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The dynamic business environment and intense competition have mandated agility in operations for manufacturing firms. Effective inter-organizational collaboration can make operations more agile. This paper develops an interpretive model to explore the effect of supply chain collaboration (SCC) on supply chain agility (SCA) and, subsequently, on business performance.

A hierarchical model that illustrates the relationship between SCC, SCA and firm performance components is developed using total interpretative structural modeling (TISM). Also, statistical validation of the model has been performed.

The results indicate that the vision and alertness of the firm on the strategic front promote collaboration between supply chain partners. This creates operational agility, helping the firm to absorb fluctuations in demand, thereby enhancing business performance.

The opinion of most respondents was considered to develop the TISM framework over the fuzzy one, which necessitates a significantly more extensive data set. However, multiple discussions with participants can eliminate the prejudice of the majority approach. Also, the paper's development and validation were restricted to Indian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The model can potentially be evaluated in large organizations to provide further insights.

The study blends the factors of SCC and SCA in a novel way to explain their combined impact on business performance. The TISM model addresses the “why” of theory development in addition to the “what” and “how” of it. Using triangulation in combination with the interpretative tool, this study additionally offers methodological value.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to understand the business model canvas and value propositions and apply advanced business innovation tools in electric vehicle business models; evaluate the current cargo vehicle scenarios at national and global levels and draw out the possibilities and costs for a new player; extrapolate the future scenario of the cargo economy, its electrification and positioning in a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) segment, especially for a developing economy; and improve the student’s ability to get organisational buy-in and execute new business models.

LoadExx is a fully electrified electric cargo service focusing on logistics in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in the eastern part of the country. The service of LoadExx commenced in January 2021 in the B2B segment after overcoming its then issues of driver hesitancy and customer anxiety and financial issues to adopt electrified cargo systems. The conundrum faced by LoadExx in its commencement thus had been solved under the able guidance of its owner Amit Arora. The case study was positioned four months after the commencement of LoadExx. To gain market power and traction, Arora and his team came up with the idea of market expansion. However, the current conundrum was whether LoadExx would enter the B2C segment in its current location or expand with the same business model to other parts of the country. The expansion was to be implemented in the immediate future to retain its rarity and reduce the imitability of the business model of LoadExx. This case study details the logistics and market operations of the cargo sector, especially electric cargo, in a developing economy, especially India. A teaching note supplementing the “Cracking the conundrum of e-cargo logistics: curious case of LoadExx” case study has been provided.

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students and senior management professionals in executive education programmes undertaking courses in logistics management and supply chain operations and related cargo logistics courses. This case study denotes integrating key processes from end-users and gaining the trust of drivers, thereby showing the perspective of the plight and conundrums of a cargo aggregator working in the B2C segment. This case study could be used to discuss concepts related to not-for-profit firms, aggregators, policymakers and think tanks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The phenomenon of “broken rungs” has prevented most women from attaining managerial positions relative to men. Despite this gender disparity in management, female executives are more likely to enhance shareholder trust due to higher ethical standards, which can be hypothesized to mitigate the negative impact of family ownership on firm value. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the moderating role of female ownership and female directors in mitigating the unfavorable effects of family ownership on firm value as measured by Tobin’s Q and the Market Value of Equity (MVE).

Multiple linear regression is applied to examine the proposed hypotheses, as well as other vital factors, such as board independence (BI), the dual chief executive officer (CEO)–chairman role (CEO duality) and control variables (i.e. firm size, firm age, leverage and investment ratio).

The results revealed that female directors could buffer the negative impact caused by family ownership, leading to higher firm value, when given a sufficient level of female ownership or the appointment of more female directors, regardless of female ownership levels. Otherwise, female ownership cannot help overcome the negative effects of family ownership in Thai-listed firms. This study also sheds light on corporate governance elements that impact firm value. CEO duality reduces the value of Thai-listed companies, whereas board independence increases firm value.

The managerial roles for women should be promoted in Thai-listed enterprises. The government can support new laws, policies and programs for embracing a cross-cutting gender perspective. Female network initiatives enable women to advance in their managerial careers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study intends to fill the research gap by investigating how female directors and owners can moderate family ownership’s influence on the value of firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), which is one of the emerging capital markets.

This study aims to explore the factors influencing the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) consumers’ adoption and usage intention towards mobile payment (m-payment) to achieve financial inclusion and sustainable development goals.

A qualitative research design is used to explore the enablers and inhibitors that influence BOP consumers’ m-payment adoption and usage intention. To collect the qualitative responses, semi-structured in-depth interviews with BOP respondents were conducted. The thematic analysis using the text mining technique will be used to analyse qualitative data for exploring the predominant factors affecting m-payment adoption intention and usage.

The results suggested awareness, social influences and self-efficacy as crucial enablers and privacy and security risks and vulnerability concerns as crucial inhibitors towards m-payment adoption and usage.

As a novel contribution to the BOP, financial inclusion, sustainable development goals and m-payment literature, this study unfolds several unknown perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices that influence the BOP consumers’ m-payment adoption intention and usage. The study’s findings help the government and banks formulate and implement strategies to achieve financial inclusion among BOP consumers.

This study aims to examine the research that examines psychological empowerment (PE) and employee engagement (EE) via bibliometric analysis. The study also aims to offer an overview of the present state of research and indicate potential future research topics.

The literature on PE and engagement was reviewed using bibliometric analysis based on publications in the Scopus database. The analysis comprises a three-field plot, theoretical framework examination, thematic analysis and quantitative analysis of the most frequently referenced publications, affiliations, countries and authors.

The study identifies research trends such as the use of the leadership lens, the examination of the different degrees of empowerment, the examination of alternate mechanisms to improve engagement and the impact of supervisor resources on these constructs. The study also suggests areas for future research, such as the influence of leadership and organizational culture on these two factors, the link between PE and EE and the impact of the changing structure of work via the increased use of technology and new work relations like gig work on these concepts.

This study offers a thorough and systematic overview of the state of the research in the area of PE and EE. This study emphasizes the significance of PE and engagement in management by giving a thorough overview of the present state of research and outlining future research possibilities.

This chapter explores the significance of blockchain technology in protecting data for intelligent applications across various industries. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that ensures the immutability and security of transactions. Given the increasing need for security measures in industries, understanding blockchain technology is crucial for preparing for its future applications.

This chapter aims to examine the use of blockchain technology across industries and presents a compilation of existing and upcoming blockchain technologies for intelligent applications. The methodology involves reviewing research to understand the security needs of different industries and providing an overview of methods used to enhance multi-institutional and multidisciplinary research in areas like the financial system, smart grid, and transportation system.

The findings highlight the benefits of blockchain networks in providing transparency, trust, and security for industries. The Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN) is an example that utilizes blockchain's decentralized ledger to track sustainable sourcing from mine to final product. This information can be shared with auditors, corporate governance organizations, and customers.

The practical implications of this chapter are significant, serving as a valuable resource for industries concerned with identity privacy, traceability, immutability, transparency, auditability, and security. Understanding and implementing blockchain technology can address the growing need for secure and intelligent applications, ensuring data protection and enhancing trust in various sectors.

This study aims to provide a systematic review of consumer privacy literature in the context of smartphones and undertake a comprehensive analysis of academic research on this evolving research area.

This review synthesises antecedents, consequences and mediators reported in consumer privacy literature and presents these factors in a conceptual framework to demonstrate the consumer privacy phenomenon.

Based on the synthesis of constructs reported in the existing literature, a conceptual framework is proposed highlighting antecedents, mediators and outcomes of experiential marketing efforts. Finally, this study deciphers overlooked areas of consumer privacy in the context of smartphone research and provides insightful directions to advance research in this domain in terms of theory development, context, characteristics and methodology.

This study significantly contributes to consumer behaviour literature, specifically consumer privacy literature.

As an emerging technology, Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and blockchain have the potential to disrupt many areas of business and social structure. However, it is loaded with significant technical, social, legal, financial and ethical complications that bring difficulty in its widespread use within the public distribution system (PDS). This research aims to analyze the barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption in developing countries' PDS. Furthermore, this study also aims to validate the proposed framework against the Indian PDS.

The proposed framework consists of 10 potential barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption. To identify the barriers, this study referred to the extant literature followed by consultations with domain experts. This study prepared the DEMATEL-based questionnaires, collected the data from four domain experts and analyzed them using an integrated Grey-DEMATEL approach.

The obtained results provide a precise list of barriers and the correlations among them. From the results, it is concluded that the unavailability of a skilled workforce at affordable cost, lack of knowledge about privacy level and unclear return on investment and benefits are the most critical blockchain adoption barriers in the context of Indian PDS.

This research proposes a framework consisting of 10 integrated RFID and blockchain adoption barriers in relation to Indian PDS. It also proposes a method for analyzing causal interrelationships between the barriers while allowing for data input from domain experts. Consequently, the framework is capable of coping with experts' biases and data scarcity.

Work-from-home (WFH) has gained popularity over the past years. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis to systematically review and synthesize scholarly literature on the complex interplay between WFH, employee well-being and performance.

The study incorporates analysis of the bibliometric including performance analysis, content analysis and scientific mapping that is applied to 497 Scopus papers. VOSviewer software was used to evaluate the data.

This study posits an imbalance between the count of documents and the citations earned by each author. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health was regarded as a leading journal with maximum citations and publications. The highest count of publications came from most Asian countries such as India, China, Indonesia and Japan. The investigation indicated that the writers with the maximum citations were predominantly the authors of the majorly cited papers. Further, the text mining through co-occurrence of keyword analysis generated five clusters and cocited references revealed three themes.

The current research might benefit both research groups as well as human resource professionals since it also reveals the research necessity and gaps in the WFH domain.

This research delves into unexplored facets of WFH beyond traditional studies over the past decade by examining remote work arrangements in today’s economy, revealing previously unnoticed dynamics affecting employee well-being and performance. This innovative viewpoint enhances the literature and provides an empirical foundation for strategic organizational decision-making and future study.