-up; analyze the impact of financial irregularities on various stakeholders; comprehend the business model of VCs and evaluate its influence on VC-funded start-ups; and appraise the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups.

The case study revolves around the confession of financial irregularities made by one of the cofounders of GoMechanic, a start-up headquartered in Gurugram, India. On January 18, 2023, Amit Bhasin confessed to financial irregularities in the company’s financial statements, leading to laying off 70% of the workforce of the company. GoMechanic had earlier raised close to US$62m [1] from maverick global investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Orios Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures, and was negotiating to raise Series D financing from the Japanese multinational SoftBank with aspirations to be a unicorn (start-up with a valuation of over $1bn). The confession led to a debate about the consequences of the “growth at all cost” culture being followed by start-ups as well as VCs. GoMechanic was not an isolated instance of a lack of governance in the start-ups. The confession had consequences not only for the GoMechanic but for the entire start-up ecosystem of India, which was the third largest in the world. Bhasin stated that the founders take full responsibility for the situation, and they were working on a plan which was most viable under the circumstances. However, it was not going to be easy to regain the confidence of the investors.

The case study is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level business school students and in executive education programs in courses such as corporate governance and ethics, private equity and entrepreneurial finance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance

This paper aims to review the rise of the resource-based theory (RBT) in light of the perennial tension between rationalism and behaviorism. The authors appraise the RBT’s strengths and its potential fault-line, the erodibility of resources.

A nontraditional melding of the review and conceptual development methodological modes sheds light on the limitations and future prospects of the three main strands within the RBT, with a special emphasis on its rapidly developing dynamic capabilities (DC) strand.

The paper proposes a framework for modeling the transformation of resources into usable highly specific assets.

The ascent of the DC strand will itself have to be revisited some day.

The findings imply that the decline of resources should not be left to chance, but be regulated according to one’s strategic intent.

Driven by a constructive perspective aimed at integrating theoretical coherence with practical relevance, a nontraditional synoptic tour situates the contribution of the RBT with respect to earlier approaches, in particular the evolving notion of fit.

The circular economy (CE) promotes the recovery of value from waste while also working towards achieving long-term environmentally sustainable goals. The goal of this research is to explore the challenges, opportunities, future scope and green practices that small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) face as they move from the linear economy to the CE.

Based on a structured questionnaire, a survey was conducted with representatives from 163 SMEs in India. The data were analysed using co-variance based structural equation modelling technique.

This research identifies various challenges, including consumer acceptability, worries about awareness, recyclability issues, financial constraints and the absence of a defined management plan for SMEs in adopting the CE. Further, strong management will, innovation, technical up-gradation, training of employees, employee motivation and appropriate guidelines are recognized as essential possibilities for CE implementation.

While there has been some work on CE, no studies have directly compared these efforts with the goal of shifting from a linear economy to a CE. Given the transient nature of many archives, it is critical that the efforts put into them and the opinions of those who work in them be recorded so that communities can benefit from a shared linear economy in making decisions about their own history.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a proactive perspective on business exit and develop a typology of exit strategies.

This is a research paper, which builds on extant theoretical and empirical research.

Business exit, along with entry, is an integral part of corporate strategy that a firm could utilize to reshuffle its business portfolio and embrace new opportunities. In today’s changing environment characterized by high uncertainty and high velocity, it becomes increasingly important for firms to manage business exit deliberately and proficiently. The traditional perspective which generally perceives exits as failures or responses to failures is no longer sufficient. A proactive perspective on exit could be advanced to better inform exit research and practice. Adopting the dynamic capabilities approach, this paper develops a typology of four exit strategies – retreat, redeploy, realign, and reconfigure – and examines the essential tasks of these strategies as well as the corresponding dynamic capabilities required for their successful implementation.

The proactive perspective advanced in this paper systematically coalesces and elaborates on extant research and formally advocates the importance and feasibility of proactive exit. The typology offered not only helps integrate the dynamic capabilities approach with exit research but also helps better inform exit practice.

This study aims to set out to develop and validate a new instrument to measure the multi-dimensional nature of co-opetition in corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS). It is anticipated that this instrument will prove useful to firms wanting to adopt measures that support relevant sustainability strategies.

The scale development concerns three separate components, namely, item generation through expert interviews; a pilot study conducted for scale purification; and a final study for scale confirmation and validation, respectively. The final study comprises 215 firms across 11 sectors in Australia that engage in co-opetitive alliances for CRS activities.

This study empirically validates the distinctiveness of three dimensions (commonality-driven, competition-driven and collaboration-driven) of co-opetition in relation to CRS resulting in a 15-item multi-dimensional scale. The three dimensions were found to be important aspects both in terms of scale validity and organisational consideration.

This study proposes a new research area regarding the proposed framework, as well as practical strategies for practitioners when considering co-opetition and their firm’s engagement in CRS activities.

Prior studies in similar areas have mainly comprised conceptual or qualitative approaches and do not tend to focus on all three aspects of co-opetition, corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to incorporate knowledge concepts into analytical models of strategy formulation and the strategic theory of the firm.

The paper examines four different perspectives of the elusive concept of “knowledge”, namely, “knowledge as assets”, “knowledge through innovation”, “knowledge embedded in routines” and “knowledge through learning”. The study attempts to specify and interrelate the concepts of a knowledge‐based strategic theory of the firm.

The “knowledge web” is seen as a partial framework, capturing from a strategic perspective how both specific and organisational knowledge build the competences necessary for the value‐creating activities of the firm.

The paper provides frameworks for understanding how knowledge can reinforce the strategic core competences of the firm.

The paper addresses knowledge as a key element in the development of an enhanced strategic theory of the firm, incorporating the knowledge‐based viewpoint.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of teachers’ performance expectancy, teachers’ effort expectancy, teachers’ performance anxiety, teachers’ engagement, perceived student engagement, teachers’ digital competence, teachers’ normalization ease and perceived organizational support as predictors of teachers’ satisfaction with online teaching-learning, especially during a pandemic in the context of hospitality, tourism and travel education.

Conceptually, this study is grounded in the normalization process theory and examines teachers’ satisfaction by applying the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. To test the proposed model, 374 complete survey forms were received for data analysis from teachers engaged with higher education institutes offering courses in the field of hospitality, travel and tourism. Minor modifications were made to the survey instrument based on inputs received after a pilot study.

The model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Of the eight constructs predicting teachers’ satisfaction in the online teaching-learning environment, two constructs, that is, teachers’ effort expectancy and teachers’ digital competence, were found to have an insignificant relationship. This finding hints at the emergence of a “new normal.”

This study contributes to the literature by presenting and validating a theory-driven framework that accentuates the factors influencing online teaching during the outbreak of a pandemic. This study further extends the unified theory of acceptance and integrates it with the normalization process theory to test and validate the model in the unique context of hospitality education which is considered to be highly practice oriented.

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled educational institutions to shift to online learning modes. This is unprecedented for students and teachers of hospitality, travel and tourism, especially in a developing country like India, and it has brought with it a new set of challenges and opportunities. With the extension of the pandemic-induced lockdown in educational institutions, teachers – and other stakeholders – must adapt to this new normal of reliance on remote education.