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Information and communication technologies (ICT) are indispensable tools for Knowledge Management (KM) practices in today’s knowledge-intensive and globally interconnected marketplace. This paper seeks to investigate the impact of family ownership on ICT investments in an emerging economy (EE) context.

This empirical paper uses data from 300 large Indian listed firms with 2,650 observations in the period 2008–2017, to test its hypothesis.

The results indicate that family firms are not favourably inclined towards ICT investments for formalizing their KM practices. However, under certain contexts, such as higher foreign institutional ownership or business group affiliation, they are more willing to invest in ICT resources.

This study establishes a nuanced understanding of how family firms approach ICT investments and KM practices. This research can help family owners/managers to commit sufficient resources on ICT projects.

Literature on KM has largely emanated from developed countries. This is one of the first papers from an EE context that studies the impact of family ownership on ICT investments and subsequent KM practices. In this way, this paper offers specific insights into the context of Indian family firms and offers some interesting findings that can contribute to the literature, policy and practice.

This study seeks to highlight the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) by investigating how firms respond to adversity, i.e. performance below aspiration levels through pertinent changes in EO, and if some of these changes can be accounted for based on the ownership of the firm.

This study adopts a multiple regression using an ordinary least square methodology on a sample of 13,333 Indian firms within the period 2005–2016 to test its hypothesis.

This research sheds light on performance feedback as an antecedent to EO as also on the effect of ownership moderating this relationship, with diversity in resource configuration and governance arrangement being the key drivers.

This is a single country study; hence, there is a possibility of a country-specific bias. This study uses a secondary measure of EO and thus is unable to capture the entrepreneurial intentions and opinions of managers.

The study establishes a nuanced understanding of how ownership impacts the entrepreneurial behaviour of firms during times of adversity.

This study may help policymakers draft appropriate policy interventions for firms at the time of adversity, so that they can improve their entrepreneurial spree.

This rare study from an emerging market establishes performance feedback as an important antecedent of EO. It further highlights the vital role of ownership in supporting/constraining EO.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the impact of family ownership on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of firms in an emerging market and the contingencies under which it is likely to be affected.

The paper adopted a panel data multiple regression using ordinary least square methodology on a sample of 51,972 observations belonging to 12,250 firms from India.

The study finds that family businesses have higher EO than non-family firms. However, it is likely to be affected during institutional transition due to environmental uncertainty. Furthermore, during institutional transition, there will be differences in the EO of family business groups and stand-alone family firms due to the former’s ubiquitous network-level resource advantages.

This paper contributes to the literature on family business by reconciling the positive and negative views on the effect of family ownership on EO by arguing that the risk-taking behavior of family firms is contingent on the environmental conditions and the resource position of the firm.

This study will enable managers and other stakeholders to predict the entrepreneurial attitude of family-owned firms during environmentally stable as well as turbulent times.

This study highlights the implication of institutional transition through reforms on a vital part of the economy. Policy makers have to be sensitive to repercussions on family business due to environmental turbulence.

This is one of the first papers that investigate the influence of institutional transition and the resource position of Indian family firms on their EO.

In the present knowledge economy, intellectual capital (IC) is regarded as one of the significant determinants of efficiency, profitability, and ultimately value of a firm. This chapter empirically investigates the ramifications of the IC on the level of efficiency of the firm. In addition, exploration of the changing dynamics in the relationship between IC and firm level efficiency in the face of global economic crisis is of special interest of this chapter. In attaining the objectives of the study, a comprehensive database of 299 manufacturing firms (chosen randomly from a stratification of six BSE manufacturing industry subsectors) were utilized during the period from 1999–2000 to 2013–2014. Firm level efficiency scores and implications of IC (as measured by employing Pulic's Value Added Intellectual Capital Model) on the level of efficiency of the firms were examined simultaneously using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Empirical results revealed that IC significantly determines the efficiency of the manufacturing firms during the period of study. However, the impact of financial crisis was not robust in changing the synergy between efficiency and IC. Size, age, and leverage were also found to be significant determinants of efficiency during the period of study.

A key characteristic for a family firm, preservation of socioemotional wealth, may appear to be at conflict with the concept of organizational diversity. The authors investigate how organizational diversity, captured through heterogeneity in ownership structure, diversity in the senior management team, interfaces with the concept of the socioemotional wealth of family businesses in an emerging economy, when these firms pursue inorganic growth strategies.

Drawing on the concepts of socioemotional wealth, behavioral agency theory and bifurcation bias, the authors develop perspectives on how ownership structure, family influence in executive management and institutional shareholding influence a family firm's internationalization strategies captured through propensity to pursue cross-border M&A – an activity that may threaten the preservation of socioemotional wealth. The authors also explore the role of business group affiliation, another organizational diversity construct, and contingent parameters like past financial performance and export intensity in this study. The authors take pooled data over 15 years, involving 346 large firms from India, which are family-controlled, to carry out the study.

The authors’ empirical analysis shows that family stake in the company and family members' presence in the executive team negatively influence the propensity to pursue cross-border M&A activities. A firm's affiliation to a business group moderates these negative relationships. On the other hand, the presence of institutional shareholders, positive past financial performance and export intensity positively influence cross-border M&A propensity.

The results establish that family businesses' attempts to preserve socioemotional wealth may come at the cost of promoting organizational diversity.

Different pollutants emission due to the conventional energy consumption process is of major concern owed to its significant effect on human health vis-à-vis regional climate. The purpose of this paper is to develop mitigation strategies to reduce the pollutant concentrations in the rural households conducted in a pristine rural village of Indian Sunderban area.

During winter, 2014, 20 households which were using traditional biomass cookstove for cooking and kerosene-lamp for lighting (KIT-TRD) were randomly selected. Specific type of improved forced draft biomass cookstove and solar lantern were used in ten of the selected households (KIT-IMP). Real time concentrations of particulate matter (PM) (PM_2.5, PM₁₀) and carbon monoxide (CO) during day and evening time cooking period were measured in KIT-IMP and KIT-TRD. A simulation model was established to evaluate most potential factor to control the level of pollutants inside the kitchen.

Conventional processes of energy consumption in the households, along with the outdoor concentration of pollutants influence the indoor concentration of measured pollutants. The concentration of PM and CO was significantly lower in the KIT-IMP than the other. In the KIT-TRD households, the daytime concentration of PM and CO was significantly higher compared to the evening. The simulated output overestimated the concentration of PM10 and CO in the KIT-TRD.

The concentration of PM_2.5, PM₁₀ and CO significantly reduces in the indoor environment with the introduction of improved cookstove and solar lantern; however, further research is required to develop optimum sizes of window and door in the rural households to reduce the concentrations of different pollutants inside the kitchen.